Gilded Secrets

by Maureen Child

  “No.”

  “Well, that sucks.” Frowning, the tiny redhead with bright green eyes grumbled, “And how did I miss all this excitement?”

  Charlie shook her head and grinned at her friend. Katie lived in an apartment upstairs from her and most mornings they rode the subway into work together. In fact, it was Katie who had helped Charlie get the apartment in her building. “You weren’t home last night for me to tell and this morning you came in early, so we didn’t get a chance to talk on the train.”

  “All true. Still. Dating your boss. It’s sort of sexy, unless,” she added with a shudder, “it’s my boss.”

  “I think Vance was just being nice.”

  “Uh-huh. He took you and Jake to dinner, then brought you all the way home to Queens just to be nice. Sure, I buy that.”

  Frowning, Charlie took a sip of her iced tea and studied the faces of the people hurrying down Fifth Avenue. They often brought their lunch out here to sit and watch the city go by. It was hot, steamy and the lunchtime lines at the food carts were busy. Even in the summer heat, it was nice to get out of the building for a while and rejoin humanity.

  Especially now, when Charlie was doing everything she could to avoid thinking about her blackmailer. She’d received another email threat just that morning and the message was burned into her brain.

  No more stalling, it had said. Get those files or risk losing your son.

  She was running out of time and was no closer to knowing what to do about it. She couldn’t steal files. And she couldn’t not steal them. Lose her job, lose her son. It was a vicious circle with no way of winning.

  “Katie,” she said abruptly, turning her head to look at her friend, “have you heard anything about Rothschild’s lately?”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything.”

  Katie shrugged. “A couple of people are talking about that article in the paper. You know, the bit about Ms. Richardson and Dalton Rothschild. Did they or didn’t they? But I mean, who cares? If they did, it’s not as if she would have handed him the keys to Waverly’s, you know?”

  Charlie chewed at her bottom lip. “But it doesn’t look good.”

  “True, but Ms. Richardson is devoted to Waverly’s. She wouldn’t put the auction house at risk.” A long pause. “Would she?”

  The problem was, Charlie didn’t know. And neither did Vance apparently or he wouldn’t have asked her to listen for gossip at the house. She worried. It wasn’t a coincidence that the article had appeared in the paper the very same day she’d received that first threatening email. Whoever was behind her current trouble was no doubt also the source of that article.

  What did that tell her? A lot of nothing, really.

  “Hey,” Katie said, nudging Charlie with her shoulder. “Don’t take it so personally. These big companies are always having some kind of trouble. They’ll work it out.”

  “You’re not worried?”

  “The only thing I’m worried about is finishing the audit of last quarter’s books before my boss decides to have a stroke on my desk.”

  Charlie smiled, but it was halfhearted. Thankfully, Katie didn’t seem to notice. She’d give anything to be as uninterested in what was happening as her friend apparently was.

  “I’ve got to get back to work,” Katie said abruptly after a check of her phone for the time. “I’ll meet you for the subway ride home…unless you get a better offer.”

  “Not much chance of that,” Charlie said. “I’ll see you later.”

  She still had twenty minutes before she had to return to work and she was in no hurry to face her computer and the email program that had her so spooked. So she’d just finish her tea, and then stop by the day-care center to see Jake on her way back upstairs.

  “Waiting for someone?” Vance’s voice came from behind her.

  “Were you watching me?” she asked, turning to look up at him.

  “Watching sounds so stalkerlike,” he said as he sat down on the stone bench beside her. He laid one arm along the back of the bench and stretched out his legs, crossing his feet at the ankles. “I prefer…admiring.”

  Charlie shook her head. She’d seen so many different sides of Vance in the last week or so, she could hardly keep them all straight. He was ruthless in business, didn’t tolerate stupidity in the workplace and was gentle with her son. He laughed when she teased him and gave her looks that set fire to her insides. Now he was sprawled on a stone bench in the hot sun as if he had all the time in the world when she knew he was a workaholic.

  “I saw your friend go back to work, so thought I’d join you,” he said, tipping his face up to the brilliant blue sky and the blistering sun. “Nice day.”

  “It’s hot.”

  He tilted his head to look at her. “Yeah, but nice anyway. What’s wrong, Charlie?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “You seem a little on edge.”

  “No, just thinking.”

  “About?”

  “Lots of things.”

  “Want to narrow that down any?” he asked.

  “Not really.” She wouldn’t have known where to begin. Besides, it wasn’t as if she could tell him she was being blackmailed. And she couldn’t very well tell him that whatever thoughts weren’t being taken up by the mystery threats were devoted to him. God, could this get any more complicated?

  He straightened up, but kept that one arm along the bench, almost close enough to touch Charlie. She had the strangest impulse to lean back into him. But she didn’t do it. “Your friend. She works at Waverly’s?”

  “Yeah,” Charlie told him, taking a sip of her tea. “She’s in Accounting.”

  He nodded. “Has she said anything about the situation with Rothschild’s?”

  “She doesn’t know anything,” Charlie said on a sigh. “And she’s not really worried about it, either. She thinks it’ll all work itself out.”

  He laughed shortly but there was no humor in the sound. “I wish she was right. Truth is, we have no idea what Dalton is up to.”

  “Ms. Richardson hasn’t said anything more?”

  “No.” He frowned and looked out at the bustle of Fifth Avenue. Charlie followed his gaze and thought how odd it was that the world could go on so blithely while she was tied up in so many knots. Brilliant splashes of color sprouted from the flowers spilling from cement planters. Car horns blared, a siren wailed in the distance and a dog walker herded six dogs of varying sizes along the sidewalk.

  “I had a good time last night,” he said quietly.

  She laughed, keeping her gaze on the street because it was so much safer than staring into his gold-flecked brown eyes. “No, you didn’t.”

  He reached out, cupped her chin and turned her face to his. Then he grinned at her and the flash in his eyes took her breath away. The man was absolutely devastating when he smiled and put his heart into it.

  “Crazy,” he said as he released her. “But I really did. Not that I’m in any hurry to go back to the Zoo Diner. Appropriate name for it, by the way. But I had a good time with you.”

  God, it would be so easy to let herself fall for him when he was like this. Just the touch of his hand on her skin made her yearn for more. The soft smile on his face had her wanting to kiss that delectably curved mouth. He was the most dangerous man she had ever known.

  “Vance, what’re you doing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shifted on the stone bench and felt the sun-warmed he
at of it soak into her. Looking into his eyes, she asked, “This. With me. Why are you being…nice?”

  One eyebrow went up. She had already noticed that he did that when something caught him off guard.

  “I have to have a reason for being nice?”

  “It’s just—” She took a breath and blew it out. “You’re acting like you’re interested in me and I’m not sure why. Or what you expect.”

  He reached over, took her hand and held it for a second or two. Long enough to get her pulse pounding and her heart rate jumping into high gear. Then he gave her hand a squeeze before letting go and said, “I like you. Is that so strange?”

  “I guess not.” Though silently she was saying, Yes, it is strange. I’m your assistant. I’m not rich. I have a baby. I’m not the kind of woman you usually spend time with, so what’s going on? She had seen enough photos of him in the society pages of the newspapers to know that most of the women in his life had trust funds, rich ex-husbands or both. So why, she asked herself again, was he coming on to her?

  “Good.” He stood up, checked his watch and said, “Lunch is over and I hear your boss is a real bastard about work hours.”

  “Yeah.” She stood up, too. “You wouldn’t believe the stories about him.”

  He stopped. “There are stories?”

  “Millions of ’em,” she quipped. “But I don’t gossip.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  There was something here, she thought. Just under their words. A feeling. A sense of something that wasn’t being said. Attraction yes, but that wasn’t all and it felt…off. He trusted her and she wasn’t going to do anything to ruin that. But at the same time, she had a threat hanging over her head that jeopardized everything in her life.

  Suddenly, Charlie wanted to tell him all of it. To ask for help. But she was too afraid of what he might think. What he might do. She couldn’t lose her job. She couldn’t lose her son.

  So, instead, torn with confusion and indecision, she settled for losing her mind.

  “I’ll see you at the office,” she said and tossed her iced tea cup into the nearest trash can.

  Then she walked alone down Fifth, part of the crowd, but separate. And she felt the heat of his gaze follow her.

  * * *

  “This is starting to become a habit,” Charlie said when she opened her front door to Vance three nights later. He smiled at her and Charlie’s heart did a slow flip and curl. The man was just…overpowering. Even now, when he was wearing blue jeans, a short-sleeved red shirt and a pair of boots, he exuded power and a sensual heat that should have been illegal.

  Every evening since the first night he had brought her home, Vance had appeared at her door, and they’d gone for long walks with Jake. Sometimes they window-shopped, sometimes they stopped for cookies and a latte. Most of the time, they just took turns pushing Jake’s stroller and…talking.

  And Charlie was getting way too used to it.

  Vance leaned against the doorjamb and grinned at her. “Are you complaining?” he asked, then half turned. “Because I could leave…”

  “No,” she said quickly. She wasn’t sure what was going on between her and her boss, but whatever it was, she liked it. Probably too much. “Not complaining.”

  “Good.” His eyes fixed on her and Charlie’s heartbeat quickened. Then he squatted down to eye level with the toddler in his stroller. “So, Jake, where to tonight?”

  The tiny boy squealed with delight and shouted “Ba! Ba!”

  Vance looked up at Charlie. “He says a night at the ballet would be clichéd. He’d prefer a stroll through the park.”

  “Well, then,” Charlie said, laughing, “by all means.”

  Vance maneuvered the stroller out the front door and down the short set of steps to the grass. Charlie pulled the door closed behind her and locked it. Then she paused to take a quick look up and down her street. She loved it here.

  Her apartment building had once been a grand old house, built to look like a Tudor-style English manor. Years ago, it had been converted into four apartments. She had the ground-floor apartment on the right side and her friend Katie was just upstairs. Charlie never would have been able to afford an apartment in this area ordinarily, but the owner was an elderly woman currently living in England and she had a soft spot for babies, so she’d made Charlie an excellent deal.

  The streets in Forest Hills, Queens, were narrow and decked with trees that looked as though they’d been there for centuries. Her neighbors were quiet but friendly and Manhattan was just a train ride away. But here, New York moved more slowly and Charlie could almost convince herself that she was living in a small town again. It was a perfect place to raise Jake. She looked at Vance smiling at her son and thought, at the moment, everything was perfect.

  “Where are you guys going tonight?” a woman’s voice called out and shattered the quiet.

  Charlie sighed, turned and looked up. Katie was hanging out her living room window, grinning down at them. She had probably been haunting her window just waiting for Vance to show up. Charlie couldn’t really blame her. This was all so odd, so out of the ordinary…

  “To the park,” Vance answered, then picked up the stuffed dog Jake had tossed.

  “Have a good time,” Katie said, a teasing tone in her voice. Then she gave Charlie a knowing wink before darting back into her apartment. No doubt, Katie would be turning up with a bottle of wine and a dozen questions later tonight. Charlie only wished she had a few answers for her.

  Charlie turned to Vance. “You realize that Katie has told everyone at Waverly’s about your coming to see me every night.”

  He shrugged. “Do you care?”

  She should, Charlie knew. Getting involved with Vance Waverly was probably a huge mistake. But looking into his eyes, she knew she couldn’t regret a moment of this—whatever it was. Every evening, when the light was just slipping away, he showed up to spend time with her and Jake. And every evening, she told herself not to expect him. Not to look for him. But she did anyway and when she saw him, her heart got a little more involved. How could it not? He was so good with Jake. And so much fun to talk to. And when he took her hand in his, she felt…treasured.

  Silly.

  “No,” she said firmly, “I don’t care.”

  “Good.” He smiled at her as if she’d given him the perfect answer. “So let’s go.”

  They walked a few blocks east and the world changed perceptibly. As lovely as her street was and as much as she loved it, Charlie always felt a little twinge of…not envy, exactly, just a bit wistful when she walked through Forest Hills Gardens. Exclusive mansions sprawled behind wide, manicured lawns and what looked like private forests.

  “I haven’t been in this neighborhood since I was a kid,” Vance mused.

  “You lived here?” Charlie couldn’t imagine living in a more beautiful spot. She could practically see Jake growing up on these gorgeous streets, riding his bike up and down circular driveways, climbing the majestic trees. Of course, that was a completely unrealistic daydream—but what was the point of having ordinary dreams?

  “No, a friend of my father’s did,” Vance said. “We used to visit him a lot. Funny, I haven’t thought of this place in years. But it’s really nice, isn’t it? And close to the city.”

  “It’s perfect is what it is,” Charlie said, with a little sigh of pleasure.

  “Yeah?” He stopped pushing the stroller and looked at her. “If you had to pick
, which house would you buy?”

  She took a deep breath and smiled. “It wouldn’t be easy to choose, but I do have a favorite,” she admitted, because she had played this little game with herself every time she took Jake for a walk down there. There were brick mansions and bungalow styles. There was even a home with a red Spanish tile roof. But the house she loved had stood out for her from the beginning. Hooking her arm through his, she gave Vance a tug and said, “Come on. It’s a little farther down.”

  Halfway down the block, she stopped. Giving his arm a squeeze, she said, “That’s my house. Well,” she added with a half shrug, “the owners don’t know it, of course.”

  She always found the chance to walk past the house she considered her dream home. It was like an English cottage only bigger. It was three stories high with sloped roofs and dark red shutters on the windows. There were brilliant splashes of pink and yellow flowers crouched around the long porch, and the wide double front doors were arched, like a storybook castle.

  “It’s beautiful,” Vance said.

  “It really is,” she agreed, and met his gaze only to find him staring at her not the house. “All it needs is a porch swing.”

  “You’d like a swing?”

  “Oh, yes. That would be nice,” she mused, staring at the house for another long moment. “Sitting outside, watching the sun go down, saying hi to your neighbors…” Her voice trailed off as she turned her head to look up at him.

  A soft, warm wind raced down the street. From a few houses down came the rhythmic thumping of a basketball, and a dog barked just because he wanted to be heard. The light in the sky was easing into twilight and Jake was in his stroller, laughing and talking to himself.

  It was a perfect moment.

  Vance leaned toward her. Charlie went up on her toes, her gaze drifting from his eyes to his mouth and back again. Her heartbeat was pounding and the world around her seemed to take a breath and hold it in anticipation.