by Lyric James
But she’d be lying.
Ever since Karyn’s wedding, ever since that night, she’d been fantasizing about him. He’d appear in her dreams, her thoughts without notice, and send her pulse racing. There was many a night she had to masturbate and relieve the ache just thinking about him caused.
How in the world was she going to work for him for the next she-didn’t-know-how-many weeks and keep her lust under control? She made a mental note to put an extra pair of panties in her bag before she came to work each day.
As she walked up the stairs to his office, she was pulled out of her reverie when the door opened and someone walked out. What stood on the other side robbed her of speech, and she fought hard to breath.
Lieutenant Governor Rhys Cunningham stood in front of his enormous window…shirtless. She took him in. All of him.
His gaze was focused heavenward, and she couldn’t help but notice the muscles that rippled down his arms and caressed his shoulders. The hard smoothness of his upper body tapered down to a tight, flat, six-pack belly. Her pussy began to throb. The tension rolling through her body was exquisite torture. It had been two months, but she still remembered how her fingertips tingled when she touched his skin.
Dear God I’m in trouble. Deep…deep…trouble.
Everything about him screamed, I am the essence of man.
Another guy came up to him, gave him a shirt, and he slipped it on, oblivious to her standing there ogling him. She stepped quickly behind the door and drew in deep, guzzling breaths.
After the other man left, she walked from around the door and gently knocked. “Lieutenant Governor?”
He smiled. “Jade.”
She heard pleasure in his voice, and a hint of something else. “Hi…um.” She hesitated. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Come on in.”
His office suited him to perfection. He stood beside a rich mahogany desk with a matching credenza and filing cabinets.
“Thank you for coming.” Deep dimples appeared in his cheeks. As her feet stepped onto plush carpet, she became very aware of his mesmerizing, silvery-gray eyes sizing her up from top to bottom in a slow perusal that quite literally made her stumble as she walked toward him. Embarrassed, she righted herself and offered him her hand. Instead, he engulfed her in a huge hug. When he pulled back with a crooked smile on his face, he asked, “Are you okay?”
Jade’s heart stuttered in her chest. She should have expected the shock of warmth and desire his touch elicited. Why did his touch still affect her? “Fine, thank you,” she replied, the sound strained to her own ears.
He motioned toward the small round conference table and chairs to the right of his desk. “Please, have a seat.”
When his back was to her, she closed her eyes for a brief moment and swallowed hard.
Get a grip. You can do this.
Jade took the offered seat and sank into inches of soft leather upholstery. She straightened, eased her spine against the back of the chair and raised her chin, staring him straight in the eye when he sat down. She rested her hands in her lap and crossed her legs modestly at the ankle.
Please let me get through the next twenty minutes without making a further fool out of myself.
He still looked incredible. Rich, sure of himself, devastatingly handsome, and sexy weren’t adequate enough words to describe him. It was in his walk, his demeanor, even the way his eyes held hers.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I admit, when Zechariah suggested I use Karyn’s firm to help me, I was a little concerned. But he assured me the three of you were the top in your field. Plus, no one would suspect I’d hire a woman to investigate.”
His hair was black and cut in stylish layered waves that begged her to run her fingers through them. Thick black lashes shaded his silver eyes.
A tumult of emotions clamored inside her, but she was determined not to stutter or stammer through their conversation. “Well, I’m glad Zechariah convinced you,” she replied and continued with the generic statement she always told a potential employer. “We pride ourselves on our discretion, investigative skills, surveillance, and undercover work.” To cover all the bases, she added, “I am also adequately trained to act as your executive assistant. I’m very organized, detail oriented, and I can type one hundred twenty words per minute.”
He laughed, raised his palm, and sat back in his chair. “No need to rattle off your impressive resume to me, I already know exactly how…trained you are.”
A dizzying explosion of warmth erupted over her skin and sent a tremor of desire between her legs. He stared at her for a moment or two before he stood, turning his back to her. “Would you like to see the letters?
“Yes,” she replied, using the time to come to her senses. She badly wanted to smooth her hair to make sure no stray curl was out of place, or fiddle with the gold butterfly charm around her neck.
At his desk, he retrieved a small key out of his pocket and opened the bottom drawer. He pulled out a large brown envelope and brought it to the table.
“How many have there been?”
“Two,” he said and sat.
Before Jade opened the envelope, she asked, “Why did you decide to hire a private investigator instead of contacting the police?”
An emotion she couldn’t define flickered briefly in his silver-gray eyes and disappeared just as quickly. “Contacting the police would mean notifying the press. And because of the tone and content of the letters, I’d rather keep it private as long as I can.”
He has something to hide.
She shook the envelope and the letters slid onto the table. “Has anyone else touched these besides you?”
“No.”
She grabbed the one on top by the corner edge. Block words or letters from a newspaper covered a plain white sheet of typing paper. It wasn’t signed and it said I KNOW YOUR SECRETS. DEATH IS COMING.
The second note wasn’t a letter at all, but a birth certificate. Everything was erased except the first name and the year of birth. Maya 1993. Whoever the young lady was, the year made her about eighteen years old. In her head, she calculated Rhys’s age. When Maya was born, he was probably around sixteen or seventeen. Did he have an illegitimate child he didn’t want anyone to know about? Did he have a high school tryst that resulted in an unwanted daughter given up for adoption?
His family was essentially The Kennedys of Tennessee. It would make sense they’d hide something like this. They wouldn’t want something their son did in his youth to tarnish their reputation or ruin his promising education and career.
Jade carefully slid the papers back into the envelope. “I take it you know who this birth certificate is referring to?”
“Yes.”
“You care to explain?”
“Not if I don’t have to.”
It wasn’t necessary. Jade didn’t care one way or the other what he did when he was a teenager and how he and his parents covered it up. The only thing that mattered was doing her job effectively, which meant posing as his executive assistant and finding out who sent the letters. “Fine. Do you mind if I keep these? I have a friend who’s a fingerprint examiner. If the person was smart, they used gloves when they cut the letters out of the newspaper, but getting it checked out wouldn’t hurt. They might have made a mistake and left a trace.”
“No, that’s fine. You can keep them.”
She picked up the envelope and stood. “What time would you like me here tomorrow?”
“Actually, do you have any formal evening wear?”
She couldn’t quite keep the wariness out of her voice. “Why?”
There was a smokier quality to his voice as he spoke, the trace of warmth evident in the deep husky tone made her uneasy. He moved closer, and she became distinctly aware of the formidable breadth of his shoulders and the muscled strength obvious beneath his expensive suit.
Moving back toward his desk, he said, “I have a fundraiser to go to tonight, and I’d like you to join me.”
She saw his hard, firm mouth twitch slightly, as though he was enjoying a private joke. “Aren’t you supposed to protect me?” He leaned back against the edge of his desk, his eyes never leaving her face.
“I’m not sure this is what Karyn had in mind.”
“Well, I need a dinner companion, and this will allow you to meet some of the other staff in the office and get to know them outside the work place.”
Jade gaped at him. Her mouth was partly open, and a heavy thud settled in her stomach. She wasn’t acting like a person who was trying to keep a client for their firm. But she was too stunned to do anything about it. Going on a date with Rhys Cunningham was not what she’d planned on. She was supposed to be using this time to get over him, not get further infatuated with the man.
Pull yourself together. It isn’t a date.
It was part of her job, and she’d do it, even if she had to bite the inside of her cheek the entire time. “Of course.”
He moved behind his desk and began to pull out a sheet of paper. Overwhelmed, she was relieved to not be the center of attention anymore for his laser-sharp gaze.
“I need your address and telephone number.”
Jade scrawled the information on a spare notepad on his desk. When he rounded the desk again, the sheer magnitude and extent of Rhys’ presence made her toes curl and her heart pound.
Close enough now, she caught the faintest whiff of a delicious, intoxicating and most assuredly expensive aftershave. She quickly finished writing her address and stepped back. “What time should I expect you?
“Seven.”
“Goodbye, Lieutenant Governor Cunningham.”
Walking toward the door, she realized she’d just gone through one of the most unnerving experiences in her life. She’d meant to come here and prove she wasn’t the least bit attracted to Rhys anymore, but her body betrayed her. Through the entire meeting, sensual heat spiked her blood and sent it careening through her veins. Even though she had a reason to dislike him now, she was still drawn to him. But her job was to help him continue to cover up the existence of an illegitimate child to the public. Her only job was to help him find out who sent the threatening letters and keep it covered up.
“Jade.”
Noooo. Let me out of here. “Yes, Lieutenant Governor?” she said and turned.
He was smiling. A devastating smile that lit up his entire face and robbed her of every ounce of oxygen pounding through her brain. “It was good to see you.” He approached her and stood with his hand on the doorknob. “After everything that happened between us, I don’t think we need to stand on formalities, do we?”
“I think we do.”
An eyebrow rose on his too handsome face. “Why? You’re going to be working for me. My current executive assistant calls me by my first name.”
“She’s familiar with you. I’m not.”
Rhys reached forward and trailed a finger across her hand, and she flinched, not because she didn’t desire his touch, but because she did. More reason for her to keep their relationship professional.
“I think we’re very familiar.”
Jade stepped back and looked around. She heard footsteps and voices, and a telephone rang nearby. “We had sex.” Heat tinged her face. “That’s not familiar. As far as you and anyone else is concerned, I’m a stranger. I’m only here for six weeks. I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to call you anything but Lieutenant Governor.”
She turned and walked away, and didn’t look back. How in the world was she going to work for him when his slightest touch made her body scream?
Chapter Four
Jade stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and chastised herself. Something she’d been doing since she’d left the lieutenant governor’s office.
No. Rhys.
After all, they did know each other, in the biblical sense. It would be rude and childish if she didn’t call him by his first name, especially since he asked her to. But she’d been hoping that by calling him Lieutenant Governor, it would help her maintain some distance between them and her emotions. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work.
And the way he’d said her name. It had been soft and smooth, and made her go all tingly inside. Of course, he probably didn’t stand on ceremony behind office doors and called everyone by their first names. She hated to admit she liked the sound of her name when it crossed his lips.
Especially during sex.
No. No, Jade. Get that thought out of your head. That’s over. One-night stand. That’s all it was.
She was in trouble. From the second her eyes met Rhys’ the first time they were introduced at the engagement party, she hadn’t stood a chance.
No matter how much her insides did a strange sort of nosedive every time she thought about him, it didn’t mean for one moment he felt the same way about her. It was just business. He needed a private investigator, and his best friend’s wife happened to be one. If Karyn wasn’t on her way out of town, she’d be doing this job herself. Not Jade.
This fundraiser was part of the job. It was the sort of thing she’d probably get asked to attend with him on many occasions over the next few weeks, being that it was close to election time. Why she was so hell bent on reading something more into it than it likely was, was beyond her.
She was loath to admit even to herself that deep down, over the last two months, she’d harbored a secret hope of seeing him again. She’d hoped he’d pick up the phone and call or…something. But he never did. Why would he? They’d clearly agreed he couldn’t offer her anything but a one-night stand. Plus, her full figure wasn’t even remotely his type. He dated slim size fours and sixes, not fourteens. Just because he slipped up one night didn’t mean he wanted to do it again.
She removed the dress she had on and tossed it on the bed along with two others she’d already discarded in frustration. Even though there weren’t many occasions she actually went to formal dinners, she had enough bridesmaid dresses in her closet to choose from. Luckily for her, the many friends over the last few years who’d gotten married didn’t stick to the beautiful bride and ugly bridesmaid dress rule. So, she had a collection to choose from even though the ones she’d vetoed made her plain and frumpy.
Her gaze fell on the envelope sitting on her bedside table. She couldn’t help but replay the contents in her mind. Who was the young woman in the picture? Who was threatening him with exposure? Obviously, she was someone who meant a great deal to him. Why else would he not call in the police to take care of it or find out who delivered the notes?
A child. Well, teenager now. His child? Why be threatened if it weren’t his child? Jade tried not to condemn him, but seeing as though he chose not to share any information with her, what else could she assume?
Back in her closet, she pulled out one of her favorite dresses. It had a white bodice that stopped below her breasts, was partially off the shoulder with delicate lace cap sleeves, and the bottom half was black with a split up the front of the left leg. She slipped it on and retraced her steps to the mirror.
What would Rhys think of it? She quelled the thought. It didn’t matter what he thought. Being presentable was all that mattered.
Ugh.
Why was she making such a big deal out of this? She twisted her body back and forth in front of the mirror and looked at herself from each angle, then turned back to her bed where the other discarded dresses lay.
Just pick one.
The choice was taken out of her hands when her doorbell rang. She took one last look, picked up her small black handbag, and turned off the light. Before she reached for the knob, she took one long fortifying breath then opened the door.
The moment she did, that same breath was stolen from her. That seemed to happen a lot when
he was around. Impressive wasn’t description enough. Of course, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him in a tuxedo before. Plenty of times his face had graced the cover of the society pages, and she’d had to wipe drool from the corners of her mouth. And let’s not forget the wedding.
But to see him in person, again, in full-bodied flesh…there were no words. Her stomach muscles tightened when he greeted her.
“Hello.” His voice was very soft and very deep and made every nerve in her body sizzle as his gaze swept her from head to toe. She got all hot inside and had never felt more out of her depth. Her body felt achy and needy. For what, she refused to give credence to.
“You look beautiful. As always.”
The intensity of his gaze wove a seductive spell around her. She had to stop herself from touching her hair or smoothing the skirt of her dress. “Thank you.”
From behind his back he produced a half dozen lemon dahlias.
How could he know?
Most women wanted to receive roses, tulips, or even carnations. But how did he know the dahlia was her favorite flower?
“Thank you,” she said, taking them. She smiled. “They’re gorgeous. Just let me put them in some water.”
“Sure.”
As she walked away, she stopped and realized she couldn’t leave him standing outside the door waiting for her. That would be rude. So, she turned and told him, “Come on in,” and continued around the corner.
In her kitchen she grabbed a vase from below the sink, filled it with water and took her time arranging the flowers. It was so totally unexpected. This wasn’t a date. Why in the world did he bring her flowers? She could feel the delicate balance of her sanity slowly becoming unstable.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, she chided silently. They’re only flowers. A few hours with him around a hundred other people and easy conversation; she could handle that.
When she walked back into the hallway, he stood tall, an image of masculine strength, totally at ease with himself. Whereas Jade thought a thousand bees were producing honey in her stomach. She met his probing gaze, caught his warm smile, and her belly executed a swan dive.
