Secrets and Lies

by Capri Montgomery

  By the time two o’clock came Thena was a near wreck. She had contemplated driving home to change clothes again, but decided a special trip just to try to impress a man who may or may not still be interested in her was just plain stupid. She was wearing her gray pencil skirt that had a show of six buttons as decoration on the front waist area, three down on each side to draw the eyes inward and away from having a solid focus on her curvy hips. She had on a simple pink button down blouse that hugged her curves in all the right places, and simple pink and gray stilettos. She always, unless she was on site to work, wore stilettos at least three inches and at most four inches in height. She wasn’t super short, but she wasn’t super tall either and high heals always made her feel just a little sexier. Three-inch or four-inch designs usually put her at the right level for any guy she danced with whenever she went out…of course, since she took over her father’s company she hadn’t actually gone out any. “It’s your company now,” she mumbled to herself as she stepped through the doors of McGregor Investigations. She really needed to realize this was now her company, no longer her father’s company. While she felt a responsibility to do right by the memory of her father, she had to really make this company her own. The way to do that was to start calling it her company.

  “Hello,” she called out, noting the lack of Janet’s presence. Thomas was in wasn’t he? Of course he was. Janet wouldn’t just leave the door unlocked if nobody was here. Unless she had left for lunch and forgot to lock the door.

  “Come on in.” She heard Thomas yell from the office. Maybe she should have known he wouldn’t hire somebody who would walk out the office and leave his files unsecure.

  She approached the office with caution. What would their conversation be like? Of course he would probably have something on the case…at least she thought he might. But would he bring up Friday night? Would he act as if it didn’t happen?

  “Hi,” she smiled.

  “Close the door behind you.”

  She nodded, closing the door. “How was your trip?” It seemed like such a cliché question to ask, such a dumb question to ask. His trip was business, not pleasure, should she even be asking about it?

  “Unfruitful, unfortunately. On your case, however I did hear something that I need to talk to you about. Something I need to know more about, and I want to know why you didn’t tell me;” he frowned.

  “What?”

  “Doctor Livingston.”

  “What about him?”

  “He touched you?”

  “The man was always touching somebody. That’s just who he was. He would rub my shoulder, or my back, pat my head as if I were a poodle or something.” She laughed. “Why do you ask?”

  “Hancock told me Neenah didn’t approve of the way he touched you. He implied that there was something unnatural in his interactions with you.”

  She gasped. “Why would he do that? It never bothered me—not really.”

  “Not really?”

  “Well, I didn’t like being touched a whole lot and he was very touchy feely, but I never thought there was anything unnatural about it. I think my mom told him once that he shouldn’t rub on my back so much, which is probably why he started rubbing my head.” She frowned just thinking about all the times Livingston had messed up her perfectly secure French braids by rubbing her head as if he were rubbing a shaggy poodle. “Anyway, it was nothing. My mom didn’t have a problem with him. If she did she wouldn’t have gone to the parties he invited her to. And she certainly wouldn’t have let him come to the house—ever.”

  “Okay,” he conceded. He wasn’t sure Thena’s conclusion was completely true. He was still going to have a talk with Livingston as soon as he could. He wanted to know his side of the story, because right now he wasn’t sure the man wasn’t a closet pervert. “How was your weekend?” He changed the subject, letting Livingston drop—for now anyway.

  “I worked on some blueprints with Kyle on Saturday and then helped him with a build out on Sunday…that’s a fun weekend for me,” she laughed. It really was a fun weekend for her, although she imagined it probably made her seem like a bore to him.

  “I’ll have to remember to introduce you to some real fun,” he stood from his seated position, walked from behind the desk and slowly approached her. For the first time she realized she hadn’t actually taken a seat. In fact, she hadn’t moved very far from the door.

  He reached out just past her, turned the lock on the door and then escorted her toward the desk. Instead of sitting her in a seat he backed her up against his desk. “I missed you,” he mumbled before lifting her from her feet and plunking her down on the desk. Her slender pencil skirt limited her ability to move.

  “I missed you too,” she admitted freely. She had missed him. She had thought about him a lot too. Most of her thoughts had been fears that Friday night was just a fluke. “After you left I wasn’t sure where we stood…what we were too each other…” she realized she was babbling again. She hated when she did that. No, she hated that he made her do that. Being around him made her head spin, made her dizzy with desire and lust and craving, and that rush of emotions seemed to knock all coherent thoughts out of her head.

  “Allow me to show you just where we stand, and just what we are to each other.” He brought his hand to the back of her head, unclasping the clip she had holding her hair up into a messy, yet elegant up do, and then he clasped her hair, clutching it in his hand, twining his brawny fingers within her curly tangle of hair. He pulled her head back, looked deep in her eyes and then, as if needing desperately to taste her, his lips descended on her mouth, plundering her without mercy, exploring every cavern as he deepened each thrust of his tongue.

  She returned, lick for lick, thrust for thrust. “Hmmm,” she moaned as he deepened the kiss.

  As if driven by desire to be closer to her, he tried to push her thighs apart. Her skirt only allowed for limited width. Seemingly unhappy with the restriction, he lifted her, just long enough to bunch her skirt up around her waist and then he sat her back down on his desk, letting his gaze rake over the stockings and garter belt she wore. He slipped both hands between her thighs and made provision for the position he craved.

  Closer, tighter, he held her, kissing her fiercely as if claiming her mouth as his alone. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer as she deepened the kiss.

  She felt his hand slip between her thighs and close over her, caressing her, stroking her. The brush of his fingers pushed the fabric of her panties against her sensitive, wet flesh. She tore her mouth free from his, threw her head back and let out a heated cry.

  They couldn’t do this, not here. They were in his office. His office had floor to ceiling windows and the blinds were not drawn. This was not a good idea, but she couldn’t stop it; she couldn’t deny his touch.

  He placed sweet kisses on her neck as he tugged her blouse off one shoulder. His lips curled into a devious grin before placing a succulent kiss on her smooth skin. She felt him unhooking her garter from her stockings; felt him pushing the lace and satin fragments of the garter to the side.

  One hand continued its ministrations between her legs, and then, without notice, without any prelude to his actions, he pushed her down onto his desk so that she lay on her back, and he leaned into her, rocking against her and letting her know, in no uncertain terms, just what he planned to do.

  In one fluid motion he had her panties down and off her body. “Thomas,” she moaned. Good Lord she hoped he had a condom because she hadn’t made the drugstore run yet. She planned to do it only after she knew where she stood with him. Now, she wished she had stopped at the store on the way.

  “He slid one thick finger inside her. “You’re so wet for me,” he moaned. “I like it, your heat, your smell, your taste.” He leaned in ready to devour her mouth once more.

  “Thomas, I’m back early.” Janet called from just outside the door.

  Thomas pulled back so swiftly Thena barely registered the action. It took a se
cond, but once that situation registered she realized what might have happened. “Oh my God.” She jumped down off the desk, straightened her skirt and went for her panties that Thomas had already picked up off the floor. She couldn’t fasten the garter to the stockings until she had the panties on because if she did then she would just have to undo them all over again. A few minutes in his bathroom and she could fix her clothing back to what it was when she walked into his office. He obviously had a different opinion.

  He shook his head. “I’d prefer to hold on to these,” he brought the peach cotton bikini cut panties up to his nose and inhaled. “I do love the smell of you, Thena Davis.” He walked around to his chair and tucked her panties into his suit jacket pocket before sitting down. He pressed the intercom button. “I’m in with a client, Thena Davis,” he said. “Hold all my calls until we’re finished here.”

  A client. Right, she was a client. What else would he say to Janet? “I’m in here stripping Thena Davis” wasn’t highly professional, nor was it something she wanted to walk out of that room knowing his secretary knew about.

  She made sure her skirt was smoothly in place and that her blouse was covering her body where it should be covering it, that no buttons were undone, and no evidence of what they had just been ready to do still existed—well, maybe she wasn’t completely free of evidence. She was sure her cheeks were still flushed—just like the rest of her body.

  “Thena—”

  “So what did you find out about my mother’s case?”

  He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. “Is that how we’re going to play this?”

  “You did say you wanted to talk to me about my mother’s case today. I’m just thinking with Janet back we should get down to business.”

  “Fine,” he shrugged.

  “Thomas, if I stay in here with you much longer, secretary or not, I’m going to come over there and jump your bones.” She was uninhibitedly honest with her confession. “I’m on fire here, Thomas. I mean literally I’m aching for your touch, your kiss. Watching you sit over there, thinking about what we were just doing on that desk…” She crossed her legs, squeezing them tight. “Mon Dieu,” she moaned.

  His nostrils flared in triumph. “Tonight I’ll be sure to give you the release you crave.” He sat back, lazily letting his eyes drink in her features.

  “I’ll be sure to buy some condoms.”

  “Already taken care of,” he grinned.

  “Good to know,” her voice was sultry, filled with lust and need, and desire. She had never before had this reaction to a man, and she knew that after Thomas she would probably never have that reaction again. This was that can’t eat, can’t sleep, just won Wimbledon feeling she only dreamed about. Good gracious have mercy; she could see herself marrying this man. She gasped, astonished by her own thoughts. Marriage? Was she crazy?

  “Are you all right?”

  “Um…yeah, peachy,” she smiled. What was wrong with her? How could one man make her go out of her mind with desire the way he did? This wasn’t love, it was lust. That’s what she tried to tell herself. It was just hormones running amuck, lust and passions igniting within her. Once they had one night in bed with each other they would probably be done. He would work her out of his system, and she would work him out of her system. But she didn’t want that to be true, as much as it should be true, she didn’t want it to be. She really did want more with this man—a lot more than one night of great sex.

  “I’d better get your mind back on business before you come in your panties,” he laughed.

  “You didn’t give them back to me,” she said absently. He laughed hard.

  “You’re too much, Thena.” He shook his head. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  He looked her over, slow, methodically assessing her. “Good,” he confirmed. “Real good,” the slow grin spread across his lips once again. She wished he would stop doing that. Every time he smiled she wanted him more. He had perfect teeth, absolutely, perfectly white teeth. He was too sexy for his own good. Or more like, he was too sexy for her good. The man made her want to do all sorts of crazy things. He could tie her up, tie her down and she would let him. She had never thought she would ever give a man that kind of control over her body, but she wanted to with him. God, she had lost her mind. There had to be some psychological diagnosis and cure for her current ailment, some little orange pill to take away her cravings…even if there were some magic pill she doubted she’d have the good sense to take it. And miss out on Thomas McGregor? Not a chance.

  “Mon Dieu,” he repeated her earlier words. “Are you fluent in French, or do you just know a few words?”

  “Fluent,” she nodded. “I learned when I was a kid, did some more courses in college, and now I just try to stay as fluent as possible.” Sometimes she would spend a few weeks up in Montreal, or somewhere stateside closer to the boarder. “Did you know that French and English are the only languages spoken on five continents? How cool is that!” She laughed in a chipper tone.

  “Do you come in French too?”

  She gasped again. “Thomas!”

  He chuckled. “Okay, back to business.” He pulled a blank notepad in front of him. “What do you know about a Doctor Harold Evans?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. Should I know something about him?”

  “Maybe not. He wasn’t a doctor at the time, but he worked with your mother. I just wondered if she mentioned him.”

  “Do you think he killed my mother?”

  He held up his hand. “Hold your water, Thena. I’m just checking out everybody who worked with her. No need to get your panties in a twist.”

  “Thanks to you I’m not wearing any panties to get in a twist.” She said sarcastically. He laughed, completely unfazed by her sarcasm. He had no intentions of giving her underwear back to her.

  “I just wondered if she said anything substantial about the people she worked with.”

  “Some,” she nodded. “I knew mostly about the doctors, but not a lot. I met a few at the parties we had been invited to. And then they came to us when she vanished and offered their words of support. They all loved my mother.” She smiled. “She had that influence on people, that genuine honest to goodness friendly manner that people gravitated toward. But outside of the limited contact I had with those few doctors I really don’t know much about her work life. She didn’t talk about it much—not with me anyway.” She was only ten when her mother vanished. She didn’t imagine ten was the age where parents started discussing how good or bad their day was with their children. Sometimes, over dinner, they would give a round of “what was one good thing about your day,” and “what was one bad thing about your day,” but they didn’t do it all the time, and most times it was geared towards letting her talk about what was going on in school and what problems she was having.

  “You know,” she hesitated. “No, it’s probably nothing.”

  “What?”

  “It’s silly.”

  “Let me be the judge of that.”

  “Well…about two weeks before she disappeared she started coming home looking, I don’t know—sad. I guess that’s the only thing I can remember it as. But maybe she was worried about something. Dad had asked her the first time if she wanted to talk about it. She just said no, that she just wanted to take a hot shower and wash the stench of the day off of her.”

  “Did she ever talk to your father about what was bothering her?”

  She shrugged. “If she did he never told me about it.”

  He nodded. “Okay. I’m going to do a little more digging, and then I’ll be home around eight.”

  She smiled. He had just called her place home. Was that good or bad? Wait, was he talking about her place or his?

  “I have to work late myself,” she treaded cautiously.

  “No way,” he snapped.

  “Excuse me.”

  “No way,” he repeated. “Somebody is
trying to kill you—in broad daylight; do you think giving them access to you under the cover of night is such a brilliant idea?”

  Okay, so he had a point. She could take work home with her. She did have an office to work in there as well. “Good point,” she agreed. “I’ll take it home with me.”

  “Thank you,” he mumbled. “Do you want me to pick up something for dinner?”

  He was talking about dinner, which meant he had definitely been referring to her place when he said home. “No. I have left over pasta from yesterday, so I’ll just heat that up; unless you want something different.”

  “Pasta’s fine,” he licked his lips. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to have those lips on her body again.

  What a man, what a man. An old Salt and Pepper tune played in her mind. Oh yes, Thomas McGregor was indeed a man—a mighty fine man on top of that. She sighed. Thinking of the promise of what they would do tonight was going to be distracting, so much so that she wasn’t sure she would be able to get any work done for the rest of the day. Even now she couldn’t sit in a room with him without having wild fantasies race through her mind. Maybe she would explore some of those fantasies tonight. Maybe, just maybe, she would see how easy it would be to tie him down with some of those silk scarves she had in the drawer. They may not have been designed for that purpose, but tonight…tonight she wouldn’t mind making them a bit more multi-functional.

  Chapter Nine

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?” Kyle uttered those words as if this would be her last chance to say yes.

  “I’m sure,” she said. She was sure of her answer the last ten times he asked her too. “I’m fine. Stop worrying so much.” She had never given Kyle the impression that she needed him to play her protector, but he always seemed to do it anyway. She just wanted a friend, not a big brother, but he was so lovingly protective that she had a hard time being angry with him. He worried too much, now more than before, and that worry was growing in severity even before anybody had tried to kill her. Of course, she had only told him about the one incident, the one with the car, not everything else. He didn’t need that burden on his shoulders, and she didn’t need him camping out on her couch.