As she approached, she realized it was Bradley Stafford’s voice she heard, and her feet slowed. She wasn’t altogether comfortable being in a deserted hallway with him. He was always polite but she sensed an undercurrent of dislike, though she didn’t know why. As she stood there, debating, he slammed down the phone, and she heard him sigh loudly. His footsteps sounded, heading in her direction.
She jumped into action, moving down the hallway. She couldn’t deal with him now, not after finding out that Dominic—
“Ms. Grayson? What are you doing here?”
Too late. She turned as if toward a firing squad. Steady, Lexie. You’re just lost. Remember that.
Resolutely, she widened her eyes. “Oh, Mr. Stafford—thank heavens. I went to see the game gurus and took a wrong turn somewhere. I’m so lost I can barely keep track of myself,” she chattered.
He frowned at her. “How did you get over here in this wing?”
“I wish I knew. I have the worst habit of daydreaming and before I knew it, I looked up and had no idea where I was. This is a confusing layout.”
He looked skeptical, so she continued brightly. “I wish I’d known this was where your office was. I’d have come straight to you to help me.” Stop chattering, Lexie. Max had always told her she’d be hopeless at poker.
He looked at her, long and hard, then rubbed his face with one hand, his fatigue showing. He wasn’t so dapper-looking now.
“You look tired. Why don’t you go home?” she asked.
“I plan to do that as soon as I help you find your way back to the entrance.”
“Oh, I’m fine. Just point me in the right direction.”
His eyes narrowed, his usual aplomb missing. “As you might imagine, we are not fond of outsiders wandering the facilities.” He took her arm, and Lexie wanted to shake him off. His grip held firm.
He gestured for her to precede him down the hallway. “Please, Ms. Grayson. I insist.”
Like a doomed prisoner or a chastened child, Lexie went quietly, hoping he couldn’t hear the pounding of her heart.
Or the breaking.
He should apologize. He would do that as soon as she called about her schedule.
Why hadn’t she called, damn it?
Dominic spun his chair around, away from the work he couldn’t seem to concentrate on, and stared out across the hills, seeing nothing but a sky-blue dome dotted with clouds, hearing the creak of chains holding a swinging bed.
Why, out of all the women he’d known, could he not forget this one? She wasn’t who she’d seemed that first day. That night that was seared into his brain.
Do you believe in magic, Nikos?
For one unforgettable night, he had.
He should have it out with her. Now. Ask her, straight-out, why finding out who he was had changed everything.
But he couldn’t. Didn’t want to. He didn’t want those memories to die completely. Didn’t want to face that the magical sprite had vanished forever in the clear light of day. He couldn’t pursue anything between them right now, even if he could bridge the crevasse that widened between them with every passing hour.
Dominic had never been a coward, never been afraid to face harsh, naked truths. His life had been filled with a lot of them, but the truth he would find if he forced Lexie to talk about that night…he wasn’t ready to face. She might be an apparition, that luscious tomboy who’d set his blood on fire, who’d made him laugh, who’d made him feel years younger and carefree.
But right now, while he was fighting for the life of the company that was his only child…while he fought for the soul of his sister…
He needed that apparition, that hope. Losing it would rob him of something essential, something he’d thought impossible to find amid all the people who wanted him for what he had, not who he was.
So he would make amends with Lexie, but he wouldn’t ask. Wouldn’t talk about that night he’d tucked away for safekeeping.
But one day, when this was all over, when Poseidon was safe, when Ariana was stronger—
He would drive back to that dome to see if he could find the tomboy.
Dominic heaved a deep sigh and was turning back to his work when the knock came. “It’s open.”
Bradley opened the door.
“Good morning—” Dominic looked harder. “What’s wrong?”
Bradley stared at him for a moment. “Maybe nothing.”
“What does that mean?”
Bradley shook his head. Still he paused. “What’s up between you and Ms. Grayson?”
Dominic didn’t answer immediately. Bradley was his best friend, but there were some things he wasn’t prepared to discuss with anyone. “Why do you ask?”
Bradley shut the door and crossed toward him. “You’ve acted strangely both times you’ve been around her. That’s not like you.”
“There is much going on. We are both tired, Bradley. Perhaps you read too much into my actions. Ms. Grayson has a contract with us, and her work is crucial to a success we need very much.” He shrugged as if that were all there was to it. “I am very concerned. Perhaps I have not been as diplomatic as I could.”
“We could move the launch date. Hire someone else.”
“Why would you say that? What has happened?”
Bradley glanced away. “Maybe nothing.”
He rounded his desk. “Don’t do that. Talk to me.”
His friend eyed him carefully. “I’m not sure. There may be something funny going on. I’m just not certain she should be working on the gala.”
“What?” Dominic stared, jamming his fists into his pockets, clenching and unclenching them. “Why?”
“There has to be an inside connection to our troubles, don’t you agree?”
Dominic nodded.
Bradley shook his head. “She was up at the office late last night, visiting with the design crew. I found her in our hallway. I had a sense she might be eavesdropping outside my door.”
Dominic’s stomach churned. No. He didn’t want to hear the rest, but he had to. “You’re sure she was eavesdropping?”
“Oh, hell, I’m not sure. I was so damn tired. She said she got lost, but—” Bradley frowned.
“Lexie doesn’t know anything about our business.”
“Lexie, is it?” Bradley’s eyes narrowed. “She knows more about Legend Quest than anyone outside this organization.”
“No. She would never—” Dominic stopped, aware that Bradley was studying him curiously. He backtracked. “I do not see how she would have the knowledge to do anything harmful.”
“Suit yourself.” Bradley shrugged. “I just don’t like it. There was something about her last night, something frenetic, almost guilty.” Then he shook his head. “Perhaps it was just as she said, she merely got lost.”
But he didn’t think so, that much was clear.
Who was Lexie, really? Either she was for real, or she was the best liar Dominic had ever met. He shook his head in anguished confusion. If she was for real, then why had she done such an about-face? If she was a liar, how could he have mistaken her sweetness in the act of love?
As he fought to retain a sense of Lexie, his doubts swamped in to overload it. He wanted to rush to her right now and demand an explanation. He’d force it out of her if he had to—
He felt sick. He closed his eyes. He couldn’t care so much about a liar. He couldn’t fall for a woman who’d deceive and betray him.
But he knew he could. He’d done it before.
Celia. The name still made his gut twist. She’d said she loved him…said he was her world…said they’d build a life together.
Then she’d stolen information from his fledgling company and run to a competitor with it. He had sworn he would never trust his heart again. And look what he had almost done.
“No,” he growled. “We won’t fire her. We will keep her close where we can watch her every move.”
Chapter Five
Lexie was hard at work sketching a sudden in
spiration as the crew staked out the final location of the set. She didn’t have a lot of time today. Tonight was the Starlight Ball and she’d been juggling the two jobs for days. She’d decided that her meeting with Dominic later would go better outside with others around where she wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed by him. Meeting him alone in his office after what she’d glimpsed on Josh’s computer called for a far better poker face than she possessed.
Part of her wanted to just come out and ask Dominic, but part of her wasn’t sure she could bear to know. She didn’t want to lose the dream of Nikos, and she’d never believe that man could be a thief.
But Dominic Santorini, so powerful, so remote? He was not a man she knew or one she could predict.
It wasn’t her place to decide, anyway. It was Max’s, and he’d been very clear. I can’t be hasty about this, Lex. If I get impulsive, I’ll lose for sure.
If only he weren’t gone on a much needed few days away. He deserved a break, and she couldn’t disturb that, not when she wasn’t positive. She would keep her eyes and ears open and maybe, just maybe, she’d turn out to be wrong.
She glanced up and saw Ariana standing on the terrace, watching.
“Hi,” she called, smiling.
Ariana waved but didn’t come closer, her posture uncertain.
Sketch pad still in hand, Lexie walked over to her. “How are you?”
The younger woman’s lips curved, though her eyes held shadows. “I’m happy to see you. You’re working hard on this hot day.” She pointed toward the sketch pad. “What is that?”
“Just a sketch of an idea for a modification that just occurred to me.”
Ariana pointed one long, slender finger at a caricature Lexie had sketched in the corner. “That’s the blond man over there,” she exclaimed, her eyes lighting. “How long did that take you?”
Lexie hadn’t even been conscious of drawing the workman. “A couple of minutes, probably.” She grinned. “I doodle while I’m thinking.”
“That’s unbelievable. Show me.” She paused.
“I’m sorry. You probably don’t have time.”
She didn’t, but the eagerness that had skipped over Ariana’s face was irresistible. “Sure I do. Just keep talking.” She began to sketch Ariana in quick, sure strokes.
“What shall I say?” The other woman’s gaze drifted downward. “Oh, my goodness—look at that! So quickly—oh, please, can you spare a moment to show Mrs. Garcia?”
“Who’s Mrs. Garcia?”
“She’s Dominic’s housekeeper, but she mothers us both.” Her lovely face clouded, but she shook her raven hair and grasped Lexie’s hand. “I’ll fix you something cool to drink. Oh, this is remarkable—how do you do it?”
Lexie barely had time to answer as she was swept inside.
Dominic arrived home early for the meeting, though he was hardly eager to see Lexie, given Bradley’s news. He glanced over at the work crew but didn’t see her. He headed inside to get something cool to drink while he tried to assemble the composure that normally came so easily to him.
He didn’t want to believe Bradley was right, but there was no question that Lexie had changed toward him once she knew his identity. And it was also true that their troubles had begun around the time Lexie got her contract at Poseidon.
Never in a million years would he believe it of the tomboy—but of the woman who’d taken her place?
He entered through the garage and heard the giggling.
Giggling? He recognized Lexie’s laughter immediately, and Mrs. Garcia’s, but the other voice? He hadn’t heard Ariana laugh like that even once.
As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he took in several sights at once: Lexie’s slender back as she bent over a sketch pad, Ariana craning to watch, Mrs. Garcia’s face flushed as she stood still as though modeling.
Facing his direction, Mrs. Garcia spotted him first and all but jumped out of her skin. “Señor Dominic, I didn’t hear you. Come, you must see what the señorita can do.”
Ariana whirled, her eyes shining with a joy he’d thought never to see. “Oh, Nikos, look what Lexie can do!” She pulled at his arm to bring him closer.
Lexie stepped away and faced him, guilt and distress chasing across her face, the sketch pad held tightly against her breasts. “I’m sorry. I lost track of the time,” she stammered.
“Do Nikos, Lexie. Look, Nikos—” Ariana pointed at the surface of the sketch pad, which Lexie was still holding in a death grip.
“May I?” he asked, curiosity overcoming discomfort at having walked into a cozy scene where he felt like the outsider.
“I—I guess.” With obvious reluctance, she surrendered the pad.
On it was a quick sketch of Mrs. Garcia that caught her perfectly, that somehow captured her motherly nature as well as her innate pride and strength.
He glanced at Lexie. “This is very good.”
“Look at the one before it—I can’t believe what she can do in only a few minutes.” Ariana’s shiny dark hair swung as she reached forward to flip the page.
Beside him, Dominic could feel Lexie’s presence as though he stood next to a fire. With only half his attention, he tried to focus on the page flipping forward.
He frowned. “Astonishing.” Ariana was there on the sheet, in two poses. One revealed the wounded creature he’d been trying to protect—
The other was the Ariana who was with them now, nothing short of a miracle. Laughter sparked in her eyes, her face relaxed in pleasure. Lexie had captured the young woman he’d lost hope of retrieving.
He turned to glance at Lexie, only to find her green eyes fixed on him, a blush staining her cheeks, hiding the freckles he’d kissed, one by one, on that star-filled night.
For a moment it was as though time stopped, as did his breath. Longing flooded him—and white-hot desire. He gripped the sketch pad so tightly he heard the paper crinkle.
“Draw Nikos, Lexie,” Ariana begged. “Please, Nikos, it will only take a minute.”
Dominic ripped his gaze away from Lexie, tearing away the tender skin of memories that haunted him still. “Ariana—” But then he looked at his sister, at the glow on her face, and knew that he’d do anything to keep it there.
He turned back to Lexie, carefully closing a mask over his feelings. “Perhaps you do not have time, but if you can spare it, I would like to do this for Ariana.”
Surprise flickered in those green eyes that dogged his nights. “I—I suppose, if you have the time…”
“What must I do?”
She shook her head as if waking up. “Nothing. Just…stand there.”
“I do not know how to be a model.”
Lexie chewed on her lip as she thought about having him model. Remembered what she’d tried so hard to forget: the hard angles and planes of his muscular body. The image of her pirate. More than once, she’d picked up the sketch pad to record that very image, hoping to exorcise it from her brain.
She didn’t answer him. Instead, she concentrated on her pencil and simply drew.
“May I?” Ariana moved to her shoulder and gasped. Mrs. Garcia moved to Lexie’s other side. “¡Madre de Dios!” she said.
Lexie glanced up at Dominic again, only to be caught in his gaze, a stare so hot and hungry, she felt faint.
The pencil point broke beneath the pressure of her clenched fingers. She jerked her gaze from his and all but threw the sketch pad down. “Excuse me, please. I’ll be outside when you’re ready.”
And she fled.
Dominic itched to go after her, but the two women were staring at him as though he were a monster.
“What’s wrong?” Ariana asked. “Nikos, why is it you frighten Lexie so?”
He had no answers, not for Ariana, not for himself. “I will be outside.”
“Wait—” Ariana grabbed the sketch pad and turned it in his direction.
A pirate rose from the page, bold and powerful and deadly dangerous. It was him, all right, the features correct to an asto
nishing degree—
But it was not a Dominic Santorini anyone had ever seen.
Correction. Anyone but one luscious tomboy.
“Is that how she sees you, Nikos?” Ariana smiled. “A pirate.” She turned to Mrs. Garcia, her grin widening. “A swashbuckler, our Dominic. I like it.”
Unaccustomed heat flared in his cheeks. “She is a designer. She makes a living from her imagination.”
The two women traded looks of disbelief.
He exhaled in disgust. “Think what you wish. I have business to conduct.” Then he fled outside in search of Lexie, though for one of the few times in his life, he had no idea what to say.
He found her in earnest discussion with a workman. She appeared prepared to stay glued to the man’s side for the duration.
“Excuse me,” he addressed the man. “I am Dominic Santorini.” He held out a hand.
“Tom Dorman. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Santorini. Amazing place you got here.”
“I like it.” But he stared at Lexie as he said it, and knew he lied. He’d trade it all for a dome, a valley, and no responsibilities. “Please excuse us, Tom. Ms. Grayson and I were scheduled to meet and I’m afraid my time is short.”
“No problem. Got plenty of work to do.” The man moved away.
Lexie stood perfectly still, quivering like a doe in the sights of a rifle.
She was so small, so delicate. He forgot that because her personality was so big, so expansive.
Around everyone else, at least. And for one special day, she’d been that way around him.
Damn, how he wanted to forget everything else in his life—but that wasn’t remotely possible. But he wanted to remind her that they hadn’t always had all of this separating them.
“How is Rosebud?”
She startled as if she didn’t recognize the name. “Rosebud?”
“Your cat. Small, gray, noisy?” he reminded her.
She looked at him for a moment, and he would have sold his soul to read her mind, to separate the mélange of emotions chasing over her expressive face.
Then as suddenly as they’d come, she locked them away, became Ms. Grayson.
Millionaire in Disguise (Special Edition, 1416) Page 7
