“Thanks,” I said.
“I can show you around if you don’t want to hang around to see if he’ll come back. I have the time.”
I’d dealt with enough women like her to know what she was about.
“I promised I’d wait for him.”
“All right, it was nice to meet you, Jeremy. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow after chores.”
I nodded and watched her walk away and tried to decide how long I would wait, if at all. I took my hands out of my pockets and gripped the railing in front of me.
The night was absolute, but so was my resolve. Bailey was mine. There was no way I would give her up without a fight.
I had a lot of questions for this Turner when he returned. The first rule of war was to know your enemy.
Twenty-Five
Turner hadn’t said it, but I was certain that Kalen would also be bunking at Turner’s house. My father had left without incident. So there was that.
Yet, questions still tumbled around in my head. Did Father know who Kalen was to me? Or was that why Kalen told him his name was Jeremy? Or was that the name he gave everyone but me? I stood zombie-like on the fringe of the dance. Jake or John could have left and I wouldn’t have noticed.
It wasn’t until the band stopped playing that I came back to myself. To keep out of my head, I went to work helping to put things back along with everyone else. Once that was done, I finished my chaperone duties and walked my brothers home even though they were old enough to go themselves.
That was what Father would expect of me as guardian of my brothers for the night. I didn’t go inside and instead stood several yards away as they entered the house. When they opened the door, I saw my father sitting at the table and I turned and walked away, not ready to talk to him about the community’s latest visitor.
The hour was late, and besides Vi, my other option for lodging was Mary. There was no way I wanted to deal with her admonishment if I woke her baby. I trucked on to Violet’s. With every step, I hoped they’d retired to their room by the time I got there.
Darkness filled the windows, not a flame in the hearth to cut through it. I stepped inside, cutting the silence with my soft footfalls. I had no idea if they were home, but it felt like they weren’t.
For a second, I thought about starting a fire to banish the chill. It would only get colder as the night wore on. I opted not to and headed up the ladder to the loft for reasons I couldn’t explain instead of the tiny bedroom I’d used.
I found a blanket and a pillow and made a pallet toward the back. Because the loft was open to below, I would be able to hear when my sister came home. I closed my eyes and thought over the night’s events.
I’d promised Turner a chance, yet Kalen showed up. Why was he here, and what was I going to do?
I should have told the jerk to take a hike and go back to the woman he’d held in his arms. But the arrogant ass would have gotten a kick out of thinking me jealous and I was so not.
Liar. I blew out a breath of stagnant air. I was jealous and I hated myself for it. What had I learned if nothing more than men like Kalen weren’t meant to be caged? Scott included himself in that category. If any man was right for me, it was Turner. I held on to that thought as I drifted off to sleep.
A hand squeezed my breast as a mouth sucked in a nipple, forcing me to wriggle. I wrapped my legs around his waist, unable to decide if I wanted his mouth or his dick to fill me. Both were equally orgasmic.
“I missed you,” I whispered between pants.
He didn’t speak, only worked to unlock my legs. He flipped me over and pulled my ass up high to meet his throbbing cock. Just when I thought he’d enter me, his mouth covered my mound. Long, languid strokes of his tongue across my slit teased my clit. I bit my tongue for fear of waking the entire community with an explosive release that was nearing far too soon. I couldn’t complain, because history had proven it would only be the first orgasm of the night. Then he moved. His hard length replaced his tongue as he teased me with pressure against my nub.
“Kalen, I need you,” I yelled in whisper tones as I fisted the blanket beneath me.
My knees escaped the pallet and rubbed against the planks of the wood floor. Something struck my leg and caused a sharp sting, smashing the fantasy.
I woke with an arm around me and jerked back in response, afraid what I might find. Tousled brown hair lifted as a face turned in my direction.
“Morning,” Turner greeted, smiling at me with that damn beautiful chiseled face of his as he moved in for a kiss.
I rolled away, feeling completely wrong. I’d just been dreaming about Kalen again.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, covering my mouth from the lie that just escaped it. But it did give me the perfect excuse. “Morning breath.”
He grinned. “That hasn’t stopped me before.” He pulled me close, and I had no other excuse except the truth. His lips pressed to mine. Thankfully, he pulled back quickly. Otherwise, he may have noted my lack of response.
This only exasperated my weary mind. I couldn’t do this to him. I’d become a liability to him on the verge of breaking his heart again.
In my mind, I knew Kalen couldn’t offer me the stability that my heart knew Turner could. Look how easily Kalen had let me walk away, and now he was back for God knew what reason to interfere in my life.
With amusement dancing on his face, Turner said something that stopped me from moving toward the ladder. “I think you have an admirer.”
I jackknifed into a sitting position and nearly bumped my head on the low wood planks that created the peaked ceiling. “Who?” I asked, praying he wouldn’t say the name—
“Jeremy. Not that I blame him. He asked a lot of questions about what we were to each other.”
“What did you say?” I asked too quickly. My words may have been a bit sharp. I was giving myself away.
“You two awake up there?” my sister called from downstairs. It was a dumb question because most likely she’d heard us, which was the reason for her question.
“Yes,” I called out, not wanting to talk anymore about Kalen. I needed to be honest with Turner sooner rather than later. But I also needed the right words. And at the moment, I wasn’t sure what to say. Turner would ask about our future and I just didn’t have answers.
I scrambled to the ladder, hoping to avoid any awkwardness. Though that was what breakfast turned out to be.
Steven kept throwing looks my way like he’d pieced together who Kalen—Jeremy was to me.
Turner hadn’t stayed because he had to make sure Jeremy—Kalen had something to eat.
A disturbing thought hit me. Had Kalen noticed Turner hadn’t slept there? Would he have drawn any conclusions to where he might be?
I stood from my seat. “I should head out and start morning chores.” Really, I didn’t want to be here with Steven’s probing stare and Vi’s questioning glances. I made it as far as the window before Steven beat me to it.
“I’m late as well,” he said, bending to kiss my sister. “I’ll see you later.” Then he turned and conspiratorially winked at me before leaving.
When the door closed, Vi spoke. “Steven told me about the guy at the dance. Who is he?” she asked.
There was no point in lying. “Kalen.”
Her eyes became pools of frothy water. The white in her eyes enlarged around the clear blue. “He came for you.”
Her words were like currents on the wind. She breathed them out like it was the end of the world. Or based on the look on her face, the beginning of one.
“I’m not sure why he’s here. Turner got to him before I could ask.” I pulled my hair free from its holder and twirled pieces around my finger while I gazed out the window.
“You know why he’s here. The question is, what are you going to say to Turner?”
My back shifted and pressed against the cool window. “You say that like I’m going to choose Kalen.”
“Well, aren
’t you? I saw Turner try repeatedly to get close to you this morning and you sidestepped him every time.”
I swallowed. She would be too observant. “Do you think he noticed?”
She gave me a deadpan look. I closed my eyes and turned to press my forehead to the glass.
“Turner was never anything to you but a diversion. Kalen comes and Turner is chopped liver. It’s not right, Bailey.”
The conversation had somehow shifted and become an interrogation. I could easily say a number of things to throw in her face about her mysterious husband, but I didn’t. I was guilty of several things myself. Although none of them pertained to the inhabitants of this house.
“I have to go,” I said and walked out the door. I hadn’t helped clean up the dishes from breakfast and felt guilty for that.
Liabilities. They were adding up. I’d been a liability in New York, and I turned out to be one here.
Lost in my own pity, I nearly walked past Kalen and Turner. Turner was talking to a group of men probably about the tasks for the day. Kalen was off to the side paying attention but not. Like a squirrel dodging a car in the street, I scampered off into the tree line, hoping I hadn’t been seen. It was the gutless way. I wasn’t ready to talk to either of them. Certainly not both of them together.
The snap, crackle, and pop under my feet sent me farther into the woods. I feared that my noisy steps would have Kalen or Turner turning my direction and noticing me. It was crazy. I really needed to get over myself and face them.
The cadence of his voice stopped me mid-step. “Bailey.”
I looked up into those forest green eyes of his and down to the expensive coat he wore. It didn’t belong any more than mine did.
But it was the tunic beneath, revealed by his parted coat, that caught my attention. Most likely one of Turner’s, it resembled the Henley he’d worn last night except instead of a button, two strings hung loose as it should have been tied at the neck as would be proper. The cream fabric was parted, giving a glimpse of his hard muscled chest. I didn’t stop there. Brown trousers laced up the front hid that delicious cock of his. My mouth went dry, but I spoke anyway.
“Kalen…or should I call you Jeremy?”
We were miles apart, though we stood mere feet from each other. My body had no loyalty to Turner and was priming itself for the man before me. It was always like that with us. No other man created that kind of response. I finally understood what chemistry meant. And we had the sexual kind. The question left was if that was all we had?
“Kalen. My friends and the people who know me best call me that,” he said in that lyrical accent of his.
“Jeremy then, because I’m most certainly not your friend and I don’t know you at all.”
“Lass—” It wasn’t so much of a plea as an almost command.
I wouldn’t give him time to sway me with sweet words. “Why are you here?”
His fingers combed through his hair as he let out a sigh. “Look, I’d planned to give you space. I owed you that and more. I fought the urge to find you after several unanswered calls to your cell and a trip to your apartment.”
He was going nowhere, so I cut to the chase. “And that heiress?”
Muscles in his jaw flexed and I thought he swallowed. In no way did he look comfortable with this situation or our conversation. “As I recall, you said we were done. I should be asking you about him?”
The him didn’t need a name. We both knew he meant Turner.
I looked away. “He’s a friend.”
He barked out a humorless laugh. “We both know he’s more than a friend.”
“Fiancé,” I blurted without the necessary background that was needed.
His head tilted at the same time his eyes narrowed. “You said you didn’t have a fiancé.”
“I don’t. I mean, I didn’t. He was before I went to college. I left him.”
“And now you’re back.”
The coolness in his tone rivaled the air around us. I shivered.
“It’s not what you think. I didn’t come here for him.”
I wanted to fidget under the pressure of his stare.
“But he’s here. That was the reason behind your email responses, wasn’t it?”
“No… Yes… I don’t know.” I ruminated.
“What do you know, lass?”
I shifted my stance and found my spine.
“I know you aren’t supposed to be here. And you haven’t yet answered the question of why you’re here.”
He frustratedly rubbed at his day old stubble that just added to his devilish sexiness. He turned to the side, as if he wanted to pace. We weren’t in a clearing, which made it difficult to move a foot without encountering an obstacle.
“I got information.”
Exasperatedly, I asked, “And what does that have to do with me? Don’t you have an empire to run?”
His body shifted and his focus again fell on me with an intensity only he could manage when he gave someone his full attention.
“This thing you found with the wires—” he began. “It was just the beginning. Someone is out to destroy me.”
I let out a laugh. “And I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Yes, you are.”
I waved a hand in the air. “Say that I do, so we can get this over with. Your company is wholly owned by you and not publicly traded. The Security Exchange Commission can only do so much. You’re free to spend company funds as you please. The worst you could get is a slap on the wrist and lose potential investors. What does that have to do with me?”
His next words chilled me.
“Everything.”
I shook my head, not wanting to believe him. “I’m just a low-level auditor—”
“Who found what wasn’t meant to be found, not yet at least. You put a spotlight on a plan that was months in the making. You may have inadvertently saved me, as the culprits haven’t pointed all fingers at me yet.”
“So?” I said, not accepting the creeping sensation that raised the hairs on my arms.
“If those notes you received were from this same individual, you’re in danger.”
Now I really laughed. “How would they ever find me here?”
“I did,” he said with no hint of humor.
I shook my head and did my own pacing, a step, a turn, a step, a turn before facing him again.
“My part in this is done. I’m not a threat.”
“You could be. Come back to New York and I’ll keep you safe.”
“No way. I’m not going anywhere with you. Besides, my job is already on the line.” Though I’d probably already lost it. They were just biding time to look like they were being impartial about my part in the mess.
“I’ll hire you,” he said, looking absolutely serious.
“For what? Sex? Because if that comes out of your mouth, God help me—”
“To clear my name.”
Stunned, my mouth gaped. “What? How?”
“Follow the money just like you did in the audit. I don’t trust anyone but you to find the truth.”
Something in the way he spoke, I just knew. “You didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t. Now I have to prove it,” he said fervently. “My father has hired two different accounting firms, one to redo the audit, and one for overseeing future cash transactions.”
“My firm isn’t handling the audit anymore?” I asked absently.
He shook his head. “It was better to bring in someone totally new for both engagements.”
I understood the need for independence. An auditing firm needed to show they had nothing to gain in order to certify that financial statements were in order according to government standards. I also knew that a firm handling an audit couldn’t also be consultants like temporaries in a company to oversee accounting tasks. It would be conflicting objectives.
“Who would believe anything I would find? I would only be further discredited.”
“No one else would know you were work
ing for me.”
I didn’t bother asking about compensation. “I can’t. Honestly, that’s best for you. You need someone who can stand up for you. I’m done as it is. I’ll be lucky to get a job as a bookkeeper if I’m ultimately fired.”
Which it looked more and more like an inevitability. I’d lost my company a client. They couldn’t keep me on.
“You can’t stay here.”
I couldn’t and not because he said it. This way of life wasn’t me anymore, not that it really ever had been.
“I have Lizzy’s place to go back to if I decide to.”
His next statement was another crushing blow.
“Your apartment has been broken into.”
Feeling like I’d been punched, I swayed. As much as I wanted to keep distance between us because my brain was cloudy enough with him five feet away, I couldn’t, because that was Lizzy’s place. Stepping closer to him, I nearly touched his chest when I reached out and said in a panicked voice, “Lizzy.”
He took my hand, and it was like my fingers had been plunged into an electric socket. Every nerve ending in my body lit up as a shiver of goosebumps trailed up my arm and through me.
He entwined our fingers and said, “She’s fine. She’s still in Chicago.”
“That’s good,” I said distractedly.
I’d talked to her yesterday, but I hadn’t been sure when this break-in happened and if she’d gone home after our chat. We hadn’t discussed her travel plans.
“It’s fine. I have a security firm getting everything fixed up.”
My first thought had been Lizzy. I hadn’t considered the damage. “What did they do?”
“The first problem is that they got in. Your building has a doorman. The only other entrance is a well-lit back door that has a hidden security camera. There are more cameras throughout the building on each floor. This guy… or girl had to know about them. On top of the fact that there is a small segment of missing footage, we never see this person enter or exit the building. They couldn’t be working alone.”
I took a step back, not wanting to believe that I was still a target. “Wait? How do you know all of this? How did you find out about the break-in or where to find me?”
Queen of Men: King Maker series Page 12