“Then I’ll head home in my car and you can follow in your own,” she told him with a flash of a bright smile seconds before she turned and moved very quickly out of range and back into the evening sunshine without looking back.
Tanner glared, stepping into the elevator and stabbing the button.
But things were still coming along nicely. He’d take his laptop, some clothes and slowly integrate himself into not only her life, but her condo. He knew where she lived and how to get there. He already had a plan for Sunday and it all revolved around keeping Vianne Summers-Clayton off balance enough that she didn't realize just how deeply ingrained in her life he’d become. Until it was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vianne didn’t look back over her shoulder. Nope, not even a peek until she was shoving the key into the slot on the door of her car. She was pretty sure she’d stopped breathing up until that point, too, because oxygen all of a sudden seemed to swamp her lungs.
The keys fell to the passenger seat once she was inside the comfortable four-door car. The door closed behind her and she quickly slipped the lock in place before lifting the keys and aiming them at the ignition. Then the late sun sparkled off the new addition to her hand.
A low groan filled the car, two slim hands gripping the wheel and her head bounced against the padded circle. She wasn’t insane. She did remember the whole night.
Including the parts before the memorable night in bed with Tanner. But it had all seemed like some kind of sweet dream. Not the sex part, she corrected with a thick sigh.
Definitely not a dream. Magical. Amazing. God, so amazing, she repeated, looking up to see the pale brown eyes crossed before she turned the engine over and straightened her shoulders. She told the heated tingle pulsing between her thighs to go back to sleep.
Vianne saw the previous night playing in her mind as she drove along the coastal road to the small collection of condos. It didn’t seem real at the time, she repeated firmly. But the sparkling pink stone and wedding band was telling her something completely different. It was indeed real. She’d even looked at the papers she’d signed the night before. All legal and above board.
“Oh, god, I’ve got a husband,” she whispered as she stepped onto the concrete, grateful for the street lights as the last of daylight slipped below the mountains to the west of her. She took a minute to watch the sparkling lights play over the smooth as glass waters.
No breeze. No boats. Just a shimmer of light dancing over the water.
Habit in place, Vianne quietly climbed the stairs to the second floor and went into her apartment, keys dropped on the kitchen breakfast bar and her body dropped into one of the comfortable bar stools. She’d have to find a solution for Tanner Clayton. Although what that might be, was definitely beyond thought at the moment.
She was still pulling things from her fridge and laying them out on the counter when the solid rap struck her door. In between laying out sandwich things, she’d moved her laptop and shot off an email to her research assistant.
She was bringing Cailie from the television station to work with her, another something she had to work into the conversation with Tanner. Having an admin seemed like a good idea and that was how she was forming her argument when she opened the front door.
Vianne was still trying to figure out how she managed to go from kick ass reporter to a softly melted puddle. It certainly contributed to the puddle effect when his hands gripped her shoulders and his mouth took hers in a long, seriously slow kiss before either of them even uttered a greeting.
Tanner was the first to admit that greeting a woman with a kiss had been a long time fantasy of his. But only with this woman. His wife.
Sappy, but he’d repeated those two words all the way to her condo. Grinning like an idiot.
His fingers lightened on her shoulders, palms open and pressing along her shoulders until he could frame her face. She hadn’t protested, unless you count the deliciously sweet mew she offered after the first few seconds. The same time her body seemed to melt against him, all soft and curving in the right places.
“Beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely against her mouth, reluctantly lifting his head and bending to the side to lift the large bag he’d brought with him. His palm slowly left her face, his grin crooked when her lashes raised and she stared at him. “Invite me inside?”
Vianne snapped upright with an audible sound, the heat flooding her cheeks making her teeth grind. How did he do that to her so easily?
“Oh, sorry…yes, of course…” She stepped back, bare toes crossing and her eyes falling on the large bag he carried.
“This is a great place for a condo,” Tanner nodded at the wide open spaces with three doors off to the right side and another off to the left of the kitchen. “It’s huge.”
“I put some things on the counter. I don’t have anything much but sandwich stuff,” Vianne decided to ignore the bag he set to the side, watching him shrug from his jacket and toss it over the bag. Okay, she couldn’t ignore it. “What’s this?”
“My laptop and some clothing. Is that the bedroom?” Tanner nodded to the open door, the sight of a pair of scattered heels telling him it was her bedroom. He stopped and lifted the bag and his jacket, carrying them both into the bedroom, Vianne close behind.
“Don’t you think we should talk about this?” Vianne watched him bend and toss her heels toward the large walk-in closet before he dropped the bag at the arched opening.
He hung up his jacket and opened the case, casually pulling hangers from inside and choosing the mostly empty half of the closet. Tanner handed her the laptop case with a grin.
“This is much nicer than always coming home to an empty hotel room. It smells like you and feels…” he stopped, searching for the right word. “It feels right.” He went back to rearranging the closet, things neatly arranged in minutes before he realized he’d been left standing there alone.
Vianne wasn’t entirely sure what all went into her sandwich, but she bit down and chewed, intently watching as Tanner came from the bedroom and joined her.
“Are you always this pushy?”
“Pushy?” Tanner was in the process of reaching for the sourdough bread when his hand froze. “Should I wait to be invited first?”
“Please, help yourself,” she exhaled slowly and turned the computer to face her, nodding at the reply she received from Cailie. “We’re going to hire an admin, right? Maybe that’s not phrased correctly,” she amended, considering her comment about him being pushy. Hadn’t she just stepped into the fray and told Cailie the job was hers if she wanted it?
“You’ve got someone in mind?” Tanner hooked his foot on the base of a stool and pulled it over, sinking onto the cushion and working at building a sandwich.
“My research assistant from the station. She’s very good and reliable,” Vianne lifted the rest of her sandwich and bit down.
“Then we’ll consider her hired,” he said simply, striding into the kitchen and opening cabinets, locating a glass and filling it with water before rejoining her.
“Just like that?” Vianne worked to not choke on her food. Again.
“If we don’t trust each other, what’s the point, Vianne?” Tanner met the soft hazel eyes with a grin. “I trust your judgment,” he paused and finished making the sandwich before taking a hungry bite and chewing.
“You don’t know me,” she finally said after a long space of silence began making her twitch.
“Vianne, we spent the last four months talking. I think we know each other pretty well. We laughed and talked for hours about practically everything under the sun.”
“Well, yes, I know that…”
“Did you lie to me when we chatted?”
“No…no, of course not,” but she was mentally going over their myriad of topics that had literally ranged from world news to their childhoods. “But…”
“I think we came to know each other fairly well in text. We flirted,” he reminded her, his grin bri
ghtened when she hastily looked down at the empty plate. “And you flirted back. I also bet it’s not something you normally do. I bet you don’t relax enough to flirt like that.”
“Sometimes it was just so easy to relax with you, Tanner,” she finally admitted to herself. “You just seemed to make it comfortable. It felt like we belonged,” she said with an easy sigh.
“You always worked to get us back on track and discuss the business of documenting the reclamation,” Tanner continued to eat, taking in the cloth napkin she was toying with, the ring he’d placed on her hand sparkling beneath the track lights above.
“And you asked silly questions that always distracted me,” she accused with a trace of fire.
“Alright,” Tanner cleared his throat and worked to apply a serious expression. While it showed on his features, humor ruled in his eyes. “So tell me about the problem Erika is having. Zee hinted it was political.”
Vianne sighed and leaned back. “I have Cailie digging for me. I need to find out who the security detail is and start talking to people,” she studied him and lifted a pickle spear between her fingers, biting down thoughtfully. “Since your politics doesn’t lean in that direction, it’s not like it’ll be a shocker to you, I suppose…”
“Politics and shock…now there’s a story,” he responded dryly.
“I think I’m going to write up what I know to date and make a list of people to interview,” Vianne stared at the screen, teeth nibbling on her lip as she typed. “It might start with Erika, but I don’t think so. What would make Neil Vincent befriend someone of Adam Wayne’s persuasion? It goes against everything in his political party beliefs. And yet, here we have Ross Richardson.”
Tanner swallowed hard, working to follow the words she was saying.
Vianne looked up from the counter, frowning at his expression.
“Maybe I should do a diagram,” she got up and went to the large, cluttered desk top in the far corner of the room, returning with a blank sheet of paper and a fine tipped marker. “So we begin with Vincent Technologies,” she drew as she spoke. “Owned for the most part by Neil Vincent. Now off here to the side, as a major VP of something, I’m not sure what, I have to research that part, is Adam Wayne. Ordinarily not a single problem. Good worker, solid, responsible. And very gay. However, since we are an open society and have laws, he works for far left wing type, Neil Vincent.”
She paused and drew in a long, slow breath, tapping the capped pen on her cheek for a minute.
“So…a little line here and we have Erika, daughter of. Not unlikely she’d meet up with Adam Wayne. In between all the crazy things the girl does, she attends charity functions, not so much office functions, but charity ones that the company supports. Again, not so unusual that Ross Richardson attends functions where Adam Wayne and Erika would be in attendance. Coincidence. Makes my teeth ache at times,” she muttered, printed out their names and paused again.
“You’re implying that Wayne and Richardson…” Tanner swallowed twice before looking from the paper to the bright grin on her face. He almost tossed the whole thing to the side and dragged her off to the bedroom. Hell, who needs a bed anyway? He smacked down his libido and drained half the glass of water. Stay in serious mode, Clayton, he ordered brusquely.
Vianne set the pen down and took his glass and hers to the kitchen, filled them with ice from the freezer on the bottom of the large fridge and topped them off with water. She half perched on the stool and picked up the pen.
“Now…I have no reason whatsoever to doubt Erika’s hearing. Which leads me to believe that Richardson and Wayne have been an item for a few years. I’m thinking Mrs. Melody Richardson is one of the first people I need to chat with. Poke some holes since she’s laying down a claim that Erika sent her a blackmail note. And politely signed it,” she nodded to herself. “The curious thing still goes back to Neil Vincent. His company is doing beyond well. Servicing several large government contracts for parts in several large government and aerospace companies. So…why would he cater to Adam Wayne and involve his daughter?”
“Something crooked. Maybe he’s the one being blackmailed,” Tanner felt his throat constrict at the look in her eyes, her fingers quickly printing over her page.
“It makes sense,” she said slowly, her attention once more on the impromptu diagram she was creating. “But why involve Erika? Blackmail…okay, so Wayne finds out something about Neil Vincent that’s worth something to him. But why Erika?”
“The logical thing would be to cover up Wayne’s being gay. For the same reason Richardson has a wife and two kids,” Tanner built another sandwich as he spoke, finishing off several of the meats. “We’ll have to shop tomorrow.”
Vianne set the pen down and began closing up what was left, taking things to the fridge and putting them away. She winced at the mostly empty inside.
“You…” she stopped, stuck for the first time in her life for words. She looked down at the page but didn’t really see it, her fingers twined. “We’re married, Tanner.”
“I was there, Vianne. I proposed,” he said after a long, thoughtful minute. “It’s the classic method, nothing too original, but it worked.”
The humor in his voice had her looking up at him. He always seemed to have laughter in his voice or eyes long before the handsome smile melted her insides. Twenty-four hours. No, she corrected herself firmly. You have been talking to the man for months.
“What’s inside those pretty eyes, Vianne? Talk to me, please.”
“I don’t…marriage is something people plan for. It’s…they live together and find out all the reasons why they really should stay single,” she sighed. He laughed. A soft, deep sound that matched him, she realized, not protesting when he took her palm and tugged until she stood up. It took a few more tugs before reluctant feet moved over the tiles and stood between his knees.
“This is like roping a calf,” he teased, quickly wrapping her close when her chin went back and bright eyes flared at his comment. “Can we talk about this?”
“We should have talked about it before the fact, Tanner,” she informed him, holding herself erect and stiff, refusing to let her hands rest on his arms, she folded them over her chest and pulled her best glare into place.
“You don’t want to be married?”
“I never planned to…” She stopped herself short.
“Because of some jerk when you were a kid, you’ve written off sharing your life with someone?”
“Because I’d made a choice, a decision that is none of your business or concern,” she snapped back angrily. “My choice for my reasons.”
“Alright. Let’s talk about the reasons. We’ll knock them down one at a time and go on from there,” he said with a shrug that seemed to only send her body just a little more tightly wound. Probably not a good sign, he thought.
Vianne knew there were reasons. Most of which revolved around her job, but for the life of her, right here and now, with his hands resting on her hips, other than the job, she couldn’t pull them into her mind.
“Trust!” Ha! She knew she had reasons, she thought triumphantly.
“You can trust me. I won’t cheat on you, steal from you or ever do anything to harm you intentionally. I can’t say it won’t happen, I’m a guy and I sometimes think it’s in my blood,” he said with a little grin that he knew was slowly cracking into that hardened shell. “But I’m over a hundred percent positive I’d never cheat on you. I have perfection in my arms, why would I seek out another woman?”
Vianne had been holding onto her resolve up to that point.
“I’m not sure why you’re looking at me like I’m in trouble,” Tanner said carefully.
“Because I’m really not…marriage…it’s so serious, so…”
“Permanent?”
“Yes, that, too,” she mumbled.
“You told me there hadn’t been anyone serious in your life for a few years, Vianne,” Tanner kept aware of her posture, gathering up every little inch
she relaxed.
“We just met, Tanner!”
“We’ve known each other since January twenty-fifth,” Tanner recited from memory. That had been his initial contact with her through Logan Sheffield and the resort. “We chatted and emailed and texted for a little over four months. I think we’ve come to know one another fairly well. You just won’t admit it. Did you enjoy talking with me?”
Vianne hated the twitch inside her. She didn’t want to admit it.
“What are you hiding, Vianne? Why are you afraid to give us a chance?” Tanner watched her head snap up, her eyes on his with all the fire he’d seen in them when she reported stories around the globe. “You told me you didn’t have anyone in your life. I think that’s why you allowed yourself to relax enough to flirt and trade innuendos with me.”
“I think I need some time,” she finally said, but didn’t push out of his arms. She wasn’t sure how she managed to come to rest against his chest, but it was a decidedly nice place to be. And that was a big part of the problem.
“We have time, Vianne,” he assured her easily, his palm sliding up her spine while the other hand gently massaged the base of her skull. “Do you want me to leave you alone?”
Vianne heard the low groan, the sweet tingles flowing through her at his touch making thinking quickly a past project.
“Don’t ask me to make that choice right now, Tanner,” she whispered, a little concerned at her answer.
“Then there are some choices I’ll make for us, sweet Vianne,” Tanner let his fingers tangle in the soft, fine hair, pulling gently until her face was available for his full view and appreciation. Her pale lashes were half open, lips full and waiting. And he wasn’t the type to miss opportunities. Not when he’d craved having her right where she was at the moment.
“That’s part of the problem,” Vianne whispered against his mouth. “I’ve never allowed someone to make decisions for me.”
WindSwept Narrows: #22 Erika & Vianne Page 22