“I’m not—”
“You are.”
Darci sat back down. Things were complicated with Shane, for sure. But dangerous?
“You are absolutely going to betray him,” said Jennifer. “There’ll be no ambiguity, and he’s going to know you did it.”
It wasn’t the same. It wasn’t anywhere near the same.
“He’ll hate you for it,” said Jennifer. “And that could break your heart.”
“My heart’s not involved.”
Jennifer leaned forward. “And if that changes?”
“It never will. And Shane hasn’t fallen for me.”
“You better hope not.”
Darci didn’t have to hope. It was never going to happen. She at least had that going for her.
* * *
“I hear you’ve come over to the dark side,” said Tuck as he pulled back a chair in Daelan’s Bar and Grill.
Just back from France Thursday evening, Shane was sipping his second beer and working his way through a slice of deep-dish pizza. He’d been up for nearly twenty hours.
“I convinced him to try out a Gulfstream,” said Justin.
“Go big or go home,” said Tuck as he helped himself to a slice of the sausage-and-mushroom special.
The waitress quickly arrived with Tuck’s favorite beer.
“Thank you, darlin’,” said Tuck, accepting the frosted mug.
“How’d it go?” he asked Shane.
“Did you know Darci works for me?” Shane returned.
It hadn’t gone particularly well in France. Riley Ellis had come up again as a potential competitor, and Shane was beginning to wonder if he’d underestimated both the man and Ellis Air. But right now he wanted to find out what Tuck had known about Darci.
“No kidding,” said Tuck. “That’s weird.”
“Did you know?”
“How would I know?”
“She’s your friend.”
“No, she’s—” Tuck seemed to catch himself. “We’re acquaintances. I thought she had her own business.”
Shane couldn’t shake a nagging suspicion that Tuck knew more than he was saying. “She does.” He watched his friend carefully. “But she also works for Colborn.”
“Small world,” Tuck said easily. “Is that why she was at your party?”
“She crashed the party.”
Tuck chuckled, not looking like a man harboring some deep, dark secret. “You should get more security. Or less security, if that’s the kind of woman who’s going to crash your parties.”
Shane made the decision to set aside his suspicions. Whatever was bothering his gut about the situation, it didn’t seem to be connected to Tuck. “That’s why she didn’t want to sleep with me.”
“He’s obsessed about that,” said Justin. “He simply can’t fathom that a woman would say no to him based on good taste alone.”
“I don’t care if she says no. I don’t care if any woman says no. It’s the mixed signals that were killing me.”
“Are the signals now unmixed?” asked Tuck.
Shane hesitated. He didn’t intend to kiss and tell. “She’s worried about having a relationship with the boss.”
“Smart woman,” said Justin.
Tuck smirked. “So, she’s available?”
“Back off,” Shane ordered, his suspicions coming back in full force.
“Chill,” said Tuck, taking a swig of his beer. “I swear I’ll keep my hands off Darci.”
Deep down, Shane knew he could trust Tuck. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Sure.” Tuck bit into his pizza.
“I haven’t worked out the kinks yet, so don’t you say anything to her. I just want to know it’s an option.”
Tuck nodded. “What do you need?”
“Offer Darci a job at Tucker Transportation.”
“Nice solution,” said Justin, giving his beer mug a little raise.
“No problem,” said Tuck. “Do you have a copy of her resume?”
“I can pull it for you,” replied Justin.
“Then consider it done.”
“I still have to convince her to take it,” said Shane.
“Could be she wants an excuse to stay out of your bed,” said Justin.
“That’s not it,” spat Shane. He instantly realized he’d said too much, and he directed his attention to his pizza.
“Just keep it out of the headlines,” Justin muttered.
“She’s not that kind of girl.”
His two friends waited in silence, but Shane didn’t offer anything more. Darci didn’t deserve to be office gossip or any other kind.
The sooner he got her settled in a job away from Colborn, the better.
* * *
“Stay,” Shane’s deep voice intoned in Darci’s ear.
They’d had dinner together on the deck of his penthouse but had quickly ended up in his bed.
She’d told herself a two-night stand was no worse than a one-night stand, and she almost believed it.
She’d also told herself she could have a physical relationship with Shane while keeping her emotions out of the mix.
“That’s not a good idea,” she told him.
“Why?”
“Because...” I’m lying to you. “We’re only just getting to know each other.”
“I’m handsome, successful and good in bed. What else do you need to know?”
She tried not to laugh. “It’s not twenty questions.”
“Tell me about your family. I feel I’m at a disadvantage since you know so much about mine.”
She realized she’d walked into a minefield. “It was just me and my dad.” She chose her words carefully. “Our apartment was small, but we were close to a park with an outdoor rink. I liked skating.”
“Were you good?”
“I was okay. What about you? Any sports in your past?”
“Second base.”
“Were you good?”
“For a high school kid. Tuck and I liked parties.”
“He told me.”
“He did?”
“He said you both had fancy cars and got into nightclubs.”
“That was when we were older,” said Shane. “In high school, we had parties at the beach.”
“Girls in bikinis?”
“As often as possible.”
“Were you a spoiled rich kid?”
“I was privileged. There’s no getting around that. And high school was a blast. But then...my parents were killed. And everything changed.”
She felt her sympathies engage. “Tuck told me that, too.”
“I’m trying hard not to be jealous of Tuck.”
“What happened with your parents?”
“They were in a speedboat, one of my dad’s hobbies. They hit something on the water and flipped going about sixty knots. I was on shore. It was a bad day.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Her feelings for Dalton Colborn didn’t matter. It was a human tragedy, something Shane had had to cope with at far too young an age.
“Things got rocky with the company for a couple of years after that.”
“Did you have help?” she asked. “Were there people in the company who were experienced and supportive?”
“Justin’s been great throughout.” He looped an arm around her shoulders. “Why are we talking about this? It was a long time ago.”
“It’s part of who you are.”
“I want to talk about you.”
“I’m dull by comparison.”
“I don’t believe that for one second.” He brushed a kiss against her hairline. “Stay. Sleep with me. Wake up with me tomorrow
morning, eat waffles...relax. Maybe tell me your secrets.”
She fought a rising anxiety. “You know it’s too complicated.”
He sat up, his bare torso gleaming in the moonlight. “Let me make it simple.”
“You can’t make it simple.”
The only person who could make it simple was Darci. And that happened only if she walked away from everything, including Shane, her search and her growing feelings.
He took her hand in both of his. “Let me try. Now, here’s the thing, Tuck says he can easily give you a job.”
She sat up. “You talked to Tuck about this?”
“Yes.”
Embarrassment overwhelmed her. “You told him what’s going on?”
“I told him that you work for me. That I like you, and I want to pursue something.”
“Did you tell him we were having sex?”
“No. We’re not having sex. I mean, it’s not like that.”
She knew what he was trying to say. But she also knew the truth. It wasn’t like that. It was far worse than that.
In a flash, Darci realized she couldn’t keep up the deception. She was mortified she’d let it get this far. She was betraying him horribly. She had to come clean, to tell him the truth. No matter how ugly it got, anything had to be better than this.
She turned to brace her feet on the floor, framing up the words in her head, gathering her courage, trying desperately not to think about how bad this could go.
She fisted one hand around the comforter and opened her mouth. But his cell phone rang on the bedside table.
She moaned under her breath, her courage deserting her.
“I’m ignoring it,” he said.
“Get it.” She flipped back the covers and rose from the bed. The phone call was nowhere near to being her biggest problem.
“Darci, wait.”
“I’ll be right back.” She scooped up his white dress shirt and draped it over her shoulders, heading for the en suite bathroom.
“Yeah?” she heard him say into the phone.
She gripped the edge of the counter and stared into the vanity mirror. She had to make her choice. Right here, right now. She could either sleep with Shane or lie to him. She couldn’t live with herself if she did both.
Shane or her father? It had to be her father. He was her family. That was her loyalty.
But that meant ending it with Shane. She had to get dressed, walk out the door and never hold him again.
How could she bring herself to do that?
“How?” Shane asked sharply into the phone.
She glanced over her shoulder. Had the Beaumont deal gone bad?
Shane was sitting on the opposite edge of the bed, his back to her, shoulders rigid.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his tone ice-cold. “Absolutely 100 percent?”
Her heart went out to him. Colborn might be a massive corporation, but she knew they’d overextended themselves recently on research and development. Losing both Gobrecht and Beaumont would put them in serious financial trouble.
It occurred to her that she should be satisfied, glad even, that the Colborn empire had ended up this way. It served Dalton Colborn right. But she couldn’t bring herself to wish Shane any harm.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She had to tell him. She was going to tell him.
“You have exactly ten seconds,” said Shane, appearing in the bathroom doorway, a pair of gray sweatpants clinging low on his hips.
She took in his steely glare. Did he mean, to take the job with Tuck? He’d give her an ultimatum like that?
“To explain why Darci Rivers is sleeping with Shane Colborn.”
A cold wave washed through her, and she lost all feeling in her knees.
He waited, but she couldn’t speak. There was a roar building inside her head. She couldn’t form a thought, never mind a coherent sentence.
“Gotta give you credit for commitment,” he drawled, his gaze running from her disheveled hair to her bare legs. “Talk about above and beyond.”
She quickly closed the gaping shirt front.
“A little late for modesty.”
She found her voice. “How did you—?”
“It doesn’t matter how. You lying, little—”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Didn’t mean to what?” He took a slow step forward. “Didn’t mean to lie to me?”
“Yes. No. I did mean to lie to you. Of course I meant to lie to you.” She scrambled to put her thoughts in order. “I never thought I’d meet you in person.”
“You were in my house. You work at my business.”
“Only temporarily. I needed...to find something.” How was she going to explain? And if she did, wouldn’t he immediately destroy the evidence?
She swallowed.
“Your father’s fabled drawings,” said Shane with cold, clipped precision.
Darci staggered back. “You have my father’s drawings?”
“There are no drawings.”
She was too late. The Colborns had found the drawings. They’d destroyed them, and her father’s genius would never be known.
“Did you burn them?”
His head snapped back. “What? No. We didn’t burn them. They never existed.”
“Right. Sure. Whatever.”
It was too much to hope that he’d be honest. She moved to go past him. She needed to get dressed and get out of here.
He didn’t stop her, turning as she passed by him and went into the bedroom.
“Your father made that story up, Darci. He was after a payout.”
She kept walking away. “I should have known.”
“That he made it up?”
“No.” She should have known the Colborns would have covered their tracks. They were cunning, scheming billionaires.
“Should have known what?” he asked.
She gave a cold laugh as she hunted for her underwear. How much more humiliating could this get? “That your family would have long since destroyed the evidence. I’m hopelessly outclassed.”
“There was no evidence to destroy.”
“Of course there wasn’t.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.
Forget the underwear. She dropped his shirt on the floor and quickly pulled her dress over her naked body.
She turned to face him. “There’s no need to fire me. I quit.”
“You’re not... Yeah, I guess you are fired. Exactly how long have you been working for me?”
“Less than a month.”
“So, right before the party?”
She closed her eyes, then opened them, heaving a sigh. “You won, okay. You won, and I lost.”
“So, the wine cellar, the earring, all of that was about getting into the records storage?”
“I found the right boxes,” she challenged. “But I couldn’t get back there to look through them.”
“And the dogs?”
She shuddered at the memory.
“Were you ever afraid of dogs? Or was that a lie, too?”
“I am afraid of dogs. Lots of things weren’t lies, Shane.”
Their gazes met.
“It’s why you asked about the security system,” he said.
“You volunteered that. I wasn’t about to break into your mansion, Shane. I was just...” As she spoke, her guilt ramped up. “You know, poking around.”
“You took the job so you could poke around corporate headquarters.”
“I did.”
“And you dated me to get inside the mansion.”
She flinched at that one.
His glance went to the disheveled bed. “You really are a piece of work.”
“
I didn’t sleep with you to get the information. I tried not to sleep with you.”
His voice went low. “You can’t have it both ways, Darci.”
“I know. I figured that out. This was a really, really big mistake.”
Her heart was starting to ache.
“You believe it, don’t you?” he asked.
“That this was a mistake?” She believed that with every fiber of her being.
“That Colborn is hiding your father’s original drawings for the turbine.”
“No. I believe Colborn destroyed the drawings for my father’s turbine.”
“Why would we do that?”
She scoffed out a laugh. “For the money, Shane.”
“We have plenty of money. We’d share it if you were legally entitled.”
“Right.” Darci didn’t believe that for a second.
“Your father lied,” said Shane. “Or else he was delusional. He drank, didn’t he?”
“Don’t you dare! On top of everything else, don’t make my father out to be a crazy drunk.” She paused. “Or is that your defense strategy?”
“I don’t need a defense strategy.”
“Of course, you don’t. You destroyed all the proof. Did you burn it? Shred it? Toss it into the ocean? Thank goodness it happened before the boom in scanners. Who knows how many copies you might have been forced to track down.”
“He was jealous,” said Shane. “If he hadn’t walked away from the company...”
“You mean if Dalton hadn’t walked away with my father’s intellectual property.”
The silence swelled around them.
“He convinced you completely, didn’t he?” asked Shane.
“He never said a word. I only found out accidentally, after he died three months ago.”
The room went silent again.
She told herself to move, but nothing happened.
After a few minutes, Shane gave a nod. “Okay. If you’re so sure. If you think the drawings exist, have at it.”
“Have at what?”
“Have at my basement. Have at my office. Check the vault. I’ll let you look anywhere you want.”
Darci searched his expression, trying to see what the catch was. Obviously, he thought all the evidence had been destroyed. But her father had seemed certain something would have survived. Maybe there was something Shane didn’t know about.
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