He must have gone out and bought a pair of cheap slacks also, she thought, as her fingers fumbled at his waistband. No one had ever given her the help and consideration Tyler had. No wonder she had fallen in love with him.
That thought, rather than jolt her, gave her such a sense of rightness she almost gave everything away by telling him she loved him. Some innate caution deep inside, born of a lifetime of males who may or may not have loved her but who definitely would take anything she chose to give, kept her silent.
Besides, she thought through the haze of desire clouding her mind, if she said anything at all she might destroy the mood and cause Tyler to change his mind about making love to her.
He dropped his trousers on the floor and tossed his shirt aside, then he tackled the snap on her jeans and peeled them down her legs.
“You have the prettiest legs,” he said thickly. “Those silly shoes of yours really show them off, but I’m afraid you’re going to break an ankle wearing them.”
“Don’t worry. When the investigation is over, I’m going back to my flats and sneakers.”
She felt his laughter against her neck as he lifted her and laid her on the bed. Incredibly happy, Berry wrapped herself around him, even though she thought she might die if he didn’t make love to her instantly.
Tyler didn’t disappoint her. He pinned her wrists to the pillow and held her there while he kissed her neck and teased her lips until she thought she would go wild with desire. When he finally entered her, the relief sent her spinning rapidly into a climax that shattered what was left of her composure into thousands of pieces.
When it was over, he tucked her against his side and lay on his back, eyes closed. She studied him in the semidarkness. Light coming in the open bedroom door highlighted the planes of his face. He looked so relaxed, Berry almost hated to question him, but she was dying to know.
“I can’t believe you got a job at Felix’s store. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” She kissed his shoulder. “I can’t wait to see Mr. Corrigan tomorrow. I’ll bet I can get him to give me all kinds of figures.”
Tyler smiled and kept his eyes closed. “If you can get his figures on just a couple of items, I’ll be able to get some idea of what they’re doing. Although when I’m going to get a chance to do a count or two, I don’t know. All I had time for today was trying to figure out how to tell one car part from another.” He opened his eyes and turned toward her. “How was your afternoon? Did you find out anything new?”
Berry smiled back. “Mostly, I just picked up a few more hints and suggestions and spread huge amounts of sympathy over Mr. Corrigan. He really appreciated the sandwich and coffee and said this was the best he’d ever been treated in a situation like this.”
“I’ll bet it was. Outside auditors tend to be universally hated by the employees, especially the ones who are involved in embezzlement.”
He threaded his fingers into her curls and massaged her scalp gently. She sighed with pleasure and wondered why such a simple action seemed to her so erotic.
“When I left the office at five, I met a woman from the office next door who claims she knew Daniel. She wants me to meet her for a drink after work tomorrow.”
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Cammy Osborne, and she’s a secretary at Wilburn and White, the law firm down the hall. She says she’ll call me tomorrow to confirm.”
“For a newly hired employee, you sure get around.” Tyler shifted and came up on his elbow to lean over her. “How’d you meet her?”
“When I left the office after work, she was just coming down the hall and admired my outfit. We left the building together. She seems nice enough, but kind of spacey. Sort of like the druggies I knew in college, if you want to know.”
He frowned and concentrated on curling a lock of her hair around one finger. “I don’t like this, Berry. It sounds to me as if she planned to meet you.” Pushing her hair back from her face, he added, “Tell her something came up and you won’t be able to meet her, okay? Let’s get this Farley Brothers connection solved first. Then you can expand the investigation into other areas.”
Berry agreed readily and said nothing about her plans to stay after hours at her desk in hopes of discovering something in the computer system. “Earlier this afternoon, I pegged Concetta Tomayo as Daniel’s killer. They passed over promoting her to hire Daniel.”
Tyler chuckled. “Now that’s a prime motive for murder if I ever heard one.”
“That’s what I thought.” Berry poked him in the ribs. “Men have no idea how infuriating that can be to a working woman. She’s still pretty steamed about it. I gained a lot of Brownie points by sympathizing heavily over the crass nature of men.”
“Daniel told me himself that Walter Farley hired him because of his football record at Rice,” Tyler said.
“If that isn’t crass, what is?” Berry regarded the ceiling thoughtfully. “Seriously, Tyler, motives for murder seem to be lying all over the place in that office. I hardly know which person to investigate first.”
“What other motives for murder have you uncovered today?” He resumed his gentle massage of her scalp.
“Well, Concetta hated my guts the minute she saw me because she’s in love with Felix. But when I found out she’s Bernard Warren’s half-sister, I realized she must have known Felix all her life.”
“So?”
“So that’s why she’s in love with him. She probably knew him when he was young and personable.”
Tyler laughed and leaned over her again. “He’s no longer young, but I didn’t realize you thought he wasn’t personable.”
“He reminds me of a satyr or some other lusty old creep.” She made a face. “I was thrilled when he ran off to hide at the golf course. I hope Mr. Corrigan sits by my desk for the next couple of weeks.”
Tyler laughed. “Why is Concetta’s love for Felix a motive for murder?”
“Obviously, she’s been in love with Felix a long time, and maybe he even had an affair with her. What if she came on to Daniel in hopes of making Felix jealous?” Berry rolled her eyes. “You know how attractive Daniel was to women. What if Felix had Daniel killed because he considers Concetta his? Or Concetta killed him because he wouldn’t cooperate with her plan to make Felix jealous?”
“Be reasonable, Berry.” He stroked her hair back and kissed her eyebrow. “It’s a lot more likely that you’ll be the one Concetta murders if she’s in love with Felix.”
“You’re probably right.” Berry thought that over. “Concetta is beginning to like me a little since I’m such a sympathetic sort. We’re agreed that Daniel Challoner had a silver spoon in his mouth, and that football-playing ability is a very poor predictor of success in the business world.”
“Actually, success in team sports like football is supposed to be a good indicator of team-player ability in an office setting.” Tyler stroked one finger around the edge of her lips. “I used to hate depending on other people. That’s why I went into accounting, I suppose.”
She smiled and lifted one hand to touch his face. “Because as an accountant, you get to be suspicious of everyone else’s math?”
“We’re told that most errors on tax returns are simple math errors.”
Berry turned toward him. “So tell me about your first day in an auto parts store. Was it fun?”
“I have a few other words to describe it, but fun is not one of them.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts. “But I did overhear a phone conversation between Bernard Warren and someone who wanted him to move something out of the store tonight. Warren refused and wanted to know what the caller had done to make the accountant suspicious, considering they’d never had any trouble out of the accountants before.”
Berry’s eyes went wide. “Wow! Maybe we should break in the place tonight and search it. I’ll bet they’re storing cocaine or diamonds in some of those parts. Or maybe even guns and gun parts. What do you think?”
She knew that two
days ago, Tyler would have denied this possibility categorically. His education had progressed so well, he now gave the suggestion serious consideration.
“Warren flatly refused to move whatever it was. Therefore, it’ll still be there when I get to work at seven in the morning,” he said.
“Seven? Mercy, Tyler. Why so early?”
“That’s when the store opens,” Tyler said. “But I’ll be off by four. I don’t care for these late evenings.”
“Good,” Berry said emphatically. “Because that’s exactly what I intend to tell your dad.”
Tyler laughed and rolled her to her back. “That’s what I like. A woman who’s determined to spend some quality time with her lover.”
“Is that what this is?” she teased. “Quality time?”
“Whatever else it is,” he said, skimming his lips over her chin, “it’s definitely quality.”
Chapter 8
“Sorry about the chicken,” Berry said much later that night as she set a plate before him. “It would have been really good if we’d eaten it right out of the oven the way I’d planned.”
“I’m not complaining.”
Tyler wouldn’t have changed a thing about the night. As far as he was concerned, Berry’s broiled chicken dinner was even better cold, especially after he had mind-bending sex with the chef.
“But the chocolate pie will make up for everything,” she went on. “It’s my specialty, and it ought to be good and cold by now.”
“The food is perfect,” Tyler said. “What are you planning to investigate tomorrow?”
“I’ll know it when I see it,” she said, ever optimistic. “If I’m lucky, Felix will be hiding out on another golf course all day, and Mr. Corrigan will be free to visit with me.”
“Tell you what,” he said, smiling at her enthusiasm, “I’ll pick you up outside the building at five. We’ll go have a nice dinner someplace and tell each other what we’ve learned.”
“Sounds great. If things change, send me a text, and I’ll do the same. Especially if I find some information you need to check out right away.”
She perched on the edge of her chair, wearing nothing but his robe and nibbling on chicken, and he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful. She fairly glowed with happiness and passion, and he resolved to see that she kept that joyful enthusiasm no matter what.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, an image of the rock chunk on his coffee table arose in his mind. Somehow, he knew that rock was important.
“By the way,” he said, “what’s with that chunk of rock on my coffee table?”
To his amusement, she flushed and looked self-conscious, but she answered readily enough. “If strange people are going to keep knocking at your door, I thought I’d better have a good weapon readily available.”
“That’s a weapon?”
“Believe it or not,” she said, now fiery red, “I’ve used it before, and it works.”
He regarded her with fascination. “Maybe you’d better tell me all about it, Challoner. So I’ll learn what not to say to you if I don’t want that rock banged off my head.”
She kept her gaze on her plate and forked up a bite of asparagus. “Believe me, Tyler, you don’t ever have to worry about being on the receiving end of my rock.”
“Come on, honey. Tell me what happened,” he coaxed, suddenly positive the incident was important somehow.
“It’s a sad but simple tale,” she said reluctantly. “I met this engineer named Grady Craig several months ago. He gave me the grand rush, said the magic words, and next thing you knew, we were engaged.”
“The magic words?” Tyler leaned forward. “What are the magic words?”
“Never mind that. Suffice it to say, he said them. But I knew I’d made another mistake within a week. For some reason, he meant to make me to fall for him, but I never could figure out why.”
Tyler nodded. He looked at Berry’s face and thought he knew darned well why. “You say he was an engineer. Where did he work?”
Berry shrugged. “He said he was a construction engineer, but he was lying. That’s one of the reasons I broke off the engagement.”
“You must have been emotionally vulnerable at the time. What else was going on in your life?”
“Come on, Tyler. Grady wasn’t some creep off the street. He was a good-looking, professional type. Like you, in fact.”
Tyler frowned across the table. “Thanks a lot.”
“Well, he was. After years spent looking at guys in lab coats and jeans, it wasn’t surprising I developed a weakness for business suits.”
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.” Tyler wondered if she was telling the truth. “So what else was going on in your life at the time?”
“The usual,” she said, and her face looked sad suddenly. “Daniel had called to yell at me about changing my major yet again. I had begun to realize I didn’t really want to major in geology after all, and I didn’t know what to do because none of the credit hours I’d racked up seemed to have anything to do with life as people lived it off-campus. So I guess you could say I was at loose ends. Then Daniel got killed and everything fell apart. I didn’t care about my major anymore. I just graduated fast as I could with whatever degree I could get.”
Tyler blinked a little at this summary, but he had to admit it fit the Berry Challoner he’d come to know from her letters to Daniel. “Did Daniel approve of your engagement to this Craig fellow?”
“Daniel was killed right before I met Grady.”
Tyler frowned. Something inside him fairly screamed that this was important, but he couldn’t see how. “Daniel hoped you’d marry the guy whose daddy owned a bank, but that fell through within three weeks. What is it with you, Challoner?”
“It’s some sort of genetic weakness.” She scowled back at him. “When a man starts telling me he needs me, I automatically stick out my left hand to receive the diamond.”
Tyler leaned back against his chair, the picture of masculine arrogance. “Well, let me tell you what I need.”
“Right.” Berry folded her arms across her chest. “Careful what you say, or you may find yourself wearing my chocolate pie instead of eating it.”
Tyler shook his head and grinned. “Since I seem to have forgotten to arm myself with a diamond, I’d better shut up.”
Keep after her, the voice inside his head instructed. He glanced behind him suspiciously. Perhaps he was going schizophrenic.
“So Craig presented you with a diamond and you found yourself engaged,” he said. “What happened when you decided you’d made a mistake?”
Tyler watched her, conscious of a possessiveness he’d never felt before in regard to a woman. If he presented her with a diamond and she decided it was another mistake, he didn’t know what he’d do.
Berry kept her eyes fixed on the spicy chicken on her fork. “Usually, I manage to part friends with them.” She cast one glance at him then returned her attention to her plate.
Tyler sat in surprised silence a moment, trying to hear what she wasn’t saying. “But this time Grady didn’t take it well. What did he do?”
Berry gulped. “Oh, well he …”
“Yes?”
“He got … pretty mad.”
“Now that’s an evasion if I ever heard one,” Tyler managed to say gently, though the red mist surrounding him. “Did he hit you? Try to rape you?”
She cast him a fleeting glance. “How did you know?”
“If you had to use your rock, it stands to reason. Go on.”
“He … said he was going to show me once and for all who I belonged to.” She shrugged again. “He was already mad at me because I wouldn’t go to bed with him. That was the main reason I broke the engagement. I just wasn’t interested in him sexually. Probably because some things he said just didn’t add up.”
But she was interested in him, Tyler thought, on a surge of gladness. “Go on.”
It was almost impossible to keep his voice neut
ral. He wanted to go in search of Grady Craig and teach him a few things.
“He slapped me and knocked me back against the window sill in my apartment. Luckily, that’s where I kept my rock. When he tried to grab me, I bashed him in the head with the rock and ran next door. Grady was gone by the time the police arrived.” She looked up and smiled. “I have to admit, that was my most dramatically ended engagement.”
Tyler wanted to say many things. Nothing he could think of was appropriate.
“Forget everything I said about that rock,” he said at last. “So the rock on my coffee table is the one that saved you from this creep?”
“That’s the heroic rock. It’s a piece of limestone, an edgewise conglomerate that I found on the petrology field trip in the Austin area.”
Tyler laughed and shook his head. “You’ve lost me there. But since it saved you, it deserves a medal of some sort. Maybe we can have a bit of felt put on the bottom and polish it up so you can display it properly.”
“Maybe you’re right. The sharp edges drew blood,” she said thoughtfully.
“Served him right. Did he call you to apologize?”
She grimaced. “He called and called. I blocked his number.”
“Did you file charges?”
“You bet I did. As soon as he realized that, the phone calls ended.” She looked up and he saw that her eyes glowed with residual fury. “And do you know what was weird about the whole episode? The police couldn’t find him. Everything he’d told me about himself was a lie. No engineering school in the United States had ever heard of him, and no construction company in the state of Texas employed, or had ever employed, an engineer by the name of Grady Craig.”
“He was lying about everything? Why?”
Tyler sat back, puzzled and disturbed. Con men usually went after women with assets like money or property. Berry Challoner had little of either. At least, that’s what he’d assumed. Daniel certainly hadn’t had anything beyond what he earned and had never said anything about Berry possessing an independent income. At least, not then.
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