Had it ever been there?
She hated that she was now second-guessing herself about a relationship she was prepared to stake her future on. Or at least she had been until she’d realized she’d slept with the wrong brother. No! She couldn’t think like that. She had honestly believed that she’d been with Keaton, hadn’t she? She’d honestly believed that her staid, upright, workaholic fiancé had dressed in clothing she hadn’t recognized and spoken in a different accent to indulge in role play and put a bit of fun in their relationship.
Honor pulled away from Keaton and took a sip of her wine. Her hand shook a little as she raised the glass to her mouth. Not because of how he’d kissed her, but because she’d realized that she had noticed things were off about Logan Parker and that she’d chosen to ignore them, even though common sense told her that Keaton would never have done that.
And now she’d been unfaithful to him. It was more than she could contemplate. For all that she’d set herself on a pedestal so much higher than her mother, she was cut from the same cloth. The right thing to do would be to admit her awful mistake to Keaton, return his ring and step down from her position at Richmond Developments. But if she did that, she’d lose everything.
Keaton sighed, and she looked up at him in concern. He never sighed. Never expressed weakness. Ever.
“Are you okay? It’s been a heck of a day, right?” she asked him.
“That’s one way of putting it. Do you think he’s genuine?”
“Who? Logan?”
“I didn’t have any other brothers come back from the dead today, so, yeah, Logan.”
She hesitated. She’d thought him real enough last night. “Actually, yes, I do think he’s genuine. Why did you think he was dead?”
Keaton shook his head slowly. “I don’t really know. I guess that the few times I can ever remember Mom and Dad talking about him, they called him their lost son. As a child I assumed that meant he was dead. And because losing him had caused them so much obvious pain, I never asked them any more questions about him. They only ever had the one photo of the both of us from when we were born, before he was abducted.”
“Do they still have the photo?”
“Yeah, Mom keeps it in their bedroom, on her dresser, so she can see it every day. I used to think it was morbid, but I guess she never lost hope that he’d come home one day.”
“And now he has.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Keaton said defensively, then sighed again. “But, yeah, I guess the writing is on the wall. You know, I feel like I’ve spent my entire life trying to make up for my brother’s absence. Trying to be better than just one son for my parents. Working my ass off so that they didn’t miss him so much and believing I could fill every gap left behind because he wasn’t there. Seems I was wrong about that.”
“Oh, Keaton. That’s not true. Your parents adore you. They know how hard you work, and they appreciate everything you do. Everything you are. How could they not?”
He gave her a sad half smile, one so similar to Logan’s that she felt a piercing shaft of compassion mixed with pain and regret puncture her heart. Poor Keaton. She’d never stopped to consider how he saw overachievement as the only possible option. After all, she was very similar herself. They had goals and they went for them. And, underneath it all, he was still that man looking for approval and acceptance from his parents.
The realization was shocking.
And now his position was on the verge of being usurped by his own twin. She could totally understand how unsettling that must be for him. And she knew equally as well that she had to do everything in her power to put her dreadful mistake behind her and ensure that he never knew what she’d done. It would crush him. Oh, sure, he wouldn’t show it. He’d carry on working and being the incredible man he was. But now she understood that on the inside he’d be bleeding as if he’d swallowed razor blades.
A timer went off in the kitchen, and she rose to her feet.
“Dinner’s ready,” she managed to say without any trace of the turmoil she was feeling in her voice. “Come on up to the table.”
Keaton followed her to the kitchen instead. “Can I help with anything?”
“Thanks, you can take the salad through. Oh, and bring the wine to the table. I think we’re going to need it tonight, don’t you?”
He smiled at her again, this time with a little more warmth behind it. “Good thinking.”
They talked business during dinner, discussing how her site visit had gone today and doing more risk assessment on the upcoming stage of the project. It was only when they were clearing the table together and stacking the dishwasher that Honor began to steer their conversation back to a more personal subject.
“Keaton, I’ve been thinking,” she started.
“Hmm?”
“Let’s set a date for the wedding. A real date. Something soon. We don’t need a big fuss. We both work too hard to plan anything too elaborate. I’d be happy with a ceremony at your parents’ place, in the ballroom overlooking the lake. Wouldn’t you?”
“Do you mean summer next year?”
She drew in a deep breath. “If we apply for a license tomorrow, we could make it sooner than that—maybe late January or early February. We can keep the numbers down, cater finger food rather than an ostentatious sit-down meal with a bunch of people we barely know. What do you think?”
“Sounds like you’ve been giving it some serious thought.”
He was hedging, and it made frustration ripple through her. Wasn’t he keen to consolidate their relationship? Didn’t he want to take their future plans to the next level at all?
“Of course I’ve been giving it serious thought,” she retorted sharply. “We need to set a date, Keaton. We’ve been sitting on the fence about it for far too long.”
He grimaced. “January is too soon.” When she started to protest, he put up a hand. “No, hear me out. We both have far too much going on at work right now to even think about a wedding next month. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to Mom. You know how much she enjoys planning things in advance. For her the anticipation is everything.”
Honor felt his words like a blow. His mother’s happiness was more important than hers? She scratched the thought from her mind even as it formed. Nancy was a warm and loving woman who had welcomed Honor into their family without as much as a second thought. It was churlish to think he was putting Nancy before her, even if it did feel like that.
“Don’t you want to be married?” she couldn’t help asking.
“Yes, I do.” He grinned at the words. “See, I’m even practicing for the big day.”
She couldn’t help but give him a smile in return. Not often, but sometimes, he could be a total goof, and that tugged at her heart so hard. But even so, there was still no sign of his committing to a date for their wedding.
Keaton continued, “Look, why don’t we sleep on it?”
He stepped up close, put his arms around her and bent to kiss her. But at the last minute, Honor turned her face away. To soften the rejection, she nuzzled into the side of his neck. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t want half-hearted from him anymore. She wanted it all. She wanted heart-stopping love. She wanted breath-taking passion. If they kissed now, she knew they would both be merely going through the motions. And if they made love? Well, she couldn’t even allow her thoughts to go there. Not with the memory of Logan imprinted on her mind. She was every kind of awful bitch and she deserved all kinds of hell for this. But right now, she couldn’t do it.
Honor pulled free of him.
“It’s late,” she said with genuine regret in her voice.
“You want me to go?” Keaton sounded surprised.
“I’m sorry. I’m tired, and I think that tonight I’d prefer to be alone.”
Keaton’s lips firmed into a straight line. It was about the only way he
ever expressed displeasure or irritation.
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand you, Honor. One minute you’re pressing for a wedding date and the next you’re literally pushing me away? Is this some payback because I wouldn’t agree to getting married next month?”
“No! Of course not. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you on that. I know you’re dealing with a lot right now. But I am tired. I’ll see you in the office tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Keaton turned, but she could see he was annoyed with her. She’d be annoyed, too, if he’d done the same thing.
“Keaton?” she called as he walked toward the front door.
He stopped and turned.
“Yes?”
Suddenly she felt unbearably vulnerable. She’d crossed a line last night, and there might never be any turning back. Maybe she should have slept with Keaton tonight, but for some reason she felt as if that would be an even larger insult to him than turning him down.
“We’re going to be okay, aren’t we?”
His eyes met hers, and she caught her breath in the growing silence between them.
“Sure.”
And then he was gone.
Five
She barely slept, and when she went into work early the next morning, Honor was irritated to find there was someone already in her office. In fact, the unwelcome guest was sitting at a desk that hadn’t been there yesterday and her couches had been moved out. She frowned as she entered then felt her stomach plummet to her feet as she recognized Logan Parker.
How did she know so instantly it was him, she wondered, when only the day before yesterday she’d thought he was Keaton? Was it the way he held his head, the set of his shoulders? On first glance, he could have been his twin, but Honor knew on a far more primal level that this was not her fiancé.
“What are you doing in my office?” she asked as she stepped through the doorway.
He lifted his head and met her furious gaze. “Our office,” he said calmly, then turned his attention back to his computer screen.
“You can’t be serious,” she seethed.
“Look, it wasn’t my choice. Apparently the office Douglas wanted me to use is undergoing a refit, so this won’t be forever.”
“And he couldn’t find you anywhere else?”
Logan gestured to the open plan area beyond her fishbowl of an office. Every available space was taken up by her design team.
“Take it up with the boss if you have an issue.”
“I most definitely will,” she huffed as she slung her coat on the stand in the corner of the room and went to her desk.
She sat down and booted up her computer, but she couldn’t help but be vitally aware of the man sitting just across from her. In the end she gave up any pretense of trying to work.
“Care to tell me exactly why you’re here?”
Logan closed his laptop screen and looked up at her. “Douglas spent a lot of time explaining the company structure to me yesterday. He’s intrigued by what I do in New Zealand and wants me to consult on possibly incorporating some of my firm’s ideas into Richmond Developments. As you’re the head of the design team, he felt we would have a lot to discuss.”
“And you didn’t tell him anything?”
“Anything? What’s to tell? I hardly know you or what you do.”
He looked at her then, his light gray eyes boring into hers. She shivered, but the reaction had nothing to do with the temperature in the office and everything to do with the vivid memory of those very same eyes pinned on her as he’d entered her body.
“Exactly,” she said, feeling more flustered than she cared to admit.
“You and Keaton have a nice dinner last night?”
He asked the question casually, but she saw the muscle working at the side of his jaw. He definitely wasn’t as casual about this as he was projecting, she thought with a sting of satisfaction.
“We had a truly wonderful evening together,” she lied. Not for a moment was she going to admit that the evening had been awkward and discouraging. “And you? Was dinner with Douglas and Nancy what you hoped for?”
“Hoped for?” He quirked a brow.
“The return of the long-lost son. You know.”
She almost instantly regretted her words. None of this was his fault, and yet she seemed bound and determined to paint him as the villain in the situation.
“It was a nice evening,” he replied noncommittally. “They have a lovely home.”
“It’s where Keaton and Kristin grew up. Must have felt strange being there and knowing you were left out of that,” she said, more softly this time.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t exactly deprived in my childhood. I had a roof over my head and the love of my extended family. My mother and my grandparents gave me everything they thought I needed.”
An awkward silence fell between them for a moment. Honor felt compelled to break it.
“So, what exactly are you working on?”
“Douglas gave me the specs of the block of buildings Richmond Developments bought last month.”
“The waterfront block?”
“Yeah.”
This was like squeezing blood out of a stone. “And?”
“I’m studying the plans, the layout of the land, historical engineering reports.”
“He already has plans drawn for that project. Why is he getting you to look at it?”
“He’s open to repurposing the existing structure versus demolition and a new build.”
“You do know that the demo team is already booked for later this month.”
“Which obviously doesn’t give me a lot of time for a counterproposal.”
He gave her a pointed look, as if to say, kindly shut up and let me get on with it. She felt the hot sting of a blush suffuse her cheeks.
“Don’t you think that might end up being a waste of time?”
He shrugged, and the movement was oddly sexy. “Maybe, maybe not. I’ve got no stake in this, so I have nothing to lose. But I do think that Douglas might be surprised at how potentially lucrative this could be for the company.”
* * *
Logan made a decision. He was sick of this dancing around the very large elephant in the room, and Honor’s passive-aggressive demeanor was really ticking him off. He wasn’t the bad guy here, and it was about time she accepted that.
“That’s a pretty big diamond you’re wearing on your finger,” he said, gesturing toward her left hand.
She paled visibly, and he saw her start to worry at her ring with the thumb of her left hand.
“Care to explain where that was two nights ago?”
Twin spots of high color appeared on her wan cheeks.
“I, uh...when I got back to my room, I took it off,” she eventually admitted.
“I’m guessing you thought I was him,” he said.
Logan’s voice was flat and devoid of emotion, but inside his guts were churning. Knowing he’d slept with his brother’s fiancée made him feel ill and had plagued him from the minute he’d been formally introduced to her yesterday. Keaton hadn’t exactly been the most welcoming, and the last thing he wanted to do was give his brother any further reasons to hate him.
“I did. We, um, things have been a bit...” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “We’ve both been very busy with work. To be totally honest with you, we, um, hadn’t been together in a while, and I thought he’d come to the hotel to surprise me and to inject a bit of fun back into our relationship.”
Logan stood there, not saying a word, just watching her as she squirmed beneath his gaze. He’d spent much of yesterday furiously angry. Not that he’d shown it, but he’d alternately been irate at her then equally incensed with himself. Before that night, he’d never indulged in a one-night stand, ever. If he’d simply handed h
er key in to reception, as he ought to have done, none of this would have happened and he wouldn’t be here, in their shared office, his senses tormented by the scent of her and his body plagued by the memory of what it felt like to make love to her. But if she hadn’t approached him in the first place...?
How could she not have told the difference between them?
“Together? As in intimate together?” he probed.
She nodded.
“And you didn’t think my accent odd?”
“To be honest, until you were in my room I barely listened to a word you said, and even after that I didn’t stop to think beyond the fact that you were probably just in character, as it were.”
“In character?” He shook his head. “So what now?”
“What do you mean, what now?”
“What happens next? Are you going to tell him?”
He saw the muscles in the slender column of her throat work as she swallowed hard.
“I... I don’t know. I honestly thought you were him. In my own mind, I was having sex with my fiancé, not some random stranger in a bar. Believe me when I say I never do that kind of thing.”
“Nor I,” Logan admitted before sinking back into his chair. “So where to, from here? Do we just pretend it never happened?”
“That would be my preference,” she said in a stilted voice.
He looked at her and couldn’t help but remember how silky soft her skin was, or how responsive she’d been to his touch. He was getting hard just thinking about it, which was a really stupid thing to do. Thinking was dangerous, and touching her again—hell, that would be hazardous on a whole different level. He wondered how the hell he was going to stand being cooped up in the same office with her during work hours, and, no doubt, have to continue seeing her with his brother.
It was no less punishment than he deserved.
“Okay, so we never met before yesterday morning in Douglas’s office.”
Her features brightened with hope. “You can do that? Forget we—”
“I can. I have to. We both have to. I don’t think you quite understand what I have at risk here. When I discovered who I was my sense of self was completely yanked out from under me. Have you got any idea what that was like?”
Seducing the Lost Heir Page 5