Honor nodded at Logan, who lifted his chin in acknowledgment of her presence. He’d been scarce in the office these past few days, locked in meetings with Douglas and the architectural team and spending time in the Richmond Developments library studying up on building statutes and related paperwork. He was either being very efficient or he was avoiding her, and she couldn’t help but feel it was mostly the latter.
Keaton and Kristin arrived together, their joint laughter a scar on her soul. When was the last time she’d made Keaton laugh? She couldn’t even remember. She stepped forward to greet him.
“Welcome home, traveler,” she said, giving him a quick hug and a kiss.
Keaton turned his face so her lips landed on his cheek. She knew he wasn’t a fan of overt public displays of affection, especially here in the office, but Honor couldn’t help but feel perversely slighted by his reaction until she acknowledged the only reason she’d done it was likely to irritate Logan. Which raised the question of why she wanted to irritate him anyway. He’d made it blatantly clear that he wasn’t going to pick up his brother’s leavings again. When push came to shove, blood was thicker than any attraction they shared and she was good with that, wasn’t she?
Douglas and Nancy arrived, and Honor could feel her boss’s excitement like a palpable force in the room.
“Good, good. Glad you’re all here,” Douglas said, rubbing his hands together with obvious glee. “Shame it’s too early in the day for champagne, because I have excellent news to share.”
“Please, everyone, sit down,” Nancy urged them all.
Once they were seated, Douglas turned to Nancy. “You first,” he said with a beatific smile on his face.
She gave him a nod then fixed her attention on Logan.
“Logan, we are very pleased and proud to officially welcome you into the family. Your test results are back and you are, without any doubt, our son and Keaton’s older twin. I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled we are to have you back in the fold.” She crossed to Logan, who stood as she enveloped him in her arms. Her voice broke on her next words. “My lost boy, home again. Back where you’ve always belonged.”
Honor watched the tableau before her, her gaze running between mother and son and Keaton and Kristin. Neither of Logan’s siblings looked overly thrilled to hear the news. Keaton, in particular, remained stony faced, and when Nancy finally pulled away from Logan, Keaton looked directly at his father.
“So what does that mean going forward, Dad?”
Honor noticed that Keaton’s hands had tightened into fists resting on the tops of his thighs. Frustration? Anger? Keaton had a tendency to let irritation and anger take the upper hand from time to time. It was part and parcel of his self-imposed quest to be all and do all to win favor from his father, no doubt. Couldn’t he see he was everything Douglas wanted him to be without even trying? He was darn good at his job and would make a great CEO when Douglas stepped down, just as he’d always been groomed to be. But she knew that Keaton had never felt like he was enough.
“I’m glad you asked that, son,” Douglas said, rising from his desk. “With Logan coming back to the family and fitting so smoothly into the business dynamic we have running here, I’ve made some changes in my succession planning.”
“What kind of changes?” Kristin demanded.
“Now, now, don’t get all worked up. You both know it was always my intention to hand the yoke of control to Keaton. Now, with Logan’s return, and given his expertise in the field, it’s my wish that he also be considered for contention when I step down.”
“What? You have to be kidding!” Keaton shot to his feet and all but shouted at his father. He cast Logan a quick glance. “No disrespect to you, Logan, but you’ve been here all of five minutes. There’s no way you can step in and run the company when Dad steps down. Our corporation is much larger than what you’re used to and you haven’t spent your entire life being groomed to do this like I have. Dad, this decision is not only grossly unfair to me, it makes very poor business sense. The board of directors are bound to object. Seriously, I beg you to reconsider.”
“My mind is made up. You know I plan to retire in two years. That’s ample time for Logan to be brought up to speed. Many CEOs have far less when they take on a new role. I know this must be disappointing to you, Keaton, but it is what it is.”
“And what about Logan?” Kristin asked, her face now as pale as the white blouse she was wearing under her conservative navy blue suit. “What do you think of all this?”
“I’m shocked, obviously. I hadn’t even decided to stay in the States.”
“Hadn’t?” Kristin said, leaping instantly on the most telling word in his statement.
“Yes, hadn’t. Until now.”
She made a derisive sound. “So, now that you’re proven to be one of us, you think you can just romp straight home to the finish line and take over? Just like that?” Kristin turned to her father. Her fury was clearly painted on her face. “How could you? As if it wasn’t bad enough that you never even considered me as your replacement, when I have more business acumen in my little finger than Keaton has, period. Now you go and stomp all over him. After all these years of his dogged loyalty to you, this is how you treat him? Frankly, right now, I’m ashamed to be your daughter.”
She rose from her seat and stalked out of the room, letting the door bang closed behind her.
Keaton turned his attention back to his father. “I’m going to ask you to reconsider this preposterous idea. Hopefully in a day or two you’ll come to your senses. If you don’t, I’m going to make a recommendation to the board that you be let go from your position here.”
High color flooded Douglas’s cheeks. “On what grounds?” he challenged.
“Diminished mental capacity,” Keaton said succinctly before following in his sister out of the room.
Ten
Honor was exhausted when she let herself into her apartment that evening. The atmosphere at work had been incredibly strained for the balance of the day after Douglas’s announcement. And it hadn’t taken long for it to filter out to the rest of the staff, many of whom were shocked that a newcomer could be in line to become their new CEO. To make things worse, she hadn’t been able to track Keaton down anywhere. Even his executive assistant had no idea where he’d gone, and he wasn’t answering his phone. Honor was beginning to become seriously worried, as she tried for the umpteenth time to reach him, when her doorbell buzzed repeatedly.
She rushed to open the door, knowing it had to be him, and was shocked when he lurched across the threshold, reeking of cigarette smoke and booze. His dark blond hair, normally so tidy, was in complete disarray. His tie was loosened and askew, and there were stains on his suit jacket that hadn’t been there this morning.
“You shtill love me, doncha?” he slurred as he slung one arm over Honor’s shoulder and hugged her to him.
“Of course I love you,” she said.
“At least shomebuddy does,” he said, sounding slightly reassured.
But even as the words had fallen from her lips, she knew them to be a lie. Well, not an entire lie. She loved Keaton as she’d love a very good friend. But not the way she ought to have loved him. Not the way he deserved to be loved by someone he’d asked to marry.
She guided him to the couch, where he lay down almost immediately. Honor swiftly removed his shoes and went to the kitchen to grab him a glass of water. She stood at the kitchen counter for a full two minutes, wondering how she was ever going to tell him the truth that he’d been a part of her ticket to a respectable and successful life. That she’d been prepared to accept second best and to force him to do the same. Not for the first time, she wished Logan Parker had never discovered his true identity. Life had been so much simpler before he turned up.
But even so, she couldn’t blame him. Her planned future with Keaton had been a hopeless cause, destined to
failure, right from the start. Cracks would have formed eventually. At least this way they’d found out before more damage was done. She poured his glass of water and walked back to her sitting room. Keaton was already fast asleep and snoring lightly. Honor looked at him, feeling nothing but compassion fill her heart as she watched him sleep off what she was certain was his very first drunken episode since college.
A man as buttoned up as Keaton never let himself go like this. That his father’s announcement today had driven him to this, well, it just made her mad all over again. At Logan Parker for existing. At Douglas Richmond for being such an idiot and so careless with his children’s aspirations. And at herself for not loving Keaton better. And somehow she was going to have to find the courage to tell this broken man that she couldn’t be engaged to him anymore.
She’d failed in her quest to create the life she’d always wanted, and she knew she certainly could not continue to work at Richmond Developments with Logan Parker eventually at the helm. She’d have to start over again, somewhere else. But as soon as the thought formed in her mind, she felt a corresponding pain in her chest over walking away from the man she now realized she was falling in love with.
Shock drove her to sit down before her legs gave way completely. Love Logan Parker? That was madness. Madness doomed to ultimate failure. So what if she felt an inexorable pull toward him every time she saw him? In fact, right from the very first time she’d laid eyes on him. It was just animal attraction. A primeval itch that needed scratching. And they’d scratched it. Not once, but twice. Each time instigated by her. Each time equally as intense and sexually fulfilling.
That didn’t mean she loved him. She couldn’t love him. She barely knew him. But the deeper she looked into her heart, the more she knew the truth. It didn’t make sense. In fact, it was the most awful realization to reach. But she was in love with Logan. And she could never, ever have him.
* * *
Logan was thoroughly pissed off. How could Douglas have made such an announcement without at least running it past him privately first? Sure, he could understand the DNA results being shared with the entire family, but Douglas’s harebrained scheme to install him at the head of Richmond Developments?
He paced his hotel room for the hundredth time and threw himself down on the bed when he realized that all this pacing only served to wind him up even more. He needed to run or swim or do something—anything—that would burn up this restless energy and frustration that had clawed at him all day long.
Sex would work, the contrary voice at the back of his mind suggested, but Logan slammed that thought right back where it belonged. There was only one person he wanted sex with, and look how that had turned out so far. No, Honor Gould was so far off-limits she was virtually in another galaxy.
Or just across town, the voice said again.
With a growl of irritation, Logan quickly changed into a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and running shoes and took the elevator to the hotel gym. An hour or ten on the treadmill ought to do it, he thought to himself as he programmed the machine to the highest incline and started to run. But the running didn’t help. Even though it wore him out physically, his mind continued to return to Honor. To how she felt, how she tasted, to the little sounds she made when they made love. Made love? No, it was just sex, pure and simple.
Nothing pure about it, came that wretched voice again. Under any other circumstance, he would have enjoyed pursuing the idea of building something with Honor, however, under this circumstance he wasn’t going near her again. He’d waited his entire life to be a part of his rightful family. Sleeping with Honor had been a stupid thing to do the first time, but the second confirmed that he was a real fool. He hadn’t wanted to do anything that would jeopardize his chances for acceptance within the Richmonds’ tight familial group, but his relationship with Honor, along with his father’s blasted announcement today, had thrown everything to the wind.
Logan set the treadmill to a cool-down pace, reached for the towel he’d slung over the rail and swiped at the perspiration that beaded his face and throat. His sweaty T-shirt clung to his body. Maybe this was all his fault after all. He had a good life back in New Zealand. He had a family that loved and accepted him there, even if they weren’t his blood. He had a thriving company, friends and interests that kept his life full. But for all that he loved those things, none of it filled the hole in his heart where his true family should be.
And now, even though he’d found them and his parents had accepted him wholeheartedly into the family, there was a yawning chasm separating him and his siblings. His twin, whom he should be closest to, now probably wanted nothing to do with him, and his sister, well, the waters ran deep with her. Clearly she’d always felt she was the better candidate to take over their father’s role at the company, and equally as clearly, his father had never considered her for the position. Because she was female? Or because he truly had believed Keaton better suited to the role?
When Logan returned to his hotel room, he stripped and stepped into the shower. Keeping the water on a stinging cold temperature, he lathered up, rinsed off and then turned the water up a little. He could turn down Douglas’s position, he thought as the water streamed over his body. Or find some way to extend an olive branch to his brother and sister. Maybe find some kind of way to generate a three-way split of the company leadership. Surely they’d be on board with that? He could only try, right?
* * *
Wrong.
Logan looked from Kristin to Keaton and back again. His brother looked somewhat the worse for wear; Logan recognized his pallor as that of someone who’d had a few too many drinks and then slept poorly into the bargain. He recognized it because he also had looked like that a time or two. Kristin, well, she was about as buttoned up and tense as a person could be without shattering into tiny splinters all over the meeting room where he’d called them this morning.
“We need to learn to work together,” Logan said firmly.
“Or you could just go back to New Zealand and stay there,” Kristin said with viperish scorn.
“Oh, he’s here to stay, and good luck to him. He’ll soon find out that no matter how hard you work, how often you break your back to please, or how many years of your life you give up doing it, Dad will never be satisfied. And, by the way, bro, don’t think that when he steps down he’ll actually be stepping down. He’ll be there at your shoulder like the Ghost of Christmas Past. Criticizing, analyzing and interfering, because that’s what he does best.”
“Rethinking your desire to find your family?” Kristin sneered when Logan didn’t immediately respond.
“Look, I can see why my arrival has upset both your lives. It hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for me, either. But I do have just as much right to be here as you do.”
“Except you haven’t earned your stripes here the way we have,” Kristin responded sharply.
“And if I had? What then? Would you hate me any less?” Logan replied with equal sharpness.
Kristin held his gaze for a few seconds then flushed and looked away. “We don’t hate you, Logan. How can we? We barely know you.”
“And maybe that’s the problem here,” Logan offered. “We could try harder to get to know one another, don’t you think?”
“I guess,” Kristin agreed. “What do you think, Keaton? You want to get to know this guy before he becomes our boss?”
Keaton focused his gaze on his brother. “Whatever. I still don’t think he’s got what it takes to run this place. It’s what I was raised to do. Every choice and every decision I’ve faced was with that role in mind. I can’t believe he chose you.”
“I agree,” Kristin said, rising from her chair. “And I’ve always thought I was the better person for the job, because let’s face it, I run the money side of things and my grades were always better than yours, plus I’m more of a people person than you are. But better the devil we know
, right?”
“I am actually still here in the room,” Logan reminded them. “And, to be totally honest with you both, I’m fully capable of running this company as CEO on my own, but—” he raised his hand as they both looked set to argue that point with him “—I would prefer to come to some agreement with you both whereby we work together instead of trying to tear each other down. If you guys can’t be on the same page as me with that, then I will work alone. Do you understand me?”
“Do you hear that?” Kristin said, looking at Keaton with a hint of a grin tugging at her lips. “He’s got that big brother thing down pat.”
“Yeah, I guess we’d better toe the line, huh?” Keaton said with a glimmer of a smile on his face, too.
Logan felt a slight sense of relief until he looked at his brother and felt the dreaded guilt that always filled him whenever he thought about what he’d done with Honor. Sure, the first time had been innocent enough, but the second? No, he couldn’t go there. He was surprised, though, that he hadn’t heard any news about their engagement being off. He was certain Honor would have followed through on that when they returned from Portland. But then again, he rationalized, would she have had the opportunity with Keaton’s travel and then the bombshell yesterday?
He only hoped that when she did finally break that connection with his brother, that she didn’t tell Keaton the full reason why. Because if she did, he doubted he’d ever be able to build the kind of relationship with his brother that he wanted. Goodness only knew it was the kind of thing he’d never forgive if the tables were turned. And didn’t that just make him feel like he was the lowest of the low.
“So, what do you two say? How about dinner tonight? Just the three of us. Somewhere casual where we can start to really get to know one another.”
“Are you paying?” Kristin asked with a raised brow.
Seducing the Lost Heir Page 10