Her Christmas Surprise (Silhouette Special Edition)

by Kristin Hardy

  And the moment she’d lost control.

  It had been like something had taken her over. Or someone. And that was the last thing, the very last thing she needed just then. She didn’t want anyone else taking control of her. She had a flashing memory of Bradley and his woman, the frenzied movement, the cries. Keely had almost handed her life over to him and he’d very nearly destroyed it. The last thing she was ready to do now was give someone else a chance.

  Especially a man who didn’t believe in playing by the rules.

  A sudden click startled her and the door opened to reveal the maid.

  And behind her stood Lex.

  The nerves Keely thought she’d tamped down billowed up. He was clean-shaven this time; it only served to make him more appealing in jeans and charcoal V-neck. The pine-colored T-shirt beneath brought out the green in his eyes.

  Eyes that gazed at her with a hint of speculation. “Morning.”

  “Good morning,” she said as the maid took her jacket away. It left her feeling oddly naked in her jeans and sweater, as though she were being stripped as an offering for a potentate.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d show,” Lex said.

  She hadn’t been sure, either, that morning, but there was too much at stake not to. “I told you I’d be here.”

  “So you did.”

  To avoid looking at him, she glanced around the entryway and the reception rooms beyond. She’d been there before, of course, with Bradley, but it was hard not to be impressed with the Alexanders’ Italian Revival mansion. Because a mansion, frankly, it was, all intricate moldings and ornate ceilings and cavernous rooms. How Olivia managed to live there all alone without going mad, Keely couldn’t say. Perhaps that was why she’d always pushed Bradley to visit.

  As if in time with Keely’s thoughts, Olivia came around the corner. “Keely,” she said coolly, “what a pleasure to have you here.”

  Considering the circumstances, it was a somewhat strange greeting, but Keely would go with it. She put her hand out to clasp Olivia’s. “It’s always nice to see you.”

  “Would you like some coffee or tea? Toast?” Olivia gestured toward the breakfast table.

  “No, thank you,” Keely said. “I’m fine.”

  “Perhaps later. How are your parents?”

  “Fine, thanks.” And how is your missing criminal of a son? Olivia was acting for all the world like Keely had dropped by on a social call.

  “Please give them my holiday wishes. Who knows if I’ll see them? Everything’s so hectic this time of year.”

  “Yes, well, the holidays are always that way,” Keely found herself saying lamely.

  Lex coughed, a faint suggestion of amusement hovering around the corners of his mouth.

  Keely threw him a scowl.

  “I suppose you’re right,” Olivia went on. “Would you like to sit down?”

  “Actually, I’d rather get started.” Maybe it wasn’t her place, but continuing the excruciatingly polite exchange while Lex stood watching was stretching Keely’s nerves to the breaking point. The sooner she could be done with it all and away from him, the better.

  “Very well,” Olivia said. “As I told Lex, the DAR Christmas gala committee is meeting here in just a few minutes, but I can at least show you where everything is. If you’ll just follow me…” Heels tapping, she headed down the hallway.

  Lex had expected Olivia to lead them into the pale office that held her fussy inlaid rosewood desk and her Aubusson rugs. Instead, she walked right past and swung open the door to Pierce’s old study. Lex stepped through the doorway and stepped back in time.

  It was the one room in the house that had stayed the same: forest green walls, coffered ceiling, dark wood bookshelves with leather-bound books, solid mahogany desk that had stood in the same corner for generations. The polished brass desk lamp was the same, the walnut and gold pen-and-pencil set, even the blue-green art glass bowl. Perhaps it was a little less rigorously neat than he recalled, but it was otherwise the same.

  “Since when did Dad start keeping paperclips in this?” Lex asked, fingering the bowl.

  “Never. I think Bradley just started tossing things in there. I gave up emptying it after a while.” She turned to Keely and hesitated. “This was my husband’s office. Bradley used it when he was here, as I think you know. And the computer. Any records that are still left after the search are in the files.”

  “What did they take?” Lex asked.

  “Not much, really. They apparently already had access to my phone and bank records.” Her mouth tightened. “They poked around, mostly. They wanted to take my mobile phone, of all things, on the grounds that it might have incriminating text messages on it. Text messages. I ask you,” she said in indignation. “I’m not some teenager.”

  Lex fought back a smile. “They were probably worried about something Bradley might have left on it.”

  “Even so,” she said.

  “The computer’s still here, though.”

  “Oh, yes. They originally wanted to take it but the judge who issued the warrant wouldn’t approve.” Her voice was smug as she unlocked the desk.

  It was the latest model laptop, its sleek metallic blue case out of place in the traditional surroundings. When Keely pressed the power button, it swung into operation with a hum.

  “It’s not likely that we’ll find anything the investigators didn’t but we should still look,” Keely said.

  “What can we hope to find that they haven’t? They can subpoena anything they want.” There was a tinge of hopelessness in Olivia’s voice.

  “They don’t know Bradley like we do. They don’t know how he thinks. And they’re not infallible. They could have missed something. We have to check every possibility.” Keely’s fingers tapped on the keys. “Speaking of which, we should pull a credit report on you, just to be sure there aren’t any surprises. I’ll write down the number and either you or Lex can order them. All you need is your social-security number.”

  Lex walked over to the bookshelves and began pulling volumes out at random. “So what did Bradley spend his time doing when he was in here?” He glanced over his shoulder to Olivia.

  “Oh, this and that. He paid bills, reviewed my bank statements and brokerage accounts. If he came on a Friday, he’d make calls. Usually those times he brought his own laptop so he could e-mail. We’ve got town Wi-Fi here now,” she added. “It was nice having him here. It was like when Pierce—” Her voice caught. A second went by and she shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just need to…Look around all you like. I’ll be next door, preparing for my meeting.” She opened the connecting door between the two offices.

  “Mom—” Lex took two steps after her.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said without turning. The doorbell bonged. “The committee’s arriving. I have to get ready.”

  Lex threw a helpless look at Keely. “Stay,” she mouthed to him.

  “Sorry,” he said softly as he came back over to the desk. “She’s having a tough time with this.”

  “Anyone would,” Keely said.

  He pulled up a chair and sat next to her, far too close for her peace of mind. “I can search drawers and files. I just need to know what you’re looking for.”

  A clear head, Keely told herself. “Something to prove that neither Olivia or I knew about the LLCs, that he put us on the boards without our permission or knowledge. Any files or contacts that might be part of starting up the LLCs would help, any contacts with his Latvian friend or whatever lawyer he worked with.”

  “I’ll check the drawers.” Lex rose and pushed the chair out of the way. “What about e-mail or notes?” he asked from beside her.

  “You go into business with a piranha, you keep records to protect yourself. Particularly Bradley. He’s always been one to cover his ass.”

  “He’s too smart to keep something like that in his condo,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Exactly. He considered this his office away from home. It stands to reason h
e might have squirreled it away somewhere here. He’d have known that even a search couldn’t be too comprehensive if my mother wasn’t a primary suspect.” Lex pulled out one drawer after another and inspected the backs and undersides.

  “Of course, your mother or the maid could stumble over it at anytime, depending on what it is. Do you think he’d risk that?”

  “What’s the risk?” Lex slid in the last drawer. “My mother left all the financial dealings to him and the maid wouldn’t pay any attention to business papers.”

  “He could have a hidey hole somewhere else, though.” Keely gave him a sudden, quick glance. “What about the room he used when he stayed here? Do you know if they searched that?”

  From the hallway came the murmurs of arriving DAR members.

  “It can’t hurt to look, whether they did or not,” Lex said. He stood in one fluid motion just as Keely pushed back the chair and rose.

  Only to find herself almost lip to lip with him.

  For an instant, every thought in her head scattered. Neither she nor Lex moved. Out in the hall, they could hear the clinks of teacups and spoons from the garden room at the back. Inside, humming tension filled the room.

  Then Lex inclined his head a fraction and stepped away.

  It was nothing, Keely told herself fiercely as she followed him into the hallway. It was just being uncomfortably close to someone she didn’t know very well, no more than that. It was nothing like that…whatever it was she’d felt the night before. Nothing at all.

  Lex stopped at the bottom of the stairs and nodded for her to go ahead of him. “Ladies first.”

  She shook her head. “No, you. Please.”

  “Come on, with my mother and half the DAR in the other room?” he asked. “They’ll sense it somehow and come out and string me up for bad manners. No chance. You go.”

  During the two years she and Bradley had been engaged, Keely had never seen the upstairs of the Alexander home. Though she’d been curious, definitely curious. The few times the two of them had been in Chilton together, she’d stayed with her parents and he with his. It didn’t matter that they were going to be married; that was just the way it was done. Climbing the stairs now, Keely felt as though she were sneaking into the inner sanctum.

  And she couldn’t help but be aware of Lex just behind her. She could hear his breath, hear the slide of his hand on the carved oak banister, the tread of his feet on the stair runner beneath their feet. She found herself hyper-conscious of her every motion, wondering if he was watching.

  Knowing, somehow, that he was.

  At the top step, she breathed a silent sigh of relief and stepped back to give Lex an inquiring look.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “Where?”

  “Bradley’s room.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know where it is. I’ve never been up here before.”

  “You haven’t…?” He gave a wry smile of understanding. “You wouldn’t have, I guess. My mother’s pretty old school. It’s down here.”

  Bradley’s walls were painted in a deep, luxurious teal. Olivia had redecorated it a year or so before, Keely recalled. It must have been per Bradley’s request because there was none of Olivia’s fondness for the traditional. There was also no personality to the room. Zip. None. It didn’t look a bit like his condo in Manhattan. It might have been a room in a stylish boutique hotel. There was a black framed full-length mirror leaning against the wall, a narrow desk, a chrome and frosted glass bedside table.

  And a bed.

  Keely felt instantly awkward. It was as though they were intruding—not on Bradley, because there was nothing of him here, but on someone. And that bed, that enormous bed, practically the only thing in the room so that it was almost impossible not to stare at it. Would the atmosphere have felt so…charged if she’d been standing there with any man? Or was it because she was standing there with Lex?

  And why the hell was it that when she was here searching the past in order to save her future, she couldn’t stop thinking about his mouth on hers, his hands running down her body, the sharp male scent of him, the heat of his breath as he—

  Stop it.

  No distractions. This certainly was no time to get thinking about aberrations like the night before. It had been a lapse, she reminded herself impatiently, a mistake. Nothing more.

  “Where do you want to start?” Lex asked.

  Keely jumped. “The bed. I mean, you. Search the bed, that is,” she fumbled. “Check behind the headboard and underneath. I think it’s got some built-in drawers. I’ll check the closet.”

  And that was where she fled.

  It would be possible to sound more idiotic, she supposed, but it would take some doing. Where was that poise that she was always able to summon up at work? This was its own kind of job, a crucial job, so why was she babbling like some bubble-headed bimbo?

  Keely opened the door to the walk-in closet to find built in bureaus, which at least answered the question of why the room was so bare. And gave her something to do. She began pulling out drawers. The search was unlikely to yield any clues but it was worth it to be sure.

  At least there wasn’t much to search. Bradley hadn’t spent all that much time in Chilton. There were a few shirts and pairs of jeans, a couple of sweaters, a single suit. A couple of the baseball hats he liked to wear sailing. Add T-shirts and shoes and underclothes, and that was pretty well it.

  The things on the shelf that ran above the clothes racks were the sole items that spoke of a life prior to the present day. She found a lacrosse racket and helmet, a pair of downhill skis and poles. And at the very end, all the way inside, a tennis racket.

  For a minute, she just held it in her hands, staring down at it. They had been magic, those long-ago days on the courts. There had been a time Bradley had been her knight in shining armor. And even once the shine on the armor had dulled, she’d liked him well enough. Respected him, even. Feeling they weren’t right together hadn’t changed that.

  She would never in a million years have guessed that behind the Bradley she knew, the Bradley she’d practically lived with for more than two years, was a completely different person. A corrupt, careless person. If she’d been that wrong about him, what did it mean about everybody else? What did it mean about her?

  What did that mean about Lex?

  She heard a sound behind her and he was there, filling the doorway of the closet.

  “Need some help in here?” he asked.

  Adrenaline surged through her veins. The light shining down from overhead cast his eyes into shadow. This wasn’t the town common. They weren’t in public now but in this private place. Her heart thudded. Anticipation? Alarm? She couldn’t say, only that she couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it.

  Lex reached toward her and she stood, motionless.

  He pulled the chain above her head and with a click the overhead light turned off.

  “Maybe we should go downstairs,” he said, his face was scrupulously wiped of expression. “I think we’ve done everything we can do here.”

  After Bradley’s room and the closet, being with Lex in the office downstairs felt positively relaxing. The door was open, there were people around. There could be no repeat of those uncomfortable moments of intimacy.

  And if she could just forget about them, everything would be fine.

  Lex turned from the last of the bookshelves, having gone through each and every book. “We’re done here.”

  “Did you check the backs and undersides of the bookcase?” Keely asked.

  He snorted. “They’re six feet high and solid walnut. I doubt he could move one even without the books in it, assuming my mother and the maid were ever gone long enough for him to get that far.”

  There was the tap of heels and Olivia walked in. “What about me being gone long enough?”

  “Bradley, hiding things on the backs of the shelves.”

  “Oh, those things weigh a ton. They’ve never been moved since I’
ve been here.” She glanced at Lex and Keely hopefully. “Any luck?”

  “Not so far,” Lex said, “although we know where it’s not.”

  “Well, the committee is gone, so let me know what you need.”

  Lex pointed to the tall oak filing cabinet. “You can find us the key for that so I can search it,” he said.

  “Oh, of course. I should have given you the key before I left. I’ve been locking it lately when I’m not using it. The help, you know,” she elaborated.

  What would it be like to live with someone you couldn’t trust? Keely wondered. Walking around locking things, worrying, never having any privacy. Like being a prisoner in your own house.

  She watched as Olivia came back out of her office with a small, gold-toned key and handed it to Lex. He tried to slide it into the lock but it stuck. “Are you sure this is the right key?”

  “Of course it is. I use it all the time. It’s just a little sticky.”

  “A little? You ever heard of powdered graphite?”

  Olivia frowned. “What’s that?”

  “Stuff that you use to keep a lock from being like this.”

  “Oh, it just takes a little finessing,” she said impatiently, holding her hand out for the key.

  Lex dropped it into her hand, holding it by the key-chain, a little yellow plastic cutout of a house with Chilton Realty printed on it. He laughed. “Chilton Realty. Good old Eva Jo Romano. Is she still sending you pads of paper and keychains?”

  “Oh, she finally gave up on us.” Olivia fiddled with the key. “Bradley started looking for a place around here a couple of years ago, though, and it started her back up.”

  She didn’t notice that both Lex and Keely stiffened.