He could all but feel the heat of her anger radiating in his direction.
“Jeb,” she began, her voice tight. “This is a business trip, not a vacation. I have a conference to attend, along with some very important meetings.”
“You won’t be working twenty-four hours a day.”
“Close to it,” she protested. “This is a very bad idea. What will people think if they discover that the boss’s son is tagging around after me?”
“Do you honestly care what people think?”
“When it comes to my professional reputation, I certainly do. I can’t imagine why you thought I’d go along with you on this.”
Jeb decided to pull rank. He glanced over and met her furious gaze evenly. “Because my father approved it.”
Her expression faltered. “He did?”
“He said it would be good for you to take a break. We have his blessing to stay as long as we like.”
“Dammit, I can’t stay,” she protested.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“It doesn’t really matter. The bottom line is, I have to get back as quickly as my business is wrapped up. That means putting in as much time as it takes to get it done.”
Jeb pulled into a parking space, cut the engine, then slowly turned to look at her. “Is it always going to be this way? Are you going to squash any attempt I make to get closer to you?”
She seemed genuinely shocked by the accusation. “That’s not what I’m doing. The last few weeks have been lovely.”
“But they’re not going anywhere. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes. No.” She stared back at him in frustration. “Jeb, we can’t have this conversation in a parking lot when I have a flight to catch.”
“Fine,” he said, stepping from the car. “Then we can have it on the plane. We’ll have lots of time.”
She seemed about to argue, but then with a little huff of apparent resignation, she joined him for the walk into the terminal. She didn’t say much else until they were in the air, and even then, most of her remarks were addressed to the flight attendant. Jeb began to get the message that she was royally ticked off at him. What he’d hoped would be a pleasant surprise had seriously offended her.
“Brianna?”
She glanced up from the report she’d been studying intently since takeoff.
“I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“Overstepping. Assuming that you would want this time as much as I do.”
The tension in her face eased just a little. “I do,” she said softly. “I think maybe that’s what made me so angry. I don’t want to want you so much.” A smile flickered. “And you were awfully pushy and presumptuous.”
Sensing victory, Jeb grinned. “I’m a Delacourt. What can I say? We’re a pushy bunch.”
“It’s not something to be proud of.”
“Pushy has its rewards,” he pointed out. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
“On a business trip,” she reminded him.
“I’ll stay out of your way when you’re working. I promise.”
Her gaze narrowed. “I assume you have your own room.”
“I’m pushy, darlin’, not crude. Of course I do.” His gaze settled on her face. “Unless you’d like me to cancel it.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” she retorted with the first real smile she’d given him since they’d arrived at the Houston airport. “Then, again, you have four days to change my mind.”
“It will be my pleasure,” Jeb assured her, relieved that the mood had shifted.
Watching Brianna in action was an eye-opener for Jeb. She worked the international crowd at the European oil industry conference like a pro, as comfortable in that role as she no doubt was with collecting her rock and soil samples. Jeb lingered in the background, amused and often green-eyed with jealousy as she charmed man after man.
As low-key as he tried to remain, there were those who recognized him and wondered if he was there as backup in case Brianna faltered in some way.
He was as deeply offended by the question as she would have been. “Absolutely not. The company has complete faith in her. I’m just here as an observer.”
“And what is it you are observing,” one sly gentleman had the nerve to ask. “Our meetings or Mrs. O’Ryan?”
“If you had a choice, which would you pick?” Jeb retorted lightly, preferring not to slug the man and cause an incident likely to get reported back home.
As if she sensed trouble, Brianna picked that precise moment to slip into place beside him. She beamed at both of them. “Do you mind if I steal Jeb away for a moment? We have business to discuss.”
“Of course not,” the man responded. He then muttered something that sounded like, “Lucky man.”
Brianna’s smile remained frozen in place until they were alone in an elevator. “Are you beginning to see why I didn’t want you along? People are speculating.”
Jeb shrugged. “Let them.”
“Even if it leaves my professional reputation in tatters?”
“Brianna, your professional reputation is the last thing on their minds,” he grumbled. Only after the words were out did he realize his mistake.
“What are you saying?”
“That every man down there was envying me, not worrying about how brilliant you are.”
“Wasn’t that my point? I’m supposed to dazzle them with my intelligence.”
“Then you’ll have to tone down the beauty,” he said. “Which I doubt you could do if you wore the dowdiest dress ever made.” He stood facing her, putting one hand on the elevator wall on each side of her. “Face it, Mrs. O’Ryan. You’re a knockout.”
“Me?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, you,” he said, then slowly lowered his head. “And I’ve been wanting to do this all evening long.”
He claimed her mouth with an urgency he hadn’t known existed. Possessiveness, need and desire combined to form a white-hot burst of combustion that would have melted anything else he touched. With Brianna, though, she met that blazing heat with a passion of her own. For once, she held nothing back.
“Sweet mercy, I want you,” Jeb murmured against her neck as he fought for some measure of self-control. They were in an elevator, for goodness’ sakes. Unless he managed to jam the thing between floors, it was no place for what he desperately wanted to do with Brianna.
She gazed back at him with dazed eyes. Her hips cradled his arousal, welcomed it. “My room,” she whispered eventually.
Jeb studied her intently. “You’re sure?”
She laughed at that. “I haven’t been sure of anything since the day we met. But I need this.” Her eyes caught his. “I want this.”
Only when the elevators doors slid open did Jeb move away. Then he grabbed her hand and all but dragged her down the hall. She was fumbling in her purse for her key. Impatient, he took the tiny evening bag and barely resisted the urge to upend it on the carpet to find the elusive key.
“How the hell can it be missing when there can’t be more than a tube of lipstick in here with it?”
“One of those feminine mysteries,” Brianna responded with a nervous chuckle. “Let me.”
She took the purse and dumped everything out. The key fell amidst a flurry of tissues, coins and cosmetics. While she gathered those, Jeb opened the door, then scooped her up and walked inside. His mouth was on hers, even as he kicked the door closed behind them.
He reminded himself that Brianna deserved care and finesse, but the rake of her fingers down his suddenly bare chest pretty much put an end to reason. She had very wicked fingers. Somehow, without him quite knowing how, she had his shirt off and his pants undone before he could blink.
Not that he objected. It just meant his plan for slow and easy gave way to raging demand. She slipped out of her prim tailored suit, but when she reached for the lacy scrap of a bra, he stilled her hands.
“My turn,” he insisted, easing open t
he front hook, then trailing his fingers along bare flesh as the lacy cups fell away. Her nipples peaked into such hard little buds that he simply had to taste them, drawing a gasped response. Head thrown back, she seemed to savor every stroke of his tongue.
Before everything spun wildly out of control, Jeb grabbed a condom from his wallet, then stepped out of his pants and tossed them aside. The rest of his clothes followed, along with her panties. They stood facing each other, he fully aroused, Brianna suddenly looking shy.
“I guess we should have canceled your room after all,” she murmured.
He touched her cheek, rubbed his thumb over her kiss-swollen lips. “We can save that for next time,” he suggested. “You know what they say? Variety is the spice of life.”
She regarded him wryly. “I don’t think we need to worry about that just yet.”
Jeb moved to the bed, then beckoned to her. “Let me make love to you, Brianna.”
She eased onto the bed beside him, allowed him the role of the aggressor that she had claimed for herself earlier. Then they traded off again, tormenting each other until their bodies were straining for release.
When it came, it was explosive, like nothing Jeb had ever experienced before. It wasn’t just the passion—which had rocked him to his core—it was something more. For the first time in his life, making love had touched his heart. He felt complete, as if something he hadn’t even realized was missing from his life had just returned. How could he possibly have gotten so lucky?
With Brianna cradled in his arms, he was still trying to make sense of his good fortune when her phone rang.
“Ignore it,” he pleaded.
“I can’t. It could be…it could be important.”
“More important than this?”
She didn’t respond. Instead, she sat up and lifted the receiver. “Hello?” Bright patches of color tinted her cheeks and then she handed the phone to him. “It’s for you.”
Jeb grabbed the phone. “This had better be good.”
“It is,” Michael assured him. “But I think you might want to put your pants on and get back to your own room before you hear it.”
“Just tell me.”
“We lost another deal today. Aside from Dad and me, the only other person who knew about it was Brianna. Be careful, Jeb. I think your doubts about her may have been well-founded after all.”
Chapter Eight
Her expression filled with alarm, Brianna studied Jeb as he hung up after speaking to his brother. He could feel her gaze on him, sense the unspoken questions, but he wasn’t ready to deal with any of it yet. Avoiding the bed in which he’d just spent so many hours discovering the wonders of her body, he searched the room for his scattered clothing.
“Jeb, what is it?” she asked finally. “What’s happened?”
Jeb was already pulling on his pants. “An emergency,” he said, praying she would leave it alone. He simply couldn’t get into this with her, not now. “I have to get back to Houston.”
Of course it wasn’t enough of an explanation for her. “Is it your father?” she persisted, regarding him worriedly.
“Dad’s fine,” he said more curtly than he’d intended, then winced when he saw the hurt in her eyes. “Sorry.”
“Do you want me to come back, too?”
“No. I’ll handle it. You stay here. Finish your business.” He couldn’t help the wry note that crept into his voice. Brianna didn’t miss it, either, though it was clear she didn’t understand what was behind it.
“Jeb, something is obviously wrong. Can’t you tell me about it?”
“No. I can’t talk about it. It’s private family business.”
“I see.”
Again there was the hint of hurt that made him feel as if he were the one who’d done something wrong, rather than the other way around.
“Does this have something to do with me? If so, don’t you think you ought to explain?”
He seized on her quick leap to that particular conclusion. Was it a guilty conscience that caused her to ask? he wondered. “Why would you assume it has something to do with you?” he asked, watching her reaction intently.
She reached for her robe and hurriedly dragged it on, as if to shield herself. That she felt she needed to do that with him was incredibly telling. What else did she feel the need to hide from him? And why? A short time ago, he’d been so sure that he knew everything that was important about her.
“Because of the way you’re acting,” she said, moving to stand in front of him so he couldn’t possibly avoid looking at her.
Irritated at having given himself away, he scoffed, “Oh, really? How am I acting?”
“You haven’t looked me in the eye since you hung up the phone. Either it’s about me or it’s something you don’t want to share with me. After what just went on in this room, I thought we were closer than that. You were the one who’s been pushing for us to get closer. Now you’re backing away. The only reason I can see for that is whatever that phone call was about. I’ll ask you again, was it about me?”
He turned away long enough to grab his jacket, then met her wary gaze. “The truth is, I’m hoping like hell it has nothing to do with you.”
He walked out before she could question what he meant. All the way back to Houston, he cursed himself up and down for missing something, for allowing his attraction to Brianna to obscure the reason he’d gotten involved with her in the first place. He’d put his suspicions on hold and he couldn’t put the blame for that all on his father’s shoulders. He’d wanted her to be innocent for his own, totally masculine reasons.
Well, no more. His blinders were off now. Obviously, she’d been playing him for a fool, keeping him occupied while she went right on with her nasty little business of betraying Delacourt Oil.
How could she? And how could he have been so wrong about her? At least this proved that his investigative instincts had been right from the outset. He would find the proof he needed this time, no matter what he had to do to get it. Even if that meant continuing to play out this charade of a relationship they were supposed to have until he won her trust. Maybe then she’d slip up and reveal the answers he’d been seeking.
He thought of the few hours they had spent in her hotel room bed and tried not to regret that for a few minutes he had actually thought he might be falling in love with her.
It was ironic that Brianna of all people had been the first woman in years he’d started to let down his guard with. She had turned right around and betrayed him. It was the second time in his life he’d been fooled by a beautiful face and a sweet smile. It would also be the last, even if he had to spend the rest of his life celibate.
After a sleepless night and a long flight, he was exhausted by the time the plane touched down in Houston. Even so, he went straight to his brother’s office.
“You look like hell,” Michael greeted him, his expression grim.
“Feel like it, too,” he said candidly, pouring himself a cup of coffee before sinking into a chair. It was better than usual, which meant Mrs. Fletcher, not his father, had made it. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll go after the hard evidence we need to convict her,” he said heatedly.
His brother’s sympathetic gaze searched his. “You’ve fallen in love with her, haven’t you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Jeb?” Michael chided. “Lie to me if you must, but not to yourself.”
“Even if I have, it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
“Can you separate your feelings from what you’ll have to do to bring her down?”
“If she’s betrayed my family, I can.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Michael cautioned.
“You were sure enough of it to track me down in her bed last night. Now will you just spit out what we do have and let me get started?”
Michael sighed. “Okay, here it is. Brianna checked a site for us about
four months ago. It was a site Tyler had scouted out. You know how he is, all gut instinct. He swore there was the smell of oil in the soil. Brianna went in to see if she could back it up. She did all of that scientific stuff that’s beyond me, then brought her report to Dad and me. It was the most promising site we’d seen in the past couple of years. I started negotiating to buy it. Earlier this week, I thought the deal was all but sewn up. The owner and I had reached a verbal agreement on price.”
“Which with anyone honorable would have been enough to close the deal,” Jeb pointed out.
“True enough, but another bidder emerged. Paid handsomely for the mineral rights alone. The owner, who’d always been uneasy about giving up his family’s land, signed without even coming back to me for a counterbid.”
“The whole damn thing smells,” Jeb said. “Are you absolutely certain you, Dad, Tyler and Brianna were the only ones inside the company who knew about this land?”
“Absolutely. People on her staff run some of the core sample tests, but they never know where the samples come from. That’s always been the practice around her. It keeps people from being tempted to start speculating in buying up land before they turn over the results. Dad has always been adamant about absolute secrecy.”
“What about the owner? Maybe he figured if he had Delacourt Oil on the hook, then the land might be worth even more to another buyer. We’ve already seen he doesn’t understand the meaning of a verbal agreement.”
“Anything’s possible,” Michael conceded, “but this guy is an old codger. I don’t think his mind works that way. I don’t think he went looking for another buyer. But when one came along, I think the chance to keep his land in his family and sell only the mineral rights was too good to pass up. And I doubt he even thought about the business implications for us.”
“Maybe he has a greedy wife or heirs who caught wind of his intentions and got into the act at the last minute,” Jeb suggested, then realized that he was grasping at any straw that might clear Brianna’s name. He didn’t want to believe her capable of this.
“That’s possible, too. I didn’t start digging around for answers. I called you. Maybe that was a mistake.” He regarded Jeb uneasily. “If you want me to, I’ll call Dylan. Let him handle this. He might be more objective.”
The Pint-Sized Secret Page 9