Tell Me No Lies

by Shirley Wine

  ‘I’ll try. What brings you both here?’

  ‘Victoria rang and asked us to come,’ Garth said, his voice soft with scorn. ‘She wanted someone covering her back. Someone she could trust.’

  The accusation caused Keir’s knees to buckle.

  Victoria had come to him and he had let her down. In the past, there may have been some excuse. Today there was none. He should have been the one person she knew she could trust, not two strangers. What did that say about him? That he was a rotten prospect for a husband. That he was judgemental and cruel.

  He’d scorned Muriel for using such tactics.

  ‘I see.’ He looked from his mother to her husband. ‘We’ll talk more, but first I need to speak to Victoria.’

  ‘You’ll have to use some fancy footwork to get her to listen to anything you have to say,’ Garth said with no small measure of satisfaction.

  Keir grimaced and raked an agitated hand through his hair. ‘Tell me something I don’t already know.’

  ‘Garth, you promised,’ Elizabeth chided softly.

  Keir saw the look they exchanged and wondered just what promise she’d extracted from her husband.

  ‘Can I come, Daddy?’ Connor left his Lego and tugged on Keir’s hand.

  Keir crouched down and held the child’s shoulders. ‘Can you stay here with Granny Elizabeth and Grandpa? I need to talk to your mum. Alone. Okay?’

  ‘I s’pose,’ he said with a put-upon sigh.

  Keir dredged up a smile and tapped his nose. He rose, nodded to the adults then walked across the room. As he reached the door Ellison spoke. ‘Donovan?’

  He looked at the man, an eyebrow raised in question.

  ‘I hope she gives you hell. It’s no more than you deserve.’

  ‘Garth! Stop it!’ Elizabeth protested with a little laugh. ‘Go Keir, you have a jewel in Victoria.’

  He winced. Victoria was a gem, and one he had treated carelessly. He took the stairs two at a time. Outside her room he paused, unaccountably nervous. His first mistake with Victoria, he realised with stark grimness, was not insisting she share his bed right from the moment he’d brought her here.

  And it’s too damn late to start over.

  Was this how she’d felt at Darkhaven? Had she been flummoxed meeting him and when she had started in on a deception, hadn’t known how to correct that first mistake?

  Had she, too, wanted desperately to go back and start over?

  Impatient, he knocked and opened the door. His heart stopped and then raced. Victoria had her back toward him, placing folded clothes in an open suitcase on the end of the bed.

  For timeless moments he stared, winded with guilt and sorrow. That glorious mane of hair had been ruthlessly cropped. Now its short waves barely brushed her chin. Guilt made his hands clench as he recalled ripping apart her neatly coiffed hair earlier.

  Was that why she’d had it cut?

  Without that mass of hair, she looked as vulnerable as a newly shorn lamb.

  Her hunched shoulders moved spasmodically and he knew her control was as tenuous as his. He took a slow, deep breath and knew he’d never been so frightened in his entire life. His whole future rested on this moment, a thought that alarmed him more than any of the multimillion-dollar deals he did every day.

  The deals only concerned money. This woman was his life and his soul. ‘Victoria?’

  Finally, she glanced his way.

  Colour surged up her neck and throat. Her hands clenched, crushing the delicate silk garment she held. He crossed the space, gently took the maltreated blouse from her hands and laid it on the bed. ‘You’ve cut your hair.’

  ***

  Victoria risked a glance at him and wished she hadn’t when she saw his expression. Her rapid heartbeat tightened the knot in her stomach. ‘It was time.’

  A fierce expression flashed through his eyes and the tremble in her belly ratcheted up a notch. He tilted his head to one side and studied her intently. ‘I like it, but—’

  ‘But?’ She struggled to be calm and fell dismally short.

  ‘I’m sorry you felt the need to have it done.’

  Victoria bit her lower lip, not at all comfortable with the way he was watching her or the sensation of being naked and exposed. ‘It was one burden I wasn’t prepared to carry any longer.’

  He flinched.

  The knot in her stomach solidified into a tight ball. She needed to finish this before she weakened.

  ‘Your hair. Your choice.’

  The clipped words were far from encouraging.

  ‘You’re leaving?’

  ‘Do you really expect me to stay?’ She lifted her chin and looked him in the eye.

  The silence stretched. He lifted a hand then let it fall. ‘Have I put myself beyond forgiveness?’

  Victoria’s lower lip trembled and she caught it between her teeth. Facing him, she found her resolve was not as strong as it should be.

  ‘Why, Keir?’

  He winced and rubbed the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at her. ‘Will saying I’m sorry help?’

  She picked up the silk blouse, folded it and put it in the case, her movements’ jerky. This time he made no move to stop her. She needed to end this and get out of here. ‘Sorry?’ She put every ounce of anger and scorn into the word. ‘It’s so easy to say and even easier to forget whenever it’s convenient.’

  A dull red crept up under his tan and he looked away, ploughing a hand through his hair. ‘I’m sick of being played for a fool.’

  ‘And I’m tired of being judged and made to pay for some other woman’s sins.’

  She turned her back and reached into the wardrobe for another garment, far too aware of his restive movements. In a moment of clear insight Victoria knew that unless Keir was prepared to open up and trust her they had no future.

  ‘I am sorry, Victoria, more sorry than you will ever know,’ anguish throbbed in his voice, ‘but that’s no excuse for me to lose control and take my temper out on you.’

  No apology could erase the hurt and humiliation of that encounter in his office.

  Instinct warned that she’d unwittingly touched a deep wound, and only someone or something that he cared deeply about held the power to inflict such hurt, an insight that threatened her already shaky self-confidence.

  ‘Who did this to you, Keir? Who was the woman who played you for a fool?’ Victoria was no longer prepared to settle for less than she deserved.

  ‘Katrina.’

  ‘Your ex-wife who enjoyed life in the fast lane?’

  He nodded and jealousy seared Victoria.

  Keir admitted to enjoying that lifestyle too, remember.

  She folded the jeans and tried to push aside emotion. Jealousy was pointless; the woman was his past. ‘What caused the break-up?’

  Keir paced to the window and stood staring out, his back rigid and his hands thrust deep in his pockets. He radiated hurt.

  Victoria fought the urge to offer him comfort.

  Finally he turned to face her, pale under his tan. He rubbed a hand along his jaw, looking past her at something he could see but she could only guess at. And whatever it was that Keir saw, it was powerful enough to leave him visibly distressed. His ex-wife must still exert a potent influence over him to be the cause of so much pain.

  The insight made Victoria uncomfortable.

  Did Keir, despite his protestations to the contrary, still love the woman?

  ‘Katrina was a junior prosecutor in the Seattle District Attorney’s office,’ he said at last, breaking the pulsing silence. ‘She was beautiful and ambitious, but then so was I. Her father was a judge and her ambition was to join him on the bench.’

  He’d said they had lived and moved in different circles, but learning that his ex-wife was a high-powered lawyer, who aimed to become a judge, left Victoria struggling with the unfavourable comparison.

  ‘You enjoyed the lifestyle?’ she asked, her voice tart. What did Keir see in her, a lowly florist, after bein
g married to a determined overachiever like his ex-wife?

  Comparisons are odious, and she is his ex—I need to remember this.

  He grimaced and raked an unsteady hand through his already dishevelled hair. ‘I did at first, but it had begun to pall when our situation changed. Katrina was offered a promotion to senior prosecutor. I was pleased for her but …’

  His throat worked and she saw the gleam of tears in his dark eyes. His distress got to her, and she crossed the space and laid a hand on his arm. ‘What happened, Keir?’

  ‘The promotion coincided with her becoming pregnant.’

  The bald statement hit Victoria hard. She snatched her hand away as if she’d been burned. He’d made the other woman pregnant and left her?

  ‘You have another child?’ Icy dread coalesced in her chest. Had he abandoned a child along with his wife?

  His tortured glance clashed with hers. ‘No.’

  It took every ounce of self-control she possessed to remain aloof. She needed answers, regardless of the cost. ‘What happened?’

  ‘All charm, Katrina asked me for money. To equip the nursery she said, but …’ His voice faltered.

  Earlier, I asked him for money and he totally lost it.

  She bit her lip to stop the questions bubbling on her tongue, and she willed him to continue. Then perhaps she could understand.

  He sighed, the burdened sound heart-wrenching. ‘A nursery was never on Katrina’s agenda. Instead she flew to Mexico for a late-term abortion.’

  Victoria’s breath hitched in her throat. ‘How late?’

  ‘She was a month into her third trimester.’

  ‘But a pregnancy that far along is viable,’ Victoria said in a shocked whisper.

  ‘I know.’ His lips folded in a grim line. ‘Katrina returned unburdened by an inconvenient pregnancy, and unrepentant.’

  ‘How could any woman do that?’

  ‘She claimed it was her body, her right,’ he said with a vicious undertone. ‘She had plenty of time for another baby, the promotion couldn’t wait.’

  Victoria shook her head, struggling to comprehend how any woman could be so selfish, and no longer surprised that Keir was reluctant to discuss this. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I walked out, transferred to New York and filed for divorce.’

  ‘I can’t say I blame you. Was that why you returned home?’

  ‘Partly, but mainly because Dad was threatening to sell Donovans.’

  ‘And earlier?’ she asked, determined that she would not let him off the hook.

  A dark tide of crimson flooded up his neck and face, and he rubbed the nape of his neck. ‘You ripped the scab off a barely healed wound.’

  ‘And what happens the next time I inadvertently run into another bad memory?’

  The tart question set Keir pacing. ‘I’m sorry. I expended some of my pent-up rage on you today. You didn’t deserve it and it won’t happen again.’

  ‘Won’t it?’ She was torn between wanting him and resentment.

  The memory of that encounter in his office sent a shiver of desire tumbling through her. Driven and angry as he’d been, his fierce lovemaking had also been the most incredibly exciting experience she’d ever known. Just thinking about it had heat pooling in the pit of her stomach.

  A tiny smile quirked at the corner of his mouth.

  ‘What’s so funny?’

  ‘I may never be able to view my desk as just a work space again.’

  Heat surged up her neck and into her cheeks.

  Something intense and vulnerable flashed through his eyes. He caught her hands, holding them tightly. ‘God Victoria! I’ve been so stupid, and I love you so much. Please say you’ll forgive me. Tell me you won’t leave. I’ll beg on my knees if I have to.’

  His intense words sent joy tumbling through her. These were the words she’d craved to hear, but her suspicions weren’t easily laid to rest.

  ‘I’ve never wanted you to beg. But I can’t forget that years ago you found it too darn easy to leave and never look back.’

  ‘Easy?’

  ‘Why didn’t you come to see me? Or at least attend my mother’s funeral? You just walked away from me, Keir,’

  She pulled her hands free, meeting his gaze fearlessly, struck with the sudden understanding that unless these old wounds were cauterised, they would never heal.

  ‘I left you a letter.’

  ‘Which I never received.’ She lifted her determined chin. ‘Did what we shared that summer mean so little to you? Was I just a summer fling? And am I now an expedient way to get the Donovans board off your back?’ He sighed and looked truly torn. ‘You were so young, Tori. That summer, I knew I should never have touched you, but you were also a temptation I found impossible to resist.’

  ‘And yet you left not only me, but you also left the country.’

  ‘It wasn’t all about you.’ He caught her hands again and when she tried to pull free, he tightened his grip. ‘Yes, you were young, and yes, your father was right. I was too old and hard for the gentle girl you were then, but at the time I was also locked in an intolerable situation and clash of wills with Dad and Donovans.’

  Victoria tried to squash the hope that fluttered up inside her. ‘And what situation was that?’

  ‘I wanted a managerial role at Donovans, but Dad flat out refused to allow it to happen.’

  ‘Why? As I understand it, Caine wasn’t interested in Donovans himself, so why would he deny you being groomed for a management role?’

  He dropped her hands and began to pace. ‘He reckoned I was too brash, arrogant and bull-headed to manage myself, let alone any department.’

  ‘And were you?’

  The look he gave her was tinged with dislike. ‘Looking back, I’d say definitely.’

  With dawning comprehension, Victoria understood, and it was so glaringly obvious she was surprised she’d not put it all together before. ‘You planned to make Caine pay for the lies you were told as a child?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Dull colour suffused his cheeks and he rubbed at his neck. ‘Only Dad guessed what I was about and asked me to leave, and he told me not to come back until I grew up and got a more balanced perspective.’

  Victoria shook her head in dismay. ‘Was Caine right to be worried?’

  Keir nodded, his expression grim. ‘He was. If I’d had the power then, I would have destroyed him and Darkhaven.’

  Donovan had the reputation as a hard bastard, even then …

  If her father had learned this, Victoria could more easily understand his deception. Shaken, she realised she hadn’t known what manner of a man she’d taken as her lover.

  She watched him through narrowed eyes. ‘And now?’

  ‘I will save Donovans and try to mend my relationship with Dad.’ Keir’s steady gaze never faltered. ‘So you see, when you made no move to contact me, rightly or as I’ve now learned, wrongly, I assumed you had no need.’

  ‘So you took the easy way out?’

  ‘Easy? There was nothing easy in my situation back then.’ The angry, driven words seemed to be torn from him. ‘Look, I was wrong. At the very least, I should have personally ensured I hadn’t left you pregnant.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ She wasn’t prepared to accept any attempt at evasion.

  His scorching look threatened to burn her to a cinder. ‘Surely even you aren’t that naive?’

  Nerves jitterbugged in her stomach and she looked at him through her lashes. ‘Oh?’

  He turned to her. ‘Had I come to see you again then, I would have eloped with you to America, your father and his expectations be damned!’

  This was more than she’d ever expected, but could she believe him? ‘That’s an easy claim to make at this later date.’

  With an impatient sound, he paced across the room before turning back to face her. ‘I know, but it’s the truth.’

  ‘If it’s the truth, why didn’t you wait for me? Why marry Katrina? And why return and immediately ask Davina
to marry you?’

  Guilt made him flush.

  Knowing what she did now, Victoria knew love had never entered into the equation.

  ‘Donovans prefers that their CEO be a married man.’

  It was all she could do not to give a derisive snort. ‘Why? And don’t try fobbing me off with the paltry excuse that you needed a hostess.’

  He stopped pacing and gave her a cool, fathomless look. ‘They had the cockamamie idea that if I was married there would never be another Donovan scandal.’

  ‘Well that backfired. Big time.’

  ‘Davina was a mistake.’ He grimaced and ran a finger around inside his collar. ‘We did a deal. She’d be my hostess and give me an heir, and she’d ensure her father signed over the shares he has in Donovans.’

  Victoria stared at him, shaking her head in disbelief even as she wondered if she’d ever known this man. ‘Do you have any idea how cold-blooded that sounds?’

  ‘Neither of us wanted love or commitment, and after Katrina I wanted a calm future. I’d vowed never to put my emotions on the line again.’ He gave a derisive snort. ‘And then Logan brought you to Darkhaven.’

  Victoria managed a long, slow breath as she caught his smouldering look.

  ‘I thought you were set to marry my brother.’

  ‘That was never going to happen.’

  ‘So I learned, but at the time I wanted to rip his throat out.’

  Victoria couldn’t help giving a crow of laughter.

  Keir gave her a dirty look and frowned blackly, looking so put out and so much more like his young son in a sulky mood. ‘What’s so damn funny?’

  Victoria laughed harder. ‘You are. Jealous, were you?’

  ‘Insanely jealous, you little wretch.’ His levelling look wiped away her amusement. ‘Then I learned about Connor and thought, here I go again.’

  Victoria’s mouth went dry. ‘I never—’

  ‘I know that. Now.’ He looked down at his hands, flexing them repeatedly. ‘Katrina thought nothing of murdering my daughter and then it appeared you’d had my son and never told me.’

  ‘A girl?’ Victoria grabbed at his arm, suddenly uncomfortable.