by Cat Schield
The fact that he sounded sincere combined with the keen interest in his gray eyes sent a shiver of awareness through her.
To Zoe’s dismay, she recognized what lay beneath the shrilling of her nerves: attraction. It sizzled through her like lightning, awakening a fever she’d never known with her husband. Their marriage hadn’t been a love match. He’d chosen her for reasons he’d made clear in the months following their wedding and in the beginning she’d been both flattered that he’d found her desirable and naïve enough to believe that feeling affection for her husband was enough for her to be happily married.
She’d never make that mistake again.
Zoe wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted out of her next long-term relationship, but she’d never be with anyone who trifled with her emotions or damaged her self-esteem in any way.
“I am, too,” Zoe said. “Tonya was just filling me in on some of the things I could do to help out.”
“So you’re going to be a regular?”
“I’d like that,” Zoe said, glancing Tonya’s way to escape his intense scrutiny.
The turmoil raging inside her from her subterfuge, her guilt and her body’s chemical reaction to Ryan was a volatile mix. Zoe set her palms together and slid her hands between her thighs to hide their shaking.
“And we’re happy to have her,” Tonya said, her attention remaining fixed on Ryan.
“Hey, Tonya, could you come here a second?” a man called from across the room.
“Excuse me,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” This last part she added with a wry smile in Ryan’s direction.
With Tonya’s departure, Zoe expected Ryan to head off, as well. Instead, he dropped into the chair Tonya had vacated and glanced at the paperwork Zoe had filled out. He glanced up and noticed her watching him. His lopsided smile made her pulse skip.
“I was afraid when you left yesterday that I’d never see you again,” he said, the admission making her heart race.
“It just didn’t seem like the right time to be here,” she murmured, barely able to hear herself over the litany of alerts blaring in her mind.
“Do you want to grab a cup of coffee when you’re done here?”
Her initial unguarded reaction was jubilation and she goggled at his invitation like a smitten fool. Ryan was an incredibly sexy man and any woman would be thrilled that he wanted to spend time with her.
But did it make sense that he was interested in her? Not Zoe Crosby the wealthy socialite, but plain Zoe Alston with her spiky hair and inexpensive clothing. In her current state, she recognized she wasn’t in his league and he had to know that. So what was his angle and how did she go about finding out without tipping her hand?
Everly had warned her that Ryan was bound to be suspicious if Zoe came on too strong, so she intended to focus all her attention on getting on Susannah’s good side. She’d never imagined that Ryan might be interested in her and this odd turn left her tongue-tied while she rethought her strategy.
“Don’t look so alarmed,” he said, misreading her hesitation. “I’m harmless. Ask anyone here.”
“I’m not sure harmless is an accurate description of you,” she said.
“No? Then what would you say that I am?”
Charming. Sexy. Irresistible.
Or if Everly was right, he was predatory, manipulative and cruel.
Zoe couldn’t picture him like that.
“You seem quite nice.”
He laughed. “The way you say that it almost seems like an insult.”
“It’s not.” Her cheeks felt overly warm. “I like nice.”
His white teeth flashed in a smile that heated her blood and drew her in until she caught herself leaning into his space. Silver glinted in his gray eyes, mesmerizing her.
“Good,” he murmured. “Because I want you to like me.”
It unnerved her to discover that she craved his company and that her motivation wasn’t due to any revenge plot she’d embroiled herself in. Zoe recognized that her interest in Ryan was purely female and driven by an instinct as old as time. She fingered her short hair and struggled against the pull of his charisma.
“I’m not sure how long they need me to stick around today,” she hedged, glancing in Tonya’s direction. The woman watched Zoe and Ryan with interest.
“I’ll wait.” His gray eyes remained fixed on her and their steadiness made Zoe fidget.
“I’m sure you have much better things to do than hang around and wait for me,” she said. “Don’t you have a company to run?”
He deflected her brush-off with a lazy grin. “One perk of being the boss is that I set my own schedule.”
His utter confidence was turning her on. Zoe shifted in her chair. This would not do. There was too much at stake for her to become distracted by an attack of lust.
“Or if you’d prefer,” he continued, his deep voice turning her bones—and willpower—to mush. “We could have dinner.”
Zoe compelled her gaze to shift away from the determined glint in his eyes, but the damage was done. His unrelenting focus had struck a match to the dry tinder of loneliness she’d endured in her marriage.
“Sure.” The word came out in a breathless rush before her thoughts caught up to her emotions. “I mean—”
A broad smile bloomed on his face. “Too late,” he said, cutting her off. “Tonight at seven?”
“I’m busy tonight,” she lied, remembering that she shouldn’t appear too eager.
“Tomorrow?”
“You’re awfully determined, aren’t you?” She tried to act as if she wasn’t flattered by his persistence while a traitorous thrill pulsed deep inside her, setting her nerves to jangling and twisting her stomach into knots.
“I’m used to getting my way.”
Indeed. Which was why she’d be wise to keep her wits about her and her defenses on high alert. Her purpose in joining the campaign was to hurt him by causing his sister damage. An eye for an eye, Everly had said.
Zoe hadn’t taken into account how difficult it would be to exact revenge on someone she found herself liking. She had to remember that Ryan was a bad guy like her ex-husband. Focusing on that would make it a lot easier to take him down.
Instead she caught herself daydreaming about his handsome face and gorgeous body. But more worrisome than her double-crossing libido was the way his wry humor made her smile and his easy confidence bypassed her defenses. Add in his devotion to his sister and he appeared to be quite the catch.
The question remained. If he was so wonderful, why was he still single? Everly insisted he lacked a conscience. That he had no qualms about using women and then throwing them aside. He’d certainly done that to Kelly Briggs.
And then he’d sent her to jail after she’d acted out, impulsively deleting engineering schematics that had cost his company millions of dollars. Everly wanted him to pay for leading her sister on and then turning his back on her. From the picture Everly had painted of him, Zoe easily perceived him as someone who deserved payback.
But how was she to reconcile that version of Ryan with the man she’d met? The disconnect worried Zoe and made her question the wisdom of what she’d joined Susannah’s campaign intending to do.
“Where can I pick you up?” he asked, interrupting her train of thought.
Zoe shook her head. He would expect her to be renting an apartment or a house. Her living arrangements were far less conventional and he would ask too many questions she didn’t want to answer.
“How about I meet you at the restaurant?” she suggested.
His eyes narrowed as he surveyed her. “How do I know you’ll show up?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“That’s an interesting question.” He leaned forward and his powerful presence enveloped her. “There’s something about y
ou I can’t put my finger on, but you intrigue me.”
His declaration gave Zoe goose bumps. And only some of them were the good kind.
“Me?” She huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “That’s funny. There’s not a single interesting thing about me.”
“Let me be the judge of that. I’m looking forward to getting to know you much better. How about we meet at Charleston Grill at seven?”
The last thing Zoe wanted to do was to eat anywhere close to downtown Charleston where she might run into someone she knew.
“That’s a little too fancy for me,” she said, thinking fast. “How about Bertha’s Kitchen at six?”
The iconic soul food restaurant was located in North Charleston and famous for its fried chicken and Southern sides. The hearty helpings of delicious soul food were served cafeteria-style on no-frills foam plates. Not necessarily a place she’d expect a wealthy businessman like Ryan to dine.
To her surprise, he nodded without hesitation. “I’ll see you at six.” He pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here’s my number if anything changes.” When she started to pull it from his fingers, Ryan tightened his grip. “But you have to know I’ll be crushed if you stand me up.”
She doubted that anything could crush him, but rushed to assure him. “I won’t.”
With a quick, heart-stopping smile, he got to his feet. “See you tomorrow, Zoe Alston.”
“See you tomorrow,” she echoed faintly, her whole body buzzing with energy. “Ryan Dailey.”
* * *
Buzzing with satisfaction, Ryan headed for his sister’s office. As he entered, Susannah leaned back in her executive chair and the springs creaked ominously. Although his sister had more than enough money to furnish her campaign office with all new furniture, she’d chosen to downplay her wealth by sticking to a strict budget.
“Thanks for calling me with a heads-up that Zoe had returned,” he said, sliding into one of her guest chairs.
“I’m always happy to help out my big brother.” Susannah was five minutes younger than Ryan, but her serious nature had always made her seem years older. “Did you ask her out?”
“I invited her to dinner.”
Susannah arched an eyebrow. “And is she going?”
“What do you think?” He made no attempt to hide his smirk.
“That she’s not exactly your type.”
Ryan knew his sister was referring to the fact that all the women he dated came from their social circles. Interchangeable beauties that came from wealth. Good families. Good schools. Good manners. Good careers. By marrying any of them he would’ve fallen into a predictable pattern. He wanted a woman who riled his emotions and challenged him.
“I’ll admit her style isn’t what I’m used to, but I’d like to think I’m not that shallow.” Ryan flashed a disarming grin. “She’s mysterious and there’s something tragic in her eyes.”
“And deep down inside you have a knight-in-shining-armor complex that gets you into trouble.”
Susannah was talking about Kelly Briggs. He’d tried to help her out and the whole thing had backfired.
“Just because you haven’t needed my help since middle school doesn’t mean others don’t appreciate some assistance now and then,” he said. “And you’re not exactly one to talk. No one likes to help out more than you.”
“Help,” she said. “Not rescue.”
“Zoe doesn’t strike me as a woman who needs to be rescued.”
“Yet you just said there was something tragic about her. It worries me after what happened with Kelly.”
It still bugged Ryan that he’d mishandled the situation with Kelly Briggs. Well, maybe mishandled wasn’t the best description for what had happened. He’d taken her at face value and failed to look below the surface for what had motivated her.
From the first Kelly had shown great promise, establishing herself as a clever and talented member of his team. She was also beautiful and if she hadn’t been his employee, he might’ve dated her. They’d had wonderful chemistry both professionally as well as personally. Several times he’d been tempted to cross the line, but he never had.
That wasn’t to say things didn’t get blurry from time to time. Especially after he’d discovered that Kelly’d had ongoing troubles with an ex-boyfriend who had refused to accept that they were done. Ryan hadn’t considered there might be repercussions when he’d come to her rescue one evening in the company parking lot. Or that he might be sending the wrong signals when he’d offered to help her out if the guy came around again.
“What happened with Kelly was a brief lapse in my judgment. And Zoe’s different. She’s wary and prickly. I think she’s been through something difficult and hasn’t fully healed.”
He had a hard time picturing Zoe as someone who was going to fall for him just because he was nice to her. No, if he wanted Zoe, he was going to have to work damned hard to get her.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to get involved with someone like that? Can’t you find someone uncomplicated to date?”
“Uncomplicated is boring.”
“As an old married woman who adores her husband and two darling children, I can tell you that uncomplicated is perfectly wonderful.”
“So much so that you decided to run for office? If you were as completely happy as you claim, then you’d be satisfied with your brilliant law career and perfect home life.”
She frowned at him. “That’s unfair. Being satisfied doesn’t mean you don’t want more. Part of being happy with my life is challenging myself and growing as a person. Running for office is part of that.”
A knock sounded and Ryan glanced around to see Gil standing in the open doorway. Susannah invited him in and he took the chair beside Ryan.
“What’s going on, Gil?” Susannah asked.
“What do you know about the woman you were talking to?” Gil asked Ryan.
“Zoe?” Ryan glanced at his sister to gauge her reaction and saw she was equally puzzled. “I don’t know anything about her. Why?”
“I was talking to Tonya and she says she’s getting a bad vibe off of her.”
“What sort of bad vibe?” Susannah asked, beating Ryan to the punch.
“She’s just been very evasive about her background and why she wants to work for the campaign.” Gil fixed his gaze on Susannah. “She showed up the day Abernathy announced he was running in this district. I just think the timing is suspicious.”
Ryan didn’t like what the campaign manager was insinuating. “Suspicious how?”
“What if Lyle sent her here to spy on us.”
“Seriously?” Ryan scoffed. “Does she look like a spy?”
“Of course not. That’s what makes her so perfect. Tanya said she used a PO Box for her home address and asked a lot of questions about everybody who works here. I think we should do more research on her before giving her anything that would tip our hand about our strategy.”
“You have to be kidding about this.” Yet even as he continued to argue, Ryan noted a shift in his attitude. His twin’s earlier concern that he was intrigued with Zoe reclaimed his attention. Was she another bad choice? Ryan hated that he continued to question his instincts. “Susannah, are you buying this conspiracy theory?”
Another way they were different was in her measured approach to all situations. Where Ryan tended to jump in and deal with the consequences later, Susannah waited, calculating all options before making a move. He liked to think they balanced each other out. She encouraged him to slow down. He persuaded her to follow her gut.
“You’re having dinner with her, aren’t you?” she asked him. “I agree with Gil that we need to learn a little bit more about her.”
To his dismay, Ryan noted an uptick in his own doubts. This campaign meant a great deal to Susannah. She was sacrificing a run at making partner a
t her law firm and taking time away from her family to chase her political dreams. If something like misplaced trust in a campaign volunteer created problems that led to her losing to a hack like Abernathy, she would be devastated.
“I like this woman,” he protested, knowing he would do everything in his power to protect his sister. “I’m not going to treat her like an enemy combatant.”
“You don’t have to go full-interrogation mode on her,” Susannah said with a mocking smile. “Just use that special Ryan Dailey charm of yours and get to know her better.” She arched an eyebrow.
“Fine, I will do my duty to the campaign and learn every single detail about her life.” He paused, noting that Gil didn’t look particularly happy with the exchange. “Why don’t you give me a copy of her information form and I’ll see what I can find out from Paul?”
Paul Watts, owner of Watts Cyber Security, had helped Ryan figure out who’d sabotaged his engineering firm to the tune of two and a half million dollars and had been instrumental in building a case against Kelly Briggs.
More importantly, he’d been Ryan’s best friend since kindergarten. A fascination with technology had sparked a friendship between the two boys and kept them tight as adults. In addition to growing up in the same neighborhood, they’d attended the same schools through college.
Despite their many similarities, each man had chosen a very different career. Ryan had started his own engineering firm while Paul had turned his back on his family’s shipping business, choosing a career in law enforcement instead. That had put him at odds with his father and brother, leading to bitter arguments and an estrangement that went back several years.
Unsure where he might find his friend at the moment, Ryan shot Paul a quick text, suggesting they meet for a drink. Paul was a self-proclaimed workaholic. Often he would get lost in his work and forget to eat and sleep. Things had gotten worse in the last year while he’d chased a gang of cyber thieves who had hacked one of his clients and stolen financial data on tens of thousands of their customers.
I’m home. Stop on by.
Ryan collected Zoe’s information form and headed to his car. He looked for her as he strolled through the campaign office, but she was already gone.