A wounded bird, afraid to fly, was Lexie’s first impression. Beautiful, startlingly so, the female counterpart to her brother’s stunning looks. Long black hair gently swishing over her shoulders and the same ebony eyes.
But not the same at all. Where Dominic’s eyes held power and strength, this woman’s eyes were pools of devastation.
Nothing could have warmed Lexie more quickly.
“Nikos called and asked me to tell you that he’s been delayed and to make you comfortable. Would you care for something cold to drink?”
Hearing that name said with such affection sent a jolt of sadness through Lexie’s heart for what she’d had—and lost—on a night she couldn’t seem to make herself forget.
She reached into the huge bag she carried to jobs and pulled out the bottled water. “I’m fine, thank you. I never know what the conditions might be on a new job, so I try to come prepared.”
“Ah. Perhaps, then, I should leave you to your work.” But the lovely, haunted face spoke a different message.
Lexie’s nerves were strained to the limit, dreading her meeting with Santorini. She’d welcome any distraction. “Please—I’d be glad of the company if you’d like to stay.” She gestured toward her portfolio. “Would you like to see my sketches of the design?”
Dark eyes lit with the first flare of life Lexie had seen. What had happened to her? Was it Santorini’s fault that his sister looked so defeated?
Could the man she’d known for one night destroy a woman’s soul?
No. Lexie would never believe that.
But the cold man who ran Poseidon?
She honestly didn’t know.
“I know you’re busy. Perhaps I should go.” Her voice, like her brother’s, revealed English as a second language, but Ariana’s usage seemed less formal. She turned to go.
Lexie put out a hand to stop her, and Ariana recoiled from her touch. Though she pulled away instantly, the reaction only increased Lexie’s confusion. “I’m sorry.”
“The fault is mine. I—” Ariana’s eyes turned very sad. “I must stop jumping at every shadow.”
“I don’t want to pry, but are you all right here? Do you need help?”
Ariana looked startled, then honestly confused. “I am safe here. Nikos takes good—” The confusion seemed to clear. Rusty laughter bubbled up. “You thought Nikos would harm—” She laughed again, then just as suddenly, tears overflowed.
Instantly, Lexie moved to comfort her, grasping Ariana’s hand and patting her back, wishing she understood.
Ariana dropped her head into her hands. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t seem—”
Lexie pulled her close and began to rock the woman, murmuring to her as one would to soothe a child.
A harsh voice cut through the moment, startling them both.
“What have you done to my sister?” Dominic Santorini stood in front of them, his face thunderous.
Lexie stepped back from the hostility shimmering in the air around them.
Before she could speak, Ariana did, moving closer to her brother. “She did nothing wrong, Nikos. Don’t blame her.”
“What happened?” His voice was gentle as he spoke to his sister, pulling her under the shelter of his arm. “You should be resting.” He shot Lexie a glare as if somehow she were at fault.
Lexie saw a spark of independence flare, then fizzle. “I’m not an invalid.” Ariana pulled away, stepped toward Lexie. “I would like to see your drawings, if I still may.”
Dominic spoke up. “Perhaps another time. I must return to the office in a few minutes, but we must go over some business details first. If you’d excuse us, please?”
Ariana nodded and turned to go.
Lexie wanted to race after her, partly to defend Ariana, partly to avoid the angry man towering over her.
Ariana cast one glance back. “It’s not her fault, Nikos.”
“Go to Mrs. Garcia,” he said gently. “I’ll be inside in a few minutes to see you.”
Lexie knew it wasn’t her business, but she couldn’t help being concerned. “What happened to her?”
Dominic turned from watching his fragile sister’s back. His eyes were hard and cold. “It is not your concern.”
Lexie felt as if she’d been slapped. She stilled herself into careful politeness. “But it is yours. We can meet another day if you’d like to see to her now.”
He shook off the suggestion. “I do not always have the luxury of doing what I would like.” For a moment his gaze intensified on hers, as if his words had another meaning.
The air around them thickened, ripe with challenge, bursting with memory. Lexie lost her footing, her sense of time and place. She wanted to lean closer, to peer inside those dark eyes to look for the man she’d thought she’d known on one star-crossed night.
Then he snapped his gaze away, and it was like free-falling off a cliff.
“These markings are for what purpose?” His voice carried not one trace of emotion. Strictly business.
Lexie struggled to pull back, to find solid ground, to recover her senses. Had she lost her mind? Had her active imagination played her false?
This is not Nikos, Lexie. She forced herself to concentrate on the man who stood in front of her, the man who’d built an empire, not the man who’d brushed grease from her cheek.
Her gaze glanced down quickly at his hand, and her heart broke a little. He had beautiful hands, so strong, so capable of tenderness, of passion—
“Ms. Grayson—”
Lexie’s head snapped up. What had he asked? She was dizzy from the whiplash of her emotions.
The markings. Yes. She cleared her throat. “My crew will shoot the grade and determine the best place to set the walls of the castle, but I’m marking the approximate location that suits the aesthetics, keeping in mind the view, proximity to parking, that sort of thing.”
“Parking?” One raven eyebrow lifted, and she wanted to brush it with her fingertip, no matter how much this man lacked any resemblance to the man who’d held her in his arms. “There will be no cars allowed.”
“For the buses and the…the catering trucks,” she stammered. Pull it together, Lexie. You need this job.
And Max. Max needed her help.
She stood straighter, looked away from him and at her markings on the ground. Very deliberately, she walked and spoke. “Setting the entrance arch here will give the guests an impressive view as they come up the driveway, increase their sense of drama and anticipation.” Warming to her subject, she continued. “There will be torches here, on either side, and we’ll have actors clustered at the gate. We’ll throw lighting up the walls to create intense shadows and increase the sense of impending doom, just as a player would feel were he really Carlon approaching Lord Vadoun’s castle.”
“You know the game.” Dominic didn’t try to hide his amazement that she’d gone to the trouble to understand more than the brief synopsis she’d been given.
He shouldn’t have been. He’d seen her drawings and known already that she took her work seriously and, despite appearing to be barely past her teens, was thoroughly professional.
She looked offended. “Of course. How could I design properly without really understanding?”
“You’re hardly our target audience, Ms. Grayson. One could understand if you lacked enthusiasm for the actual game.”
“I wouldn’t understand. Besides,” she enthused, “It’s a cool game. I can’t wait to play it.”
The sparkle that had undone him on Sunday was about to do the same again, if he wasn’t careful. “You play video games? Pardon my surprise.”
“Video games aren’t just for the guys. Don’t limit me by your own narrow views.”
And for one tantalizing second he could almost see the tomboy who’d traded cheerful insults over cars, could almost see cutoffs and a skinny top instead of the sassy pleated skirt and thoroughly feminine blouse she was wearing today. For a moment he was tempted to clasp her chin, to
look for the sprinkling of freckles and the streak of grease.
But she’d already turned away, striding across the grass toward another marker.
Dominic glanced at his watch and cursed silently. He wouldn’t be able to check that Ariana was all right if he didn’t leave soon.
Lexie had turned his way. “Over here, we’ll have—” Her voice broke off when she realized that he hadn’t followed her.
Dominic sighed. “I apologize. I will have to get the rest of the tour another time.” And he meant it, more than he could say. No matter how often he reminded himself that they had to work together, that he had no time to pursue whatever had happened between them, that this launch was everything to Poseidon, a corner of his heart rebelled at the loss of something he still wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined.
But it wasn’t his lot in life to pursue his own pleasures, not when so many others depended upon him to keep his head on straight.
Besides, from what he saw, she couldn’t care less. From the moment they’d been introduced in his office, the tomboy he might have only imagined had vanished as if she never existed.
“No problem,” she said, her face composed and still. “If I need anything, I can contact Mr. Stafford, I assume.”
No, Lexie. Fierce and sudden, the determination arose. I don’t want you to need Bradley. I want you to need me.
It’s my own damnable luck that I cannot afford to need you.
“That’s right,” he responded, turning away. “Bradley can handle whatever you need.”
“I’ll stay out of your way as much as possible. Am I permitted to speak to your sister?” Her voice could have cut glass.
He turned back. “My sister is very fragile right now. I won’t have you upsetting her.”
“Your sister is lonely. Even a perfect stranger can see that.” Her chin tilted upward.
Her accusation stung. “I do not need your help, Ms. Grayson. I will thank you to stay out of matters you don’t understand.” He was doing everything in his power to heal Ariana’s wounded heart, and he didn’t need a stranger to tell him he was failing.
“If she speaks to me, I’m not ignoring her.” Defiant green eyes challenged him. Aroused him. Made him want to tell the world to go to the devil while he covered the distance between them and grabbed her, forced her to admit what they’d shared.
But she looked as likely to spit in his eye as to admit to anything.
And he had a crucial meeting to attend.
“Be careful with my sister, Ms. Grayson. You can be replaced.”
Shock flashed across her features, chased by hurt.
Dominic cursed silently at the temper he’d thought long ago mastered. “Lexie—” One hand lifted from his side.
She set her shoulders very straight. It only emphasized her fragility. She was such a contrast, so delicate and so strong.
But there was nothing fragile about her icy voice. “You’ve made yourself quite clear. If you’ll excuse me, I must get back to work.” She turned her back and walked away.
He watched her go, frowning. Wondering how his normally sharp instincts had let him down so badly.
She’d seemed so different, that Sunday that had been only three days ago but seemed a part of some other universe now.
She hadn’t known who he was then. She knew now, and just as always, it had changed everything.
The Dominic who had perfected the art of putting his responsibilities ahead of his wishes, knew it was right to do that now. A treasure hunt for a mirage was a luxury he didn’t have.
No matter how much his heart wished otherwise.
Dominic let out a sigh torn from his depths. Then he shook off foolish wishes and headed for the house.
Chapter Four
“Max?” Lexie called. “You here?” She entered their shared studio in an old warehouse near the railroad tracks overlooking Town Lake, torn between hoping he wasn’t…and needing the comfort of her old friend.
No answer. She headed for the coffeepot, seeing it reduced to sludge but still on. He was here, just obsessed. As usual. Lost deep inside that imaginary world of his mind.
She started a fresh pot, then went to his door and there he was, hunched over his computer, playing her like a lover. Max’s computer was named Maisie, and woe betide the person who didn’t believe she was real. Max certainly did.
For a moment she stood in the doorway, shaking her head. Most people thought of computer dweebs, as Max called himself and his friends, as little nerdy guys with thick glasses and pocket protectors. Max was anything but. A lean six feet tall with a leonine mane of golden hair and crystalline-blue eyes, he was forever making women stop and stare.
She’d asked herself why she didn’t fall for him. The answer was simple—she loved Max far too much to make that mistake. He was big brother/father figure/best friend all rolled up in one package. Love could ruin a great friendship.
Max felt the same way, she knew, forever nagging her to date more, fixing her up with all manner of men. He kept thinking he’d change Lexie’s mind, but he was wrong. When you invested too much emotion in a man, you were in trouble. That’s when you made yourself vulnerable…and when you’d get hurt. Her father had told her he loved her, then one day he’d left and never returned. After her mother’s death, a scared, lonely Lexie had finally succumbed to her college boyfriend’s declarations of love, given him her virginity, then gotten a call a month later that he was going to marry his high school sweetheart.
Men said they loved you and they left. Lexie liked men, enjoyed their company a great deal, but she wouldn’t be a fool again. Friendship was great. Love sucked. The little white house with the picket fence was a lovely dream, but it happened to other people, not to her.
The other night was a perfect example.
When you screw up, Lexie, you do it big.
Resolutely, Lexie turned away and went back to the kitchen area, snagging a cup of coffee for herself and filling Max’s Batman mug. She tiptoed toward his desk and slipped it onto the coaster beside him.
Max jerked in surprise, then smiled. “Hey,” he greeted her. Then he frowned. “You look different. What happened?”
“Nothing.” Nothing she could discuss. She sipped her coffee. “What are you working on?”
Max smirked. “Like you care. Every time I try to explain my software, you start falling asleep.”
“I do not—” She grinned. “Actually, I think I used the word coma.”
“Maybe this won’t put you in a coma. Have I ever shown you my Easter egg?”
Lexie frowned. “Easter egg?”
“Sort of like a watermark on paper. It’s an image I bury to mark this program as mine. If you know the right keystrokes to use—” He hit a series of keys, and up popped an image of his old beat-up van. Lexie blinked in surprise.
Max grinned. “See? Magic.”
She was still staring at the image. “How did you do that?”
“Here—stay awake and watch this. It’s just six keystrokes.”
Lexie watched carefully, grateful for the distraction from her misery. She tried it herself, ridiculously pleased when it worked. “Did you put it in the program that you think Poseidon stole?”
His eyes darkened. “Yeah.”
“If you haven’t seen Poseidon’s graphics, why do you suspect them?”
“Some gamers were in a chat room, debating theories on speeding up graphics. One of them was bragging about an amazing algorithm in software they were using on a new game.”
“What’s an algorithm?”
One brow lifted. “You really want to know?”
She managed a weak smile. “Not really.”
Max’s brows drew together. “Anyway, he called the algorithm ‘Einstein’s marble.’”
She frowned. “That’s important?”
He nodded. “I created Einstein’s marble. It’s the basis of my method. So I’ve been nosing around, asking questions behind the safe anonymity of cyberspace, and when I
put the pieces together along with the buzz on Poseidon’s new game, I’m almost certain that’s what happened.”
“How did they steal it?”
“Ever heard the term ‘hacker’?”
Even she had heard of that. “How did they know you had it?”
Max’s color deepened. “I’ve wracked my brains to figure that out. Best I can guess is that something I said online piqued someone’s interest, and they got past my firewalls. I’ve taken extra precautions since.”
“So what do you do about Poseidon?”
“Unless I can get some firepower on my side, I wait until the game comes out.”
“What kind of firepower?”
“Preferably a shark lawyer.” He paused for a beat. “If I had any money.”
“Why don’t you just confront Poseidon?”
“They’re too big. They’d just stall me while they buried the evidence.”
“But—” she protested.
He pinned her with a solemn stare. “I can’t be hasty about this, Lex. If I get impulsive, I’ll lose for sure. Every step has to be thought out. Most of all, I need proof, more than just some guys bragging in a chat room.”
It was so unfair that he didn’t have the money to take on a giant such as Poseidon. Had she met the man who might have stolen his dreams—and fallen into bed with him that same night? A stubborn part of her still wanted to believe that her Nikos existed. That man would never have—
“Hello?” Max snapped his fingers. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Kid, don’t ever play poker. Your face tells everything.” He was always calling her “kid.” He was only thirty-one, two years older than she was.
She’d have to tell him something or he’d never leave her alone. She shrugged, and forced a casualness to her tone. “Just a hard day.”
He studied her too closely but, to her relief, he didn’t push for more. “You hungry?”
“Not really.”
“Well, I am. Come on—you can keep me company. We’ll go to Hut’s. I’ll even buy.” Without waiting for an answer, he headed for the door, assuming she’d follow.
Lexie admitted to herself that the last thing she wanted was to return to the dome, with all its memories, so though she wasn’t hungry, she fell in behind Max. Five minutes later, they’d walked the two blocks to their favorite hangout.
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