“What, exactly, was too much?”
“Don’t you put your counselor face on with me,” Sophie laughed.
“Hey, I haven’t finished my degree yet,” Mia reminded her. “And don’t try to distract me.”
Sophie sighed. “Everything. Being with him for a meal out, kissing him good night.” She rubbed her eyes with the fingers of her right hand. “Even when he arrived and I had to get him to help me do up my dress.”
Mia’s face said everything her mouth didn’t.
“Yeah, I got my zipper stuck just before he arrived. I couldn’t get it loose and I had to ask Zach for help. He…he touched me. It was totally accidental and it was only with the backs of his fingers, but all evening I couldn’t help but wonder—if I felt like that at a slight touch, what would it be like to have him really touch me?”
“You got it bad, girl,” her friend teased.
“I know. If I’m not careful I’ll ruin everything. We have to work together, for goodness’ sake.”
Mia smiled. “No reason why you can’t have work and a bit of play.”
“I dunno.” Sophie shook her head. “I keep feeling like there’s something going on with him. Something that he’s trying to keep quiet. What if it’s to do with Alex’s disappearance?”
Mia was employed as Alex’s housekeeper at his mansion in Pine Valley—it was a personal arrangement that Alex handled himself and fell outside of Sophie’s responsibilities in the office. The hours were perfect for her while she finished up her counseling degree, and Sophie knew for herself what a generous boss Alex was. The work had never been terribly demanding, but with Alex missing Mia had become more of a well-paid house sitter than housekeeper. Sophie’s words brought a frown to Mia’s brow.
“You really think he might be involved?”
Sophie shrugged. “I don’t want to think he is, but he’s working strange hours lately and he’s kind of secretive, y’know? Like putting people on hold if I come into his office while he’s on the phone, or closing his laptop so I can’t see the screen. It’s not like him. I mean, sure, he’s not exactly an open book on any day of the week, but he’s even more closed than usual. And even last night he kept turning the conversation to me every time I tried to learn a bit more about him. He said he wanted us to be friends.”
“Friends?”
“Yeah, and in my book, friendship is a two-way street.”
“Hmm,” Mia answered, looking thoughtful.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Well, of anyone, you’re probably in the best position to figure out what he’s up to, wouldn’t you say?”
“Except I don’t know what he’s up to, that’s the problem. It’s not as if I haven’t tried, but he’s always a step ahead of me.”
“Maybe you need to investigate a bit more. Check his computer? Check his phone log? Alex has to be somewhere. No one just disappears into thin air. He could even have planned this all along and Zach could have helped him. We can’t automatically assume that Zach could be a bad guy in this.”
“You’re right,” Sophie agreed slowly. “He might be helping Alex. I sure hope if he is involved, it’s for that reason and not for anything sinister.”
“I don’t think he’s involved in anything bad. If anyone is, it’d be that rat-bag David Firestone. Before Alex went missing, he asked me to make sure he had some champagne on ice. When I asked him what he was celebrating, he told me he’d beaten Firestone on an investment property deal. Apparently Firestone wasn’t very happy when Alex beat him to the punch.”
“Do you think Firestone could have done something to Alex? Was he really that angry?” Sophie asked.
“From what I understand, he was pretty steamed up. And I dunno, but he looks to me like the kind of guy who’d exact revenge if he thought it was due.” Mia lifted her coffee cup and took a sip, then shuddered. “Cold, yuck!”
“I wonder where Alex is,” Sophie mused.
“Yeah. I still can’t help thinking that something bad has happened to him. He took nothing from the house. Not a change of clothes, nothing.”
Sophie pushed away her plate, half her lunch still uneaten. “What can we do?”
“Information. We can gather information. It’s the only thing we can do. You need to find out whatever you can from Zach if he knows more than he’s letting on and I’ll do what I can from Alex’s side of things, especially about what he might have known about David Firestone. There has to be something at the house that can point us in the right direction.” Mia leaned forward and reached for Sophie’s hand. “By the way, speaking of information. How is it going with the investigator you hired to find your sister? Any luck?”
Sophie shook her head. “No. We thought he had a lead earlier in the week but it turned out to be another dead end.” She met her friend’s compassionate gaze. “What if it’s all a waste of time, Mia? What if she’s dead?”
“Wouldn’t you rather know?” her friend said softly, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“I guess so, and something tells me she’s still out there.”
“Then trust that feeling to bring her home.” Mia cast a glance at her watch. “Speaking of home, I’d better head back to Pine Valley.”
“How are things there? Are the media still camping out at the gates?”
Mia pulled a face. “They are. It’s getting so bad I almost pulled out of coming today. I’m worried sick someone will break into the property and start poking around.”
“But the police already went through the house, didn’t they? If they couldn’t find anything to explain where Alex might have gone, then I doubt any journalists could, either.”
“Try telling them that,” Mia answered with a wry grin. “Anyway, I’d better get going, I still have some studying to do. My turn to treat for lunch, okay?”
“That makes it my turn to tip,” Sophie answered, leaving a few bills on the table.
The two women took turns to pay for lunch, even though Sophie would have been more than happy to have treated Mia more often. She knew her friend had tuition due soon, and while Alex was a generous boss, Sophie doubted that Mia could afford to splurge too frequently.
But at the cash register, both women were surprised when Mia’s card was declined.
“Don’t worry, I’ll cover it.” Sophie rapidly stepped up and unfolded the necessary bills.
“I don’t understand it,” Mia said, her face a little paler than usual and a worried frown creasing her brow.
“It’ll just be some glitch at the bank. Give them a call and I’m sure you’ll have it sorted out in no time. Look, can I loan you some money to tide you over the weekend? At least until you can sort things out with the bank?”
“No, no. I’ll be fine. I’m sure.”
Mia unlocked her car and threw her friend a quick smile, but Sophie could tell she wasn’t mollified. She didn’t want to push. Mia was nothing if not proud and guarded her independence carefully.
“Well, don’t hesitate to ask if I can do anything for you, okay? I mean it, Mia.”
It was all she could do under the circumstances.
“Sure,” Mia answered although Sophie knew her friend would rather walk through a field filled with ornery rodeo bulls than ask for help.
“Oh, and be careful about that guy, Firestone.”
“I will, don’t you worry,” Mia said with a smile and a cheeky wink. “And don’t do anything with your Mr. Lassiter that I wouldn’t do.”
Sophie couldn’t help it. She blushed red hot again. She opened her car and settled inside, accompanied by the ring of Mia’s laughter at her reaction. As she drove back home, she wondered just how far she’d be prepared to go to elicit information from Zach.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she growled at her reflection in the rearview mirror. “You’re no Mata Hari.”
No, she definitely wasn’t, but it didn’t stop a ripple of anticipation from undulating from her core to her extremities. Could she do it? Could she tr
y to seduce the information out of him? It went against everything she had inside of her and even if he did prove willing, there was nothing to say that he was the kind of guy who’d divulge his secrets during a bit of pillow talk.
Her inner muscles clenched tight at the thought of what it would take to actually lead to said pillow talk. She weighed it in her head during the journey home and all through her afternoon tidying around her home and getting her laundry done—her work outfits all pressed and ready for the week ahead. By the time she donned her nightgown and tucked herself into fresh, clean sheets, together with the latest novel she’d picked up, she was still a bundle of nervous energy and sick to death of the inner battle she’d waged with herself.
“Toss a coin,” she said out loud when she couldn’t settle into reading her book.
Sophie pushed back her covers and rose from the bed to cross the room and take her coin purse from her handbag. She grabbed a nickel and studied it carefully for a full minute before placing it on her thumbnail, ready to flick it into the air.
“Heads, I do it. Tails, I don’t,” she muttered grimly.
She flicked. The coin executed a graceful arc before she grabbed it with one hand, laying it flat on the back of the other with her fingers still covering what decision it had made. Slowly, she lifted her fingers.
Heads.
Six
“Best of three,” she said on a whoosh of air.
Heads.
Heads.
Somewhere out there, someone had to be laughing at her, Sophie decided before returning the coin to her purse and climbing back between the sheets.
So the fates had decided she was to seduce whatever information she could out of Zach regarding his knowledge, or otherwise, of Alex’s disappearance. Sounded simple, really. She flopped back against her perfectly aligned feather pillows and huffed out a sigh. She’d never succeed. She’d been the one to stop things going any further when he’d kissed her good night.
Then, surely, she had the right to change her mind…
Sophie reached out to flick off her bedside light and lay in the darkness staring blindly toward her ceiling. This was big. More than big, it was monumental. It went against everything she’d ever been brought up to be. But she owed it to Alex, didn’t she? Her boss deserved someone in his corner. Oh, sure, she knew the police were investigating, but so far they’d been unable to turn up any solid leads. What if Zach had been actively pushing them in the wrong direction?
She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. What if he hadn’t? What if her conjecture was nothing but smoke and mirrors? At worst she’d potentially embarrass herself horribly, and she cringed at the thought. But at best, well, at best she could possibly find out vital information about Alex while in all likelihood having the very best sex of her life. And if this crazy scheme of hers turned out to be completely off the mark, well, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t powerfully attracted to Zach or that interest wasn’t reciprocated. Who knew where things could lead?
A groan ripped from her throat and she threw herself onto her other side in disgust. It all sounded so mercenary. She was nothing like the kind of person who could carry this off. She wasn’t designed for intrigue and seduction. She liked order, security. But that very security was threatened if she lost her job. While Alex and Zach were business partners, Zach could just as easily conduct his business anywhere but Royal. There was nothing and no one to hold him here.
She tried to think it all through logically, to weigh the pros against the cons, but as sleep claimed her she was no closer to a resolution. The next morning, after a surprisingly restful sleep, Sophie woke with the answer clear in her mind. Zach had already shown he was attracted to her, but he’d respected her when she’d stepped back. She’d leave it to him to make her decision for her. But nothing said she couldn’t try to sway that decision in her favor.
She crossed the room to her wardrobe and considered the five outfits she’d hung in order for her Monday to Friday office wear. No, these wouldn’t do at all. Not in their current incarnations, anyway. Sophie unhooked the suit and camisole that she’d decided on for Monday and tossed the camisole onto her bed. Was the neckline of the suit too bold or, with the right bra, would it be perfect for Operation: Seduction?
She giggled to herself as she put the suit back on the rail and considered Tuesday’s ensemble. Yes, this could work, too. Instead of buttoning the form-fitting blouse to her throat, she could easily flick a few extra buttons open, and maybe wear a pendant—she had exactly the right one in her jewelry box—that would draw the eye, specifically Zach’s eye, down.
Was he a boob man or a leg man, she wondered. No harm in covering all bases, she decided, eschewing Wednesday’s getup as way too staid for the new Sophie Beldon. Instead, she reached for a short, straight skirt she saved for nights out with her girlfriends. Even her legs, which she’d always considered too short to be beautiful, looked good in this. Stacked with a set of heels she’d be invincible.
Sophie laughed out loud. She was starting to enjoy this.
“Roll on Monday,” she said to herself as she closed her wardrobe and went to get herself some breakfast. “I can’t wait.”
*
Zach felt every one of his thirty-four years come Monday morning. Over the weekend he’d spent time on a video conference with a panel of doctors at the private mental health clinic he wanted to admit Anna to. Problem was, she’d dropped off the radar. Her parents said they hadn’t heard from her over the weekend, something that wasn’t unusual in their experience but, for Zach, combined with Anna’s ultrafragile state of mind, it was red flag of titanic proportions.
When he hadn’t been able to reach Anna on her mobile phone all day Saturday, he’d driven the fifty miles to Midland on Sunday morning. But the house they’d previously shared had been empty, without even a sign of recent occupation. It had all but slaughtered him to go upstairs to check the bedrooms and to discover that even now, almost two years since Blake’s death, his nursery was still in the same state of casual disarray as it had been on the day Anna had taken him in the car and driven away after yet another argument with Zach.
None of her friends seemed to know where she was and it frustrated the hell out of him that he seemed to be the only person truly concerned about her whereabouts. If she’d ended up hurting herself, or worse, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to forgive himself for not acting sooner to keep her safe.
Compounding his concern for his ex-wife was the complication of how he felt about Sophie Beldon. Taking her out on Friday night had seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a chillingly cold shower when he’d arrived home, he’d begun to examine his sanity in pursuing her as he had, even if it was as subtle as turning a chaste good night peck on the cheek to something so much more. He could have sworn the air around them had crackled with the energy that sprang to life between them. But she’d pulled back, and he’d been gentlemanly enough not to attempt to override her decision, no matter how much his libido had screamed at him to do otherwise.
Zach pushed open the door to the executive suite and started toward his office, only to be halted by Sophie coming out of the kitchenette.
“Ah, there you are. Good morning. Would you like coffee?”
He stopped in his tracks, his eyes locked on her as if seeing her for the first time, his mouth suddenly dry. Words failed him. He’d seen her wear this suit before, several times in fact. But he’d never seen her wear it quite like this. The rich amber fabric was a perfect foil for her eyes and the shining cap of her blond hair, but it wasn’t the color that had arrested him. No, it was the fact that she most definitely wasn’t wearing her usual demure something underneath it. And her breasts, they were soft gentle mounds peaking up against the lapels of her jacket.
“Zach? Coffee?” she prompted with a sweet smile.
“Uh, yeah. Coffee. Thanks. That’d be great.”
He forced himself to turn toward his office and get himself under control. H
e felt as if he’d been ambushed and shook his head slightly. No. He had to be imagining things. And he continued to console himself with that thought right up until she came into his office with a steaming mug of coffee and bent down to place it on his desk.
Oh, yes, definitely ambushed. A hint of white musk and vanilla and something else that made him want to reach for her and repeat their embrace of Friday night—and more. Worse, though, was the glimpse he got of soft, warm flesh encased in some frothy cream-colored lingerie.
“Thanks,” he said through gritted teeth. “Any news from the sheriff this morning?”
Sophie straightened and made a little moue with her lips. Darn it all. What was it with him and her lips?
“Nothing yet,” she said. “Is there anything in particular you need me for today?”
He could think of several things right off the top of his head. None of them had anything to do with the work at hand, however.
“I’m fine,” he said, reaching for the coffee and taking a long sip of the brew, burning his tongue and the roof of his mouth in the process.
He welcomed the pain; it was the perfect distraction from the torture his body was going through.
“Okay, then. Well, if you need me, you know where to find me.”
She exited his office and he couldn’t tear his eyes off her. It wasn’t just his imagination. She was different from last week. Way different, and yet no less appealing.
And so it went each day. Her new fragrance, while subtle, managed to stay with him every hour in the office, driving him crazy. He was on edge constantly, and in a state of semiarousal from the instant he set foot in the executive suite until he drove himself back to his empty mansion containing his all-too-empty bed each night.
But it was her subtle brushes against his body when he least expected it that were his undoing. They were working late on Thursday night and she’d brought him the reports he’d been waiting on so he could send them out to investors with his recommendation. She brushed lightly past him as he stood staring at the mounting piles of paper on his desk, the outside edge of her breast touching ever so slightly against his shoulder.
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