They had careers and lives to continue when the weekend was over.
A career you lied about, by the way.
And yet here, with her heart beating against his, this is what seemed truly important.
Sighing, she snuggled against him once more with her head on his chest, a position he wouldn’t have imagined her enjoying when they’d met. Was he the difference?
She stroked his neck. “Where’d you go?”
Dragging himself back to reality, he had no tangible explanation for the exhilaration in his heart. He bordered on giddy.
And he didn’t do giddy.
His family would check him into the nearest mental health clinic if he even said the word giddy, unless it was immediately followed by up.
“I’m trying to get us back on course,” he said, cranking the engine. “We’ll wind up drifting to Europe.”
“Fine by me,” she murmured, spearing her fingers through his hair.
Right. Then she’d never forgive him when Richard woke up and she wasn’t there to make everything in his life perfect. “I’ll take you some other time,” he said.
As the words came out of his mouth, he regretted them. She no doubt considered their liaison was only for the weekend. Beyond that, they had little in common.
“I should probably have clothes on when we get back to the house,” she said, moving off his lap. She kissed him lightly, then found her discarded dress and undies.
After getting dressed—a damn shame, in his opinion—she brought him his shirt and helped him slide his arms into the sleeves. Returning to her perch on his knee, she placed a tender kiss in the center of his chest before doing up the buttons.
The whole scene was unnerving, yet comforting, as if they’d done this together a thousand times.
They rode the rest of the way to the estate in silence, with her head resting on his shoulder, his arm tucked around her.
When they reached the dock, she nimbly leaped onto it and caught the rope Jared threw her, so they could guide the boat into its slip. With the ties secured, they strolled toward the house.
“Do you want—” she began.
“How about—” he said at the same time.
“What?” she asked.
They might not have much in common, but they were in sync. At least for tonight. His arms around her, he linked his fingers at the small of her back. “I was wondering if you’d come to my room with me.”
She grinned. “I was going to suggest mine. It’s bigger.”
They joined hands and continued their walk. As they reached the kitchen door, he realized something wasn’t right.
Given the events of the night before, he listened for any odd sound, a sudden movement from the bushes. Was it possible someone from the outside had broken in? To arrange his liaison with Victoria, he’d asked Mrs. K to change the security code temporarily. She was planning to change the code back again in the morning.
What if somebody had asked her the same thing last night?
No, she would have told them. She feared being blamed for the theft.
Which brought him back to the same question about an “inside job.” How else…
The lightbulb finally illuminating, he turned to Victoria. “How do you know how big my room is? You measured when you searched?”
Her eyes danced with mischief. “Mrs. K got me the estate blueprints, and I found something really interesting. Wanna see what?”
11
“IS THIS WHY YOU WERE LATE coming to the cocktail hour?” Jared asked.
Victoria nodded as she brought up the blueprints on her laptop screen. “It was.”
He sat beside her on the sofa, the heat from his body enticing. Given the intense satisfaction he’d already bestowed on her, she found the sensation comforting. And promising.
“Your room is bigger,” he said, glancing around.
“I imagine Rose didn’t figure you’d be in yours very long.”
“I can do with less.”
Victoria studied Jared. No bitterness. Simply stating a fact. So unlike Richard, but the picture she’d had of her potential client as a slightly vain and boastful, but enormously successful and well-connected executive, had changed since she’d arrived.
And not for the better.
She pointed at the screen. “So here’s your room.”
“Geez. What happened to the blue paper and little white lines?”
The 3-D view of the house and surrounding property resembled a simulated video game, where the viewer could get broad, overhead views or zoom into a room or hallway as if walking through them in real life.
“Rose’s interior decorator has a talented technical department.”
“No kidding.” Jared pointed at the nightstand in his room. “That lamp is sitting exactly there, right now.”
Victoria clicked on the lamp. “Designer Thomas Cambridge, circa 1928.”
“The woman’s obsessed with that time period. Now, what’s so interesting?”
Victoria zoomed downstairs to Richard’s office, where the bookcases behind his desk clearly revealed a space beyond.
“A secret room?” Jared asked, echoing her thoughts.
“I think we should go snoop.”
“I think we should get in bed.”
She ran her hand up his chest. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Hmm. Which would be more fun, sneaking around Richard’s office in the middle of the night or getting naked and orgasmic in the middle of the night?”
“So maybe it won’t be that entertaining. But the sooner I find this necklace, the sooner we can enjoy the weekend.”
“I had a pretty good time tonight.”
“Yet here we are… .” She indicated the laptop.
Jared said nothing for a second, then sighed. “You honestly think Richard stole his own mother’s necklace?”
“Could have. But there’s no motivation for him to use his new, high-tech safe in the crime.”
“So why are we snooping in this back room?”
“Because he might have stolen it. And I’m out of ideas on who else is guilty.” Sensing Jared wasn’t impressed by that chain of logic, she paused before adding, “There’s also the possibility Richard is hiding some embarrassing collection of porn or women’s undergarments that I could use to blackmail him into giving me the contract if I don’t find the necklace.” She couldn’t help but smile.
Jared stroked her cheek. “I love how your mind works.”
“Come on, let’s go.”
He pulled her to her feet, and they headed toward the door. “How are we going to get in the room? Pull out a fake book like in the old mystery movies?”
“We’ll figure out something.”
Before they reached the door, there was a knock on it. They exchanged a confused look, then Victoria waved him behind her as she opened the door a crack.
“I thought I heard you moving around in here,” Richard said, standing in the hall, wearing plaid pajamas and a matching housecoat.
“Just about to turn in.”
“Any progress on finding the necklace?”
She hoped her guilty intentions weren’t stamped on her face. “I’ve got a couple of ideas, but nothing definite.” Jared slid his finger down the center of her back, and she almost squealed. Gripping the door tighter, she cleared her throat. “Don’t worry. I’ll manage.”
“I have complete faith in you. On that subject, given what happened
last night, I’m going to engage the motion sensors.”
Damn. “You really think that’s necessary?”
“No, but Mother says she can’t sleep, knowing the house isn’t fully secured.”
“Oh. We can’t have that.” So much for Victoria’s grand plans for searching his office. Jared poked her in the back. He was clearly pleased about the change of plans and anxious to wrap up her hallway discussion.
“I suppose if the sensors had been on last night,” Richard lamented, “the necklace wouldn’t have been stolen in the first place.”
“True. What a shame.”
Jared poked her harder. What the devil was the man about? She was ready to get rid of Richard and enjoy their limited time together, too, but two minutes one way or the other would hardly—
Double damn.
The alarm code.
Mrs. K had changed it for them, and Victoria assumed the code would be necessary to set the motion sensors.
Richard was going to enter the wrong code.
“The sensors will automatically turn off at 6:00 a.m.,” he was saying. “Just be sure you don’t wander the halls before then.”
Her mind was spinning with a way to tell him about the code change, plus the code itself, but she hadn’t been paying attention when Jared entered the numbers earlier. Maybe there’d been a three…? “Right,” she said to Richard. “No wandering.”
“Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Jared’s poking became more insistent. “Uh, Richard?” she began. Licking her lips, she blurted, “I took a late walk on the beach, and Mrs. K changed the security code so I could get in the house.”
Richard’s face was blank. “Oh.”
“Please don’t be angry with her. I’m sure she assumed that since I was looking into the theft, she could trust me with the code overnight. She was going to change it back in the morning to the one you use.”
Richard waved his hand. “It’s perfectly fine. It was wise of both of you to make such careful arrangements. What’s the temporary code?”
“Hmm…well, I wrote it down, but I’m not sure I remember…”
Suddenly it occurred to her that Jared was giving her the code. One poke, three pokes, then five—maybe six?—one.
“Oh, now I remember. One, three…” During her extended pause, Jared got the message and distinctly poked five times “…five, one.”
“Excellent,” Richard said. After a quick smile, he added, “It’s a good thing I haven’t changed the system to a fingerprint pass code like we have at the office.” His pleased expression faded quickly. “There’s so little crime out here, I honestly didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Try not to overreact. I’m sure we’ll find the necklace.”
“You’re sure that caterer and the writer can be trusted?”
Victoria ground her teeth before finding the strength to be pleasant. Blame the hired help and conveniently forget it was his safe that had failed in the first place. What a jerk. “I’m sure. Good night.”
She pushed the door closed before he could ruin her mood even further. Turning, she found Jared leaning against the wall with a broad grin on his face.
“Darn. No snooping.” He seized her hand and headed toward the bedroom. “Guess we have to move on to plan B.”
“Don’t you think we should lock the door?”
“What for? The motion detector will shriek like a scalded cat if anybody walks down the hall.”
“Like the safe was supposed to protect the necklace?”
“Good point.” He made a U-turn, locked the door, then darted into the bedroom.
Before she knew it, her dress was again in a crumpled pile on the floor, along with his clothes, and they were in bed. “Are you always this insatiable?” she asked as he rolled on a condom.
“Stamina is a personal ambition.”
“Mission accomplished,” she groaned when he slid inside her and carnal delight spread through her body.
He moved his hand beneath her, cupping her backside and angling her hips as he drove deeper. Setting a rapid pace, he seemed to be in no mood for an easy slide into desire. No fooling around, no hesitation. With her arousal at a fever pitch all night, it wasn’t long before her need had built to a near-perfect peak.
His firm erection rubbed her center like a live wire, sending sparks over her skin, through her veins, to the core of her being. She let out a whimper as her body went rigid just before the pulses began.
Despite being caught up in her own euphoria, she shared his cry as he followed her into completion.
His heaving chest pressed her into the mattress as his movements subsided, and she clutched him to her, holding his heated body while their breathing fought to recover.
“I’m crushing you,” he said a bit later, rolling off with a satisfied groan.
Actually, she’d enjoyed his weight, though she frowned even as the thought occurred to her. After sex, she usually felt the need for space, emotionally as well as physically.
Jared was different from past liaisons in so many ways. Her parents were always formal with each other, never getting overly emotional. It was only when she’d gotten to know Shelby and Calla that she’d become comfortable with spontaneous hugging.
And yet their lives were incompatible. She was a city girl, he was country guy. She shopped for designer shoes, he taught people to ski and dive. She longed for a corner office, he needed wide-open spaces.
He was comfortable with his success, and she was sure she’d never be successful enough.
Lying on his back, he pulled her close. She stroked her hand across his firm chest muscles, the sprinkling of dark hairs tickling her fingers.
Her physical senses were content, her mental ones restless. And the unsettling wave washing over her was only complicating things for her. Did they have anything to talk about besides that stupid, freakin’ necklace?
“Earlier, you mentioned you grew up ranching,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as if she was reaching desperately for normal conversation. “What kind?”
“Cattle mostly.”
She lifted her head. “So you’re a real live cowboy, not just playing one on these adventures.”
He tipped an imaginary Stetson. “Yes, ma’am.”
Impressive, especially since he was naked. “So you’re from somewhere out West, I guess.”
“Montana. It’s still home, though I’m not there much anymore. I bet you were raised in the city.”
“New York, the city.”
“You don’t get tired of the noise, the traffic, all those people?”
“No way. Quiet makes me twitchy. Aren’t you afraid to live in a place where cows outnumber people?”
“You have a fear of livestock?”
“Not a fear exactly, but after learning that horses—which weigh a good fifteen hundred pounds—have brains the size of a walnut, I’m keeping my distance.”
His chest rumbled with his laugh. “But you can pretty much lead them around by the nose with a sugar cube.”
“Hmm. Good to know.”
“You can’t exactly apply the same technique with a speeding taxi.”
“No, but waving a twenty-dollar bill works.”
“The wild in different forms.”
Personally, she thought their preferences seemed hopelessly divergent, even though she had enjoyed the beach and surf yesterday. Beach and surf were outdoorsy, right? Plus, no vast meadows of creepy nothingnes
s, bugs or horses had been involved.
Maybe backgrounds and lifestyles weren’t a great topic of conversation, after all.
“Tomorrow I’m going to search everybody’s rooms, as well as their luggage,” Victoria said briskly. “Last time there was a chance the necklace was misplaced. Now, no stone unturned. Can you keep people occupied while I do?”
“Well, I…what?”
She propped herself on her elbow, and he turned to face her. “I’m not really good with pretense and asking sly questions. I’m a direct woman. Time for a new strategy.”
“So I’ve noticed.” He slid his hand over her thigh. “But you’re being devious by searching without telling people what you’re doing.”
“Only because I don’t want Richard to know what I’m doing, since I’m going to search his secret room, too.”
Jared’s hand stopped midstroke. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? You trust him less than I do.”
“But if you get caught searching that room, your big contract will be horse dung.”
“I have to do something. I’m a PR executive full-time, Robin Hood is only temporary.”
Though at least she’d been a willing participant in that project.
She’d been strong-armed this time. But since Coleman Sr. had already emailed her three times since she’d arrived, she assumed he was doing the same with Peter. Rutherford Securities was a big client for their agency, so doing whatever it took to keep Richard happy was vital.
“Search the luggage if you want,” Jared said, “but wait for me to help you with Richard’s office. You at least need a lookout.”
“If the house is deserted, what do I need a lookout for?”
He rubbed his lips against hers. “Maybe I just want to be near you.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, her bare body nestled alongside his. “Maybe?”
His lips grazed her throat. “Definitely.”
“Your assistance has been invaluable so far.”
“I’ve always had a knack for critical chores.”
She stiffened with insult. “Chores?”
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