by Carmen Green
In some ways he thought of her as still married, although the status was questionable.
“Even if there’s a discrepancy, that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to go in your favor.”
“There wouldn’t be a discrepancy then, Hunter. I’m not that dumb. I’m sorry,” she said quickly before he could jump all over her.
She rubbed her eyes then cupped her cheeks. “I know I’m not dumb. I know I told you I want you to lie to me, but I don’t. I want the truth. No matter how harsh. Living on fools’ island landed me where I am today. That’s why I need your expertise. Two weeks ago the accountants found evidence that Marc was stealing from me. Not just me, but the company. If you add in the fact that my brother was stealing, and my father collected money from those companies and is refusing to turn it over, well, I’ve landed Wright Enterprises in a very bad position.”
Hunter went to Alex and sat in the other visitor’s chair. She rubbed her eyes again. “I’m at a loss about what to do,” she said, her legs pressed together, her hands folded.
“I’m trying to hold on. I’ve read my book on being assertive. I’ve got that down,” she said, looking him in the eye.
“You’re doing quite well.” He shifted under her gaze, knowing she wasn’t aware of the power of her sex appeal. She was having a crisis and he needed to stay focused. She pulled her bag from the side of his desk.
“I bought another book on being the best CEO you can be. How top employees succeed. How to motivate successful people.” She stacked the books as she read the titles. “How to sell in five minutes. Play to win. Close the sale. Turn nos into yeses. Big fish, tiny bowl. Knock ’em dead with professional appeal. This book is about sex appeal, Hunter. It was kind of nasty, to be honest.”
He kept quiet in the face of her near breakdown. She shoved all the books back in the bag and began to pull at the shirt she was wearing. “I even went to a seminar on dressing for success. But being all bound up in these clothes makes me feel like a dominatrix.”
Hunter laughed. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to dress that way.”
“The seminar leader said dress for success in a power suit. This has a jacket. But I feel like a mummy,” she said, pulling at the ties on the back of her shirt. “It’s like a corset.”
He couldn’t help himself, and laughed again.
“It’s not funny…My hair is so…tight.” She tried to run her fingers through it but got nowhere. “It’s driving me crazy. I haven’t brought my dog to work, and I miss him, Hunter. I’m so stressed out, I feel like I’m in my thirties. I really want to get out of all of this.”
She started pulling at the collar of her top, and for the first time he saw that her crisis was real.
“Whoa. What are you doing?”
“I have to take this off.”
“And do what?” he asked her.
“You have a T-shirt. Don’t you?”
He looked around as she struggled with the buttons, intermittently shaking her hands. “In my gym bag.”
“Well.” It was more a statement than a question. Her diva horns were emerging, but Hunter still thought she wasn’t bad.
She pulled at the ties on her shirt. “Hunter, I’m going crazy. I’m twenty-three, and I’ve got the chance to prove I’m not a loser to my whole family, and I feel like my dead husband is flushing my life down the toilet. Help me get this off!”
“Wait.” He guided her into his bathroom where he flipped on the light and stood her in front of the mirror. “Slow down,” he advised.
He wrestled with the tiny knot the tip of the shirt had been tied into. “Who did this?”
“Willa,” she said, fanning her face. “She lives with me now. I hate my hair like this.” Alex started pulling bobby pins from the bun, tossing them into the garbage can. He loved her hair. It uncoiled like a snake with each pin that she removed.
Hunter finally gave up and pulled the shirt, ripping the ends. “I don’t care,” she said, wiggling.
“What does Marc have to do with this?”
“He stole money from the company. I’ll look like a fool if I don’t find it and put that money back. They’ll crucify me, Hunter, and I’ll never be able to redeem myself to my family.”
He met her gaze in the mirror and his heart twisted. She looked so lost and sad.
“Stop thinking for five minutes, okay?” he asked.
“Okay.”
He pushed her head down and took over pulling out the pins until her hair was as free as her body from the shirt.
Being with her half dressed in his bathroom felt so normal. Hunter thought of how easily it would be to get used to it. He sent his fingers through her hair and caressed her scalp. Her head fell forward, and he couldn’t help but think of how if he had his way, he’d love to take her home and massage all of her. “Better?”
“Yes, that feels better. What’s happening to me?” She’d never been this vulnerable before. All Hunter knew was that if she was his, he’d never make her feel insecure and unstable.
“Anxiety attack, that’s all. You’re going to have to practice staying calm.”
“How can I when I feel as if the world is coming apart under my feet?”
“It’s not, Alex.”
“I know. I’ve got to be strong.” She stood a little straighter. “I’ve never had an anxiety attack before. Can you massage my shoulders too, please,” she said when he started to pull away.
“Alex, this is dangerous territory.”
“For me too, Hunter.” Her voice seduced him, even though her gaze said she knew exactly what she was doing.
“Really? How?” He kneaded her left shoulder and down her arm, then down her right, wanting to plant his lips down her back.
“I’m a physical person, and I like how your hands feel on me. I need to touch, and I need be touched, but I understand. I shouldn’t tempt you if I can’t deliver.”
She rubbed her temples with the heel of her hand.
“Don’t get all wound up again. It’s not that I’m not attracted to you, Alex, I am.” Hunter couldn’t resist caressing her arms and shoulders.
“You are?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Well, I’m glad to know that. But I need to know that I’m desired. It’s been over six months since I’ve been made love to. When I got married, I got used to doing what grown-ups do. That whole body-to-body, sex-to-sex thing. When we were in California, I couldn’t sleep until I was right beside you.”
“I wondered how that happened,” he said, half joking.
“I needed to feel your arms around me, not that mountain of blankets you were trying to suffocate me under.”
He smiled at her through the mirror. “I don’t think you know how sexy you are.” He had a bird’s-eye view of her through the mirror in her sexy, lace bra and from the back with the cutest curve of her bottom over the baddest “fuck-me-pumps” he’d ever seen.
He didn’t know what dress-for-success book she’d been reading, but every woman needed to have one if this was the end result. Hunter stepped out of the bathroom and grabbed the T-shirt from his gym bag. Alex pulled it over her head and tied it on the side.
She went and sat on the sofa and crossed her legs, waiting for him to join her.
“I used to know I was sexy, but my husband stopped making love to me, and to find out that he was making love to two other women, well, my confidence is in the garbage.”
“You’re a beautiful woman, Alex. You won’t have a problem finding someone.”
“I’m not worried. I didn’t come here specifically to seduce you. I came here for your help and I pretended that I was going to take you to lunch. If you want I’ll still feed you.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“But I need you in more ways than one, Hunter.”
“Lay it out for me.”
“I need you to help me find the money Marc stole from the company so I can put it back. And I need you to be my bodyguard. I don’t trust my family.”
>
“Do you feel as if you’re in danger?”
“I feel as if my father and brother would do a whole lot to get what they want. What that is, I don’t know. I’m not crying wolf.”
She went to her bag and pulled out a piece of colored paper. “I received this note today. It basically says leave the company or I’ll regret it.”
“Put it on the table for me.”
Alex set it down and Hunter handled it carefully, reading it. The script was thin and looping, taking up the top half of the page. “Have you seen this stationery before?”
“No. It’s not something I’d use at work.”
“Do you think someone in your family would really try to hurt you?”
“My brother’s been in jail twice and according to him, I’m the cause. Possibly,” she said, and her eyes filled with tears. Hunter knew he’d help her. He hated to see women cry.
“I’ll work with you. Nobody will hurt you.”
“Nine to five?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “But I can’t be with you intimately. Mixing the two is bad business.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Hunter. We’re already in the same place emotionally. Did you know that butterflies only live for about three weeks?”
He smiled at her, wondering where she was going. “Really? Why would I need to know that?”
“Since I got back, I’ve been in my office from sunup to sundown, and every day I see this pretty yellow butterfly travel from the right side of the parkway to the left. Then a couple days ago, I stopped seeing it. I started wondering what happened to that butterfly.
“But then I learned that butterflies only live for three weeks. What if they only had to work, bond with family and find the one butterfly who makes their heart calm down or speed up? They wouldn’t waste time on things that aren’t significant, right?”
“Right.”
“Close your eyes, please.”
“Why?” he asked, shutting one.
“You have trust issues, Mr. Smith. I won’t hurt you. Close your other eye.”
The truth, spoken so gently, zinged through his chest.
“I told you a secret, and I think it’s getting in the way of what could develop between us. Is that true?”
So she remembered and hadn’t said a word. She’d been waiting on him. “Yes.” Everything in him told him to believe her.
Alex stood and pulled him up too. She put his hands around her and slid her arms up his back. “Three weeks is a long time.”
“It is a long time,” he agreed.
“I want you to consider that I might be your butterfly.”
He couldn’t keep from smiling. “I’ll consider it.”
“Hunter, you’re a beautiful man, and I won’t compromise your ethics, but I’m going to try to get you to.”
She put her face next to his and burrowed her nose in his neck. “Woman,” he said, laughing, “what are you doing?”
“Giving you a reason to think about me.” She gently bit his neck, kissed the bite spot and then she let him go.
The sense of loss was immediate. He opened his eyes and she was almost at the door.
“Will you pick me up in the morning or do you want to meet me at the office?”
“I’ll pick you up at six-thirty,” he said.
Hunter watched Alex leave. When she finally exited the parking lot, he called Chris.
“Man, I’m in trouble, and I need you to set me straight. I’m falling for Alexandria Lord Wright-Foster.”
“You’re what!”
“I know. Now tell me what a low-down dirty dog I am.”
CHAPTER 10
“One million one hundred fifty-six dollars is definitely missing. If you look at these slips, they prove that Marc, not Mervyn, withdrew the money. Mr. Feinstein was correct.”
Alex felt faint, the everyday china her grandmother had given her shaking in her unsteady hand.
She reached for the dinner tray she’d set up in the living room so she and Hunter could be comfortable while he reviewed the reports he’d prepared.
The plate wobbled on the wood surface, making a sickening thud when it came to its final rest. She no longer had a taste for her homemade lemon chicken picatta, even though it had taken her an hour to prepare the dish.
Sitting down next to Hunter, she gazed at the sheets of paper he’d stacked on the sectional and saw nothing but lines and numbers. He’d spent the day with her at the office and had come back to her house so they could have some privacy.
“Dinner looks good.” He sampled the chicken. “It’s hot. Just the way I like it.”
Alex pushed Little Sweetie aside with her foot. “Go lie down, you already ate. Hunter, are you sure it’s not in another account? Have you double-checked everything Mr. Feinstein sent to you?”
“I’ve audited all your books. A little over a million dollars.”
“That can’t be right. Why would Marc steal from me? I was teaching him how to loosen up and have fun. We were good for each other. He was so stuffy. Money wasn’t an object for us.”
Hunter nodded. “There are two ways of looking at that. But let’s look at it from one perspective. Maybe he was investing it in something for you. A vacation home.”
“We shared a home on Martha’s Vineyard with friends of the family. My family already owns homes in Texas and Connecticut. We only traveled abroad for our wedding. There was no need to buy another place.”
“Were you looking at a cabin, maybe? Something more rural or local? A fishing cabin or something?”
“I’m not a nature kind of girl. If you’re sleeping in a tent, you’re not sleeping with me.”
“I don’t know, Alex. I’m just guessing here. You knew him better than anyone.”
“Apparently not.”
Hunter rubbed her leg and Alex felt the first strains of relief flow out of her that day. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. There’s an explanation. You just don’t know what it is.”
“Go ahead and eat. I’m not trying to starve you.” She curled up next to him on the sofa and flipped on the flat screen. They watched a game show for a few minutes, then changed to the Turner station. An old black-and-white movie starring Audrey Hepburn played and Little Sweetie came and curled up with her.
“Hunter?”
“Hmm?” he asked, turning to the sports channel.
“Do you think he used the money to finance his relationships with Danielle and Renee?”
“No.”
Alex leaned back. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because they were too worried about the insurance money. If they were independently wealthy, they wouldn’t care about a couple thousand dollars.”
“My policy on Marc was significantly more.”
“Really? Well, that makes sense.”
She got up and went to her desk to find the folder. “Why do you sound suspicious all of a sudden?”
“You’re so young. Most young women don’t want to talk about life insurance.”
“It’s one of the things you hope to never have to use, but you know, eventually somebody will.”
“Yeah. By the way, this food is delicious. You made this?” he asked, looking at her legs, then her thighs. She’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt the minute she’d walked in from work. But the high heels set her outfit off.
She eased down beside him. “Yes, I know how to cook. This dish is one of my specialties.”
“Do you have a million dollars to put back?”
“No.”
Hunter looked as if he didn’t believe her. “Your godfather seems to think so.”
“He loves me, but he’s delusional. I have money, but it’s tied up in this condo and investments. I may have a quarter of that. But I can’t bail my life out of a million-dollar problem, Hunter. Ooh.” Alex squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth.
“What’s wrong?”
“My head hurts.”
“Come here. You’re too young to be fallin
g apart.” On the sectional, he made her sit with her back to him and he massaged her temples. “Relax your shoulders. Put them down.”
“I didn’t even know they were up. Now I know why people die young. Too much stress.”
“Maybe Marc thought he didn’t need permission to take the money.”
Alex tried not to look as frustrated as she felt. “He didn’t have the right to take it. We had money, we were both working. But neither of us was spending a million dollars. We didn’t have it like that. How’d he do it? One lump sum or a little at a time?”
“A little at a time.”
“That tells me he knew he was being deceitful. What am I going to do?”
“Can you borrow it?”
Alex took a deep breath and let her head fall back. “Sure, but how would I pay it back? I get a small salary from the company that I just started really paying attention to. The economy is depressed right now and we’ve over-built. Right now I’ve got ten properties that aren’t sold out. With no buyers, and three new properties under construction, I can’t green-light new projects.”
“What happens if you can’t build?”
“We continue to scout new land, work our past buyers who might want to upgrade and sell the existing property in our inventory. There’s always something to do.”
“I’m impressed. You said you were a lightweight, but you know your stuff.”
Her shoulders slid up and down slowly. “I wanted to be wildly successful. Not just marginally. I wanted to prove that I could do this job so perfectly my family wouldn’t doubt me.”
“But you can’t now that Marc’s gone.”
“He didn’t work with me. Marc was a great cheerleader, you know? But he stole from me. Not just money, Hunter. I was gullible. I was looking for an older man who wouldn’t play silly games.”
“You’d had bad experiences with guys your age?”
“I went to college for two years. All we did was party and go out. I wasted my parents’ money on having a good time. I came home at twenty and decided to work.”