Hypnotic Seduction (The Seduction Series) (36 page)

“I only told you because you don’t seem to realize Hannah is nothing like your mother.”

“I know that.” If he hadn’t before, he did after the way Hannah had come through for him with the conference even though he’d hurt her.

“Nor is she anything like that girl Marcy who worked you over in college.”

Jordan jerked his gaze to Edward and peered at him. “What do you know about Marcy? Did Hannah tell—” He closed his eyes. Damn it. He’d done it again. He immediately concluded she’d broken his confidence when, deep in his soul, he knew she never would. Her words from Friday night reverberated in his memory.
You’ve trusted me with your deepest secrets, yet you can’t trust me with your heart.

“I don’t know a thing about what happened with Marcy.” Edward shrugged. “It was just obvious, judging from how long it took for you to start dating again, that she broke your heart.”

Something Hannah would never do. He had no doubt that as long as there was a breath of life in her, she would always stand by him.

It was the absence of her breath that worried him.

Edward spread his hands and looked toward the ceiling. “If you know Hannah’s nothing like your mother and that girl, why in
heaven’s name don’t
you marry her?”

“And mourn another person I love like you have Grammy the last twenty-two years? No, thank you.”

“The memory of the thirty-five years I had with your grandmother was the only thing that made the last two decades without her bearable.” Edward cocked his head and studied him. “For such a smart guy, sometimes you can be awfully stupid. Do you honestly believe you can let Hannah walk out of your life and not suffer just as much as if she’d died?”

The tightness in Jordan’s chest every time he thought of her leaving was a lot like what he’d felt when his grandmother passed away. But in truth, it would
be even harder knowing
Hannah was still in this world, falling in love with someone else who would give her the family she wanted. And what made matters worse was that death was at least beyond his control, whereas he had the complete power to prevent her from leaving. All he had to do was propose.

“Hannah’s so much like your grandmother,” Edward said absently. “Sweet and feisty at the same time.” His gaze spun toward Jordan as if he suddenly remembered he was there. “And she doesn’t take any crap from you.”

“You can say that, again.”

“The day we met, she stomped out of Stanley Pulaski’s office breathing fire and offered me some of her cookies. I knew right then she was the woman for you.”

“Wait a minute.” Jordan grabbed his grandfather’s arm. “Do you think Stanley could’ve been the one who cancelled the conference? After I hired Hannah, I issued a formal reprimand to him. He’s definitely holding a grudge.”

Edward’s gaze narrowed. “I can see Stan being angry, but fouling up the conference seems a little extreme—even for him. Besides, he’s not smart enough to think of it.”

“That wasn’t his only motive. The office grapevine has been buzzing with how Hannah humiliated him last week when he asked her out.”

“How would he have known all the conference’s details?” Edward asked.

“You’re right. Renee’s the only one I can think
of
who knew enough. Unless....”
Was it possible she’d had Lily get her cousin Nora hired
at Calder to be Renee’s puppet?

No. Now he was really grasping at straws.

“Unless what?” his grandfather asked.

 “Maybe two people conspired to get back at both of us. Earlier you suggested she might have had someone else sign the letter. It could be why we haven’t been able to figure out who did it. We’ve only been looking for one person.”

“You might have something.” Edward pursed his lips, nodding. “But how can you be sure it was Stanley who was her accomplice?”

“Who else? Everyone at Calder loves Hannah except Trudy and Pulaski.”

“Do they?” Edward raised his bushy eyebrows. “When I took Hannah to lunch a few days ago, she confided that the other women have been giving her the cold shoulder.”

“I can picture their claws coming out, but I don’t buy one of them hating her enough to do something so vindictive.”

“That’s not all.” Edward stole another slice of tomato. “Did she tell you someone let the air out her tires last week?”

“No.” Here he’d thought he’d been doing her a favor assigning her a reserved parking space. Obviously, it had simply announced which car was hers.

“And when I brought Hannah back to the office after lunch,” Edward continued, “she asked me to drop her off at the south end of the building instead of the main entrance. She told me one of the security guards—that Chuck fellow—has been hassling her about her relationship with you. He asked her out at few times and became hostile when she kept turning him down.”

“Chuck Howell,” Jordan muttered, remembering the guard’s smirk the night he’d caught them in the parking lot. “Damn it.” He slapped the granite counter. “I don’t know why I didn’t realize this sooner.”

“What?”

“For the last month, I’ve been seeing Chuck Howell’s initials on the security log sheet every time I’ve walked into my office. If we compare his signature to the one in the letter, I bet the
H
s will match.”

“Well, he’s certainly one of the few people with a master key,” Edward pointed out. “He could’ve easily sneaked into her office to steal the stationary. Except that doesn’t explain how he would’ve known about the conference.”

“Wendy Carson.”

“Who the hell is Wendy Carson?”

“Assistant to the VP of Regulatory Affairs. I rejected her as an applicant for Hannah’s job. Chuck is her stepbrother or something. I think if we check the personnel records, we’ll find out she even received an employee referral bonus when he was hired.”

“Okay.” Edward shrugged. “So how would Wendy know enough about the conference to sabotage it?”

“Because I told her about it. I forgot she filled in for a while the afternoon you took Hannah shopping. She’s also one of Renee’s friends. I’d bet next year’s bonus Wendy got Hank to steal the stationary and sign that letter.”

“You really think so?”

“I’m almost certain of it. That’s why the
H
in the forgery seemed so familiar.”

Jordan recalled the unrestrained way he’d taken Hannah and made her shriek last Friday night, and his stomach rolled. It made him sick to imagine that pervert might have stood outside his office, listening.

If it was the last thing he ever did, he’d see to it the son of a bitch was nailed to the wall. He fished his car keys out of his pocket. “I’m going back to the office to see if I’m right.”

“Now?” Edward’s gaze jerked up. “It’s after ten-o’clock.”

“I might as well. I won’t sleep if I go to bed wondering. I need to check this out in the personnel file room.”

“Well, at least finish your sandwich and give me two minutes to change my clothes.” Edward dashed toward the back staircase. “I’ll go with you.”

Jordan smiled. The old
guy
acted as if they were setting out on some suspense-packed Hardy Boy’s adventure.

~*~

“Look at the
H
on these.” Jordan laid Chuck Howell’s signed employment application from his personnel file on the table next to the copy of the letter with Hannah’s forged signature. “You don’t need to be a graphologist to tell the same person wrote them.”

Edward pointed to the
L
in Hannah’s last name. “Even the two Ls in Howell have the same lopsided slant as in the forgery. Hannah’s handwriting is neater than most calligraphers’. Any idiot could tell she didn’t sign that letter.”

Jordan snorted to himself. Any idiot but him.

To be fair, he’d known immediately it wasn’t Hannah’s signature. Except that hadn’t stopped him from assuming the worst of her before he’d seen the evidence of her innocence in black and white. She hadn’t deserved his mistrust and suspicion.

She’d proven to him time and again that she
’d been cut
from an entirely different bolt of cloth than women like Marcy and his mother—or the
Renees
and
Wendys
of the world. He was a lot more to Hannah than, as she put it, just a
big gold-plated penis
.

The excuse that it wouldn’t be fair for him—an emotionally challenged cynic—to marry her or that she deserved better than him was pure bull. He was scared shitless. Plain and simple.

How long was he going to let his fear of rejection and abandonment keep him isolated from his feelings, from letting other people in—and more importantly, from trusting Hannah’s love?

Jordan dug his cell phone out of his pocket.

“Who’re you calling at this hour?” Edward eased Chuck’s employment file back into the drawer.

“Hannah. I need to tell her what we discovered. This is too important to wait until tomorrow.” Jordan punched out her number.

The line rang four times before she finally yawned in his ear. “Hullo.”

“I think I’ve solved the mystery of who tried to frame you.” He told her about Howell’s handwriting and Wendy Carson’s knowledge of the conference details.

“Chuck and Wendy are related?” she murmured. “Why am I not surprised?”

“First thing tomorrow, I’m having him charged with forgery, and getting the IT manager to search Wendy’s computer hard drive and her network files.” If they were lucky, they’d discover she’d saved the letter at work somewhere.

“Even if we can’t dig up any hard evidence against Wendy, once Howell is officially charged, I guarantee that maggot will roll over on his stepsister faster than the DA can have her arrested for accessory to fraud.”

“Jordan, I’m glad you figured it out, but couldn’t you have waited to tell me? I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night—and neither did you. Why are you still up at this hour?”

“I’m sorry I woke you, sweetheart. But that was only part of the reason I called. I also wanted to tell you—” He struggled to push the words past the emotion clogging his throat. “I love you, Hannah. And I trust that you love me.”

“Please.” A heart-wrenching sob caught in her voice. “Don’t do this to me.”

The line clicked in his ear. He stared at the cell phone and turned to Edward, his mouth hanging open. “I don’t think she believed me.”

“Why not?”

Jordan shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. You’ve lived nearly twice as long as I have. Have you ever understood women?

“No.” Edward chuckled. “You’ve got me there.”

“Knowing Hannah, she probably thinks I said it in some desperate attempt to keep her baking me cookies.”

Edward clapped his hand on Jordan’s back. “She just needs a little romancing to convince her. Come on. It’s late. Let’s go home.”

On their trip back to the lobby, Jordan racked his brain for some way to convince Hannah of his sincerity. Her voice echoed in his memory, reinforcing his grandfather’s advice. ‘
I deserve love, romance—and marriage. I refuse to settle for anything less
.’

“Gramps, how about I let one of the security guys run you home?”

“Why? Where are you going?”

“To Hannah’s. If she needs romance to believe I love her, then, damn it,
it’s
romance she’s going to get.”

rec•
on•cil•i•a•tion
 n. 1. The act of reconciling; reestablishing a close relationship. 2. See penance.

There is no sweeter moment than when your two-timing ex admits he wants you back and learns you’ve found someone else with a nicer car and bigger stick shift.

Jordan’s words of love stung like lemon juice in a paper cut. Hannah yanked the sheet over her shoulder and punched her pillow several times. Talk was cheap. If he truly cared, he’d offer her the rest of his life instead of financial security.

The hour of sleep she’d already gotten had taken the edge off her exhaustion. At midnight, she was still tossing and turning, staring into the dark. When the doorbell’s chime reverberated through her apartment, she stiffened.

Why couldn’t he just leave her to her misery? She flipped back the covers and padded barefoot into the living room. “Jordan, go away,” she called through the door. “I can’t deal with you right now.”

“It’s not Jordan, Hannah—whoever
he
is. Would you let me in, please?”

“Kevin?” She glanced down at the pink cotton baby doll
nightie
her ex-fiancé had already seen her in on a dozen occasions and flung open the door. “What on earth are you doing here?”

He scanned her from the top of her bed-head to her polished toes. “Man, you look pretty. What’d you do to your hair? I like it that way.”

“What do you want?”

He shot a sheepish grin at her and shrugged one shoulder. He looked awful. His normally impeccable clothes were rumpled, and he didn’t appear to have shaved that day. “Would you believe my car broke down about a mile from here?”

“Oh, really?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Scout’s honor.” Kevin held up his right hand as if he were taking an oath in court. “But I admit the reason I was so close is because I’ve been driving around town all evening, trying to work up the courage to knock on your door. Aren’t you
gonna
invite me in?”

“What about Gina?”

“We broke up less than a month after she moved in with me.”

Hannah couldn’t help feeling a bit smug that it hadn’t worked out between them. Stepping back, she let him into the apartment and closed the door.

“That’s as long as it took me to realize what a huge mistake I’d made. You’re the most perfect woman any man could ever ask for in a wife. And I was a fool not to see it.”

It was all she could do not to gag.

“Yes, that’s very true.” She chuckled to herself, realizing, for the first time in her life, she truly believed any man would be lucky to marry her.

Kevin sank onto the sofa and pulled her down next to him. “I need you to understand why I—” He raked his fingers through his short-cropped blond hair. “I was so frustrated when I couldn’t give you as much pleasure as you gave me. I felt sort of,
uhhh
....”