King’s Million-Dollar Secret (3 page)

She smoothed her fingers over the edge and sighed a little. It was perfect. Looking up at him, she said, “Thank you. It's great.”

“Glad you like it.” He tucked it back into the trailer and draped a protective work blanket over it.

“I thought the contractor was supposed to pick up the supplies for the job,” she said.

He turned back to look at her and shoved both hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Joe asked me to pick up a few things at the home store. I saw the sink and…”

“How'd you know I'd like it?”

“Took a shot,” he admitted.

“It was a good one.”

His blue eyes were shining and a cool wind tossed his black hair across his forehead. He was tall, broad-shouldered and looked
great
in those faded jeans, she thought, not for the first time. In fact, she had dreamed about him the night before. In her dream they were back in her kitchen, alone, as they had been yesterday. But in her fantasy, Rafe had kissed her until her toes curled and she had awakened so taut with desire and tension she hadn't been able to go back to sleep.

Even her unconscious mind was working against her.

“So, Rafe Cole,” she asked, “how long have you been in construction?”

She thought his features tightened briefly, but the expression was gone so quickly, she couldn't be sure. Now why would that simple question get such a reaction?

“My dad started me out in the business when I was a kid,” he said, staring off at the house, keeping his gaze deliberately away from hers. “I liked it and just sort of stuck with it.”

“I get that,” she said, trying to put him at ease again, to regain the easiness they'd shared only a moment ago. “My grandmother started me out baking when I was a little girl, and, well, here I am.”

He nodded and glanced at her. “How long have you lived here?”

“I grew up here,” she said. “My dad died before I was born, and my mom and I moved in here with Nana.” Her gaze tracked across the familiar lines of the old bungalow. The windows were wide, the roof was shake and the paint was peeling in spots. But the house was home. It meant security. Comfort. “I moved out for college, then mom died and a year ago, I inherited the house from Nana.”

“Oh,” he said softly. “I'm sorry.”

It took her a second; then Katie laughed and told him, “No, she didn't die. She just moved. Nana and her sister Grace decided to share an apartment at the Senior Living Center. They figure there are lots of lonely men over there looking for love!”

He laughed at that and once again, Katie felt a rush of something hot and delicious spread through her. The man should smile more often, she thought and wondered why he didn't. The other guys working here were forever laughing and joking around. But not Rafe.

He was more quiet. More mysterious.

Just…
more.

 

Rafe sat opposite his brother Sean at a local diner and waited for his burger. As for Sean, he was typing out a message or thirty on his cell phone. Okay, as far as Rafe was concerned. Gave him more time to think about Katie Charles.

The woman was haunting him.

He couldn't remember being so fixated on a single woman—not even Leslie, before he married her, had so completely captivated him. While that should have worried him, instead he was intrigued. What was it about Katie that was getting to him?

She was beautiful, sure. But lots of women were. He wanted her, but he had
wanted
lots of women. There was something else about her that was reaching out to him on so many different levels, he couldn't even name them all.

“Hey,” Sean said with a laugh. “Where'd you go?”

“What?” Rafe swiveled on the bench seat and looked at his younger brother.

“I've been talking to you for five minutes and you haven't heard a word. So I was wondering just what exactly had you thinking so hard.”

Rafe scowled a little, irritated to have been caught daydreaming. Jeez. Thoughts of Katie were taking up way too much of his time. “Not surprising I was thinking of something else, since you were so busy texting.”

“Nice try,” Sean said, still grinning. “Distract me with insults so I won't ask if you're still thinking about the cookie woman.”

Rafe shot him a glare. “Her name's Katie.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Anyone ever tell you how irritating you are?”

“Besides you, you mean?” Sean asked, giving their waitress a bright smile as she delivered their dinners. “You bet. All the time.”

Rafe had to smile. Sean was absolutely the most laid-back King ever born. Most of them were type A's, ruthlessly pushing through life, demanding and getting their own way. Not Sean. He had a way of slipping up on whatever he wanted until it just naturally fell into his hands.

He was damn hard to annoy and almost never lost his temper. In the world of the King family, he was an original.

Once the waitress was gone, the brothers dove into their meals. This hamburger joint on Ocean Avenue had been a popular spot since the forties. Rafe and Sean were on the outside patio, where they could watch traffic and pedestrians in a never-ending stream of motion. Kids, dogs, parents with digital cameras poking out of their pockets fought for space on the crowded sidewalk. Summer in a beach town brought out the tourists.

“So,” Sean said, reaching for his beer, “let's hear it.”

“Hear what?”

“About the cookie lady,” Sean countered, both of his eyebrows wiggling.

Rafe sighed. Should have expected that his brother would be curious. After all, Rafe hadn't talked about a woman since Leslie walked out. He remembered his ex-wife looking at him sadly and telling him that she felt “sorry” for him because he had no idea how to love someone. That he never should have married her and sentenced her to a cold, empty life.

Then he thought about Katie and it was like a
cool, soft breeze wafted through his mind. “She's…different.”

“This gets better and better.” Sean leaned back in his booth and waited.

Frowning, Rafe took a sip of his beer. When he spoke, it was a warning not only to his brother, but to himself. “Don't make more of this than there is. I just find her interesting.”

“Interesting.” Sean nodded. “Right. Like a bug collection?”

“What?”

Laughing, his brother said, “Come off it, Rafe. There's something there and you're looking. And about time too, I want to say. Leslie was a long time ago, man.”

“Not that long,” Rafe countered. Although, as he thought about it, he realized that he and Leslie had been divorced for more than five years. His ex-wife was now remarried to Rafe's former best friend, with a set of toddler twins and a newborn, last he heard.

“Long enough for her to move on. Why haven't you?”

Rafe shot Sean a glare that should have fried his ass on the spot. Typically enough though, Sean wasn't bothered. “Who says I haven't?”

“Me. Lucas. Tanner. Mac. Grady…” Sean stopped, paused and asked, “Do I have to name
all
of our brothers or do you get the point?”

“I get it, but you're wrong.” Rafe took a bite of his truly excellent burger and after chewing, added, “I'm not carrying a torch for Leslie. It's over. Done. She's a mother, for God's sake.” And if he was to be honest, he hadn't really missed her when she left. So what did that say about him?

“Yet, you're still living in a hotel suite making do with the occasional date with a beautiful airhead.”

“I like living in a hotel and they're not all airheads.”

“Good argument.”

“Look,” Rafe said, reaching for his beer. “Katie's a nice woman, but she's off limits.”

“Why's that?”

“Because she's got white picket fence written all over her,” Rafe explained. “She's the settle-down-and-get-married type and I've already proven I'm not.”

Sean shook his head and sighed. “For a smart guy, you're not real bright, are you?”

“Thanks for the support.”

“You want support?” Sean asked, digging into his burger. “Then stop being an idiot.”

“Shut up. I tried the happily-ever-after thing and it blew up in my face. Not going to do it again.”

“Did you ever consider that maybe the reason it didn't work was because you married the wrong woman?”

Rafe didn't even bother answering that jibe. What would have been the point?

 

Monday morning, the guys were still fighting with the pipes and Katie was ready for a week in Tahiti. She'd hardly slept all weekend. Though the peace and quiet were great, she'd been so busy filling cookie orders she hadn't had time to appreciate it.

Now she sipped at a cup of coffee and winced every time the whine of a drill shrieked into the air.

“The noise is worst the first week,” someone from nearby said.

She turned to look at Joe Hanna, the contractor. “You're just saying that so I won't run away.”

He grinned. “Once the new pipes and drains are
installed, the rest will be easier for you to live with. I promise.”

He had no sooner made that vow when a shout came from the kitchen. “Arturo! Shut off the water! Off! Off!”

“Crap.” Joe hustled across the yard just behind Rafe while Arturo sprinted for the water shutoff valve out front. Katie was hot on Joe's heels and stepped into the kitchen in time to see Steve crouched over a pipe with water spraying out of it like a fountain in Vegas.

Katie backed out of their way while the men grabbed towels. Then Arturo got the water off and the three men in the kitchen were left standing around as what looked like the incoming tide rolled across the floor and under the house.

“That fitting wasn't on there right, damn it,” Steve muttered and dropped through the hole in the floor.

“Should have checked it out with the water on low,” Joe pointed out and got a glare from Rafe in response.

“What happened?” Katie asked and both men turned to look at her.

“Nothing huge,” Joe assured her. “Just got to tighten things up. Looks worse than it is.”

Katie hoped so, because it looked like a lake was in her kitchen and she couldn't think that was a good thing.

Joe slapped one hand on Rafe's shoulder and said, “I should have checked his work personally before we tested it. Rafe's been out of the game for a while, so he may be rusty. But he's got potential.”

Katie saw the flicker of annoyance cross Rafe's features and she shared it.

“Isn't Steve the plumber?” she asked pointedly.

“Yeah,” Joe said, “but Rafe did the joint work on that pipe.”

“It was fine,” Rafe said. “That shouldn't have happened.”

“Sure, sure,” Joe told him, then looked at Katie. “My fault. Like I said, I should have kept a closer eye on the new guy's work.”

Rafe was biting his tongue, no doubt worried about defending himself and maybe losing his job. Then she realized that he could be fired anyway, if Joe decided that his work was too sloppy. So before she could stop herself, she stepped in to defend him. “Rafe does excellent work. He set up my temporary kitchen, allowing me to keep my business going. He's stayed late everyday cleaning up and making sure I'm inconvenienced as little as possible. I'm sure that whatever happened with that pipe was unavoidable.”

“Yeah,” a voice came rumbling up from under the house. “Found the problem. The first joint worked itself loose, so the water had to go somewhere. My bad. I'll get it fixed and we'll be back in business.”

Katie gave Joe a look that said quite clearly,
See? You blamed the wrong man.
She smiled at Rafe and left them to clean up the mess and get back to work.

“What was that all about?” Joe wondered.

Steve poked his head up from under the floorboards and smiled widely. “Sounds to me like the boss lady has a thing for Rafe. Lucky bastard.”

“Shut up, Steve,” Rafe said, but his gaze was locked on the empty doorway where Katie had been standing only a moment before.

Joe was riding him because he could and Rafe would take it because it was all part of the bet he'd lost. Good-natured teasing was all part of working a job. But Katie's
defense of him had surprised him. Hell, he couldn't even remember the last time someone had stood up for him—not counting his half-brothers and cousins.

Katie Charles was like no one he'd ever met before. She didn't want anything from him. Wasn't trying to get on his good side. But then, that was because she thought his name was Rafe Cole.

It would be an entirely different story if she knew he was a King.

R
afe was late getting to the job site.

Despite the bet he was in the process of paying off, he had his regular job to do, too. And dealing with a supplier who wasn't coming through for them was one of the tasks he enjoyed most.

“Look Mike,” he said, tightening his grip on the phone. “You said we'd have the doors and windows on site at the medical complex by noon yesterday.”

“Is it my fault if things got hung up on the East Coast?”

“Probably not,” Rafe conceded, “but it's your fault if you don't get this straightened out in the next—” he checked his watch “—five hours.”

“That's impossible,” the older man on the other end of the line argued.

“All depends on how determined you are, now doesn't it?” Rafe wasn't going to listen to the man's excuses.
This was the second time Mike Prentice had failed to come through for King Construction. It would be the last.

Rafe didn't put up with failure. Mistakes happened to everyone, he knew that. But if a man couldn't keep track of his own business, then he was too disorganized to count on. The Kings required the people they worked with to have the same diligence they showed. “You have the materials at the job site by end of day today.”

“Or…?” Mike asked.

A slow smile curved his mouth. Mike couldn't see it, but he must have heard it when Rafe answered, “You really don't want to know, do you?”

“Things happen, Rafe,” the man continued to try to defend himself. “I can't stay on top of every supplier I have, you know.”

“Don't see why not,” Rafe countered. “I do.”

“Right. Well, I'm betting that every once in a while someone stiffs the Kings, too.”

“Yeah, they do.” He glanced around his office at King Construction, already moving on from this particular problem. “But it doesn't happen often and it never repeats itself. This isn't the first time we've had this conversation, Mike. I took your explanation last time, but this is your second chance. I guarantee you, we'll never have this discussion again. If you can't get the supplies to us in five hours, King Construction will find a new supplier for this job.”

“Now just wait a minute, let's not be hasty.”

“You get
one
second chance with King Construction, Mike,” Rafe told him flatly. “And this was it. Now, you have the materials there, as we agreed, or I'll put the word out to every construction outfit in the state that
you can't be trusted. How many jobs you think you'll get then?”

A long moment of tense silence passed while the other man did some fast thinking. Rafe knew what was going through the guy's mind. He'd already ruined his rep with the Kings, but he still had hundreds of other construction outfits to do business with. Unless he messed this up further.

“It'll be there,” the man said, but he didn't sound happy about it. “You're a hard man, Rafe.”

“You should've remembered that, Mike.”

Rafe hung up then, leaned back in his desk chair and spun it around until he could look out the window at the ocean scene stretching out in front of him. The King Construction building sat directly on Pacific Coast Highway and each of the brothers had an office with a view. One of the perks of being an owner.

Another perk was reaming guys who failed them.

Standing up, Rafe leaned one hand on the window, feeling the cool of the glass seep into his skin. Was he a hard man? He supposed so.

His ex-wife sure as hell thought so.

Just another reason for him to keep his distance from Katie Charles.

A woman like that didn't need a hard man in her life.

 

“Now, isn't this a nice view?”

Katie rolled her eyes and laughed at her grandmother. “You're impossible.”

Emily O'Hara grinned, fluffed her stylishly trimmed silver hair and then winked at her granddaughter. “Honey, if you don't like looking at handsome men, they might as well bury you.”

They were standing at the edge of the yard, watching the action. The men worked together seamlessly, each of them concentrating on a certain area, then helping each other out when needed. Naturally, Nana had noticed Rafe right away, but Katie could hardly blame her. The man was really worth watching.

Katie's gaze went directly to Rafe, on the opposite side of the yard. Since that morning when she'd stood up for him to Joe, Rafe had been avoiding her. She couldn't quite figure out why, either. Maybe it was a guy thing, embarrassing to have a woman defend his honor? She smiled to herself at the thought.

“Well, well. I can see now that you're doing plenty of noticing.” She draped one arm around Katie's shoulders. “He's quite the hunk, isn't he?”

“Hunk?” Katie repeated with a laugh.

“You betcha. The question is, what're you going to do about it?”

“What can I do?” Katie watched Rafe as he grinned at something Arturo said and she felt a delicious flutter in the pit of her stomach.

“Honestly,” Nana said with a shake of her head, “youth really is wasted on the wrong people. Katie, if you want him, go for it.”

“He's not a cookie I can grab and wrap up.”

“Who said anything about wrapping him up?” Nana laughed and advised, “I was thinking more that you should
unwrap
him. Just grab him and take a bite. Life's too short, honey. You've got to enjoy it while you can.”

“Unbelievably enough,” Katie said, “I'm not as freewheeling as my grandmother.”

“Well, you could be.” Nana shook her head and said, “I loved your grandfather, honey, but he's been gone
a long time and I'm still alive and kicking. And, so are
you.
You've been burying yourself in your work for so long, it's a wonder you can step outside without squinting into the sun like a mole.”

“I'm not that bad!”

“Didn't used to be,” her grandmother allowed. “Until that Cordell twisted you all up.”

Katie frowned at the reminder.

“There's a whole wide world full of people out there and half of them are men,” Nana told her. “You can't let one bad guy ruin your opinion on an entire gender.”

Is that what she was doing? Katie wondered. She didn't think so. Sure, Cordell King had hurt her, but she wasn't hiding. She was working. Building her business. Just because she hadn't been on a date in…good night. She hadn't been on an actual date with an actual man since Cordell and that was more than six months ago now.

How had that happened?

She used to be fun.

She used to call her friends and go out.

She used to have a life.

“Oooh, here comes the cute one,” her grandmother whispered.

Katie came out of her thoughts and watched Rafe approaching them. He wasn't cute, she thought. He was dark and dangerous and so sexy just watching him walk made her toes curl. Golden retrievers were cute. Rafe was…tempting.

“What'd you say his name was?”

“Rafe. Rafe Cole.”

“Hmm…”

Katie looked at her grandmother, but the woman's expression was carefully blank. Which usually meant
there was something going on in Nana's mind that she didn't want anyone else to know about. But before Katie could wriggle the information out of her, Rafe was standing in front of them. She made the introductions, then Rafe spoke up.

“I just wanted to tell you that we'll be shutting down early tonight. Joe's got a meeting and he wants Arturo and Steve there.”

“Not you?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No reason for me to be there. I'm just a worker bee. Anyway,” he said, with a smile for her grandmother, “it was nice to meet you.”

“Good to meet you too, Rafe,” Nana said with a smile.

When he walked away, Katie's gaze was locked on him. His long legs, the easy, confident strides he took, the way the sunlight glinted on his black hair. And yes, she admitted silently, she liked the view of his butt in those faded jeans, too.

Finally though, she turned her gaze to her grandmother. The thoughtful expression on her Nana's face had her asking, “Okay, what's going on? What're you thinking?”

“Me? Only wondering if he has a grandfather as good looking as he is.”

“You're hiding something,” Katie said, narrowing her eyes.

“Me?” Emily slapped one hand to her chest and widened her eyes in innocence. “I'm an open book, sweetie. What you see is what you get.”

“Nana…”

She checked her wristwatch and said, “Oh, I have to fly. Grace and I have a double date tonight with a couple
of frisky widowers. I'm meeting Grace for manicures in half an hour.”

Katie laughed and gave her a hug. “You're amazing.”

“So are you, when you give yourself a chance.” Emily slid a look at Rafe again. “Why not invite that boy to dinner? Live a little, Katie. You like him, don't you?”

“Yeah,” Katie said, shifting her gaze back to Rafe. “I do. I mean, I've only known him a week, but I've spent so much time with him, it feels like longer. He's a nice guy, Nana. A regular guy. Nothing like Cordell King and believe me, that's a good thing. I've had it with the idle rich.”

“Not all rich guys are idle,” Emily pointed out. “Or, jerks for that matter.”

“Maybe,” Katie said, but she wasn't convinced. Granted, she hadn't had a lot of experience with rich men. Cordell had been the one and only billionaire she'd ever known. But if he was an example of their breed, then he was more than enough to last her a lifetime. “From now on though, I'm only interested in regular, hardworking guys.”

“You have your mother's hard head, God bless her.” Nana blew out a breath and said, “Fine. This Rafe seems nice enough and he's surely easy on the eyes.”

“That he is,” Katie agreed, letting her gaze slide back to the man whose image had been filling her dreams lately.

“But you never really know a man until you've hit the sack with him.”

“Nana!” Katie groaned and shook her head. “What kind of role model are you, anyway?”

“The good kind.” Emily laughed, clearly delighted at being able to shock her granddaughter so easily. “I'm
just saying, it might be interesting to take him out for a test drive, that's all.”

Katie loved her grandmother, but she was in no way the free spirit Emily O'Hara was. But then Nana hadn't always been this outspoken and full of adventure. Right after Katie's mother died, Nana had seemed to realize just how short life really was and she'd thrown herself into the mix with abandon.

And while Katie admired that adventurous style and certainly understood, she just couldn't bring herself to behave the same way. Nana had had the great love of her life and now she was looking for fun.

Katie was still looking for love.

Still, the fact was, Nana was probably right about Rafe. Katie was more drawn to him than she had been to anyone, up to and including Cordell King. So maybe it was time she took a chance. Pushed herself out of the cocoon she'd wrapped herself in.

“Not interested in a test drive.” Okay, that's a lie, she amended silently when that little buzz of interest popped in her veins again. “Not yet, anyway,” she said aloud. “But dinner would be good. I do like him and he's so different from Cordell King.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Not a darn thing.” Emily pulled her in for a hard, tight hug and said, “I'm off for some fun. I suggest you do the same. Gotta run.”

Alone again, Katie silently studied Rafe Cole as he stood in the sunlight laughing with Arturo.

Fun sounded like a good idea.

 

“The guys are gone,” Rafe said.

He had stayed deliberately, after the crew left for the
night, just to get a few minutes alone with her. Hadn't asked himself why, because he wasn't sure he'd like the answer. But he'd fallen into the habit of being the last man to leave and he actually looked forward to the times when it was just him and Katie at the house.

The neighborhood was quiet, but for the muffled, heartbeat-like sound of a basketball thumping in someone's driveway. A dog barked from close by and the ocean wind felt cool after a long day in the sun.

Katie had her curly red hair pulled back in a ponytail and her green eyes were shining in the afternoon light. A soft smile curved her mouth and Rafe felt a punch of need slam into him. He knew it would be a mistake to get her into bed. After all, not only was she so not his type, but she hated the King family. If they had sex and she found out he'd lied about who he was, it could only get ugly.

But damned if logic had anything to do with what he was feeling at the moment.

“How'd it go today?” She stepped out of the house and started for the garage. Rafe walked with her.

“We got the drywall up over the pipes and the plumbing's finished.”

“Really?” She stopped and grinned. “No more naked pipes!”

The smile on her face made her eyes shine brighter and Rafe felt a tug of something hot and wicked. The woman could turn him hard without even trying. He couldn't even remember a time when he'd been this attracted, this quickly to anyone. Not even Leslie, the ex-wife from hell, had had this effect on him.

After a moment or two, he cleared his throat and said, “Yeah. It should move pretty quickly now, as long as all of your supplies come in on time.”

She held up both hands, fingers crossed, and said, “Here's hoping. I really miss having a kitchen.”

“Maybe, but from the smells coming from your temporary setup, it's not slowing you down any.”

Laughing, she opened the garage door and stepped into the gloom. Rafe stayed with her, not ready to leave yet. He took a quick look around the garage. It was tidy, like the rest of her house. Storage shelves on one wall, washer and drier on another. There was an older model, red SUV parked dead center and a few lawn and garden tools stacked along the last wall.