Semiautomatic Marriage (15 page)

Did the discussion have anything to do with illicit black markets?

“I wonder why she wanted to take a working vacation?” Carolyn mused.

Lisa gave a disinterested shrug. “Arthur slammed out of the house and a few nights later he was
dead.” She took a hefty swallow of her second drink. “That’s the trouble with my mother. She thinks business morning, noon and night. I think Arthur got tired of it. You’ll get tired of it, too, Carolyn. She’ll want to run your life, as well as the business. But you can always depend on me to rescue you.” She tossed her pretty head. “I have a feeling I can teach you a lot about living the easy life.”

Carolyn didn’t doubt it for a minute. From everything she could tell, Lisa Denison had made a career out of doing absolutely nothing, beautifully.

By the time they returned to the mansion, Carolyn had tired of Lisa’s company and conversation. Lisa wasn’t at all like Rosie. Carolyn wished she could have explained everything to Rosie, but Adam’s conviction that they’d both be in danger if someone tumbled to the truth had kept her quiet.

When Adam called the house at noon, Morna briskly informed him that Carolyn and Lisa had gone shopping. She said briskly that she had no idea when they would be back.

“Will you and Mrs. Lawrence be dining at home this evening?” she asked. The fact that they’d failed to appear the evening before had been duly noted and chalked up against them.

“Yes, Morna. We’ll be staying in this evening.”

He would much rather have had a private dinner with Carolyn at some small, intimate restaurant, but there was no question that duty came first. He’d had a sense of a time clock ticking from the first moment he was given this case. He couldn’t ignore any opportunity to observe the people who might be involved in the death of a lot of innocent people. If
Jasper, Della and her children had been unaware of the new will, there might have been a conspiracy among them to get rid of the old man—especially if Arthur had discovered any nefarious dealing in his company.

Feeling this urgency, Adam had spent the day laying the groundwork for more detailed scrutiny of Horizon staff and business procedures. He had arrived early enough to take a look at the shipping department while the loading doors were still closed, and no one had arrived for work yet. Since he knew that Nick wouldn’t be showing up for work that day, Adam started with his office.

“Is there something you need?”

Adam turned from the filing cabinets whose contents he’d been about to examine and saw Nellie standing in the doorway. He masked his surprise with a sigh of relief. “I sure do, Nellie. I decided to start with the shipping department in my survey of the company. I’m hoping to come up with some ideas on how to increase the efficiency of moving the product. By the way, how is Nick doing this morning?” he asked, deliberately shifting the subject.

“I think he’s going to be okay. They won’t tell you much over the phone. I came in early so I could take care of a couple of things Nick was concerned about. I’ll make a run out to the hospital a little later.”

“Good idea. Listen, my stuff can wait. I think I’ve picked up a general idea of how the department works. When Nick comes back and has some free time, he can sort things out for me. I’m betting
there’re some headaches he’d like to get rid of, and I want to be of help if I can.”

She simply nodded and then watched him as he made his way across the open area to the elevator. He couldn’t tell if Nellie had bought the bag of lies.

The rest of the day hadn’t produced anything of immediate interest. He’d spent time making himself visible and chatting with various staff. The hours he spent on Arthur’s computer didn’t reveal any hint of what might have been there once and since erased.

Della pointedly ignored him, and by the time four o’clock came, he felt like a swimmer who’d been battling his way upstream. He needed something to renew his energy. The truth surprised him—he needed Carolyn’s company.

When he arrived at the mansion, he saw Lisa’s car in the garage. Letting himself into the house, he headed up the stairs to see if Carolyn was in their suite.

The outer sitting room was empty and so was the bedroom, but when he peeked into the study, his breath caught. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Oh, hi,” she said, turning away from a bookcase and walking toward him. “I was looking for something to read.”

He saw her mouth move, but the words didn’t register. The lines and curves of her body in the clinging red dress assaulted his senses. He just stared at her. If they’d been in the bedroom, he wasn’t sure what would have happened. She looked so damn alluring, tantalizing and seductive that his body instantly reacted with a hot need to claim her.

He silently swore. He couldn’t take this kind of temptation. He’d been forcing himself to honor his
commitment to her, and it was getting more difficult all the time. He sure as hell didn’t need any more enticements to push him into breaking his promise.

“Don’t you like my new look?” she asked in an anxious tone as he just stood there, gaping at her.

“It’s…it’s…” He searched for the right word and finally gave up. “No, I don’t. It isn’t you.”

“Really? And what is me, exactly?” she asked testily. “Last year’s fashion? Is that what you’re saying?”

He tried to recover from his faux pas. “I’m saying you don’t have to parade your…assets in clothes like that. It gives the wrong impression.”

“Are you talking from a detached perspective or a personal one?” she challenged as she slowly walked toward him.

He knew if he touched her, no amount of resolve was going to keep him from kissing her. She’d been engaging his feelings to the deepest levels from the beginning, but he’d been able to keep his desire in check because she hadn’t played into the growing attraction between them.

When she stopped in front of him, he thought she was going to challenge his fortitude with some sexy move. Instead, she gave him a wan smile.

“You’re right, of course. Don’t worry, Adam. This was an experiment, and Lisa was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

“She said my husband would take one look at me and carry me off to bed. I guess, maybe, I was foolishly dreaming something like that might happen—if things were different.”

He looked into her clear blue eyes. “If things were different, something would have happened be
fore now. You don’t need a dress like that to get my attention.”

He made the mistake of cupping her chin with his hand, and she made only the slightest movement toward him, but it was enough. He bent his head, and kissed her gently, a surge of desire humming through him. Her lips were soft and sweet, and he silently groaned as his mouth played on hers. As her arms crept up around his neck to deepen the kiss, he finally came to himself and gently set her away from him.

He had no business playing with her emotions at a time when she was trying to find herself. She was a millionaire, and once she was able to enjoy all the privileges that went with wealth, the world would bow at her feet. Any interest she had in him would quickly disappear. Neither spoke as they searched the other’s face.

“I’m sorry, Carolyn,” he finally murmured. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.” He grinned sheepishly. “It must be that darn dress.”

“Doesn’t Angel wear sexy clothes?” she asked pointedly.

“Who?” What in hell…?

“Angel. The woman you call Angel. Please don’t deny it.”

Shaken by his kiss and reeling with desire, Carolyn felt all her apprehension and anxiety come pouring out. It was almost as if some jealous little devil was sitting on her shoulder, prodding her. “Why couldn’t you be honest with me, Adam?”

“It’s not what think, Carolyn. You’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

“I may have jumped to a lot of wrong conclu
sions,” she answered shortly. “As far as I know, you could have been feeding me nothing but lies from the moment we met. I should have taken time to investigate, but you kept saying we couldn’t waste any time. Insisting we get legally married could have been a very clever move on your part. How do I know I’m not the victim of a horrendous money scam you and Bancroft cooked up?”

He started to answer and then held up his hand for silence. Quickly he crossed the room to the door to the hall and jerked it open.

He peered out. The hall was empty. Several doors along the corridor stood open. He couldn’t be sure if anyone had had time to duck out of sight. Undoubtedly there was also a servants’ stairway in this wing of the house. Maybe his intuition was all wrong. It was probably the loudness of Carolyn’s voice that had triggered his apprehension.

He closed the door and returned to Carolyn, standing there with her eyes still snapping. He couldn’t believe that a remark about a sexy dress and his calls to his superior had released a flood of unfounded suspicion. Did she really believe he might be setting her up to get his hands on her inheritance? Was this what she’d been thinking all along? And here he’d been so pleased at how harmoniously they’d been working together. He must have dropped the ball without knowing it.

“I can explain all this, Carolyn.”

“Please do,” she invited coolly.

He hesitated, knowing he couldn’t identify his superior, Angelica Rivers, for his own protection and hers. It was one of the cardinal rules of the agency
not to establish a trail that someone might follow from an undercover agent to another person.

“I don’t know how much you overheard,” he began hesitantly, trying to use an effective interrogation tool to find out what the person knows.

“I didn’t hear very much. And I wasn’t eavesdropping,” she hastened to assure him. “I simply heard you on the phone, calling someone Angel. I also know that you’ve been making calls after you thought I was asleep, and the whole thing suggests flagrant dishonesty about what you’ve told me.” She searched his face. “I can’t help asking myself why you would lie to me about not having any romantic attachments, unless it ties in with other lies you’ve told me. Lies that could make a total fool out of me.”

“I haven’t told you any lies about my private life or about this situation at Horizon,” he countered firmly. He wanted to tell her that no woman had even come close to touching his heart since he’d lost Marietta. Not until now. Didn’t she realize how just being around her had made him aware of the emptiness in his life? Sometimes his outward expression of tender caring came from deep within his very being. There was little pretense in the endearments he spoke for other ears, and the kiss he’d given her had vibrated through every cell in his body. How could she question his sincerity and integrity?

“Please believe me, Carolyn. I’ve been totally honest with you. You should have mentioned this whole ‘Angel’ thing before it festered. I assure you that my calls have not been made to a sweetheart or mistress. More than that, I cannot say until this investigation is over.”

She blinked, as if she couldn’t believe he was finished explaining. “That’s it?”

“Either you accept the truth of what I’m telling you or you don’t,” he said flatly. He knew better than to think he could bend her to his will if she set her mind against it. “My motivation is still the same. I just want to stop the pain and death of innocent people as quickly as I can. If you don’t believe that’s what all this is about, I can’t force you to continue. It’s a dangerous game. Are you still in, or are you out?”

Without answering, she crossed to the couch and sat down. Leaning forward, she rested her head in her hands as if her thoughts were too heavy. She looked so fragile and vulnerable that he had to fight his impulse to go and cuddle her.

When she finally raised her head, his heart caught in his throat. “I’m still in,” she said.

Because his chest was too tight to express his feelings of relief, he said casually, as if nothing more important was on his mind, “Morna is expecting us for dinner. Maybe we should be on time tonight.”

She nodded and walked past him as if they were two strangers who had somehow ended up together on a fast train to emotional disaster.

Chapter Ten

Dinner was a dismal affair. Buddy was the only one who showed any sign of good humor. He’d been fishing with a friend and bragged about the catch they’d made as if everyone at the table was interested in every detail. Ignoring his mother’s frown, he kept motioning for Seika to fill his wineglass.

Carolyn decided that Della and Lisa must have had a mother-daughter confrontation just before dinner, because they weren’t speaking to each other. Jasper didn’t seem to notice anything that was going on at the table. He gave his attention to his meal and his only comment was, “The salmon seems a bit dry.”

Adam asked Della some questions about how her day went, but only received polite, vague answers. He played the devoted husband, smiling at Carolyn and asking her if she wanted more rolls and rice pilaf, even though it should have been obvious to him that she was only picking at her food.

Every time he brushed her arm, she tensed. The memory of his mouth seductively capturing hers lingered with poignant intensity. She was aware of his
long legs inches from hers under the table, felt the magnetic draw his nearness exerted.

The verbal confrontation they’d had after the kiss only seemed to heighten the bewildering fact that she was falling in love with him. Even though he might be telling the truth about not having any romantic attachments, he had his own agenda. For the moment she was a necessary ingredient in that agenda, but that would change. And then what? He’d be on his way to a new assignment. Once again she was leaving herself open to hurt and abandonment.

When the excruciatingly long meal was over, Jasper surprised Carolyn by solemnly asking her to accompany him into the library. “I have something to show you.”

His invitation didn’t include Adam, but Carolyn was grateful that he acted as if it did. He gave her a wink and a smile as he placed a hand on her arm, then guided her out of the dining room and along a spacious hallway behind Jasper’s lean figure. When Jasper turned into a large room filled with bookcases and comfortable leather furniture, they followed.