Sex, Lies and Midnight (18 page)

All good reasons to use Lilah.

Even if the very idea made him feel dirty. He almost shuddered. Dirty and disloyal.

“Sure. I was so distracted by the merchandise, I didn’t even realize there was a café.” He made a show of looking at his watch, then gave Lilah another charming smile. “I have to meet Maya now. But maybe tomorrow? Lunch? You can tell me what’s good.”

Hurrying without seeming to, Simon agreed on a time and place to meet Lilah, then he got the hell out of there.

As he walked away, his shoulders sagged. There was enough evidence to officially open the case. One phone call to Hunter and he could kick off his new assignment with the biggest bust of his career.

Then he imagined Maya’s face. She might not yet realize she’d come home to make amends with her father, but he did. What kind of jerk would he be to have her father hauled off before she had a chance to heal their relationship?

Then again, maybe Tobias wasn’t guilty. Maybe the rumor was true and someone had tried to set him up to take the fall in last month’s drug bust. If so, it was remotely conceivable that the guns tied into that.

He owed it to Maya to double and triple check before opening a case on her father, didn’t he? Otherwise, he’d be destroying any chance of this thing between the two of them becoming real.

And that was something he suddenly, desperately wanted.

9

PRETENDING SHE WASN’T furious, Maya curled up on the bed with Dottie purring a soothing tune against her side. She booted up her laptop and plugged in her internet USB, and waited for access. The Manor had wireless, but she didn’t trust open modems.

As she waited for her Captain Jack Sparrow wallpaper to load, Maya stared out the window. The bumper of her car was barely visible, but it was right there where she’d parked it.

After, of course, she’d used her spare key and driven it back from the town square. Leaving Simon behind doing who knows what, who knows where, had been the most pleasure she’d had since he’d pulled his head from between her thighs this morning.

And not just because he’d taken her car and ditched her without so much as a kiss goodbye. Or that he’d made her feel like an ass when she’d gone downstairs, furious, to ask Mr. Hamilton to call her a cab and discovered her aunt visiting with the creepy innkeeper.

The fury wasn’t even because of the overwhelming rumors her aunt had bombarded her with about Tobias, pushing miserable doubts and worries into Maya’s head.

Nope. She was pissed because Simon was with Lilah.

Grinding her teeth against a scream of frustration, Maya punched her laptop keys to open her browser. This was stupid. She’d hired him to pretend to be her boyfriend, not to offer up his undying loyalty. So he was with Lilah. So what. Maybe the other woman would glom on to him so publically that Tobias dumped her.

As if the very idea didn’t make her want to cry, Maya forced herself to focus on the matter at hand.

Hacking into her father’s computers. She had to discover if her father was a dirty, lowdown drug dealer.

Even though she knew he was too smart to run anything through the business, she started with the Black Custom Rides account. Hacking into his system didn’t take long.

Thirty minutes later, she’d gone through the shop’s email accounts, saved and sent messages, and had glanced through the documents folder.

Now for the real nitty gritty, his accounting program.

She had to bypass two passwords, and shook her head at the ease in which she was able to access not only his books, but his bank account.

What the hell? Tobias should have better safeguards. What was he thinking, depending on a simple firewall and security program? If things were normal, she’d have lectured him first, then after a big hug, she’d have built an impenetrable wall around his system.

Blinking back tears as she imagined the scene, she felt a pang of regret, deep in her heart.

Not the point, she reminded herself. If her father was up to something, especially if it was something that would hurt Caleb, she had to find it out.

But his accounting numbers looked legit. She made a few notations to check on, especially the supply costs since they were high, but didn’t seem too far out of line given the price he was asking for the bikes. Really, it looked like her father, with his usual panache, was making a huge success of his motorcycle shop. So why was Aunt Cynthia so sure he was breaking the law? Especially with something as nasty as drugs?

She’d have to do a deeper search. Home computer, secondary accounts. Because really, unless her father had hit senility along with his fiftieth birthday, he wasn’t going to keep anything illegal on the company books.

Before she could do anything, though, someone pounded on her door. Maya jumped, almost sending the laptop to the floor as she exchanged a chagrined look with Dottie. She quickly closed the browser and had just lowered the computer lid when the door swung open.

“Well, well,” Simon said as he strode in. He closed the door behind him with a care that belied the angry fists he’d used to announce his arrival. “Don’t you look cozy?”

“I should, since it’s my room,” she said with a stiff smile. She hadn’t expected him back this soon. In the old days, Lilah had a rep for taking a long time to please.

Her gaze as chilly as her smile, she inspected her faux boyfriend. No lipstick, no missing buttons. He looked healthy, so Lilah obviously hadn’t sucked him dry or gobbled up his soul.

“You look a little uncomfy,” she observed with an arched brow, noting his hair was disheveled and he had a faint glow of sweat. Had he walked all the way back to the manor? Her stomach sank a little as she wondered if that sweat was Lilah induced instead. He hadn’t gotten all sweaty during their sexfest last night, but who knew what kind of crazy demands the other woman insisted on.

“Uncomfy? I just jogged five miles,” Simon informed her, tossing a duffel bag on the foot of her bed. It was then that she noticed that he was wearing jogging pants instead of the jeans she’d seen him wear in town.

“Five miles is a tough run for you, hmm?”

“Five miles is a cakewalk. Five miles with a bag and jacket, that’s a little more interesting.”

Maya gave him a glowing smile.

“Awww, that’s too bad. You should have gotten a hold of me. I’d have given you a ride,” she lied, not bothering to hide her glee.

Hiding her reaction to seeing him again was harder, though. She’d brought him because he was gorgeous. Sexy and tempting, which she’d known would appeal to Lilah. Because as much as she hated the fact, Lilah did have great taste in men.

“You left me stranded,” Simon accused, giving her a look that was probably supposed to be friendly but didn’t hide the irritation in his eyes.

“Tit for tat,” she returned, filled with both joy and satisfaction. Playing with him was almost as fun as, well, playing with him. “You left me stranded this morning.”

“I left a note. You left an empty parking spot. I was worried your car had been stolen.”

“It
was
stolen. By you.”

Simon laughed. Then, noting the look on her face, his amusement died and he shrugged. “I had the keys, remember? Keys you handed me yourself.”

Maya sniffed. Her keys weren’t the only thing she was regretting handing him.

“So what’s the deal?” he said, a manly smile playing around the corners of lips she’d spent that morning missing. Of course, she’d been an idiot that morning. “You’re upset that I left you alone in bed? But it wasn’t a reflection on our night. That was fabulous. We were fabulous together.”

His voice was low and husky, the sexy tone making her toes curl and the heat pool between her thighs. He was almost as good with his voice as he was with those magic fingers.

“Like I said in the note I left for you, I was looking for a gym. I figured I’d get a day pass and work off some of the excess energy I woke with. And, to be honest, I was afraid if I stayed I’d take you again.” He gave her a look that had Maya’s thighs turning to mush and her heart starting to thump. Memories of him giving her that look as he was poised over her, his gorgeous body naked except for a light glinting off his muscles.

It took every bit of acting skill Maya had learned at her daddy’s knee to keep the desire off her face and her breathing calm and even.

“I wanted to stay,” he said quietly. And damn him, he looked like he really meant the words. “I wanted to touch you. Taste you. Slide into the warm welcome of your body. But you were asleep. It was a roller coaster of a night. The drive down. Seeing your family. Us, together. I figured you’d appreciate a little rest.”

He crossed over to the bedside and brushed his fingers through the curls by her temple, giving her one of those heart-melting smiles. Her nipples perked to attention and her thighs tensed. She swallowed, unable to stop her body’s Pavlovian reaction but damned if she’d let him see it.

“You shouldn’t have bothered,” she said, her words shaky with desire. She forced herself to think back to the image of him and Lilah, all wrapped together. That gave her the incentive she needed to tilt her head aside so his fingers dropped away. “Black Oak doesn’t have a gym.”

Simon’s brows furrowed, but his smile didn’t shift. “Yeah, I found that out. But I was there, so I figured I’d take a little tour of the town. See where you grew up, all that.”

“A tour. Right.” Maya arched her brow and angled her head to one side to give him an aren’t-you-the-dumbass look.

“Then, after I called the sheriff to report your car missing and he assured me it was here at the manor, I jogged back.”

His face tightened, lips pressed tight for a second, making Maya wish like crazy she’d heard that discussion between him and Caleb. The thought almost pulled her out of her foul mood. That must have been a doozy of a chat.

“Well, then yay. It sounds like you got your workout after all.”

Simon grinned and backed up to lean his butt against the dresser and give her a long, intense look.

“So what’s the deal? You’re pissed because I left this morning without waking you? Or because I borrowed your car without asking?” He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a sad sort of look, like a pouty little boy who didn’t understand why he was being scolded. “I thought we were past that, Maya. I though, after you came to me last night and moved our relationship to the next level, that we at least had a little trust between us.”

Oh, man. She was acting like a jealous shrew. An apology actually made it to Maya’s lips, but she yanked it back just in time. Her eyes rounded and she gave him a suspicious look. Trust? He’d snuck out of bed while her body was still warm from their lovemaking. He’d stolen her car. She’d just seen him in town with Lilah hanging all over him.

Still, as a girl who’d grown up learning the art of manipulation, she had to hand it to him. That had been a masterful emotional play. And her feelings about him were still way too raw, much too vulnerable, for her to withstand that kind of manipulation.

“I’m not angry. I’m just busy,” she lied, gesturing to her laptop. It was closed, with Dottie laying across it like a feline guard. “If you don’t mind, I need to work for a while before we go to Caleb’s engagement party.”

Simon gave her a long look. Her nerves tightened as she wondered if he’d push or accept her dismissal. For all that he’d seemed easygoing when they’d first met, and even on the drive to town, she was starting to realize that was all an act.

There wasn’t one thing easy about Simon Harris.

She tried to quiet the nervous nagging in the back of her mind, taunting her that she’d made a huge mistake by bringing him.

Pretending he’d already agreed to leave, Maya grabbed her laptop, sliding it from under the cat so fast Dottie didn’t even open her eyes. She felt Simon stop and look back at her, but she ignored him.

Not there,
she told herself.
Pretend he’s not even there.
She opened her computer and clicked on a random document, pretending to read through tear-blurred eyes.

But as soon as he closed the door between their rooms, she dropped her head back against the pillow and groaned.

This was supposed to be a simple, albeit painful, trip home. Celebrate her brother’s engagement, visit her hometown, save her father from a miserable relationship.