The Princess and the Pauper (17 page)

The muscle in his jaw worked several times. “I know.”

“Then please, don’t make it harder.”

His mouth twisted. “With any luck I’ll be out of here in a week or two.”

April nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“I know this probably isn’t the time, but I have to ask a favor,” he said after a pause.

“What?”

“Could you stay after closing with me? I’d rather work without anyone else around.”

The air suddenly felt as if it were pressing down on her chest. April wanted to scream. “No, I’m sorry. I can’t. I have to be home for my daughter.”

“What about tomorrow, early?”

“No, Jesse.” April paced across the room, putting distance between them. She could almost feel his magnetism coming at her in waves. Her back to him, she stared out the window.

“When, then?”

She’d placed herself in this position. She’d demanded to be the one he confided in. Now she didn’t like the role.

“Tomorrow night after closing,” she said flatly. “I’ll get a sitter.”

“Okay.” The chair groaned and squeaked as he got to his feet. “Guess I’ll go see Jordan.”

It was long moments before April trusted herself to turn around again.

The store was nearly dark; only a row of overhead lights straight down the center of the ceiling was left on. The night shift security man knew April and Jesse were on the tenth floor. Otherwise they were alone.

“This is accounting, and the main computer is in here,” April said, unlocking the door and snapping on lights as she walked through the offices to a room at the far end. “The cash registers are hooked into the system, as are other terminals. You can use this monitor.” She pointed to one in the small, main computer room which was tucked into a corner. Every inch of wall space was devoted to computer equipment. Cords snaked out in all directions. Jesse could feel the breeze from the air conditioner; the computer room was a few degrees cooler than the rest of the building.

“Maybe you’d better show me how to run the system,” Jesse said.

“I know the rudiments,” April admitted. “But you should really check with accounting.”

“I just need to retrieve a few shipping invoices. Do you have hard copies? Where are they filed?”

“Depends on what time period you’re looking for. We scan most documents and then shred them, but we keep paper copies for about six months.”

“That’s what I’m looking for.”

“Straight down the hall, second door on the left. Pretty much just file cabinets there. But you can run everything off the printer.”

“Let’s start with that, then.” Jesse sat down in the chair. He was no computer expert, but he knew enough to be dangerous. April leaned over his shoulder and flipped several switches. Her hair gently brushed his shoulder. Her scent drifted over him like an invisible veil.

A white-hot stab of desire shot through him.

“How long do you think this will take?” April sounded anxious.

“Not long if everything goes right,” he said brusquely.

He felt, rather than saw, her nod. “Just call me when you’re ready. Do you know which invoices you’re looking for?”

“I’ve got an idea.”

In fact, Jesse had already formulated a theory as to what was happening inside Hollis’s. According to the last inventory report April had found for him, three departments were incredibly short, considering their cash intake: Fine Jewelry, Avant-Garde and Private Collections. April had also told him their largest buyer invoices were almost always from one of those three departments. Someone was shipping out the inventory and pocketing the money. The question was how – and who.

“Let me know if you need me,” April said, moving toward the door. “I’ll be in my office.”

Jesse pretended to pay no attention to her, but as soon as she walked through the door he turned to stare after her. She was a fire in his blood. It didn’t matter what he did, what he thought, she burned inside him and, he realized with grim humor, she always had.

How had it happened?

Jesse worked with diamond-hard concentration, sorting through invoices that flickered on the computer screen like mirages. It took hours longer than he’d expected. When he was finished, he blinked, surfacing, and leaned back his head to uncramp the muscles of his neck.

He pushed back his chair and stood up, twisting the kinks out of his back. Paperwork, he thought, grimacing. Terrible, soul-eating stuff.

He walked through accounting into the acoustically deadened hallway. Outside April’s office he hesitated. The door was opened a crack, but no sound issued from within. Gently he touched her finger to the panel and the door swung inward, almost soundlessly.

April was curled in the leather chair by the window, her feet tucked beneath her, her head lolling against the cushions. Long, black lashes feathered across her cheekbones. Her lips were slightly parted; pink, tender, essentially inviting. Her chest rose and fell evenly; a pulse beat hypnotically at the hollow of her throat. She was asleep.

Jesse was spun backward in time. He thought of April at eighteen: willowy, childlike, defiant. April at twenty-eight was grown-up and doubly powerful. Every masculine nerve Jesse possessed jolted whenever she was near. He was overcome with the need to touch her and crossed the room in swift, noiseless strides.

He stopped himself before he actually curved a hand around the back of her neck, before he pressed his mouth down on hers. As if surfacing from a dream, he stood stock still in amazement, awestruck by a reaction so primal that even his brain had seemed to stall.

“Damn,” he muttered.

April’s eyes flew open. She uttered a short, aborted scream, her hands sleeping protectively to her throat. “Jesse!” she gasped. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.”

“Are you – are you finished?” April sat up, sliding her feet to the floor. Her eyes were wide and glancing around desperately, as if she’d misplaced her dignity and could only find it by searching for it.

“I ran off some copies.” Jesse glanced away from her toward the door. He narrowed his eyes against the passion still simmering in his bloodstream. Where in the world was his self-control?

“And?” She was so anxious to pull herself together that she neglected her shoes and slipped past him like a shadow.

“I’d still like to look at the originally printed hard copies. See if there’s anything else on them. And the shipping invoices.”

“All right.” She swept up a set of keys and her cell phone from the desk and headed into the hallway.

Jesse followed her. He hadn’t realized she was so small. The crown of her head would barely touch his chin.

She walked down the hall to the file room, pausing to unlock the door. Pushing into the room, she asked, “What time is it?”

“About midnight.”

“Midnight!” she screeched. She frantically started through her call list, anxiously punching the talk button. “Jennifer? Hi it’s April. I’m so sorry, but I’m still at work. I know it’s a school night. Maybe I could call your mother and—” Several moments passed while the unseen Jennifer delivered information that clearly soothed April. Her brow cleared and the smile Jesse was growing to both love – and despise – curved her lips. “You tell your mother I owe her,” she added. “I’ll make it up to her. I promise. Thanks, sweetheart.”

“Domestic problems?” Jesse asked, once she’d clicked off.

“Jennifer’s a teenager. Her mother’s on her way to my house. She’s going to take over so that Jennifer can get to bed.”

The words had popped out automatically, but as soon as she uttered them, April looked embarrassed.

Jesse was engulfed by a sudden need to know about her life. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

She hesitated. “Eden.”

“Eden. Pretty name.” Her face whitened alarmingly. “April?” he asked quickly.

“Jesse, I’m really tired. I have to leave. Can’t we finish tomorrow?”

“Do you mind if I get those invoices first? It would be simpler not to have to explain.”

She nodded jerkily, sweeping her arm in the direction of the files. When he passed her, she shrank back so far that she slammed her heel into a file cabinet.

Her awareness of him only heightened his own. Silently swearing, Jesse yanked open the drawer and rifled through the contents. He could hear her shallow breathing behind him. Frustrated, he jerked out several fat files. “This’ll do,” he growled.

“Good.” April nodded like a puppet. “Great.”

She actually tried to shrink into the file cabinets as he passed. It irked him. “Stop it,” he ordered tersely. “You’re only making it worse.”

“What?” Her voice was breathless.

“This whole situation.”

“You asked me to help,” she snapped back. “I don’t want to be here.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” he muttered furiously. “I don’t want to be here, either. I don’t want to be here with
you.”

Her glare was beautiful. “Why did you take this job then? You knew I worked here.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“My father owns the store. It’s hardly a headline that I might be involved, too.”

“I took this job because of Jordan,” he said through his teeth.

“And let him think you’re here to see me! That’s not fair, Jesse!”

“So what is fair? Nothing,
Princess
, or haven’t you learned that yet?”

She stamped her stockinged foot in frustration. “I learned it. Oh, boy, did I learn it. I learned it ten years ago. I learned it when you left me. I learned it every time my daughter went without something she needed because I was too proud to admit my father was right about you!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jesse demanded.

“You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about my life!”

It was an echo of the past. April could hear herself spouting the same words, feeling the same tumultuous feelings.

“Well, you don’t know a thing about me, either,” Jesse warned. “Not one damn thing.”

He moved toward her and she reared back, but the file cabinet was behind her. The hair on the back of her neck stood up just before his hand slid behind her nape, pulling her forward. She stumbled against him, her hands grazing his shirt, her legs brushing his thigh. Her feet almost stepped on his boots. Then his mouth descended toward hers. She yanked backward and only succeeded in pressing her hips against his pelvis. The shock was electric. She gasped. Jesse swore. He dropped his hands to her hips, holding her tightly against him, increasing the pressure. She wriggled as he gave her a powerful, burning kiss that robbed her lungs of breath, her limbs of strength.

Her last sane thought was that he was wrong. She did know him. And she’d known this would happen as soon as he’d stepped back into her life.

Chapter Nine

R
esistance melted into a shimmering pool of pure longing. April sagged backward against the file cabinets. One of Jesse’s hands slid into her hair; his mouth plundered hers.

Time lost meaning. She wrapped her hands around his handsome blond head and touched her tongue to his as it thrust in her mouth. She felt the hard pressure of his hips, grinding into hers. She burned inside.

Her response tamed his ardor. One moment he was loving her for all he was worth, the next he was backing off – in horror, she thought with a sinking heart.

Jesse yanked his mouth from hers. His heart was slamming like a piston against the softness of her breasts. He drew a breath.

“Don’t say it.” April beat him to the words, surprising herself by her cold tone.

Excruciatingly slowly he moved the rest of himself away from her. He seemed at a total loss. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Yes, you were. You were going to apologize. Or blame me somehow. Or ridicule me, I don’t know.” She moved her slim shoulders fatalistically.

He raked a hand through his hair as if he couldn’t bear the scene.

He was still far too close. She met his gaze, not because she wanted to, but because it was better than being a coward. Heat shimmered in his eyes. Passion. And self-loathing. “Why don’t you like me?” she asked.

He almost laughed. “Why do you ask things like that?”

“Because I want to know. You’ve never liked me. I always thought it was because I was rich. That’s what you said. But it’s something more. It’s me.”