Their Seductress [The Hot Millionaires #1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (7 page)

Isaac pulled her into his arms and gently kissed the top of her head. “Whatever works for you, babe.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” said a voice from the doorway. Nick was leaning there, watching them, an indolent smile playing about his lips. Paige had no idea how long he’d been there but, knowing him, probably all the time. He was a bit of a voyeur. “We have company. Lieutenant Weir’s here to see us.”

“I didn’t hear the door,” Isaac said.

He levered himself from the couch, pulled on his pants, and extended a hand to help Paige up. He was surprised by her prim determination not to get emotionally involved, wondering why he hadn’t been more relieved to hear it. Isaac didn’t do emotion, or commitment, or any of the other deep meaningful stuff women seemed to expect. Paige was calmly offering to play with him on his terms, and Isaac was trying to second-guess her motivation. He rolled his eyes, wondering what was wrong with him.

Nick chuckled. “You two wouldn’t have heard an aircraft if it had landed in the backyard.”

“We were preoccupied.”

“Is that what they’re calling it this week?”

Isaac patted Paige’s rear. “Give us a moment to clean up, and we’ll be right there. I assume you’ve taken our visitor into the formal lounge.”

“Right.” Nick turned to Paige and offered her a wolfish smile. “Put some water on your face, darling. You look like you’ve just had your brains fucked out.”

Isaac smirked. “She has.”

Nick blew her a kiss and headed off to entertain their guest.

“You up to this?” Isaac asked. “We can always ask him to come back later.”

“No, I’ll be fine. I’m keen to know if he’s got any suspects.”

“Us probably.”

“Us!” Paige looked astounded. “Why would any of us kill Ellie? We loved her.”

“Relax, I’m not serious. You were in London, I was in LA, and Nick… Well, who knows where Nick was, but he wouldn’t have been anywhere near the office. The thing is, you can bet your life that the good lieutenant knows we all benefited from Ellie’s will. He’s bound to be curious about that.”

“I guess.”

They slipped through the kitchen so that Weir wouldn’t see them run up the stairs in a state of semiundress. No point putting ideas into his head. If he got the impression that Isaac and Paige were a long-standing item and both benefited from Ellie’s demise… Well, it would make Isaac suspicious, and he wasn’t even a policeman. Just because they were both thousands of miles away when the crime went down, what was to have stopped them from employing someone else to do the deed?

“You want me to wait for you to go down?” Isaac asked, pushing aside such dark thoughts as he paused outside Paige’s door and opened it for her.

“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll take a quick shower and be right there.”

“Okay.” He planted a soft kiss on her lips. “See you soon.”

Alone in his own room, Isaac turned the shower on and stripped again, his mind not on the lieutenant waiting downstairs but on Paige and the mind-blowing sex they’d just shared. He hardened again just thinking about it. Hell, he’d had nothing but a hard-on since Paige turned up yesterday. She’d made him as randy as hell even when he didn’t like her. There was now no hope for him.

He still couldn’t get his mind round all he’d learned about her, all the preconceptions that had been knocked into touch over the past few hours. She was a mixture of feisty ambition, intelligence, a surprising dollop of naïveté—hardly surprising given her account of her suppressed childhood—and downright determination not to be bullied. The way she’d stood up to him when she arrived, jet-lagged and grieving, only to be confronted with his unfounded accusations and blistering dislike, was something else. Isaac’s temper was one of his failings, and not many people could face him down when he got annoyed about something. But Paige gave as good as she got and didn’t appear to give a shit for the consequences.

Isaac soaped his body as the hot jets of water pounded it. He was aware now why he’d been attracted to Paige that first time he saw her. Aloof and untouchable, she sat at the bar in an upmarket restaurant in London’s west end, waiting for him and Doug to join her, fending off the men who hovered round her with one arrogant lift of a beautifully plucked brow. Isaac’s first sight of her blew his mind, and he was hard-pressed not to show his jealousy, ever harder pressed to hide his embarrassment when his brother showed her off as though she was a trophy to be lusted after but never touched. That ought to have told him something about Doug’s deep-seated resentments. Why hadn’t that occurred to him before?

“You don’t know how well you succeeded, little brother,” Isaac said aloud.

It was true. Deny it he might, but Isaac had found every woman he’d been with since then wanting in some way. None of them measured up to his image of Paige, and they seldom lasted two consecutive dates. He’d tried to convince himself that he’d made her into something that she wasn’t and could never be.

He knew now just how wrong he’d been.

Isaac dried himself off and pulled on a pair of chinos and a clean shirt. He wanted to get downstairs before Paige and hear whatever it was Weir had to say to her. She was the only one who hadn’t yet been interviewed by the police. Paige probably thought she could handle it and didn’t need his help. That was probably true, but she’d get it anyway. She was fragile, in a foreign country where she didn’t understand the laws and needed protecting.

When he entered the formal sitting room, Isaac was surprised to see just Lieutenant Weir and Nick there, both with open bottles of beer in their hands. In Isaac’s experience, policemen always hunted in pairs and didn’t drink while on duty.

“Oh, Mr. Drake.” Weir offered his hand, and the two men shook. “Glad to have caught you.”

“No problem.” Isaac took the chair opposite the lieutenant and accepted the beer Nick handed him with a nod of thanks. “Any progress?”

“Nice house,” the lieutenant remarked, adroitly avoiding the question.

Isaac didn’t repeat it, contenting himself with joining in the small talk that Nick was so adept at instigating. It was obvious that whatever the lieutenant actually wanted, it wouldn’t be broached until Paige joined them.

That happened just five minutes later. Her hair was damp and she’d changed into a fairly formal dress and almost-flat shoes. Even with no makeup she still exuded sex appeal by the bucket load. The lieutenant glanced at her, did a double take, and almost knocked his chair over in his haste to stand up.

“Ms. Fairfax, I assume,” he said, once again extending his hand. “My name’s Weir.”

“Lieutenant,” she said, taking his hand and as quickly dropping it again. “Any news on Ellie’s murder?”

“Nothing definite. As the saying goes, we’re pursuing several lines of inquiry.”

“In other words, you’ve got squat,” Isaac said, irritated by the lieutenant’s procrastination and the way his eyes kept returning to Paige’s tits. “So what brings you to our door?”

“I gather you now know the contents of Ms. Carter’s will.” All three of them nodded. “Wondered if you’d care to cast any light on that.”

“There’s no light to cast,” Paige said. “We were all totally astounded. We have no idea why she favored the three of us.”

“You were in London when Ms. Carter was killed I believe, Ms. Fairfax.”

“Yes, that’s right. I manage Carter Promotions’s field office there.”

“I’ve asked Mr. Drake and Mr. Fuller this question. Now I’m asking you. Do you know of anyone who’d wish Ms. Carter harm?”

Paige wrinkled her brow. “No, I don’t. Obviously, I’ve thought about it a lot over the past few days.”

“Did you know the deceased well?”

“Her name was Ellie,” Paige said in a clipped tone. “Or Ms. Carter. Calling her ‘the deceased’ makes it all sound so impersonal.”

“I’m sorry.” Weir spread his hands. “I should have been more sensitive. I guess in my line of work you—”

“It’s all right.” Paige waved aside the lieutenant’s apology. “What did you ask me again?”

“I was asking how well you knew Ms. Carter.”

“She was my boss. I’ve worked in the London office for four years. She used to pop over regularly, but I really only got to know properly when the manager had personal problems.”

“Mr. Drake’s brother?”

Paige sucked in a breath. “Yes, he was going through a rough patch. Business suffered, and Ellie flew over to sort it out.”

“She gave you Mr. Drake’s job, and Mr. Drake subsequently died, is that right?” he asked mildly.

Like you don’t know damned well it is!
Isaac silently fumed, desperate to spring to Paige’s defense, knowing it would be a grave error to do so. The lieutenant was astute. He probably picked up on the sexual vibes between him and Paige straightaway. He wouldn’t be much of a detective if he didn’t notice the redness on her face where his day’s growth had rasped against it and her lips swollen from his kisses. Hopefully the way she sat down so carefully because she was probably still sore after the pounding she’d begged for and received
did
pass him by. Not that Paige needed any help from him. She was answering the lieutenant’s questions with straightforward honesty, never once breaking eye contact, her distress at Ellie’s untimely demise apparent to the slowest wit. And Lieutenant Weir was anything but slow-witted.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You and Ms. Carter were close friends before your promotion?”

“No, we barely knew each other.”

“Then she showed great faith in you. That was quite some responsibility for one so young.”

“I earned that faith, Lieutenant, and Ellie never had reason to regret her decision.”

“So, you’re saying you didn’t know Ms. Carter socially?”

“What do you…ah, I understand what you’re asking. Why didn’t you just come right out and ask me if Ellie and I had a sexual relationship?” Paige arched a defiant brow. “I believe that’s what you want to know.”

“I am aware of her other…er, interests.”

“I’m not a lesbian, Lieutenant.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Tough, it’s all you’re getting. I’m not prepared to reveal anything further about my private life, unless you can prove that it’s germane to your investigation, and I can’t see how it would be because this tragedy has nothing to do with me.” Paige sat a little straighter and tilted her chin. “I want whoever did this brought to justice, but
I
didn’t do it and have no idea who did.”

Isaac wanted to applaud. He contented himself with quirking one brow in the lieutenant’s direction, a small smile he didn’t try to suppress tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Have you asked all the men in the office, and in Ellie’s address book, if they had sexual relationships with her and where they were when she was murdered?” Paige asked with a sweet smile. “I believe Ellie enjoyed the company of both men and women.”

“We’re working on it.” The lieutenant expelled a long breath, put aside his empty beer bottle, and encompassed the three of them with his eyes. “Sorry I had to put you through that, Ms. Fairfax,” he said, sounding sincere. “I had to assure myself that you were as innocent as you seem to be on paper before getting to the reason for my visit.”

“What would that be?” Nick asked. “We’ve already told you what little we know.”

“This is a high-profile case, and the brass are on my butt for results,” the lieutenant said, suddenly looking and sounding bone weary. “The Carters made generous political and charitable contributions in all the right places—”

“Including the mayor’s reelection fund?” Isaac asked with an ironic twist of his lips.

“Quite, and because of that I’ve been told not to release to the press details of Ms. Carter’s other life.”

“Because she was a dominatrix?” Paige shrugged. “She didn’t keep it a secret.”

“Nor did she advertise it,” Nick said. “I can see why people in authority wouldn’t want it to become public knowledge. It would destroy the Carters’s public image—”

“And wouldn’t look too good for the mayor,” Isaac added. “Just think what his opponents would make of his coffers being filled by a dominatrix.”

“Exactly.” The lieutenant shifted in his seat. “It’s only a matter of time before some news-hungry hack finds out, and I’d really like to get a result before then.”

“How can we help?” Paige asked. “I assume you’re here alone because you think we can do something unofficially to aid the investigation.”

The lieutenant rubbed his jaw. “I’m clutching at straws, I’ll admit it. We’re still checking out all the people who knew Ms. Carter, in all walks of her life, but that could take some time.”

“Presumably they don’t get high priority because they weren’t at the office at the time of her death,” Isaac said.

“Exactly. Everyone who doesn’t work in that building has to sign in at reception. We’ve checked the CCTV, and everyone who called at Carter Promotions is accounted for.”

“So you think Ellie was killed by a member of staff,” Paige said softly. “By someone she knew and trusted.”

“It looks that way.” The lieutenant sighed. “There was no sign of a struggle, and Ms. Carter died seated at her desk.”