River Road(49)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

That first awakening was nothing compared to what he was experiencing now.

Lucy was going to spend the night with him. Tonight would be a very important night, possibly the most important night of his life. He would not screw it up.

When they got back into the car he did a quick check on his phone, searching for the address of the hotel he had found online that morning. Before leaving town, he had spent an hour going through the short list of establishments in the vicinity of the small coastal community. He had wanted a nice place, a classy, upscale place. Just in case.

At the time he’d had no real reason to hope that Lucy would agree to spend the night with him, but if she did say yes, he wanted to be prepared. He was not going to take her to some cheap, grungy dive.

He had found a lodge that looked like it met his requirements. The price was definitely right—several hundred bucks a night—but he did not mention that little fact to Lucy. The last thing he wanted was another argument about splitting the bill.

He drove the short distance to the Ocean View Lodge and was relieved to see that outwardly, at least, it lived up to its advertising. The handsome, rustic building was perched on the hillside and commanded romantic views of the coastline. He parked the car at the entrance.

“I’ll be right back,” he told Lucy.

“I’ll come with you to register,” she said. She started to reach over the seat for her tote.

“No,” he said. “I’ll take care of this.”

She blinked and looked uncertain for a moment. Maybe his tone of voice had been a little too firm. Maybe he’d screwed up already.

Her damned cell phone chose that moment to give a mocking chirp. Lucy took it out and glanced at the screen.

He closed the car door very firmly and went into the lobby.

He booked the best room the desk clerk could offer and went back outside. He moved the car to the small parking lot. There was a potentially awkward moment when he took his overnight kit out of the rear of the car, but Lucy pretended not to see it. At least there were no sarcastic comments about him having come prepared to spend the night.

When she reached into the backseat for her huge purse, he could tell that it weighed a ton. It seemed to him that women always carried an incredible amount of stuff in their bags and purses, but this one appeared unduly heavy. He dared to hope that maybe Lucy, too, had come prepped for a stolen night away from Summer River. The possibility put a definite spring in his step.

To his relief, the room looked good. The large bathroom sparkled with polished tiles and glass. The towels were soft and thick. The bed was artistically made. When he looked at Lucy’s face, he thought she looked pleased.

“This is lovely,” she said.

Yes. She liked the room. He was already light-years ahead of the damned agency dates.

Satisfied, he dropped his kit on top of the chest of drawers. Lucy set her tote on the table. She took a much smaller bag out of the big bag and slung it over her shoulder. That answered one question, he thought. She didn’t actually haul the massive tote with her everywhere.

They went back downstairs and walked the short distance into the village. Lucy took obvious delight in the handful of small shops on the wharf, although, in his opinion, the array of seashell and driftwood souvenirs did not look like her kind of art. He did not pretend to be a connoisseur, but he thought the watercolors in the local gallery looked uninspired as well. Nevertheless, he dutifully accompanied Lucy around the wharf shops. He wanted her to enjoy the day.

When she paused to look in the window of yet another little shop, he sneaked a glance at his watch, wondering how early he could suggest drinks and dinner.

“Are you starting to feel like you’re in the middle of one of those television commercials for erectile-dysfunction medication?” Lucy asked. Her eyes glinted with laughter.

Startled, he felt himself turning red. He could not recall the last time he had blushed. “What?”

“You know, those ads that feature happy couples dashing through the rain, dancing in the kitchen, buying flowers at a roadside stand and driving through the countryside in a convertible with the top down. There’s always a pounding waterfall or suggestively surging surf thundering in the background.”

“Oh, those ads,” he said. He smiled slowly. “I don’t think I’ll be needing any of the meds they’re peddling.”

It was her turn to blush. She cleared her throat. “Well, just in case, we do happen to have a lot of surging surf in the vicinity.” She gestured in the general direction of the ocean.

He laughed. A few strollers on the sidewalk turned to look at him, smiling a little.

He kissed her lightly, getting a taste and letting her feel some of the heat that was firing his blood and his imagination. Then he followed her into the shop.

It was a good day, the best he’d had in a long time, maybe in forever—even if he did have to browse through souvenir shops and look at boring watercolors. Lucy had said yes.

29

What are we going to do?” Ashley said. “You’re the one who told me that the merger will fall apart if we don’t get control of those shares.”

“Calm down,” Cecil said. “I’ll take care of everything. That’s my job.” He smiled. “It’s why Colfax is paying me the big bucks and why he gave me the corner office, remember?”

He was not behind his desk in the executive suite of Colfax Inc. at the moment. Instead, he was standing at the window of a dilapidated single-story house deep in the woods. The faded sign in the front yard read For Sale, Kelly Realty.

The house had been on the market for more than six months. He had determined that much after a quick online search of the real estate listings in the area around Summer River. He could see why it hadn’t sold. It offered none of the amenities that people moving to wine country demanded. The house was a tear-down, which would not have mattered, had the property not broken the cardinal rule of real estate: Location, location, location. The location was lousy—a remote section of the county that was accessed by a badly neglected side road. The trees grew close around the place, shrouding it in perpetual gloom. There was no view, and the lot was small. There was not enough property for a vineyard.

All in all, it fit his requirements perfectly, Cecil thought. It made an ideal location for screwing the client’s wife. The only item of furniture left in the place was an ancient brass bed.

“The shares were not supposed to end up in Lucy Sheridan’s hands.” Ashley paced back and forth across the bare living room. “Warner told me that the last he knew, Mary planned to leave the shares to Quinn. At the time he was infuriated that she wasn’t going to leave them to him, but he assumed that he could control Quinn’s vote if it ever proved necessary to do so.”