Shattered by the CEO (The Payback Affairs #1)(24)
Author: Emilie Rose

His thoughts stopped dead in the water like a ship running aground. He backtracked over last night’s words. She’d said that if he had to ask her intentions toward KCL, he didn’t know her.

She’d promised him a year. And here she was.

Would a woman who kept her promises lie?

Once again, the facts didn’t add up. But if Tara hadn’t lied…No, she had. He’d seen the proof. “Tara—”

“The Rendezvous file isn’t in my drawer,” she interrupted.

“Do you have it?”

“Yes. But—”

“I wasn’t finished with my calculations. May I have it back?”

“Not yet.” Determined to make sense of her illogical behavior, he planted a hand on each side of her U-shaped workstation, blocking her in. “Tara—”

“What in the hell is going on?” Mitch demanded from the doorway. “Security says you slept in your office last night.”

Frustrated by the interruption, Rand peeled his gaze from the surprise in Tara’s eyes to his brother. “What of it?”

“Did you?”

He straightened. “Yes.”

Mitch looked ready to explode. But anger couldn’t cover the worry in his brother’s eyes as he looked from Rand to Tara and back. “Could I speak to you privately?”

Rand stared at Tara, who swiveled her chair, turned her back on him and picked up the phone. She was back onboard as his PA, and he wasn’t going to screw that up. She wanted business only? Fine. He couldn’t agree more.

Liar.

He’d miss her, he admitted reluctantly. He’d miss trying to follow the sharp and sometimes convoluted way her mind worked. He’d miss playing with her. Having sex with her.

He’d never before had an intimate encounter as satisfying as he’d had last night. Ever. His blood heated and headed south of his belt. All he had to do was recall the end of the evening to derail his hormones.

“Hold my calls.” He led Mitch into the office and shut the door. “I talked to Nadia yesterday.”

“What’s going on?”

“She claims she’s fine.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. With you and Tara.”

His molars clamped together. “None of your business.”

“It’s my business if you’re going to screw up. I warned you not to let your personal relationship cause problems. Did you?”

“She’s here, isn’t she?”

“You slept in your office and your car is loaded with suitcases. Either she threw you out or you moved out.”

Not something he’d confirm or deny.

“Do you want to move in to the manor?”

“You have a full house. I’ll find a place. Can we talk KCL business? Or is this a social club?” Even before Mitch’s shoulders snapped back and his chin thrust forward, Rand regretted his harsh words. He rubbed his throbbing temple, then filled his coffee mug and a second one for Mitch, hoping caffeine would nix his headache.

He pointed at the papers he’d left spread across the coffee table/ottoman when he’d finally given up and closed his eyes last night. Correction. This morning. “Have a seat and take a look. Nadia gave me a list of places to check records. I put those calculations together with Tara’s, and we have a warm trail to turn over to a forensic accountant.”

He strode to the windows and stared out at the water while he sipped his coffee. Behind him he heard the shuffle of papers and the clicking of calculator keys as Mitch went over the entries. If only the situation with Tara was as easy to comprehend as the columns of fabricated numbers. But no such luck. Rand had his work cut out for him. Keeping Tara happy. Keeping her here. Defining new boundaries. Controlling his hormones.

Good thing he enjoyed a challenge.

“These are Tara’s notes?” Mitch asked ten minutes later.

Rand turned. “Yes.”

“She’s good. Too smart to be a PA.”

Pride filled Rand. Pride he didn’t have a right to feel. He couldn’t take any credit for Tara’s intelligence. “I noticed.”

“Too smart to fall for Dad’s crap.”

“Maybe.” He scrubbed his free hand across his nape. Yet another clue that didn’t fit. As he’d read through Tara’s notes last night he kept asking himself one question. How had his father lured her into the trap? Whatever the bait, it had to have been good. Good enough to lie for. What could Tara be hiding?

“Any chance you misinterpreted what you saw that night?”

A question he’d asked himself a hundred times. “Seeing is believing.”

“Unless it’s an illusion.”

An option he hadn’t considered. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. “You think Dad set me up?”

“It’s a possibility, given your history. There was nothing he liked better than testing your limits. Problem is, until the day you walked, you never broke. He’d see that as a challenge.”

A test or a betrayal? The only ones who knew the truth were a dead man and the woman in the outer office.

Eleven

S he’d rather be alone than with a man who didn’t trust her, Tara told herself as she shut down her computer Friday evening.

But being right didn’t mean she didn’t hurt.If not for the teamwork she and Rand had shared before their argument, she’d never give a second thought to the change in atmosphere of recent weeks. To anyone else Rand probably seemed like the perfect boss. Cool, detached and impersonal. He’d spoken to her only when necessary. But she’d felt him watching her on too many occasions to count. Watching and waiting. For what, she didn’t know.

Not having humiliated herself by blurting out her feelings for Rand when they’d made love that night three l-o-n-g weeks ago was cold comfort when she crawled into bed alone each night.

Work. Home. Paying bills. She was right back where she’d started from before Rand Kincaid reentered her life. The only difference was that now she had a job that challenged her and money to pay off her debts to go with her freshly broken heart.

She picked up her pen and made an X over the date. Keeping a promise had never been more difficult, and each day she marked off on the calendar was a bittersweet one. Another day with the man she loved meant one day less until she’d leave him.

The light went out on her phone as Rand ended his call.

“Tara, get in here.”

She caught her breath at the sound of his voice and her pulse did that stupid little tripping thing. Again. Would she ever stop loving him?

She rose, smoothed her hands down her hips, picked up her notepad and blanked her expression.

Mitch stood as she entered Rand’s office. “Quite the sleuth, aren’t you?”

She kept her gaze on him rather than look at Rand because each time she looked into those hazel eyes her heart splintered a new crack. “I’m sorry?”

“The money trail. You enjoyed tracking it.”

She shrugged. “If you let me sniff around long enough, I usually find what I’m looking for. It comes from reading all those mysteries to my mother.”

Mitch walked toward the door, but paused with his hand on the frame. “It’s a shame everyone isn’t that bright.”

The door closed behind him, leaving her no choice but to face Rand, who stood behind his desk. In general, she avoided looking directly at him by never looking higher than the knot of his tie. Not easy considering they worked nine to ten hours together most days. But she didn’t want him reading her heartbreak on her face.

She braced herself and lifted her gaze. He needed a haircut. The dark chocolate-colored strands hung over his white collar. And he could use a shave, too. Five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw and upper lip. The combination of shaggy hair and stubbled jaw made him look too sexy for words. He’d discarded his suit coat, loosened his tie and rolled up his shirtsleeves.

Silence stretched between them until she thought her nerves would snap. She fought the urge to fidget under his steady stare. “What did he mean by everyone isn’t that bright?”

“That you’ve put together all the clues. Using your data the forensic accountant found the embezzlement trail leading not only to Patricia Pottsmith, but also implicating Donald Green, her boss and the president of Rendezvous. The arrest warrants are being served downstairs under Mitch’s supervision as we speak.”

The news only mildly surprised her. Patricia had always looked out for number one.

Rand came around his desk, crossed to the sofa and indicated she join him.

Tara sat at the far end and fiddled with the pen tucked in the spiral wire of her notebook. If she sat any closer, she’d have to smell him. Too late. The air-conditioning kicked on, carrying a whiff of his cologne to tease her senses. Need rose within her. Need she had every intention of ignoring for the next ten and a half months.

Maybe by the end of the year he’d trust her….

Stop it. You are not going to get your hopes up and dashed again.

“What tipped you off?” Rand asked, making her look at him. She saw triumph in his eyes, but also a glint of something she couldn’t identify.

“Patricia said something at the cocktail party about sleeping with her boss. Originally, I thought she meant Everett, but then I tapped in to the KCL gossip grapevine and found out she and Donald often travel together unrelated to KCL business.”

“Good job.”

His praise hit her like a sunbeam, showering her with warmth. “It’s what you paid me to do.”

“No, Tara. You went beyond the call of duty on this one. And when we’ve finished with our year as boss and PA, Mitch and I want you to stay on at KCL.”

She bit her lip and hesitated. “Are you staying?”

“Yes.”

She wouldn’t be able to bear seeing him in the halls or cafeteria. “I don’t think—”

“We’re creating an assistant director of shared services position for you. You’d get to work with Nadia and track expenditures within each of the brands.”

A job and opportunity she’d jump at under any other circumstances.

“It’s a promotion,” he added when she remained silent.

“Thank you for your confidence in my abilities, but I’ll have to pass.”

Disappointment flickered across his face.

She wrapped both hands around her notepad and prepared to stand. “Is that all?”

“No.” He shifted closer on the sofa, took the notebook from her and tossed it on the ottoman/coffee table. His hands enfolded hers, making her breath hitch and her heart stutter.

“I want you to tell me what happened that night.”

“Which night?” She knew exactly which one he meant. Her stomach churned.

“The night you didn’t sleep with my father.”

Her lungs refused to function. She finally managed to wheeze in a breath despite the sarcophaguslike constriction of her rib cage. “You believe me?”

“Yes. And I’m the one Mitch is claiming isn’t too bright. All the clues have been right in front of me. And I couldn’t put them together. You were with my father. But you didn’t sleep with him. I get that now. There’s not a greedy or selfish bone in your body. The Tara Anthony I know does the right thing, not the easy thing. Like taking a dead-end job so she can make her mother’s last months easier and keeping a house because her mother asked her to even though a developer would pay you far in excess of its value to sell.