A Man's Promise (27 page)

The feel of her inner muscles tightening around him almost sent him over the edge, and he kept pounding inside of her, needing her in a way he had never wanted a woman. Knowing she would always and forever be his sent his heart rate increasing and his pulse pounding.

Several times, he virtually lifted her from the desk in his overwhelming need to go deeper, and when she screamed out his name at the top of her orgasm, he followed her, drowning in a pleasure so exquisite he knew he could die from it. He felt his own body explode, and Caden knew what it felt like to want a woman to the point of craziness.

The spasms that tore through his body were magnetic, forceful and had him totally out of control. Never had a climax been so intense and electrifying. He leaned in and captured her mouth, needing to kiss her, taste her and brand her forever.

Breaking off the kiss, he gazed down at her and whispered, “I love you.” And he meant it with his entire heart.

“And I love you, Caden.”

A smile touched his lips, and with their bodies still locked, he lifted her hips off the table, and she automatically wrapped her arms around his neck. They would continue this in the bedroom.

Forty

U
pon returning to Charlottesville on Sunday night, Caden and Shiloh went straight to Shana’s house. After arriving at the airport, they received a text from Jace asking to meet them right away.

When Jace opened the door, all it took was to look into Caden’s and Shiloh’s smiling faces to know Caden’s mission had been accomplished this weekend. “Congratulations, you two. Come in.”

“Thanks,” Caden said, giving his brother a bear hug. “This weekend Shiloh and I completed what we’d started four years ago, and we’re very happy,” he said, pulling Shiloh to his side and placing a kiss on her temple.

Caden glanced behind Jace to see Dalton was already there. Caden smiled and said to him, “You’re still in a bad mood?”

Dalton shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I can still congratulate the two of you,” he said, also giving his brother a bear hug and giving Shiloh a hug, as well. “It would have been nice had you told me what you planned to do this weekend. I had to hear it from Jace an hour ago.”

“Only because no one could talk to you this week, Dalton. That woman you hired the P.I. to find must have done some kind of number on you.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said in a quiet voice, letting his brothers know that it was still a sore subject with him.

Shana came from the kitchen and congratulated the newlywed couple before saying, “Jules is on her way over here with information she wants to share with us.”

“Jules? Who is Jules?” Dalton asked.

“My sister. She’s been checking into a few things regarding Caden’s accident.”

“Did she find out whether Rita was in Charlottesville that weekend?” Caden asked, sitting down on the sofa with Shiloh by his side.

“Yes. She discovered a ticket had been purchased in Rita’s name that weekend for a trip from Dallas to here.”

Caden slowly shook his head. “I just don’t believe it. Jealousy is one thing—killing someone is another.”

“Yes, but Rita Crews did make those threatening comments about you to your manager. And why would she come to Charlottesville? Do you know whether she has relatives or friends here?” Jace asked.

Caden released a disgusted sigh. “I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”

“Well, we’ll know soon, because a P.I. Jules knows in Dallas is talking to Rita.”

“Talking to her?” Dalton asked angrily. “Why hasn’t the woman been arrested?”

“Because, Dalton,” Jace said, answering instead for Shana and trying not to let Dalton annoy him, “we have no evidence of anything. Caden didn’t call the police that night, so there’s no open investigation of anyone trying to do him harm. Just because Rita purchased a ticket here that weekend doesn’t mean anything. That’s the reason Shana’s sister arranged for this P.I. friend in Dallas to talk to her.”

Dalton rolled his eyes. “Does anyone really think this Rita woman is going to confess to anything? I say bring the police in, tell them what we have and let them take over.”

“Again, Dalton, we have no evidence. If Rita is guilty of anything, then we’ll find out,” Jace said, determined to not let Dalton try his patience...or anyone else’s, for that matter. His brother needed to take a chill pill.

“So, Shiloh, tell us—how did Caden pop the question?” Shana asked, changing the subject and defusing the tense moment between Jace and Dalton.

Jace gave Shana a silent thank-you and used that time to pull Dalton aside to say in a low tone, “Hey, man, will you ease up a little?”

Dalton shrugged. “I don’t like the idea of someone out to get my brother—for any reason.”

“And you think I do?”

“Of course not, but it seems all of you are putting a lot of stock in what Shana’s sister thinks. What is she? A cop or something?”

Jace was about to answer when the doorbell sounded. “That’s probably Jules now.” He left Dalton to head for the door.

Dalton sighed and turned his attention to the conversation already in progress. Shiloh was telling him how Caden had arranged a concert just for her at Caesars Palace when he heard a feminine voice approaching—a voice he recognized immediately. This was the same voice he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind for weeks.

He whirled around, and his gaze met the eyes of the one woman he’d hoped never to see again. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Jules was equally shocked, and it took her a minute to regain her composure to fire the same question back at Dalton. “What the hell are
you
doing here?”

The entire room fell silent as the two seemed to dismiss their surroundings and face off. Jace stepped in the middle of the fray and calmly said, “I take it that the two of you already know each other.”

“Yes!”

“No!”

Jace shook his head. Jules had said yes, and Dalton had said no. “You either do or you don’t, and I suspect you do. We’re here to listen to Jules’s report on Rita Crews, but I think before we can do that, the two of you have personal business that should be settled in private.” It was apparent he had already figured things out.

“No, we don’t, and no, it shouldn’t,” Dalton said angrily. “I’m out of here. You and Caden can fill me in later.” He headed for the door, swearing under his breath, and slammed it shut behind him.

* * *

Jules just stood there, trying to get a handle on the fact that the man she’d come to think of as
Dick
was really Dalton Granger, Jace’s brother. She drew in a deep breath and saw everyone looking at her. “I didn’t know who he was,” she said in disgust. “He told me his name was Dick.”

“Dick?” Caden asked, trying to keep amusement out of his voice.

Jules shrugged. “He said it was a nickname for Richard.”

“Which is partly true,” Jace said. “Since his name is Dalton Richard Granger. The Richard came from our grandfather.”

“Look, Jace is right about you and Dalton needing to straighten a few things out, but I prefer hearing what you have to say about Rita first,” Caden said. He’d seen Dalton’s anger directed at Jules, and although he didn’t know the full story, he did have a clue based on the little he knew. And if what he suspected was true, it would take more than one talk between the two of them before the matter was resolved.

“All right,” Jules said, coming to stand in the middle of the room. “I agree that Dalton and I have a private matter to resolve, but I’m here to discuss what I found out about Rita.”

“Okay,” Caden said, his hand tightening on Shiloh’s. “What did you find out?”

Jules took the seat Jace offered. “Rita admitted to coming here to confront you, but after she arrived she talked herself out of it. She has proof she never left the hotel she checked into. She claims she didn’t even rent a car. She took cabs to and from the airport. She claims the hotel staff will verify her story that she was holed up in her room for those two days.”

“But why did she come at all?”

“She thought she could talk to you about the situation. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to give you her word it wouldn’t happen again. She also wanted to ask that you rehire her. It seems she’s having problems adjusting to the group she’s in now.”

Caden shook his head. “Rita knows me. She knows I don’t put up with bullshit and that there’s no way I would hire her back. I don’t know why she would even think that I would.”

“Evidently, your manager, Grover Reddick, gave her the impression that maybe you would and suggested she come talk to you.”

Caden frowned. “That’s odd. I talked to Grover. In fact, I called him to find out what group Rita was now playing with, and I told him about the situation Saturday night and what was suspected with Rita. That’s when he told me about her threats.”

“And he didn’t mention anything about telling her to come here and that he knew she had been here that weekend?”

“No,” Caden answered.

“That
is
odd,” Jules agreed. “When was the last time you talked to Grover Reddick?”

“In Vegas this weekend. He helped me pull off everything with my surprise proposal to Shiloh. He was instrumental in arranging everything—the wedding, the venue and contacting the band members so they would be there for my private concert.”

Jules nodded and glanced down at Shiloh’s hand. “Congratulations.” She then stood. “I guess now I need to check out Grover Reddick.”

Caden waved off her words. “Don’t waste your time. Grover is my manager and has no reason to want to hurt me.” Caden chuckled. “If anything, he needs to keep me alive and well if he wants me to return to the touring circuit in January. He wasn’t crazy about the idea of my putting my music career on hold to fulfill the promise I made to my grandfather, but he did understand.”

“So you trust him?” Jules asked.

“Absolutely. We’ve been business partners for years.”

Jules nodded. “Probably the same way Jace trusted Vidal Duncan.”

Jules’s reminder of what Vidal had been capable of doing came as a blow, one from which Caden quickly recovered. “Grover has no reason to want to hurt me, and especially no reason to want me dead, Jules.”

“Let me find out whether that’s true.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I will check out Rita Crews’s alibi and will also check out Grover Reddick’s whereabouts that weekend, as well. If you happen to talk to him, don’t mention anything.”

Caden frowned. “I won’t.” He then glanced at the people in the room who were staring at him. “She’s not going to come up with anything on Grover. You’ll see.”

* * *

The next morning, Ben glanced across the breakfast table at his daughter. Jules had called that morning and asked if he was cooking breakfast. He hadn’t planned on it, but since she’d asked, he figured there was a reason she wanted to come over...and he had an idea what that reason might be. Yet she’d been here for an hour now, and she hadn’t asked a single thing about his weekend in New York with Mona. In fact, Jules had been unusually quiet over breakfast.

“I thought you would have grilled me to death by now,” he said, glancing over at his daughter while taking a sip of coffee.

Jules glanced up and looked at her father questioningly. “About what?”

“My weekend in New York with Mona.”

She blinked. “Oh. Right. How did that go?”

Ben smiled. “It went fine. We had a great time.”

“I’m glad.”

Jules went back to moving her food around her plate. Ben figured she had something on her mind since she wasn’t eating her favorite breakfast. She had stirred her grits around so much they were looking downright soupy.

“You want to tell me what’s wrong, Jules?”

She glanced back up at her father. “Why do you think there is something wrong?”

Ben chuckled. She must be kidding. “Because I’m your father, and I know my girls. I know when something is bothering them, and anytime you aren’t trying to get into my business, that means something is wrong with you. So what gives? And remember you can tell me anything.”

Jules smiled. That was one of the reasons she loved her father so much. He could read her and Shana like a book. Her sister hadn’t called her last night after the debacle at her place. Jace had probably convinced Shana to leave her alone to work out her own issues. If that was true, then she appreciated her future brother-in-law for doing that for her.

“Jules?”

She sighed. “A month or so ago, I met this guy while working undercover one night. He was nice-looking, smooth and kind of pushy. He asked for my contact information, and I told him if he wanted to get to know me he’d have to find me.”

“And?”

“He did find me. Last week, he showed up at my office. He must have hired a P.I. to hunt me down.”

Ben chuckled. “Well, you did tell him to find you.”

“Yes, but I really didn’t think he would. At first, I was flattered. But then he turned me off. It’s obvious he’s used to getting any woman he wants.”

“But, of course, you were going to make sure you were the exception.”

“Yes. We didn’t exchange real names.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t know him and wasn’t sure I wanted him to know me. Anyway, I came up with a plan to put him in his place and did something that pissed him off.”

Ben nodded. “And you probably did so thinking you’d never see him again.”

“Right. But I ran into him again. Last night, in fact.”

“Where?” Ben asked, taking another sip of his coffee.

“At Shana’s.”

“Shana’s?” Ben asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Jules released a deep breath. “I found out last night that the man I had pissed off is Jace’s brother Dalton. And, needless to say, seeing each other last night didn’t go well.”

“I can imagine.”

Jules shook her head. “No, Dad, you can’t begin to imagine.”

“That bad?”

“Yes, and his brother is marrying my sister. He and Jace are as different as black and white.”

“So are you and Shana. The two of you are sisters and not clones—you are as different as chalk and cheese. But I think you and the young man should bury your animosity. If for no other reason than for Shana and Jace. We’re having a wedding in two weeks, and it should be a joyful occasion for everyone.”

“I know, but I don’t want to think about burying anything with Dalton Granger. Forgive me for saying this, Dad, but he’s such an ass.”

“Ass or not, he’s still Jace’s brother, and somehow the two of you need to try and get along.”

“Maybe,” she said, not convinced something like that could ever happen. “I’ve agreed to check out a few things regarding an investigation into what happened to Jace’s brother Caden two weekends ago. I’ll be too busy to get sidetracked by anything...especially by Dalton.”

“Putting it off might not be the best thing, Jules.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “We’ll see, Dad.”

* * *

The next morning, when Caden opened his office door, Dalton was standing there waiting on him. “You’re early, aren’t you?” Caden asked, hanging up his jacket.

“I want to talk to you about Shana’s sister.”

“What about Jules, Dalton?”

“I don’t like her.”

Caden smiled as he took a seat at his desk. “I think your dislike of her was pretty obvious last night. And your not liking her only means I don’t have to worry about you hitting on her every chance you get. No big deal.”