Dirty Little Secret (7 page)

“Careful, John.” Alex drawled the warning softly.

“Truth, Alex. She says she’s still not pregnant.”

A crick in his neck sent a sharp pain across his shoulders. He and Sara Beth had fallen asleep cuddled together, and by the time he’d woken up, his arm had been numb and his neck was killing him. The sudden tensing of his muscles set it off again. “We haven’t been married that long. Sara Beth has her career. Give it time.”

“She doesn’t need a career; that’s what she has you for. And I have given it time. Six months. That is plenty of time for you two to start on a grandchild. It’s expected. The Keane line must go on.” A heavy sigh sounded through Alex’s Bluetooth. If it weren’t for the hurt John inflicted on Sara Beth on an almost daily basis, Alex would have felt sorry for the man. Someone that rigid had to find life painful, unless they had the ability to make life accommodate them. Which John did, for the most part. Sara Beth had accommodated him as much as she was able, but not in this. “Hell, you even had eighteen damn months of the engagement to get her pregnant. I’d have accepted a little scandal if it meant the line was secure, but here we are and no bun in the oven. You don’t have any problems I should know about, do you, boy?”

Alex counted very slowly to ten before responding. “I’ve told you I won’t discuss this with you, John. It will happen when it happens. When Sara Beth is ready. There is still plenty of time.”

“Like hell there is. I haven’t worked my whole life just to have this company flushed down the tubes because my daughter isn’t
ready
to do her familial duty. She needs to—”

“Enough!” Fortunately Ian Walker chose that moment to push casually through Alex’s office door, hands full of a laptop and various files and papers seemingly ready to escape at any moment. Sara Beth followed, looking cool and confident despite whatever words she’d had with her father that morning. Alex breathed a silent
thank you, Lord
and stood to grab Ian’s load before it toppled to the floor. “Here they are now. Let me switch you to the conference line.”

“How are you this morning, John?” Ian greeted his boss as soon as the speakerphone came on. “Good, I hope.”

“Still breathing,” John said.

Ian just chuckled, his easygoing nature front and center as usual. “Well, that’s got to count for something, right? The alternative is much worse.”

“John,” Sara Beth said. She never called him
Dad
or
Father
at work. Despite the fact that he didn’t take her seriously, Sara Beth hadn’t trained for years to run this company only to allow her father to undermine her abilities or her authority. Pride swelled in Alex’s chest as he considered the strides she’d made since moving to Atlanta and taking over Ian’s department.

“Sara Elizabeth.” John’s impatience soaked the words. “Thought you had things to do this morning.”

“I do. It’s called work.”

John grunted his opinion of that. “Can we just get on with it, please?”

Ian brought them up to speed on the final stages of the research he was conducting—a project that would ultimately make AR affordably available in every car windshield, phone or camera view screen, pair of glasses, and possibly even contacts for the rapidly growing consumer public. Alex listened impatiently as John fawned over Ian’s progress, then fought Sara Beth’s every comment as they hammered out the details on the presentation of said research at an international consortium in a couple of months. By the time he was ready to reach through the phone and strangle his father-in-law, lunchtime had rolled around. Alex thankfully pushed the button to cut their connection to the LA office. He rubbed his grainy eyes, then turned a jaundiced one on Ian’s trademark chuckle.

“So, was it just me, or was the old man in rare form this morning?” Ian asked with a knowing look.

Sara Beth gave a delicate snort, the sound strangely reminiscent of her father’s own displeasured grunts. “Isn’t he always?”

“Of course,” Ian said. Then, taking advantage of the friendship they’d formed since Alex and Sara Beth had moved to Atlanta, he asked, “Problems on the home front?”

“Not ours,” Alex countered before Sara Beth could respond. “Just his. Obviously.” When was it ever anything else?

Ian shrugged. “Educated guess. You both look like you haven’t slept in a week.” He tipped his head to one side. “Make that two.” A nod indicated the phone on the table between them. “Still pushing the baby-factory line?”

“God, yes.” Sara Beth sighed. “Excuse me a moment, won’t you?” She stood, her posture at once weary, and crossed to close herself in the private bathroom off Alex’s office.

Alex watched her, worry surfacing. Her fatigue was obvious, but he had a feeling it wasn’t physical. Dropping to a quieter tone, he told Ian, “I thought moving here would help, but…”

“Nope,” Ian teased, trying to ease the strain in his own way, Alex knew. “Guess you better get busy then, man.” He gathered his papers in a haphazard pile on top of his computer. “I’m just thankful you’re not still available. Leaves the field open for the rest of us.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” His gaze strayed to the office door, and he licked his lips. “So what’s the deal with your new secretary?”

“Executive assistant,” Alex corrected absently, not liking the look on the other man’s face. “Why?”

“Why? ’Cause she’s seriously hot, in case you hadn’t noticed, Mr. Happily Married.”

Alex could have been dead and still noticed, but he didn’t tell his friend that. The growl that threatened to erupt at Ian’s expression was harder to hold back. He rubbed a hand down his face. He seriously had to get his shit together.

He hadn’t lied to Sara Beth the other night; he would never regret marrying her. It was keeping their secret that created this vampiric drain on him. That, and not handling things better than he was. He was supposed to be the strong one, the protector. He’d never appreciated how relaxing it was to just be himself until that was no longer an option. Sara Beth had been forced to pretend her whole life, and though he couldn’t stop that—yet—he wanted her life to be as carefree as he could make it until their farce could come to an end. Instead he was obsessed with a certain sweet blonde and doing a shitty job at protecting anyone, especially his wife.

Ignoring Ian’s comment, he turned toward the door. Intent on staying as far from this conversation as possible, he didn’t hear Cailin on the other side until they collided as he rounded the opening.

“Whoa!” Cailin brought her hands up automatically, and the feel of them slapping onto his chest brought instantaneous pleasure that stole his breath, along with every thought in his head. A nearly silent groan escaped, and he knew she heard him, because her eyelids lowered to half-mast and her heavy inhale rang in his ears.

Of course, it could have been the impact, but the way her body melted into him seemed more like instinct.

His instinct had kicked in as well at the feel of her hips in his hands. He pulled her closer, aligning their bodies so her soft mound met the hardened shaft making its insistent presence known. They fit perfectly, more perfectly than any woman he’d ever held against him except Sara Beth, and she’d never drawn a sexual response from him. It was as if his body had known from the beginning that she was destined for someone else and hadn’t wanted to tangle him up in a hopeless situation.

So what are you thinking now, dickhead?

“Alex,” she whispered, her voice a tantalizing elixir that drew his attention to her mouth. White, even teeth bit down on her plump lower lip, and as if in a dream, he leaned down and nuzzled her lip away before licking the abused flesh tenderly.

Pressure against his heart snapped him out of his daze. “Don’t,” she whispered, taking a step back.

His grip tightened instinctively before he released her. He stood for a moment, his gaze transfixed on her mouth. When he raised his eyes, the sight of tears glistening in hers was like a mule kick to the gut.
Shitty job, indeed
. He cleared his throat and shook his head, struggling to clear it as well. “Um, lunch.”

Cailin clasped her hands in front of her stomach. Was his warmth still there? Did she want to hold on to it as long as she could, the way he did?

“I was just coming to tell you it should be here in about five minutes,” she told him.

A sharp jerk of his head acknowledged her words, and she turned hastily away. Alex stared after her longer than he should, then returned to his office door, but couldn’t resist a last look back at her retreating figure. When he finally entered his office, Sara Beth was there, amusement lighting her eyes.

Proving she’d heard his and Ian’s conversation despite their low tones, she said, “Yeah, you noticed.” With a wink, she patted him on the chest and moved toward the door. “Enjoy your lunch. I have a date.”

A quick glance at Ian revealed even more laughter at Alex’s expense. “Just be happy she’s not the jealous type,” the man said with a nod toward Sara Beth’s departing back. “Little or not, she can still kick your ass.”

Alex balled his hands into tight fists and planted his feet hard, fighting the overwhelming urge to lodge one or the other right in his friend’s cocky jaw.

Damn.

* * * *

The minute the elevator doors closed behind Cailin, she jammed the side of her hand into her mouth and bit down hard. She wouldn’t scream; she wouldn’t. That would bring every self-respecting employee for miles, and then she’d have to explain why the heck she’d screamed in the elevator for no obvious reason. It would be better if the elevator just dropped her to her death right here and now.

When she got home, then she’d scream. She would turn on a nice, hot—scalding hot—shower, get naked, and get rid of her anxieties all at once. It was the perfect solution, assuming she could hold on that long. And that the neighbors didn’t call the cops. Now that would be embarrassing.

Elevator. Drop. Please.

They could always assume you were having hot, screaming sex.

Didn’t she wish.

No, she didn’t, because the truth was—the truth she’d awakened to just an hour or so ago—she couldn’t imagine having hot, screaming sex with anyone but Alex. Married Alex. Two-timing Alex, as contrary as that seemed to what she’d viewed of his character the past two weeks. The Alex she was drawn to, the one with veracity, with a command and compassion totally at odds with who she knew him to truly be.

From the moment she listened to him walk away that night at her house, she’d been living in a fog, a haze that surrounded her, insulated her, made work and living and breathing bearable. Even the realization that she would divorce Sean had not been so difficult to accept. Maybe because she had done something completely abhorrent to her, however unwittingly: she’d had sex with a married man.

Or maybe it stemmed from her confusion about Alex. She’d watched him carefully over the past fourteen days; one thing she would never have pegged him as was an adulterer. He conducted the business of Keane Industries with precision and consistency and attention to detail. He treated employees and customers with courtesy, yet stood firm against anyone who did not do the same. She would have sworn on a stack of Bibles a mile high that the man she worked for embodied honor and integrity and loyalty.

Yet she knew for a fact that he was not faithful.

His deception was flawless, even with Sara Beth. The woman was in the office constantly, dropping in for lunch, just to chat, as well as frequently consulting Alex on business matters. Cailin witnessed them together often, and not a single crack in Alex’s facade indicated he felt anything but totally content with Sara Beth. They were so close that it seemed at times they communicated with their own language, on a wavelength 100 percent separate from the rest of the world. They genuinely loved each other. How could a man who loved like that generate such a deep emotional connection in another woman? Deep enough that Cailin was very much afraid she could easily care about him.

But not love. Please, dear Lord, not love.

Numbness had protected her when the confusion and chaos and pain became too much. But Alex’s touch today had brought her back to life, like Sleeping Beauty awakening from her frozen sleep. Only she wanted desperately to go back. Being awake hurt too much.

Shaking out her throbbing hand, she stepped off the elevator and into the lobby. Muggy heat hit her in the face when she opened the lobby door and headed down the street. A round of errands would keep her out of the office for a little while; thank goodness Mondays were her designated gofer days. The last time she did this, she’d been trying to decipher Alex’s detailed instructions, the various brands he needed, finding the locations of the shops. Today would have been smoother had she not been shaking from his touch, from the tenderness in his eyes that confused her all the more.

By the time she made it to her last stop, Beaker’s, her strength was zapped and droplets of sweat trickled in rivulets from under her thick hair. She juggled Alex’s dry cleaning around so she could reach into her purse and grab a clip, jamming it into a quick twist at the back of her head to get the weight of the heavy curls off her neck. The relief as she walked into the cooler shade of the sandwich shop hit instantly.

Beaker’s Deli was a popular lunch destination for the offices in the vicinity, including theirs, but at two o’clock, the crowds had thinned enough for her to grab a quick bite. Even so, by the time she’d placed her order, Cailin’s arms ached. She carried everything to a chair at a table by the front window, then returned to fill her drink cup and pick up her tray. The Caesar chicken wrap sparked her taste buds with the first bite, and she found herself eating hungrily for the first time in days. Nothing tasted good with a side dish of depression; at least the return of emotion meant her palate could also return to normal. Hey, if sex was off the menu, good food could make up for it. And she’d prove it tonight with a pint of rocky-road ice cream.

Sipping her sweet tea and people watching allowed for a few extra minutes to gather her strength—and courage—for the return trip. Hopefully Alex would still be involved with Ian when she got back.