Dirty Little Secret (8 page)

Ian, the office flirt. The man might head the biggest and most lucrative research project at Keane Industries, which meant he was brilliant, but from all appearances there was not a serious bone in his body. He’d flirted outrageously when he came in the office this morning, then even worse when she brought their lunch, to the point where her tongue had felt tied in permanent knots. Alex’s dark stare and the memory of that almost kiss had unnerved her enough; she certainly didn’t need to add another, albeit very attractive, man’s attention to the mix.

A feminine giggle caught her attention as she took a final bite of her wrap. She shifted, her gaze wandering the café, and noticed a table in a rear corner, the chairs turned so their backs faced her. The occupants, two women, laughed and chatted together. Something about one of the women was familiar, but it wasn’t until the woman turned her head that Cailin realized it was Sara Beth.

Look away, she thought. Yet taking her eyes off the woman proved impossible.

Bold red hair lay like a curtain around her delicate features, her bangs ultralong in front and trimmed short on her neck in back. When she twisted a bit more toward her companion, her face came clearly into view. Beauty shone from her dark green eyes and perfect bow lips, and Cailin knew from seeing Sara Beth around the office and hearing others speak about her that the daughter of the company’s CEO was beautiful inside as well as out. The woman’s build was small, almost pixielike, the perfect foil for Alex’s dark, muscular good looks. Everything Cailin had always wanted to be. Her failure to keep Sean happy, her inability to have a baby weighed heavily on her as she watched the woman eat and talk. Sara Beth seemed to have it all.

Trying to shake off the thought—and the self-pity it generated—Cailin turned her attention to the other woman at the table. Taller, darker, with olive skin and nut-brown hair and eyes. It took Cailin a moment to place her as one of the women she’d seen when she went through processing with the human resources department on her first day. Samantha, maybe? Something like that. Her first day at Keane Industries remained a huge blur in her mind, everything overshadowed by the discovery of Alex’s marriage and her own duplicity in his deceit.

She’d welcomed that blur for two weeks. But today…today woke her up fast. Guilt slammed into her. God, she’d frozen completely at his touch, the feel of him just so darn good. She’d wanted his hands everywhere, his tongue in her mouth. He’d been hard against her. Amazing. Appalling. How could she feel this way about a man without integrity? Without honor? He was worse than Sean, wasn’t he? At least Sean hadn’t turned to another woman; Alex had.

Her gaze lingered on Sara Beth and her companion. The woman lifted a fry and placed it in Sara Beth’s mouth, and the look they exchanged… Cailin frowned. Something about it just… She didn’t know.

She shook her head as if the rattling would straighten out her thoughts, her confusion. Heck, maybe even her life. But experience had taught her pain didn’t heal that fast. She had a long road ahead of her.

And a long afternoon, she thought as she looked over at the pile of stuff she still had to schlep back to the office. She’d better get on it.

Cailin hurried to take care of her trash. Just as she settled her tray on the waiting shelf, she heard her name being called in the feminine voice she’d most wanted to avoid.

“It’s great to see you here,” Sara Beth cried with what seemed like genuine excitement as Cailin cautiously approached their table. “Sam, this is Alex’s new executive assistant, Cailin. Cailin, Sam.”

Cailin smiled a hello, but Sara Beth was far from done.

“Sit, please.” That gentle addition didn’t change the command of the first word. Sara Beth patted the chair kitty-corner to hers. “How have things been going?”

“Busy.”

“It’s always busy when Alex is involved,” Sara Beth said with a grin.

Sam laughed. “He has a reputation to uphold, you know.”

Cailin felt a little out of the loop but forced herself to relax. More than likely the feeling grew from her uneasiness around Sara Beth. Somehow every time she saw the woman, those imagined letters sewn into her chest began to ache as if in recognition, and the urge to confess threatened to overwhelm her. But she got the feeling Sara Beth didn’t need to know her sins any more than Cailin wanted to share them.

“So do you live around here?” Sam asked, pulling Cailin out of her reverie.

“Actually I’m new to Atlanta. It feels small-town outside of the business districts, even though it’s not, really. Took a little getting used to, but I like it.”

“I feel the same way,” Sara Beth said. “Alex and I moved here about six months ago when Dad agreed to transfer us from California. The weather’s definitely taken some getting used to.”

Sam chuckled. “Definitely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear your hair this short, and June hasn’t even arrived yet.”

“So you two knew each other before?” Cailin looked from one to the other and couldn’t miss the long look that passed between them.

“Sam was transferred too. Several of the LA employees were moved out when the office first opened.”

Cailin nodded. “Well, just a warning: summers here in the South are a bit like pea soup—thick and very humid. Invest in cool clothes.” She cocked her head and smiled. “And warm ones. We might get snow this winter. It happens every once in a while.”

The two women looked at her with varying degrees of dismay.

“You’ll like it, really,” she reassured them.

“So you’re from the South, then?” Sara Beth asked.

“Born and bred.”

“Are you here alone? No significant other?” Sam asked.

Cailin ducked her head, but not before seeing Sara Beth elbow her companion lightly in the ribs. The accompanying scowl was almost comical, it was so ferocious. “Um, I’m recently divorced.”

True sympathy colored Sam’s voice. “I’m sorry.”

Cailin shrugged and gathered her purse. “It’s fine, believe me. And now, I have to get a move on. Alex is waiting.”

Sara Beth sent her a wide smile. “The longer he waits, the more appreciative he is. Trust me.”

Again that feeling that she’d missed something passed through her, but Cailin brushed it away. A few minutes later she stepped back into the sunshine, lugging Alex’s dry cleaning once more.

Chapter Six

What the heck was I thinking? Cailin asked herself as she climbed onto a padded bar stool on the shadowed end of the bar at Thrice. Friday night hopped—or thrashed, depending on which corner you looked at. Various enclaves had developed in different areas of the room: headbangers, goths, twentysomethings… You name it, Thrice had it going on. The wild feel to the air rankled her nerves, already shot at this, her second trip to the nightclub. She’d met Alex here a month ago; surely she could meet someone else, anyone else. She had to get him out of her head.

“What can I get you, beautiful?”

The bartender leaned across the wide expanse of the gleaming bar toward her. The tag on his shirt said
Brad
. When she met his eyes, a glittering smile told her he was a charmer she would want to keep an eye out for.

Tongue-tied, Cailin found her answer caught somewhere between her head and her brain. She could count on two fingers the amount of times she’d ordered an alcoholic drink in her adult life. It’s not like there was a menu! What the heck should she order when she didn’t know for sure what anything was called, or what was in it, for that matter?

“Um…” She bit down on her lower lip in an effort to curb her embarrassment.

Brad seemed to sense her dilemma. “Not much of a drinker then, huh, beautiful?”

Cailin shook her head, figuring that was plenty of response with the pounding drums blaring from the stage below.

“Okay,” he answered, “let’s play twenty questions. But don’t worry,” he assured her as her eyes widened, “there’s really only two. Okay, maybe three.”

Cailin nodded.

Brad’s laugh was deep and throaty, sexy, and yet not so much as a tingle went through her. On an aesthetic level, she could see the appeal, but her body wasn’t getting the message.
Doesn’t mean it won’t, girl. Just give yourself a chance.

“So, first question: Sweet or bitter?” At her obvious confusion, he clarified. “Do you like your drinks bitter or sweet?”

“Sweet.”

He jerked a nod. “Good.” Making a show of considering his next question, even going so far as to tap his chin with a long forefinger until she laughed, he finally asked, “Frozen or on the rocks?”

Cailin was getting the hang of this game. “Frozen.”

“Hot damn, we’re on a roll!” Brad slapped his palms together and rubbed them vigorously. “Let’s see…strawberry or coconut?”

That one was harder. “Hmm. I like both, but let’s go with strawberry.”

“Okay, how about a frozen strawberry margarita? Good staple. Can’t go wrong with it.”

Cailin agreed. “Sounds good. Thank you.”

“No problem—” He lifted a brow in inquiry.

“Cailin.”

Brad reached across to shake her hand politely. “Nice to meet you, Cailin.” He tapped his name tag. “Guess what my name is?”

“Would I win the game then?” she asked with a laugh.

“You’ve already won our game, beautiful.”

Brad shot her a seductive smile that should’ve sent the temperature in the room soaring several degrees, then turned to start on her drink.

Cailin went back to people watching. As much as she enjoyed interacting with others—when they carried the conversation, of course—she was always more comfortable on the outside looking in. It was easier watching than trying to figure out how to actually do, how to get involved with people and not become mired in their expectations and rules and just plain crap sometimes. Part of the reason she’d been with Sean as long as she had was because she was so used to the outsider role that she hadn’t really recognized that she’d ended up there, in her marriage of all places. She’d been so used to being lonely that it hadn’t rung any alarm bells when it crept between her and Sean, hadn’t alerted her to her husband’s slow defection until it was too late.

It was funny when she bothered to think about it, really—funny sad, not funny ha-ha. She had ended up in the same position with Alex, hadn’t she? On the outside looking in. If she could ignore what was on the inside, it might be easier to bear, but how could she ignore a man she was so fascinated with that not even his having a wife could cool her down for long?

Thus her trip to Thrice.

Brad returned with her drink, flirting a bit more before heading over to help with a large group that arrived all at once. Cailin sipped the frozen concoction with pleasure. And she watched. And watched.

What had made Alex choose her? She’d been on the dance floor, but she knew better than anyone that her skill in that area wouldn’t be special enough to draw a man like him. She frowned, trying to piece the puzzle together. Had it been the dress? Had her clothes declared to the world
I’m desperate; pick me up?
Chemistry had certainly been a factor. For goodness’s sake, look how quick they had ended up in—

“Ah, my lady returns. How are you this evening, miss?”

Cailin turned, surprised. The man behind her stood a good foot taller than her own five-three, towering over her even when he leaned one elbow on the bar. A rugged jaw tempered the boyish good looks, keeping him from being pretty; instead he drew second, third, and probably fourth looks from the women passing their spot. Cailin looked at those women, then at him, but it wasn’t until he smiled and lifted a single dark brow that she realized who he was. A hot flush that had nothing to do with the alcohol in her drink swept across her neck and face.

“Oh Lord,” she whispered. It was the man who’d opened the door to the office that night, the one who’d known Alex on sight, who had allowed them in with only that raised eyebrow as comment.

The man traced what must be a bright red stain across her cheeks with a cool finger. “Ah, none of that, now.” Leaning in, he whispered directly in her tingling ear, “Your secret is safe with me, my lady.”

Cailin turned her head, bringing them practically nose to nose. “Thank you… I’m afraid I don’t—”

“Damien. Thrice’s owner. And you are?”

Oh
. “Cailin.”

“Beautiful.” It seemed to be the adjective most fitting tonight since two men had now used it on her. Cailin fought not to roll her eyes at him. “I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back.”

“I see.”

She sat for a moment under the man’s careful scrutiny, sipping her drink, with no idea what to say.

“So where is Alex tonight?” Damien asked.

She jerked her head toward him. Wrinkling her brows, she asked, “How should I know?”

“Ah, I see.” Something in his face closed down, and Damien’s tone froze her in place when he continued. “So it’s like that.”

Like what?
This man had known Alex a long time, he said. Did he not know Alex was married? Or was he just covering for his friend so Alex could get some tail on the side? Cailin shook her head, confused. “Damien, Alex is—”

“Married? I know.”

“I didn’t.”

The man’s cavalier attitude hurt. Maybe she was supposed to be able to just have sex and not feel anything—that’s what she’d actually been looking for that night, as a matter of fact. But even if she had been able to look at it that way, no one should take marriage that lightly.

She stared at him, hoping something in his expression would explain what she was having such a difficult time comprehending. Finally she gave up and said, “I don’t—”

“Understand.” Damien ignored her tightened lips at his rude interruption and continued. “I know you don’t. Few people do. And no, I don’t condone affairs.”

Cailin plopped her elbows on the bar, dropped her head into her hands, and rubbed her temples in slow circles. Damien’s low chuckle made her want to smack him, but since he owned the place, that probably wasn’t a good idea. She’d seen the size of the bouncers out front, after all.

“Cailin, I’m sorry. I’m not making fun, I promise.” He took one of her hands and held it in his own. “Let’s just say I have a fair idea of what’s going on with Alex. Although most people wouldn’t understand, I do, and I won’t begrudge him what little bit of happiness he can squeeze out.”