Lethal Exposure (12 page)

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault.”

“What did he do?”

He toyed with a strand of her hair. He didn’t like talking about his old man. “Ever heard of Simon Black?”

“The lead singer for the British rock band Bruise?”

She sounded impressed. Women always sounded impressed when they found out about his father. Sebastian didn’t know why. There was nothing to be impressed about. The man was an abusive alcoholic with far more money than humanity.

“That’d be him.”

“Wow, what was it like growing up with a rock-star dad?”

“I didn’t grow up with him. My mother was a groupie. He got her pregnant, told her to have an abortion and trotted off on a world tour. She decided to keep me. She tried to get him to have a relationship with me. He came around a time or two. Christmas. My sixth birthday. I never saw him after Mom died and Aunt Bunnie came to get me and Linc and took us off to live at the commune.”

She sucked in her breath. Sympathy swam in her eyes. She reached out to rub his upper arm.

“Don’t go feeling sorry for me.” He hardened his chin. “I did just fine without him.”

“How did you cope?”

“Threw myself into life. I made lots of friends in spite of my shabby wardrobe. I was class president, prom king, the captain of the debate team and I batted cleanup on my high school baseball squad. My advanced placement classes started at seven a.m. and after-school activities kept me busy until nine at night. No time to feel sorry for myself.”

“Oh, you were that guy,” she teased.

“Which girl were you?”

“The shy one hiding out in the library reading Romeo and Juliet and dreaming of dating the class president, prom king, debate-team captain, baseball hero.”

He grinned at her. “So you were that girl.”

“Yep, the one you didn’t give a second glance.”

“Forgive me, that was damned rude of me.”

“You’re forgiven.”

He was tired of talking about himself. He wanted to find out more about her. “How about you? What do you value, Julie DeMarco?”

She hesitated a moment. “I’m not sure anymore.”

“Why not?”

“My life’s in flux. I’m in the process of reevaluating my values.”

“Is that so.”

“You know, I think I might like to give that freedom thing a try. You make is sound so fun.”

“Kind of hard for a caretaker type.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to fly free when your basic orientation is to help people. Look how emotionally invested you got over Colin Cruz,” Sebastian pointed out.

“What’s so wrong about caring?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s just that it’s hard to care too deeply and still fly free.”

“You’re saying you don’t care about anything?”

“No, I’m saying freedom is more important to me than other things.” He laced his fingers through hers. It felt nice, this bonding. “Thing is, you have to make choices in life. No matter what the media would have us believe, you can’t really have it all. You make one choice, you close yourself off to all the other opportunities out there. When you fly free, you don’t close off your options.”

“But neither do you get the intimacy of being deeply involved.”

“That’s true.”

“Choices,” she said, and a pensive look came into her eyes.

“Julie,” he murmured, squeezing her fingers tighter. “You think too much.”

“How do you know I’m thinking?”

He pressed the pad of his thumb between her eyebrows. “You get the cutest furrow right here when your mind is clicking on high gear.”

“I hate that I’m so easy to read.”

“Don’t. It’s endearing.”

“It gets me into hot water is what it does.”

“What kind of hot water?”

“In the past, I’ve been rather foolish in love. I wear my heart on my sleeve.”

“Ah,” he said, hating the fact she’d been hurt. She deserved to be cherished.

By who? You? That’s a laugh. You’ve never had a relationship that outlived the expiration date on your milk cartoon.

“‘Ah’?” she prompted.

“That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“The insistence on just sex, no dating.”

“Yeah.” Her voice lowered, thickened. She blinked, cleared her throat. “From now on I’ve got a Teflon heart.”

“Sounds smart.”

“It is.”

He kissed her. Softly. Sweetly.

She made encouraging noises.

Slowly, he tasted her and then he gently increased the pressure, but kept things light and playful, realizing this was exactly what they both needed right now. He was really getting into the kiss when she pulled away.

“I get why women are so crazy about you,” she said. “And it’s not just the looks. You’re great at making a woman feel special. What I don’t get is why no one has snared you.”

“It’s that freedom thing. I don’t stay in one place too long. Gotta keep moving.” He nibbled her earlobe.

“Always on the run.”

He didn’t run from things. He ran to them. New jobs, new adventures, new women. Except suddenly, he didn’t want any more women. He wanted only Julie.

The realization was startling and it twisted him up inside.

“I like that about you,” she whispered. “I know I don’t have to worry about you getting serious on me. You’re footloose and fancy-free and you don’t let anything stand in your way.”

“That’s me,” he said, surprised that his voice came out husky and hollow. “Footloose and fancy-free.”

She kissed his chin, then moved her lips down his jaw to his throat. Wherever her lips touched, his body burst into tiny flames. And she was doing wondrous things to him with her tongue.

He couldn’t believe he was so hot and ready for her again this soon. She seemed to have an unerring talent for knowing just how to excite his libido.

But despite the urgency holding him in a vise grip, this time he wanted something slow and tender. He wrapped his thighs around her waist, flipped her onto her back and positioned himself above her, pinning her wrists to the floor.

He pressed his forehead to hers and stared deeply into her gentle blue eyes. She looked like peace. Calm and serene. He supported his weight on his forearms. His cock was throbbing steel between their pelvises. Her soft breasts were pressed flushed against his hard chest.

Her breathing was his air. The thump of her heart vibrated through him, infused him.

Without ever taking his eyes off her, he slowly entered her body. She made a soft, happy sound. He felt something hot and sticky deep inside his chest.

Driven by a force he could not explain, Sebastian stopped moving. He cupped her cheek with his palm and looked at her. Really truly looked at her and in that strange and incredible moment he felt he was being given a glimpse of his future if he only had the courage to wrap his hand around it and seize it before it slipped away.

The emotion bloomed, growing into something he dared not name, but had spent his entire life avoiding. It was an emotion cloaked by fear. He was that little boy again, afraid to love, afraid to invest himself, determined not to get hurt.

The feeling clogged his throat, crowded his chest, tightened his lungs. This kind of sensation did not fit in to his plans. Just the inkling of it stifled his freedom.

All at once he had a desperate urge to run. Just get up and take off buck-naked out the door. He’d never planned for this feeling and he had no idea what to do about it.

It was at that precise moment Sebastian Black knew he was in serious trouble.

DAMMIT, THE SABOTEUR’S plan to bring more scandal down on Confidential Rejuvenations hadn’t worked. Installing a camera in the therapy room and broadcasting a live video stream of Colin Cruz’s dirty sex-addict confessions had backfired.

And all because of that interfering Sebastian Black.

He, Colin Cruz and Confidential Rejuvenations had all come out smelling like roses.

Now there had to be a new scandal. Something Black couldn’t spin his way out of. Something juicy and salacious.

Sebastian Black needed to be caught with his pants down and the saboteur knew exactly how to do it and which paparazzo to call….

And he’d never felt so good.

He stretched, then looked around for Julie.

She wasn’t there.

“Jules?” he called, getting to his feet and searching for his clothes. When she didn’t answer, he headed in the direction of where he supposed her bedroom was. He rapped on the door. “Julie?”

No answer.

He turned the knob and pushed the door open, thinking maybe she’d let him take her to breakfast, only to discover her canopied bed was made up. The room was definitely Julie, decorated in pinks and floral prints and lots of lace. Wistfulness washed over him and he had no idea why. Quickly, he backed out and shut the door.

“Julie?” He searched the entire apartment, but she was no where to be found.

Then, he discovered the note on the kitchen counter.

Thanks for a great time. I’m off to yoga class with Vanessa. Let yourself out.—J.

Apparently all he rated was a hastily scribbled note. No good-morning wake-up kiss. No cuddling. No showering together. No sharing breakfast. Sebastian snorted, wadded up the note and tossed it in the trash can.

Hell, you’d think she could have at least roused him for a cup of coffee instead of leaving him lying naked and alone on her living room carpet. In the past, he would have admired a woman who took lovemaking so casually, but today, he was feeling…

Used.

Sebastian didn’t like the feeling, nor did he understand it. He was the one who’d come over here. He was the one who’d put the moves on Julie and now he was the one acting like a pouty kid who hadn’t gotten his way. What was up with that?

The happy mood he’d woken up with vanished. He dressed and drove back to his hotel to shower and change before heading over to Confidential Rejuvenations to deal with the aftermath of the Colin Cruz incident.

He ended up in the temporary office Dr. Butler had assigned to him, glowering down at the spreadsheets he’d assembled over the past several days. His initial thought had been to cross-reference the incidents of sabotage with the days the employees, the hospital co-owners and the board members had been on the premises.

Starting back in the early spring, there’d been a tabloid leak to the paparazzi about a beleaguered pop star undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, a kitchen fire attributed to arson, several small-scale thefts, a transformer knocked out and the backup generator tampered with, car tires slashed in the employee parking lot and this last mess with the camera in the group therapy room.

The spreadsheets were telling him only five people had been on the hospital campus on the day of every single one of those incidents. Maxine Woodbury, Carlisle Jones, Devi Parker, Roger Marshall and Julie DeMarco.

Seeing Roger’s and Julie’s names on the list caused his gut to squeeze. He simply could not believe Julie was involved, but Roger? He didn’t know the man.

Sebastian blew out his breath and splayed a palm against the back of his neck, considering the consequences of Roger being the culprit. That’d go over big with Linc if he were the one to blow the whistle on Keeley’s father. But why would a man of Roger’s stature and prestige stoop to something as petty and cowardly as sabotage?

Then again, why would anyone on the list do such a thing? Maxine was a sixty-nine-year-old grandmother. Carlisle Jones had a wife and kids to support. Devi Parker was a professional businesswoman. And Julie…well she was just too nice to pull something like this.

You act is if you know her. Just because you’ve slept with her doesn’t mean you know her.

He shook his head. No. He refused to even entertain the thought that Julie was somehow involved. Besides, it might not be any of those five. It could be a contract worker or a patient. He shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

Knuckles rapped against his open door. Sebastian looked up to see Tanner standing there.

“May I talk to you?”

“Sure.” Sebastian motioned him inside. “What’s up?”

Tanner shut the door behind him and walked over to sink into the chair beside the desk. “I’m ready to put a stop to this damned sabotage. Butler, Covey and Garcia don’t want the police involved, but I don’t think the perpetrator is just going to stop.”

“I agree.”

“The saboteur knows this hospital inside and out. When the tires were slashed in the employee parking lot, we didn’t catch who’d done it because the security cameras had been disabled. I’m certain it’s an inside job.”

Sebastian studied Tanner a long moment. “Why are you bringing this to me?”

“I need someone to help me that I know for sure isn’t involved. Someone sharp and savvy that I can count on. I’ve cross-referenced the employees who were at the hospital on the day that all the incidents of sabotage occurred. Of course, in the case of the Web camera, it could have been in there for days and no one knew about it until the live stream last night and that could have been triggered remotely via any computer.”

Sebastian sucked in his breath. “I cross-referenced my own list.”

Tanner’s eyes darkened. “So you know Julie’s name is on it.”

“I do.”

Their gazes met.

“You saved our ass on this Colin Cruz thing. I’ve gotta tell you I’m damned embarrassed it happened on my watch. I won’t allow anything like that to happen again,” Tanner continued.

“No clues on who installed the camera in the session room?”

“We dusted the camera, the painting and the wall for fingerprints but we only found Colin’s prints. Either the culprit wore gloves or wiped everything down after the camera was installed, or both. The thing is we never know when this person or persons will strike again or what they’ll do.”

“You think it could be more than one person?”

Tanner shrugged. “I’m considering all possibilities.”

“Carlisle seems the most likely to me,” Sebastian said. “As head of the maintenance department he’s got access to the entire hospital, plus he has the knowledge and skill to do things like dismantle your security cameras.”

“It’s not Carlisle. He’s a good friend and an honest man.”

“Are you certain it couldn’t be him?”

“As certain as anyone can be. He has absolutely no motive.”

Sebastian got to his feet. “Well, it sure as hell isn’t Julie.”

“Of course not,” Tanner said, also standing up. “She has no motive, either.”

“So that leaves Maxine Woodbury, Devi Parker and Roger Marshall.”

“Our chief suspects are a little old lady, a sex therapist and Dr. Butler’s best golfing buddy. All with no motives.”

“It was pretty suspicious that Devi Parker was late the same day Colin Cruz has a meltdown and she told Julie to start the session without her.”

“Yes but…” Tanner shook his head. “Devi? That’s hard to swallow. It could still be someone else. Maybe someone slipped into the hospital on their day off and we have no record of them being on the grounds.”

“That’s true. What’s your plan?”

“I could cross-reference the spreadsheet with the guard logs. Every car that comes in or goes out is recorded. That would widen the suspect list.” Tanner rested his hands on his hips. “I was also thinking of installing special surveillance cameras. Tiny, discreet, waterproof. I’d put them up in strategic locations and monitor them myself on my laptop. No need to involve my security team.”

“Spy cameras?”

“Yes. And only you and I would know about them.”

“Depending on where you put these cameras, you could run into privacy issues.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“I’ll back you up.”

Tanner reached out to shake his hand. “Let’s catch us a saboteur.”

THE PLAN WAS IN MOTION.

Soon, very soon, Sebastian Black and Julie DeMarco were going to take a very big fall.

The saboteur laughed and put the name of a publicity-hungry paparazzo on speed dial.

DR. BUTLER, Dr. Covey and Robert Garcia took Sebastian out to dinner to thank him for adroitly handling the Colin Cruz episode.

“It could have been a fiasco,” Dr. Covey said as they lingered over brandy and cigars at one of the most expensive steak restaurants in Austin.

“You were amazing,” Dr. Butler enthused. “You’re worth every penny we’re paying you.”

Normally, he would have done a bit of grandstanding and reveled in his success, but tonight he was feeling edgy and impatient and he couldn’t wait to call Julie. He hadn’t seen her all day and he was anxious to get together with her again.

“Mr. Black?”

Sebastian turned, saw a waiter standing at his elbow, a silver tray balanced on his upturned palm. “Yes?”

The man extended the tray.

He spied the envelope with his name on it. What was this about? He took the envelope, tipped the waiter, then excused himself from the group. He slipped into the empty hallway, opened the envelope and read the cryptic typewritten message that made him smile.

Meet me in the Confidential Rejuvenations’ meditation room in the tranquility garden at eleven-fifteen. Be naked.

JULIE HAD SPENT the day alternating between overanalyzing what had happened with Sebastian and trying not to think about it. She was so confused. Part of her kept hoping he’d show up on the floor to talk to her, while another part of her was hoping he didn’t show. She didn’t know if she could look into his snapping black eyes and not fall madly in love with him.

Almost her entire shift had passed and nothing. No sign of him. Nor had he called her. She told herself that was a good thing, but it didn’t stop her body from getting raw and achy. Everything seemed arousing. The way the material of her scrub suit rubbed across her breasts when she moved. The smell of the floral boutique centerpiece on the nurses’ station. The soft sound of the evocative mood music piped through the hospital’s sound system.

Toward the end of the evening, she reached into her pocket for the key to lock up the medication room and her fingers brushed against a small white envelope.

What was this? How had it gotten into her pocket?

Heart jackhammering, she looked around to see if anyone had noticed her. The only staff member in view was the ward secretary, Maxine, and she was busy tapping on the keyboard at her computer terminal.

The night-shift nurses were arriving, putting their things away, chatting to each other. Julie slipped past them, headed for the locker room. She went into an empty bathroom stall and shut the door.

Pulse pounding, she unfolded the typewritten note.

Meet me in the meditation room of the tranquility gardens at eleven twenty-five. Be prepared for the thrill of your life.

AT ELEVEN-TWENTY, Sebastian paced naked inside the enclosure of the meditation room of the Confidential Rejuvenations’ tranquility garden.

Another few minutes passed.

Just when Sebastian was about to put his clothes back on and go in search of her, he heard footsteps on the walkway.

Pulse galloping, he held his breath, stepped to the back of the meditation room, away from the window. His breath came in short gasps. Sweat slicked his body. The throbbing between his thighs intensified.

Every muscle in his body tensed. He waited, awash in sensation.

Silence.

Another minute passed and then another. Where was she?

He edged to the door, cracked it open, peered out into the garden.

No one. Nothing.

He looked down at the walkway and spied a candle, a lighter and another note right outside the door.

He snatched up the candle, lighter and note and brought them back inside the meditation room. He lit the candle, read the note.

Turn on the surround sound system.

He punched Play on the CD player, soothing music whispered through the speakers.

Uneasiness mixed with expectancy rippled inside of him and sent his arousal shooting through the roof. She’d stripped him bare, left him vulnerable, at her mercy, but dammit, it made him want her even more.

Just what wicked game was she playing?

CONFIDENTIAL Rejuvenations’ new meditation sanctuary was nestled inside the tranquility gardens overlooking the banks of the Colorado River. During the day, acupuncture, massage and other alternative healing practices were offered there. But after dark, the meditation room was kept locked.

How had Sebastian finagled a key?

You have to ask? The man could charm the skin off a snake.

Julie walked down the path, self-consciousness mingling with curiosity, desire and a heightened awareness of her surroundings. She felt deliciously wanton.

Heat radiated from her feminine core throughout her entire body. She’d darted out the back entrance of the hospital, knowing the security cameras were on her, watching her. It only served to escalate her arousal. She forced herself to keep moving. She was doing nothing wrong by taking a walk in the moonlight.

The air was chilly and she was grateful for her jacket. The full moon reflected ghostly white off the flagstone walkway. The farther down the path she went, the more her knees quivered.