MrTemptation (13 page)

His mother slid into the seat next to Cadence. Preston got
into the front seat of the car.

“Hello, Auntie Anne,” Cadence said. She stared in wonder at
her mother’s friend.

Maryanne Night turned to look at her. Striking green eyes,
so like her son’s, filled with light and recognition.

“Cadence, how wonderful to see you again.” She smiled.
Cadence hadn’t forgotten her smile, which brought back so many happy memories.

Preston turned to look over his shoulder.

“I used to call your mother auntie when I was little.”

“She told me.”

“May I call you Auntie Anne?” Cadence asked.

Maryanne’s eyes filled with tears. “I would like that a
great deal.”

Cadence hadn’t expected such a strong response, especially
since Maryanne Night hadn’t contacted her once since Mother’s death.

“Thanks are long overdue,” Cadence said. “What you did for
my mother couldn’t have been easy.”

“I was happy to do so,” Maryanne said, drying her eyes with
a handkerchief. “You know I started as her personal assistant at Sparkle
Industries.”

“I didn’t know.”

“It was your mother who encouraged me to study the law in
night school. She even paid my tuition.”

“Sounds like my mother,” Cadence replied. Her mother’s
generosity and kindness was part of her charm. It’d been one of the areas her
parents had continually argued about. In private, of course.

Publicly, the mayor had wished his wife’s “little projects”,
as he called them, every success. Often he took credit for their achievements.

How odd, Cadence decided, her mother never told her about
helping Auntie Anne.

Preston told Frank to take them to Sparkle Industries and
the intrepid driver swerved into morning rush hour.

Maryanne straightened. She seemed to accept what Cadence had
told her as being genuinely felt. Cadence hoped so. She’d never been more
sincere in her life.

“I suppose you have some questions,” Maryanne said.

Cadence had a ton. For instance, how had her mother managed
to hide so much money from the mayor? Why hadn’t she confided in Cadence?

Most importantly, why Maryanne Night had waited so long to
inform Cadence about the trust.

“What I’d like to know is why I’m learning about the trust
now,” Cadence asked.

“I apologize about the secrecy. Your mother had her
reasons.”

“Really?” Cadence could only think of one. “The family
reputation was more important to her than being honest with her child?”

“Cadence, she intended to tell you when you were older. She
didn’t know she was going to die so soon.”

“You knew. You could’ve spared me the agony of those years
with the mayor’s wife and her children.”

“I’m sorry we haven’t been in contact with you. I really
wanted to reveal what I knew when your mother died. Again, I was following your
mother’s expressed wishes. I will explain more at the office when we can all
sit down and go through her papers.”

Cadence crossed her arms. Maryanne Night wasn’t to blame.
She’d done what was required of her as legal counsel.

Mother had required secrecy because she’d been betrayed.
Cadence felt a twinge of anger. They’d both been betrayed.

Cadence would have to wait for her answers. Maryanne wasn’t
about to tell her in front of Frank.

“I really am sorry it had to be this way,” Maryanne said.

She sounded so remorseful, Cadence couldn’t help reaching
out to her and patting her shoulder. “Please don’t feel bad. Like you said, you
had no control over the situation, you were just going along with what Mother
wanted. I hold no hard feelings against you.”

She wished she could give the woman a hug. For old time’s
sake. For being such a good friend to her mother.

Maryanne sighed. “She would be proud of you. You are so
lovely. So grown up. You remind me of her.” She blinked rapidly.

“I miss her,” Cadence said, swallowing with difficulty.

“We all do.”

Cadence settled back in her seat, her thoughts conflicted
with emotions she’d tried to bury. There was the guilt that she could’ve done
something to prevent her mother from going to the Twin Towers that morning.
There was fear that she would lose someone else she loved. Ultimately, there
was the terrible loneliness as friends and family members slipped away from
her.

The hard part was over, Cadence decided. The wound had been
reopened but the pain wasn’t so sharp, so raw. What Maryanne had to tell her
was a long time coming but they would unravel Mother’s complicated business
dealings and messy personal life together.

After all was said and done, Cadence hoped Auntie Anne would
be her friend.

She looked at Preston. His hair was mussed as if he’d just
gotten out of bed. Had his mother noticed? Cadence would like to reach up and
smooth out the errant curls.

Preston had kept silent as she’d vented at his mother.
Instinctively, he knew what she needed. She appreciated all he’d done for her.
She wanted to be more than a client to him.

They traveled east through the Holland Tunnel and sped down
the Long Island Expressway. Thankfully, traffic was light for this time of day.
When they returned to the city, she and Preston would fuck each other
senseless. She would forget, for a while, these emotions that were so difficult
to deal with.

They exited at Huntington Station and two miles later pulled
up outside of a plain, two-story building.

Frank opened the doors for them and all three climbed out.
Cadence looked about nervously at the factory that had been started by her grandfather
and continued by her mother. The business had grown. Today it was worth
millions.

Sparkle Industries didn’t looked like much from the
outside—a white-brick building with narrow, barred windows and surrounded by a
chain-link fence. The company sign was made of stone. The logo was a thistle
surrounded by stars.

Cadence hadn’t ever wondered what had happened to Sparkle.
She’d assumed her parents had put the business in a blind trust while he held
public office. Mother had kept her family business separate in her estate,
according to Preston, even going so far as telling the mayor she’d sold it.

The reason she’d taken such extreme measures was clear.
She’d found out her husband was cheating on her. She knew Cadence must be
protected in case something happened to her.

Maryanne charged ahead of them, her heels clicking
authoritatively on the asphalt. Preston and Cadence followed.

With all of the secrets being revealed to her, Cadence was
more paranoid than ever about Victoria finding out about the trust. How was she
going to hide her new wealth from the woman?

Cyrus had followed her to the Michelangelo. No doubt he was
snooping. It wouldn’t take him long to find out about Sparkle Industries,
demanding his share of Mother’s estate. At any moment she expected him to pop
out from behind the nearest bush and ask what they were doing here.

When they found out, the pack of them would sue, blaming
Preston and his mother for undue influence or whatever they could come up with.
The thought of Victoria attacking her Auntie put Cadence’s back up. There was
no doubt in Cadence’s mind Victoria would move heaven and earth if there was a
dollar to be made.

“Cadence?” Preston’s voice called her out the nightmarish,
worst-case scenario. She slowed her pace and he caught up.

“I’m sorry, just thinking about my stepbrother.” She gave
him a halfhearted smile. “He’s bound to cause trouble.”

He smiled back at her and grasped her arm. “Let me worry
about the Burkes.”

The firmness of his fingertips on her elbow gave her
reassurance everything would be okay. She’d been to hell and back in the last
few days. He was the constant right now, the one person she could count on in
this charade she called a life.

As much as Cadence hated the lies, the secrets and now this
mystery that swirled around her family’s past, she had to know the truth before
she could be whole. She had a partner in her quest, a man she could depend on.

Cadence tucked her hip close to Preston’s and maneuvered so
that she was holding onto him. His hard-muscled arm flexed. She loved the feel
of him.

A sudden jolt of possessive overcame her as she held onto
him. She wanted him so badly to be hers and nobody else’s. She didn’t know what
she based such a strong reaction on, only that his strength nurtured her.

She hadn’t felt that way with anyone since her mother had
passed away, and she was grateful.

Of course, she wanted there to be more than gratitude.

She looked up at him again and squeezed his arm, trying to
convey how important he’d become to her. He looked down at her with a calm
smile and let his hand come up to grasp hers.

“Everything will work out just fine. You’ll see.” It was as
if he had read her thoughts.

“Thank you. I know it’s your job but you have really tried
your hardest to make it easy for me.”

“Even if it wasn’t my job, now that you are with me, I
intend to make you my number one priority.” He looked ahead. His mom was a fair
distance away. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “If my mother wasn’t
here, I would kiss you right now.”

She smiled up at him and grasped his hand tighter. “If your
mother wasn’t here, I would let you.”

He laughed deep in his throat. She puckered her lips.

She knew there was something more going on between them than
just a hot kiss in a bagel shop, more than just a mystery he was helping to
unravel for her. Even though they’d only been together for a few days, she was
certain of an intimacy between them—the kind kindred souls experienced.

She licked her lips, remembering the sweet taste of his
kiss. He winked. Her body heated to scorching. She was starting to get carried
away again. This wasn’t the time or the place to surrender to the impulses
she’d kept locked up for far too long.

She walked through the door Preston held open for her. He
patted her ass as she swished past him. She shot a look at his mother, who
walked regally to the security desk to greet the guard. Luckily, she hadn’t
seen.

The security guard jumped up from his chair and straightened
his cap.

As Maryanne signed them in, Cadence checked out the lobby.
There wasn’t much besides the security desk and a couple of potted plants. The
floors were a dreary gray concrete. The walls had been painted an institutional
green. This was a place of high fashion? She noticed the cameras in the ceiling
and a multitude of TV monitors flickering behind the guard’s desk. Looked more
like a prison to her.

The guard handed her a guest pass attached to a lanyard and
welcomed her to Sparkle Industries.

Cadence thanked him and put the cord around her neck.

There were several people waiting for the elevator at the
far end of the lobby. They were dressed business casual. They shot sideways
glances at her, no doubt wondering who she was and why Auntie Anne had brought
her to Sparkle.

Obviously not a fashionista
, their expressions said.

Cadence followed Preston and his mother. This was so unreal.
She was expected to take over this company. What did she know about running a
business? Or fashion? Absolutely nothing. Zilch. Nada.

Much as she wouldn’t have disappointed her mother for the
world, the fashion empire wasn’t for her. Sparkle Industries would wither and
die if Cadence became its head.

Besides, she’d made other plans, including flying off to
Europe to research Renaissance art. If her personal finances hadn’t been
derailed, screwed up by a greedy stepmother and two stepsiblings she hoped
never to cross paths with again, she would be in Italy now.

How ironic! If it hadn’t been for Victoria, Cadence would’ve
been blissfully unaware of Auntie Anne and Preston and the fortune that waited
for her. How long, exactly, had they planned to keep her in the dark? It was a
question she intended to ask mother and son as soon as possible.

She sighed deeply, anxious to get this all over and done
with. She needed to go for a run soon or get laid—maybe both.

The elevator reached the top floor and stopped. Cadence
exited along with Preston and Auntie Anne. She instantly recognized where she
was. She had been here once with her mother, to a place where dreams were made.

The work floor below them was crowded with sewing machines
buzzing like bees in a hive. Workers were hustling bolts of cloth to a brightly
lit room.
The cutting room
, Cadence remembered. She’d loved watching the
patterns being cut a stack at a time.

They traveled the catwalk until they came to room where a
woman with a measuring tape around her neck was pinning a dress on a model. The
model couldn’t have weighed ninety pounds dripping wet. The dress she was
wearing, a black cocktail number, was stunning. And revealing. The neckline
plunged in the shape of a “V” all the way to the model’s waist, and the dress
was backless, covering only her rear. The A-line skirt fell several inches
above her knees. When she moved, the dress showed a hint of her thigh. It was a
very sexy, seductive dress, the kind the old Cadence wouldn’t have been caught
dead in.

She looked over at Preston. His eyes bulged out of his head
like a cartoon character.

“This is Janet Livingston, one of our top designers at
Sparkle,” Maryanne said.

Ms. Livingston looked down her glasses at Cadence.

“Janet, meet Cadence Burke, Audra’s girl.”

Cadence stuck out her hand. “Hello.”

“I’m pleased to meet you,” Ms. Livingston replied. They
shook warmly. “Do you like the dress?”

“It’s gorgeous. Sexy.” She shot a second look at Preston. He
hadn’t yet recovered. “Men will love this dress.”

“I’m sure it’ll be a bestseller for Sparkle for next
season,” Janet assured her with pride.