But to have a chance with her he needed to convince her to forgive him for deceiving her. On the pro side, if anyone could understand his reasons for lying, Paige would. She shared the clean-up role in her family, and she would appreciate the relationships that drove him. Like him, she didn’t back away from the tough topics.
On the con side, Paige was the most honest person he’d ever met. She’d revealed things to him and shared her pain with an openness he’d never encountered.
Telling her the truth was a risk he had to take. But not yet. He’d wait until after her sisters’ visit. Paige needed the next four days to reconnect with the ones she loved. Having her family here would make her holiday.
He hadn’t intended flying her siblings in to be a gift, but he knew he couldn’t have chosen a better one if he’d racked his brain for months.
For now, he’d keep his secret. Monday he’d fly out for Tuesday’s board meeting as planned, then he’d return to meet Paige’s sisters before they flew home Wednesday night. He’d give himself the two days before Christmas to win Paige’s heart.
Warm lips trailed down Paige’s spine, weaving in and out of a hazy dream of lying on a tropical beach with Trent.
“Paige, wake up.”
“Mmm.”
Teeth nipped her butt, jolting her awake. She flipped onto her back. Trent lay grinning beside her in the bed of his hotel suite. “I have a surprise for you. You need to get dressed.”
“A surprise?” She swept her hair out of her face. Excitement trickled through her. “What is it?”
His boyish flash of teeth and sparkling eyes quickened her pulse. “Something you’ll like. But first you need to hit the shower.”
“I have to be dressed for this surprise?”
“Yes.”
She loved him so much the words bumped against the back of her teeth like a battering ram, wanting to escape. But she bit her tongue. It was too soon. He wasn’t ready for a soul-baring declaration. The look in his eyes tempted her to throw caution into the winds.
But not yet.
How had it happened? How had she allowed this man who was supposed to be nothing more than a transitory phase of her life and a way to heal the past so she could move forward sink deep into her heart? She couldn’t find the answer as she looked up at him. “Are you joining me?”
“Not this time. You shower first.”
She threw back the covers and rose, relishing his hungry gaze raking her body and the hiss of his breath. “It’s Sunday. The conference is over. I’m free to spend the day with you.”
A secretive smile twitched his lips. “Good. Go. I’ll order breakfast for us.”
She rushed through her shower, drying her hair and applying her makeup all the while trying to figure out what kind of surprise Trent would give her. Would it be the first or the last? The odds of the latter were slim given what he’d said about never wanting to marry. But she couldn’t let the odds keep her from trying to win him over.
She joined him in the living room. The smell of bacon and eggs and toast made her stomach growl, but the pot of strongly scented coffee on the table made her hustle forward. Trent handed her a filled mug.
She could get used to mornings like this—waking late and sharing breakfast with Trent. She burned her tongue trying to wash the lump from her throat and reached for a slice of chilled pineapple. She’d just taken a bite when her cell phone rang. Chewing and swallowing quickly, she raced across the room and snatched it from the dresser.
Caller ID said The Lagoon. She groaned, “Work.”
“Answer it.”
She grimaced. “This is Paige.”
“Hi, Paige. It’s Andy at the front desk. We have…an issue that we need you to come down here and deal with.”
Her heart sank. She didn’t want anything to rob even one second of her time with Trent today. “An issue?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the problem?”
“I, um…can’t say exactly.”
Argh. It must be a difficult customer. She glanced at Trent, but he’d turned his back. “I take it the problem is standing right in front you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Isn’t Janice the manager on duty?”
“She said this was your specialty.”
Paige sighed. Even in Vegas she’d earned a reputation as a peacemaker when problems with clients or employees escalated. At the moment her gift of diplomacy seemed more like a curse.
“I’ll be right there.” She disconnected and joined Trent by the window. “I have to go. I’m needed downstairs. Can your surprise wait until I get back?”
A smile he couldn’t quite suppress played about Trent’s very talented mouth, and he had a look in his eyes that she couldn’t quite decipher. “It’ll keep.”
“Then I’ll see you soon. I—” Love you. “Bye for now.” She raced out of the suite before she could say anything crazy.
The elevator arrived almost instantly and descended blessedly fast. She hurried across the mezzanine. Keeping a ticked off customer waiting only exacerbated the situation.
A familiar face caught her eye. Trent? Already dressed? But that was impossible. She’d left him upstairs in his robe, and there was no way he could have gotten dressed and down here faster than she had. Her elevator hadn’t made a single stop.
The woman beside him hooked a hand around his nape and pulled him down for a passionate kiss. He wound his arms around her, kissing her back with enthusiasm. A queer feeling Paige couldn’t described snaked through her as she stared, unable to look away. Then she noticed his weird posture. He’d bowed his back out to accommodate the woman’s very pregnant belly.
A frisson worked its way up her spine. Trent had said he wasn’t married, but from the ring on his finger to the pregnant woman on his arm he looked very married.
He looked up and Paige’s heart stalled.
That was Trent’s face. But that wasn’t Trent.
That was the man she’d almost slept with last year.
Ten
T rent Hightower had an identical twin.Paige’s body went numb, but her feet kept carrying forward, and her brain kept churning. The differences between the men were slight, but now that she’d met both, the dissimilarities were impossible to miss.
The man who had introduced himself to her as Trent last year had narrower shoulders and a less muscular build. He was still good-looking, but he didn’t have the same sense of power or charisma as the version she’d left upstairs.
This Trent spotted her and his eyes widened. Even the unique shade of teal seemed muted. Her gaze dropped to his mouth—a mouth she had kissed. His bottom lip had a petulant set rather than one of sensual promise.
No wonder the one upstairs had walked past her as if he didn’t remember her. He hadn’t met her before that day a week ago when she’d stopped him in the hotel conference center. She couldn’t make a man recall something that he’d never experienced. She’d called him Trent, and he hadn’t corrected her.
One of the Trents had lied. But which one?
A confusing mix of emotions stirred inside her. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Sadness. Loss. She’d thought she’d found the man of her dreams. Instead, she’d found a liar or maybe a liar and an imposter.
But she wasn’t going to run, and she wasn’t going to hide. If she’d learned nothing else over this past year, she knew that taking the coward’s way out only delayed the inevitable confrontation.
She stopped two yards from the couple. Part of her yearned to do as Sammie said and bring the bastard to his knees. But for all she knew, he might not have been married last year, and he might not be the liar.
But you’ve seen his brother at work. He’s respected by his peers and he knows his stuff.
But this one was with those same people last year, wearing that same name on his conference badge.
The silent argument in her head only confused her more. She didn’t know what to believe.
Determined to solve this puzzle, she confronted the man who’d supplied her most humiliating moment ever. “You must be the other Hightower brother. I feel as if I know you already.”
This copy paled and shifted on his feet, then his gaze shot past her shoulder and his eyes filled with relief.
Before Paige could turn, a familiar hand settled on her waist. Her pulse did that crazy thing—the chaotic one it hadn’t been doing in the presence of last year’s guy, she noted absently.
“Paige, I see you’ve met my twin, Brent, and his wife, Luanne. They’ve come to Vegas to celebrate their twelfth anniversary.”
She didn’t miss the warning in his voice, and one look at the tense, watchful expression on his face and she realized he’d known what had happened all along.
She stepped away from his hand and numbly nodded to the couple’s hellos as she digested the unsettling fact that last year she’d almost had sex with a married man.
The good news: the man she had slept with wasn’t an imposter. His name was Trent. The bad: he was still a liar. She’d been falling in love and he’d been playing a game—a lying game.
Had anything he’d said or done with her been genuine? Or had it all been faked to cover up his brother’s attempted adultery? She felt used and manipulated.
“I take it this is my surprise?”
Regret darkened Trent’s eyes. “No. Aren’t you needed at the front desk?”
The front desk. She’d been called down to solve a crisis and she’d forgotten all about it. Grateful for the excuse, she nodded.
“Yes. If you will excuse me, I will leave you to your family reunion.” She pivoted away and stalked toward the lobby with her heart breaking, but an underlying anger gave her the energy to keep functioning.
“Paige,” Trent called from behind her. “Wait.”
Not knowing what she’d say or even if she could speak without bursting into tears, she quickened her step and ducked through the casino for a shortcut. So much for her vow not to run from her problems anymore. It hadn’t lasted five minutes. But she couldn’t face him now. Not until she’d made sense of this fiasco.
“Paige,” he called again. The front desk was in sight. She’d almost made it when he grasped her elbow, forcing her to stop yards shy of the casino exit. She jerked it free and he sighed. “Let me explain.”
She looked into the face she’d inexplicably and unexpected fallen in love with. “No explanations are necessary, Trent. We had a brief, no-strings-attached affair. That’s all I wanted from you.”
The words she’d uttered a few nights ago raked her throat raw. How could she know her feelings could change so drastically in such a short time?
“I want more.” His gravely words launched her heart into a crazy rhythm.
She shook her head and edged toward reception. “There was never going to be more. Even if there was, how could I trust anything you said ever again? Go home, Trent. We’ve had our fun. Now we’re done. Goodbye. Have a nice life.”
Behind her a squeal shattered the quiet lobby. She knew that squeal. Sammie? Paige turned in time to see her sisters descending on her. Emotion welled in her throat, carrying with it a monsoon of tears. She blinked furiously and her vision cleared enough for her to recognize the exact second her perceptive sisters read her face. Almost as one, their arms opened.