“Did you find her?” Lucas’s voice said over the speaker and her stomach fluttered.
“Yes, sir. I have Ms. Kincaid here and she reacted exactly as you predicted. We’re on speaker phone. Maybe you could tell her I’m legit?”
“Nadia, can you hear me?”
“Yes.” She pitched her voice to carry across the distance.
Lucas had been gone less than twenty-four hours and she wanted to talk to him, to tell him about her day and the fund-raising plans. The list of potential contributors he’d given her combined with the names she’d gathered on her own and a day’s worth of phone time had garnered more donations than she’d ever hoped for. This fund-raiser could be the best in library history.
“Paulo is at your disposal while I’m gone. I don’t want you taking the train.”
Part of her was pleased that he’d thought of her. Another teensy part pricked her pride because he’d assumed she would do something foolish. “I’m not dumb enough to ride alone this late at night. I was going to take a taxi.”
“Now you don’t have to.”
She considered arguing. After all, she was trying to stand on her own two feet and prove she could. Relying on Lucas was no better than relying on Mitch or Rand or her father. But refusing for the sake of principal would be beyond stupid.
“I’ll worry less if you use the car especially coming home from the library after dark,” Lucas said as if he could read her mind.
Something inside her melted. Lucas was trying to take care of her. He’d done that eleven years ago, too. “You could have told me you were hiring a driver.”
“Paulo, turn off the speaker and give Ms. Kincaid the phone, please.”
Paulo did as ordered.
Nadia pressed the phone to her ear. “I’m here.”
“You had me otherwise occupied before I left and I neglected to get your cell number.”
His intimate pitch sent her pulse stuttering irregularly. Her skin warmed even more than the balmy summer night warranted when she recalled exactly how he’d been occupied. He’d spent Saturday night and most of Sunday in her bed. Exploring every inch of her skin and letting her relearn his.
“Thanks for thinking of me, Lucas.”
Paulo opened the back door of the limo and she climbed in. The supple leather seats cradled her, a nice change after a long day in the hard, inexpensive office chair the library had found for her to use.
“We made a mess of your place. I’ve asked Ella to come over and clean up.”
Her stomach did another flip. They’d wrecked her bed and then her kitchen when midnight cooking in the nude had turned into sex on the table complete with whipped cream, raspberry jam and chocolate sauce.
Her skin flushed. “I’ve already cleaned up. But thank you.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. My father didn’t think I could manage the real-world chores of cooking and cleaning up after myself. I like proving him wrong.” Crazier still, she liked seeing the place gleam and knowing it was due to her efforts.
“Everett always underestimated you.”
“I know. I’m so much more than just a pretty face.” She said the words tongue in cheek and he rewarded her with a chuckle.
“Yes, you are. Think of me when you go to bed tonight.”
The low timber of his voice sent a shiver of arousal over her. She angled away from Paulo as he slid into the driver’s seat. “I think it’s safe to say I’ll be doing that.”
“And what will you be doing while you’re thinking of me?”
Heat rushed through her and pooled low in her belly. “Remembering.”
“Will you touch yourself the way I did?”
She struggled to pull a calming breath into her suddenly tight chest. “That’s for me to know and you to wonder.”
He tsked. “Trust me. I will. I’ll see you in a few days and get the details of how you filled your nights. Good night, Nadia.”
The call ended abruptly. Disappointed, she stared at the phone, then she composed herself and passed it through the open partition to Paulo. “Thanks.”
“Would you like to go home? Or do you need to stop somewhere else first?”
“No. I want to go home. I mean, to the apartment.”
And for the first time that was the truth. She’d had an amazing night followed by an even more amazing few days, and she couldn’t wait to climb into a tub and savor how much her life had changed. And she wanted to go to sleep on the pillow case she hadn’t washed—the one that smelled of Lucas.
Funny. Being stuck in Dallas didn’t feel like a death sentence anymore. She hoped that in this case history wasn’t about to repeat itself. Because she wasn’t sure she’d survive losing him a second time.
Nadia’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket Friday morning. Lucas?
She snatched it out and angled her back to the door of the tiny office Mary had assigned to her. But the caller ID said Rand instead of Lucas.
“Hi, big brother.” She hoped he didn’t hear the disappointment in her voice, but his wasn’t the baritone she wanted to hear. “Did Mitch’s wedding give you and Tara any ideas?”
“Don’t worry. When we set a date, you’ll be the first to know. I’m not going to let Tara get away this time. Nadia, what can you tell me about Andvari, Inc.?”
He sounded tense. “Why?”
“Because Teckitron, an Andvari subsidiary, just bought up the loans Dad took out to finance the new ships he has on order.”
She jerked in surprise. “Why would he have taken out loans? We had the capital. Didn’t we?”
“Mitch says Dad had some grand theory about saving money by writing off the finance charges on KCL’s taxes and he wouldn’t listen to reason. You know how he was when he got an idea. And remember Dad dumped a huge chunk of our ready cash into refurbishing the ships and some of that cash was mismanaged. Mitch and I are still unraveling that mess and auditing the other lines to make sure there isn’t more embezzling going on than we already know about. I need everything you can tell me about Andvari.”
“Sounds urgent.”
“I want to find out who’s behind that company. When you add Andvari buying up our suppliers over the past few years to the recent purchase of the bank holding our loans the situation begins to look like more than a coincidence.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean someone has it in for KCL. A personal vendetta. Not surprising since Dad managed to make a few enemies.”
She flinched. Rand had never been prone to paranoia or jumping to conclusions. If he was worried, then he had grounds.
Daddy, what have you done?
“I have an Andvari file on my computer. It’s woefully incomplete because I just haven’t been able to penetrate the Andvari bureaucracy. I’ll tell my assistant to e-mail it to you. But good luck with your research. What kind of hole does this leave us in, Rand? Worst-case scenario, if this Teckitron calls the loans we can pay them back. Right?”
The tense silence made the hairs on her body rise. “Given enough time we should be able to raise the capital. But because of the terms of the will we’re in an awkward spot financially. Everything’s tied up. We can’t liquidate any assets or investments.
“To a new creditor we’re a high-risk venture because any one of us could blow this thing right out of the water by violating one part of the damned inheritance curse. If that happens, all Kincaid properties are gone and we have no collateral. No one is going to risk billions without collateral.
“God help us when the terms of his will are made public. The press is going to have a field day. The media furor has barely died down surrounding Dad’s death. If the loans being bought up leaks, it’ll stir up the hornet’s nest again.”
Not good. “Get our PR team on it. Have them prepare a statement. If anyone can spin this in a positive direction, they can.”
“I’ll do it.” He paused and the awkward silence had her bracing herself in her stiff-backed chair. “How are you? And what’s going on with Stone?”
She raked her hair back from her face and decided to come clean. “I’m in love with him again.”
“Nadia—”
“Don’t Nadia me. Lucas was as much a victim of Dad’s machinations as you and Tara were. Dad was wrong to break you up. Well, he was wrong to break Lucas and me up, too.”
“There’s a difference. Tara refused Dad’s bribe money.”
Yes, okay, there was that. Their father had offered Tara an obscene amount of money to be his mistress. She’d not only refused, but also she’d quit her prestigious job as Everett Kincaid’s PA and left the company and her friends—including Nadia—behind.
Nadia would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge it bothered her that Lucas hadn’t been as noble. “He had good reasons for taking the cash.”
“Don’t wear blinders, Nadia. If he betrayed you once, he’ll do it again.”
Her stomach churned. “I don’t think he will.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right. But whatever happens, I’ve got your back.”
A chime sounded announcing an instant message on Nadia’s computer an hour after her disturbing phone call from her brother.
Dreading more bad news from Rand, she reluctantly put down the impressive list of prizes she’d accumulated for the library fund-raiser and swiveled the laptop to face her.
LDStone: Working?
Her pulse skipped when she saw the name in the message box at the top left corner of her screen.
Lucas Daniel Stone. She’d named their son after his daddy and called him Daniel. Her eyes burned and her hands trembled as she poised them over the keyboard.
NEKincaid: Yes. How did you get my Messenger ID?
LDStone: I have my ways. And I’d like to show them to you. Preferably in bed. Naked.
Her insides bunched into a hot, smoldering knot of need. He’d been gone a week. A week during which he’d phoned at least once a day and told her in explicit detail what he would be doing to her if he were in Dallas instead of on the opposite side of the globe. This new aggressive side of him turned her on like crazy. It was like having the old Lucas back in a new and improved version. And without the headache of battling her father over him.
LDStone: I’ll be home tonight. I’ll wear the blindfold this time.
Her breath caught. She plucked at her suddenly sticking Juicy Couture shirt. They’d made use of that blindfold Saturday night and her skin tingled anew at the remembered blind anticipation of his touch.
NEKincaid: I can’t wait. She frowned. But I’ll probably be late. I’m supposed to meet with the committee tonight to give them a status update. They’re a little nervous about having someone new in charge.
LDStone: You’ll win them over. I’ll be waiting. And when I get you alone…
A throat clearing beside her made her jump. Mary Branch stood by the table with a grin on her lined face.
NEKincaid: I’m not alone now, Nadia typed quickly. Her cheeks burned. Must go.