Lucas laced his hands over his waistband. “Have you read your father’s purchase agreement?”
She didn’t like the sound of that or the intense look in his eyes. “No. Why?”
“Because as owner of this building, I reserve the right to evict any tenant with suitable grounds.”
The scant amount of breakfast she’d consumed rolled in her stomach. What constituted suitable grounds? She needed to ask her lawyer what would happen if Lucas flexed his legal muscles. Would it set her free…or cost her and her brothers their inheritance?
Could she be held to the terms of the will if the apartment ceased to be available? And could her brothers blame her for aborting her portion of what Rand called the “inheritance curse” if it wasn’t her fault? Or could they tie Lucas up long enough with legalese to get through the year?
Part of her hoped Lucas had just handed her an escape clause because she was afraid—very afraid—she wouldn’t last another ten months in exile, especially with him here. But a small niggling part of her wanted to stay here and prove that she had what it took to stand on her own two feet simply because she was convinced her father and her brothers expected her to fail.
But until she could talk to Richards and find out where she stood she had to stall Lucas. “You can’t do that.”
“Either you take the driving lessons from me or I make a call to my legal department and you fail your brothers.”
“What makes you think you’re qualified to teach?”
“I taught both of my sisters.”
“They didn’t take Drivers’ Education like normal people?”
“Our circumstances weren’t normal.”
Maybe not by his standards, but by hers his family had seemed perfect. Loving. Welcoming. Genuine. Sure, they’d been tight for money and they’d had their squabbles, but the love had been as sure as the sun rising. She hadn’t had to wonder what the Stones really wanted from her or if they’d liked her. Every one of them had been an open book.
God, she’d missed them after the accident, but she hadn’t had the guts to face them thinking they’d hate her for causing the wreck that had killed Lucas.
Which had turned out to be a total waste of worry on her part, hadn’t it? They’d been living high off her daddy’s money.
For now, however, what choice did she have but to accede to Lucas’s stupid demand? Her cell phone rang before she could acquiesce. Glad for the delay, she snatched it up and checked caller ID. “It’s Mitch. I have to take this.”
She jumped to her feet and crossed to the far end of the patio and turned her back on Lucas. She stared into the clear water of the pool. “Mitch, what did you find out?”
“I found the divorce petition, but not the final decree. I’ll keep looking for that. The petition is signed and looks official.”
She exhaled in relief. “I don’t remember signing anything related to my marriage, but you know how I was then.”
“It was a tough time,” Mitch replied. “We understood.”
She’d been in a fog for months after the accident, going through the motions and barely functioning. By the time she’d pulled herself together she’d found herself enrolled in accounting classes at Barry University in Miami Shores instead of in New York City studying fashion design the way she’d always dreamed.
Had her father slipped the paperwork by her during that murky period? She hated that she’d been so out of it she didn’t even remember. “When did I sign it?”
Papers rustled. “August 13.”
Her blood ran cold despite the sultry morning. Mitch went on to rattle off other data from the form, but she barely registered what he said because it didn’t matter.
None of it mattered.
Her heart hammered. She wanted to scream, no, but her lips moved without making a sound. She gulped air, fighting dizziness and nausea. “M-Mitch, that was four days after my wedding.”
“Four days? But you were in a coma for—” Her brother’s curses blistered her ear. Apparently Mitch wasn’t always cool, calm and collected. That made two of them. “Your signature must have been forged.”
Her thoughts exactly.
She tried to calm the horror streaking through her veins, but she was close to hyperventilating. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“If your signature is invalid, then the document probably is, too, since no one had your power of attorney. I’ll get Richards on it immediately. And we’ll try to find the rest of the paperwork.”
Her thoughts spun out of control as she mentally scrolled through the things she’d done to bury her grief. Things she wasn’t proud of. Things a married woman shouldn’t do. Because she’d felt dead inside and she’d needed to prove she hadn’t died in that crash with her husband and son and because she’d felt she had nothing to lose. Life as she’d known it had ended.
She slowly turned. Her gaze found Lucas’s across the patio and she couldn’t look away.
“Nadia, don’t panic.” Mitch’s avert-disaster voice didn’t have its usual soothing effect.
“What do you mean don’t panic? I’m still married to Lucas Stone.”
Four
S till married.
Lucas couldn’t hear Nadia’s whispered words, but he could read her lips, see the alarm widening her eyes and the color draining from her cheeks.
He stifled the urge to pump his hand in the air and shout, “Yes!” as he crossed the flagstones. He stopped in front of her close enough for the morning breeze to carry her scent to his nostrils. Her scent. Not the pricy perfume she used to dab on interesting places. The memory of seeking out those intimate spots with his lips quickened his pulse. Nadia’s fragrance still had the ability to rouse his hormones like nothing else.
She snapped her phone closed and took several deep, measured breaths, drawing his gaze to her br**sts.
“Problem?” He kept his tone calm when he wanted to pepper her with questions, starting with what had Everett Kincaid done wrong? But however his nemesis had screwed up this situation, Lucas wasn’t above using it to his advantage.
And then there was the relief that neither of them had married in the interim. Bigamy wasn’t pretty. His mother had discovered that firsthand.
Nadia blinked and swallowed and averted her worry-darkened eyes. Very telling. “There appears to be a glitch in the signatures on our divorce paperwork.”
The barely detectable quiver in her voice was another giveaway. He knew he’d signed the forms, so his signature wasn’t in question. “You didn’t sign it.”
“Um. I’m…not sure.”
The truth was written all over her face. Nadia had never been able to lie worth a damn. Her honesty had been one of the things he’d liked about her…along with her traffic-stopping body, her I’ll-try-anything-once sense of adventure and the warmth and openness she’d displayed toward his family. She had never seemed to look down on his mother despite the fact that Lila Stone had had children by three different men and had only been “married” to one of them—Lucas’s good-for-nothing already married father who’d climbed into his eighteen-wheeler before Lucas’s second birthday and had never come back.
Nadia’s family hadn’t been as accepting of Lucas. But they’d have to eat that attitude now along with a slice of humble pie when he took KCL from them.
“We’re still married. That’s what Mitch told you.”
Her teeth pinched her bottom lip. “Maybe. He needs to do more research.”
A gust blew a strand of long dark hair across her eyes. He lifted a hand and brushed it back, lingering on her soft cheek. Her breath caught and her pupils expanded to almost obliterate her green irises. The chemistry between them hit him as hard as ever and it was clearly reciprocated. Getting her into bed shouldn’t be too difficult.
She looked better this morning without the heavy makeup she’d slathered on her face yesterday. His gaze lowered to her unpainted lips. “Then by all means, let me kiss my bride.”
He cupped her nape and covered her mouth with his. A charge of electricity arced through him. He relearned her softness, and with a sweep of his tongue across her bottom lip, her taste. For a second she leaned into him before she jerked out of reach.
Her arms flailed and her eyes widened. He grabbed her biceps to keep her from tumbling backward into the pool. For a moment he held her there, off balance and suspended over the water. Her pleading eyes locked with his, and then he swung her away from the lip of tile to safer ground.
“Careful.”
She struggled to get free, but the flush on her cheeks told him she wasn’t unmoved by the brief kiss.
“Let me go, Lucas. We are not resuming this marriage. Don’t even think about it. My attorney will fix it.” The moment he released her she put several yards between them.
Last time he hadn’t had to chase her. Bold as brass, she’d initiated their first meeting and, yes, he knew it had been to piss off her father. Lucas had wanted her bad enough not to care. From that point on all he’d had to do was show up and let Mother Nature take her course. The attraction had been that strong. They’d spent every possible minute together.
It didn’t look as though Nadia was going to make wooing her as easy this time around despite the still-strong pull.
“After you finish your breakfast I’ll give you your first driving lesson.”
“I don’t want lessons.”
He wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily. “What’s your job at KCL?”
She frowned as if having trouble following his line of thought. “I’m Director of Shared Services. Why?”
Surprise jolted him and reminded him he should have done his research on their executive board. But he’d had tunnel vision with Everett Kincaid as his target. He’d focused on KCL’s data, assets and finances instead of personnel roster because he’d never once considered that Nadia might work for the bastard.
No doubt his finagling with KCL’s suppliers through Andvari had been a thorn in Nadia’s behind since her position was the one most directly burdened by his upping costs and making it difficult to obtain supplies. He’d have to keep that from her as long as possible or the spit would hit the fan.
“As upper management you know it would be bad PR for Kincaid Cruise Lines if word leaked out that Everett had frauded legal documents and bribed his daughter’s husband to disappear.”
She stiffened as she registered his implied threat. “You wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t smear our names in the press and create a scandal like that.”
He wasn’t the boy she’d led around by the balls anymore. Life and Everett Kincaid had taught him some hard lessons and toughened him up. “Try me.”
“Nadia, loosen your grip on the wheel.”
Nadia glared at the man in the passenger seat of the Mercedes. She couldn’t do as Lucas ordered. Her entire body felt locked, her muscles rigid with fear in the leather seats. And she couldn’t stop shaking.