All He Really Needs (13 page)

Sharlene smiled vaguely. “Of course. The police were summoned
because Caro insisted the girl had stolen something from the house when she
left. I think your mother knows who the girl in that photo is just as well as I
do, but she just didn’t want you to know that she knows.”

“Back to the nanny. She stole something?”

“Yes. Caro was livid. She’d fired the girl the day before, but
when Vivian left she took something of Caro’s. As soon as she discovered it was
missing, she stormed down to Hollister’s office and demanded I help track her
down. I tried, but none of the contact information I had worked. Caro claimed I
was to blame because I’d recommended Vivian.”

“Do you remember what she stole?”

“A ring. Caro’s wedding ring, if I remember correctly.”

“What?” Griffin asked, leaning forward.

“Excuse me? She stole Caro’s wedding ring?” Sydney asked at the
same time. She didn’t bother to keep the shock out of her voice. She’d faced
Caro down and knew how formidable the woman could be. And she wasn’t exactly a
fluff ball herself. She couldn’t imagine having the guts to steal Caro’s wedding
ring. “I mean, that’s hard core. Who would do something like that?”

Griffin blew out a breath. “I think the bigger question is, why
would my mother let her get away with it?”

“She did try to look for the girl,” Sharlene pointed out with
an elegant shrug. “But I don’t think she looked that hard. Caro’s wedding ring
was not very remarkable. It had been in Hollister’s family for generations. It
was a simple gold band with a few unimpressive diamond flakes. I’m sure if it
had been Caro’s engagement ring, they would have called out the national guard.
Frankly, the weird thing isn’t that Caro didn’t get the police involved—it’s
that Caro even noticed it was missing.”

“Still, it was her wedding ring. Don’t you think that’s
bizarre?”

Sharlene smiled coyly. “Of course I do. It’s bizarre enough
that I remember the incident after all these years. I think the real question
you should be asking yourself is why Caro claims she doesn’t remember it. It’s
obvious to me that your mother is lying to you.”

Thirteen

T
he charming playboy had vanished.

He was gone. Completely.

Which she should have been okay with. After all, it wasn’t as
though she actually wanted to talk to him herself. She was too emotionally
fragile for that. Too vulnerable.

Still, Griffin’s silence unnerved her. He had said absolutely
nothing since they’d gotten back in the car. She didn’t ask where they were
heading. She didn’t have to. He was whipping the car through the streets of
Houston like a stunt driver on a closed course.

Clearly, he was pissed that his mother had manipulated him.
Hey, Sydney couldn’t blame him for that. By the time he pulled onto the loop at
about sixty, she figured she had to say something.

“Do you think that—?” she began.

“No. I don’t.” His tone was hard as nails and his gaze didn’t
even flicker from the road.

“Maybe you should wait until—”

“No.”

“Look, I know you’re upset, but—”

“Give it a rest, okay?”

She twisted in her seat to face him. “No, I’m not going to give
it a rest. Pull over.”

“What?” Finally, he looked at her. Just shot a glance in her
direction, but at least he was loosening his death grip on the steering
wheel.

“Just get off the highway.” When he didn’t so much as turn on
his blinker, she added. “Look, you’re pissed off. I get it. You’re in no shape
to drive, let alone talk to your mother.”

“I’m fine.” But then, as if to prove his point, a car darted in
front of them and he had to slam on his breaks. Muttering a curse under his
breath, he eased his foot off the gas.

She watched in silence as his hand twisted on the steering
wheel.

“I’m not…” He broke off, muttering another curse.

He didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. She could
think of about ten different ways to finish it for him. He was not fine. He was
not ready to talk about it. He was not nearly as in control as he wanted to
be.

Tension practically radiated from him. His control was
whisper-thin and it was all she could do not to rub her hand across his thigh.
To try to soothe him. Maybe she would have if she hadn’t feared that he would
snap altogether.

He flicked on the blinker, eased across the road and a second
later exited the highway and pulled into the mostly empty parking lot of a strip
mall near the off-ramp. He parked at the back of the lot, under the shade of a
sprawling oak. He killed the engine and just sat there for a moment, his hands
clenched so tightly around the steering wheel, she thought it might snap under
the pressure.

She watched him struggling for a long minute, trying to give
him the space he needed to process everything they’d learned in the past few
hours. Obviously, his mother knew who the girl’s mother was. She’d known and
she’d deliberately misled them. Caro Cain’s behavior was incomprehensible to
Sydney. She couldn’t imagine why the woman would purposefully throw roadblocks
into Griffin’s path, but she did know this. As frustrated as she was with Caro’s
behavior, it had to be a hundred times worse for Griffin. Who didn’t want this
job or this responsibility in the first place. Who had been sick of his family’s
manipulation before this even started.

And the truth was, she didn’t know what to say to make any of
this better. She didn’t know if there was anything she could say to make it
better. So instead of trying, she reached out and put her hand on his leg. She
felt the muscle twitch beneath her palm. His hands stilled on the steering
wheel. Every muscle in his body seemed to freeze. Then he slowly turned and
leveled a gaze at her.

She felt stripped bare by the intensity of his Cain-blue eyes.
Naked and vulnerable. Completely at his mercy.

“Griffin, I—”

Before she could finish the sentence, before she even knew what
she was going to actually say, he threw open the door, unclicked the buckle on
his seat belt and propelled himself out of the car.

“Damn it,” she muttered before fumbling with her own seat belt
buckle and scrambling out of the car.

She rounded the hood and just stood there for a minute,
watching as he paced restlessly. He traversed the distance from the car to the
tree and back again in long, restless strides. He clenched and unclenched his
hands as he prowled, giving the air of a caged beast. But where the panther in
the zoo was trapped by the fence and the electric current pumped through the
wires, he was confined by his anger.

“Griffin, this isn’t as bad as it seems.”

He whirled to glare at her. “Are you kidding? I always knew my
family was a mess of crazy, but this? This is beyond crazy.”

“You don’t know that.” Yeah. Maybe he did know that. Maybe it
was as bad as it seemed, but she figured, for now, her best bet was to get him
calmed down before he did something he really regretted.

“What? You think this isn’t bad? You think there’s any scenario
in which my mother deliberately lied to me, deliberately misled me that’s not
bad?”

“I didn’t say not bad, I just…” Damn. She didn’t know what
the right response was here. All she knew was that if Griffin went to see his
mother now, he’d say or do all kinds of things he regretted. “Look, no matter
how bad it is, confronting her now gets you nothing.”

Finally, he stopped pacing and whirled to face her. He stood,
stone-still, maybe ten feet away, and just stared at her.

Suddenly nervous, she babbled, “I’m just saying maybe you
should wait a bit. Calm down first.”

“What exactly,” he said slowly, his voice pitched low, “do you
recommend that I do instead of confronting my family?”

His gaze was hot enough to damn near burn the clothes right off
her body.

She swallowed hard as a shiver skittered across the surface of
his skin. “Um…maybe some yoga?”

“Yoga?” He gave a bark of laughter and a smile spilt his face.
It was a fierce and wild smile, but at least he no longer looked like he wanted
to rip something apart with his bare hands.

“Like, meditate or something,” she suggested, even though she
knew meditation was the last thing on his mind.

He stalked slowly toward her. “I’m not really the type.”

She swallowed again, but it got harder and harder to do past
the lump her pounding heart had pushed up into her throat.

Oh, dear, she was in so much trouble here. Because, obviously,
Griffin wasn’t the type. She doubted he’d ever meditated a single instant of his
life. He wasn’t a guy who could sit still at all, let alone meditate. The only
time she’d seen him relaxed—ever—was in bed. And only after they’d both climaxed
more than once. Even sex he treated like an Olympic-level sport.

She should not be thinking about sex right now. They weren’t
supposed to be sleeping together anymore. She couldn’t sleep with him,
because… Why was she supposed to be holding him at arm’s length again? Oh,
right. He was her boss. Her boss!

And she was already dangerously close to getting her heart
broken as it was.

She needed to remember that. Because after a week of being in
his company nonstop, she was like an addict jonesing for a hit of Griffin.

Even though he was the last thing she should have, he was still
what she wanted. What she needed.

Geez, she needed to check herself into some sort of rehab
program. She just couldn’t imagine twelve steps of any kind that would give her
the ability to walk away from him.

She couldn’t even think when he was looking at her like this.
She glanced around, hoping to spot something to distract them, but they were
essentially alone. This end of the parking lot was empty. Cars zipped by on the
access road without slowing down enough to notice two people talking under a
tree. “Um…what were we…”

“About to do?” he asked, his voice pitched low and
seductive.

“No.” The last thing they needed was to do something. “Talking
about. What were we talking about?”

He smiled like he knew exactly what she was thinking. And he
probably did. “You were telling me how to meditate.”

“Right. Meditate. It’s really not that hard. I hear… Um, I
think you need to visualize a happy place.”

He stopped a fraction of an inch away from her. So close she
could feel the heat sparking off his skin. “Okay,” he murmured. “Some place
happy. I’ve got a place in mind already.”

His lips twitched into a smile and she felt the last of her
reserve of willpower melt away.

When he reached for her, she went right into his arms. He
buried his hand in her hair as she tipped her mouth up to meet his. Despite the
teasing smile that had been on his lips just moments ago, there was nothing
light or playful about his kiss. His lips were firm against hers. His mouth hot.
His hand possessive. His body hard.

He kissed her as though he needed her desperately. As though
there was nothing else in the world but her. As though he was trying to sear
this moment into his memory forever, just as it would be seared into her.

She felt the back of the car bump against her legs. She arched
against him, opening her mouth even wider as his tongue slipped in to brush
against hers. Then his hands were on her hips and he was lifting her up onto the
trunk of his car. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling his groin
against hers. Even through his jeans and her pants, she felt the length of his
erection. It was perfect. Divine.

They seemed perfectly fitted to one another. He rocked against
the very core of her and pleasure rocketed through her body, making her tremble.
Her hands greedily tugged at his clothes, hungrily trying to find bare skin. He
pressed her back down onto the trunk of car, following her inch by inch until he
was lying fully on top of her. She bucked against him, desperate to be
closer.

She felt his hand slipping up under her sweater and her back
arched up off the car.

“Wait,” she gasped out.

He stilled instantly. Then he groaned and dropped his head down
to her collarbone. She felt his breath hot against the skin of her chest.

“Please don’t tell me to meditate.”

“No. I just think we should go slowly.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. Me, too.” Then he pulled up, bracing his
forearm beside her head as he looked down at her. “But you’re right. We can’t do
this here.”

“What?” But then his words sank in. He was right. They were in
a parking lot. A parking lot, for goodness’ sake. And it was the middle of the
day. “Right. Not here.”

He smiled, a slow, sexy smile that showed off his dimples.
Obviously he loved having her this disconcerted. She might have been annoyed
with him, but she was too distracted by the heat pounding through her.

He levered himself off her and pulled his iPhone out of his
back pocket. “Give me ten minutes to find a hotel nearby.”

She put a hand on his arm to get his attention and pointed at
the nearby building. “You don’t have to look far. There’s a hotel right
here.”

*

It took less than ten minutes for him to get a room. He
had her wait in the car—thank goodness because she wasn’t sure she’d have been
up to the embarrassment of getting a hotel room in the middle of the day. Within
fifteen minutes, he was swiping the pass key and letting them into the room. He
was kissing her before the door even shut behind them.

He spun her around, pulling off her clothes as he walked her
backward toward the bed. His hands were greedy, desperate even. It seemed he
couldn’t get her naked quickly enough. He yanked back the covers. She kicked off
her shoes just as he pulled her pants off her legs. Then he knelt in front of
her, first rubbing his cheek against her bare belly, inhaling deeply, like he
needed the very scent of her. Then he parted the curls, burying his face between
her legs. Pleasure coursed through her body, making her legs wobble beneath her.
Weak-kneed and trembling, she tumbled back onto the bed. He followed her,
devouring her with greedy strokes of his tongue. Her climax rushed through her,
pushing her over the edge as she screamed out his name.

It took him mere seconds to strip completely and then he was on
top of her. He plunged right into her, moaning her name, raining kisses on her
skin. His intensity overwhelmed her. His desperation thrilled her.

He made love to her like he never had before. Every other time
they’d been together, Griffin clung tightly to his control until the last
second. He was a master at driving her to distraction while remaining in
control. It made him an incredible lover, but she always felt at a
disadvantage.

But not this time. This time, he couldn’t get enough of her. He
couldn’t control himself.

Pounding into her over and over, he cried out her name, burying
his face in her neck. His need was palpable. He didn’t just want her. This was
more than mere desire. He needed her. Desperately. And that thought alone sent
her tumbling over the edge again as he thrust into her one last time.

Even as she was crying out, she was also crying. Tears
streaming down her face because at last she understood. She couldn’t have him.
She couldn’t keep him. And it had nothing to do with the fact that he was her
boss. It had nothing to do with work at all.

She needed him to need her. No one had ever needed her before.
Not really. And she wanted that—no, needed that—more than she’d ever
realized.

And that was precisely why she had to walk away.

He may need her now, but this was only temporary. Of course he
needed her now. His life was in turmoil. Everything he knew or thought he knew
had been overturned. She represented the last remnant of the life he’d lived
before all this nonsense had started with the missing heiress. She was like a
security blanket.

Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how desperately she
wanted him to need her. But now that she did know, now that she understood, she
had to get out. Because even if he needed her now, he wouldn’t need her forever.
But she…she would always need him. Because she loved him.