Hot as Hell (18 page)

Those fingers trailed down his chest to rest on his stomach. “Right now you have another job.”

Looks as if it was time to go back to work. “Henderson?”

“No.” Those fingers dipped lower to cup him. “Me.”

Relief swamped him. Whatever pitfall waited in front of him, he had managed to step around it. This time.

“Well, if you insist.” He swept the papers and files off the bed and onto the floor. Hell, he’d already be inside her if his arm had not fallen asleep from her laying on it.

“Oh, I definitely insist.” Clicks sounded in the room as she lowered his zipper. “I may even insist on another round.”

“Remind me to open up to you more often.”

“Count on it.”

L
exy’s body hummed and a song played on her lips the next morning at breakfast. She sort of missed the early morning hikes out in the fresh air, but Noah was making sleeping in worth her while. The fact the police made Tate cancel the outside activities helped her to go along with Noah’s stay-in-bed-and-make-love mandate.

After just a few days of being with him, happiness flowed through her again, blocking out everything else. Now that he shared something with her despite his reluctance, she dared to hope. For the first time in months, she believed they had a chance to get past the secrets and make things work.

Shame the same thing could not be said about breakfast. She stared down at her white empty plate. Noah stood outside talking with Gray and Dex about some subject she was sure would tick her off. Maybe she could convince one of them to take her to a fast-food place for something greasy and edible.

“You’re in a good mood,” Marie said as she sidled up to the food bar and ladled a spoon full of brown slop into a bowl.

Well, she
was
feeling fine. She bet that would fade in about two seconds, or however long Marie planned to stay and talk.

“I’m not happy about this breakfast.” Whatever happened to toast?

“The choices are very healthy.”

“Okay.”

Lexy glanced over at Marie’s leotard of the day. Hard to miss the outfit, since it was bright pink and yellow and stuck to her body like skin. If eating this food every day was what it took to have a waist that tiny and a butt that firm, Lexy resigned herself to a larger size. She vowed to never complain about gaining weight again.

“Every dish has been chosen to detoxify the body and promote optimal energy.”

No wonder Noah found the resort spiel so annoying. “Not very tasty, though.”

Marie stared at her as if she were a squashed bug on a windshield. What her husband, Tate, or any other man on the planet saw in this woman was a mystery. Okay, men appreciated
those
, but breasts were about the only things this woman had going for her and she had to buy those.

“Tate told me you understood food’s function as fuel.”

Lexy was pretty sure she heard bitterness behind the other woman’s tone. “I do, but every now and then the idea of a doughnut sounds good.”

Marie’s mouth dropped open. “Do you know what sugar does to your body?”

Marie followed up the question with a full-body scan. Her gaze wandered up and down Lexy’s frame. Lexy thought about shoving the woman’s face into a big bowl of green soupy stuff.

“I don’t overindulge.”

“Hmmmm.”

Clearly Marie disagreed. That was okay. The dislike was mutual.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Lexy grabbed her mug of green tea and walked over to sit at the nearest table. She never expected Marie to follow.

“May I?” Marie asked the question after she pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Uh, sure.”

Lexy looked around for reinforcements. People occupied three other tables. Two older women waved with a welcoming smile, but they did not make a move to come over and say hello. She couldn’t blame them. She avoided Marie whenever possible as well. Hard to do that now when she sat across the table eating brown paste.

“Where is Tate today?”

The spoon stopped halfway to Marie’s mouth. “I am not aware of his schedule.”

Uh, okay
. “I meant that I haven’t seen him around.”

And since the scene in Henderson’s room, Lexy wanted to make sure Tate had not accidentally shot off his foot or some other important body part. She also wanted to do a temperature check just to see if Tate engaged in a little pillow talk with Marie about the, to borrow his favorite word, incident.

“Since I miss the walks, I thought maybe he could show me a good, safe trail to try instead.”

“I’m surprised your sidekick would allow that.” Marie clanked the spoon on the side of her bowl.

Sidekick
? “You mean Noah?”

“Of course.”

“He’ll love that nickname.”

“He strikes me as a very possessive man.” Marie got all breathy as she made that assessment. “There is something very attractive and reassuring about a man like him.”

That was enough of that. “He has his moments.”

“A woman would know that she’ll be taken care of with a man like that.”

Not exactly how she looked at her relationship with Noah, but whatever. “I actually can take care of myself. Half the time I end up watching over him.”

Marie smacked the spoon on the side of the bowl again. The noise echoed into Lexy’s brain. One more tap and she’d grab the thing and bend it like a pretzel.

“You’re a very lucky woman. Not all men are like yours.” Marie stared at the far wall. “Some wallow in laziness, expecting you to do everything for them.”

That explained the husband. “But you were lucky enough to find someone just like him.”

Marie snapped out of her stupor. “What?”

“Your husband.”

“Oh, yes.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the woman’s better half. “Does he work here?”

“No.” Marie snapped out the answer. The only good news is that she finally dropped her spoon.

“Did I see your man outside?”

“His name is Noah.” Marie just sat there, so Lexy continued. “He’s talking to my brother.”

“Oh, the other one.” Marie nodded. “Not as impressive as your man, but close.”

Instead of folding up the spoon, Lexy decided she should bend it around Marie’s neck. Apparently the bony chick liked the idea of Noah being all protective. Well, she could forget it. Noah was taken. If Lexy had to kick the aerobics instructor’s ass to make her understand that fact, she would.

“I would have thought the two of you would be back in San Diego by now.”

“Soon.” Lexy sipped on her tea. The hot liquid warmed her throat as it went down.

“I’m just saying that Tate has enough issues without having to play host to all of your friends.”

Well, well, well
. “They’re all paying for their rooms, Marie.”

“That’s not really the point. Tate is under a great deal of pressure. His mood is short and he barely gets a minute away, what with the reporters and police and angry guests.”

Lexy guessed that meant Tate didn’t have time for Marie. Now there was a shame. “Tate strikes me as a savvy businessman. He likely cares more about the cash than having a few more guests, especially since some people left after the murder.”

“But not you.”

Lexy took that to mean Marie wanted them to leave. “Detective Sommerville insists that we stay on here for a few more days.”

“Because you’re a suspect.”

“Because a man died in my room.”

Marie sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. The move pushed her breasts up and over the top of her leotard. “And why is that, Ms. Stuart?”

“Excuse me?”

“How did you know Charlie?

Charlie
. Interesting. “I didn’t.”

“It’s just us girls. You can tell me if you were enjoying some of the local talent before your boyfriend arrived.”

Right. Because Lexy felt
that
close to Marie. “I’d never met Henderson before I saw him facedown on my carpet.”

“I see.”

Since the woman was intent on being rude and nosy, Lexy decided to join in. “How well did you know him?”

“Who?”

“Henderson. I believe you called him Charlie.”

The sour expression on Marie’s face was not from the food. “Our jobs rarely had us in the same place.”

How the hell was that an answer to the question
? “Surely you have employee meetings, get-togethers, that sort of thing.”

“I can’t stick around for all of those activities.”

“Why?”

“My husband.”

Nice of her to finally remember the poor cuckolded bastard. “I haven’t met him.”

“Why would you?”

The pretense of friendliness disappeared in a flash. “Do you have a problem with me, Marie? I get the impression you don’t care for me very much.”

Marie’s chair scraped against the floor as she got to her feet. “I make it a policy not to get close to the guests.”

A fabulous parting line. But suddenly Lexy did not want Marie to have the final word. “I guess you prefer the men who work here.”

A flush of anger washed over Marie’s face. She looked as if she was about to unload a verbal attack. Then she glanced over Lexy’s head. Whatever she saw had her watching her words. “It will be a shame to see you leave, Ms. Stuart.”

Noah got to the table just after Marie stormed off. “Something I said?”

“She’s a scary woman.”

“What did she want?” He leaned down for a firm but quick kiss before sitting beside Lexy.

“She doesn’t like me.”

“I find that hard to believe.” He glanced at Marie’s leftover food and pushed the bowl to the other side of the table.

As far as Lexy was concerned, it was not far enough. The stuff stank. “Apparently she does like you. Very much.”

“Aren’t I the lucky guy?”

“In the rankings, you are ahead of Gray.”

“That makes sense. I see it that way, too.” Noah took a long drink from her mug, then made a face. “What the hell is this?”

“Tea.”

“Is coffee forbidden here, too?”

“I think so.”

“Stupid-ass resort.” He shoved the cup back in her direction.

Enough food talk. She had something bigger in mind. “I think she was sleeping with Henderson.”

“
What
?”

“She called him Charlie.”

“So?”

“I detected a tone. It was like she was warning me off the resort and men here.”

Noah smiled. “And that means?”

“She’s a busy lady.”

“Is there anyone she isn’t sleeping with?”

“Not that I can tell.”

“So this husband. Any news on him?”

“Sounds like a lazy bum.”

He traced his thumb over the mug handle. “How did you come up with that assessment?”

“The way she talked about how some men are lazy bums.”

“I leave you alone for ten minutes and you get all the dirt,” Noah said.

“I’m good.”

“Yes, you are.”

She glanced around the room. They now were one of two occupied tables. Appeared no one was rushing to breakfast today. “What’s up with the boys?”

“Dex’s talking with the Scanlon folks. Comparing notes and that sort of thing.” Noah reached over and touched her hair. “Thanks for getting them on board.”

“I told you. No one at Scanlon wanted to believe you were involved. They kept tracing and kept coming back to you and the company. Giving them another lead was as much a relief for them as us.” She twisted in her seat to face him, resting her feet on the bottom rungs of his chair.

“Between the Scanlon experts and Dex, they’ll follow the trail and figure it out.” His fingers toyed with her small loop earring. “That leaves us with one problem.”

“Henderson.”

“I say we start taking a closer look at Marie.”

Lexy made a face. “Do we have to?”

“The sooner we solve this, the sooner we go home and eat real food.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“W
hy are you digging into this?” Detective Sommerville threw her ever-present notebook down on the bed.

Noah watched it bounce and then land on the same spot where he made love to Lexy earlier. He fought off the urge to grab the thing and start reading. But fight he did. The detective carried a gun and a nightstick. A man did not test a woman with weapons.

Noah did have to smile at the officer’s furious tone. He knew they were overstepping with the suggestion about investigating Marie, but he insisted to Lexy that they try to do this the
right
way first. The undercover option would be available if they needed it later.

The detective tried again. “I ask a question. What’s your interest in this?”

“I thought that would be obvious,” he said. “We’re trying to give you suspects who aren’t us.”

“Which is what makes me skeptical.”

Lexy paced the small area in front of the door, sending sparks of energy flying in every direction. “We’re trying to help, detective.”

Last thing he needed was two fired-up women in the room. “We’re passing the information on. That’s all. It’s up to you what you do with it.”

The detective leaned against the bathroom door. “Why assist now? You two were not exactly open and honest with me about your relationship to Henderson. Getting you to answer questions has been a challenge.”

He could see where she came to that conclusion.

“Believe it or not, we’re not bad people.” The frown on Lexy’s face matched her sharp tone. She wanted to do something that proved otherwise. “Most people like us.”

The detective smiled. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

“They like her, not me,” Noah added.

“That I can believe.”

Lexy scoffed. “Talk about ungrateful.”

If she kept this up, they’d both be in jail. Noah spun into damage-control mode. “I think what my fiancée is so delicately trying to say is that you may question our motives, but we’re trying to help.”

“Let me understand this.” The detective tapped her pen against her open palm. “You’ve been snooping around, asking questions, doing computer searches, and otherwise making this investigation difficult for the actual police working on it.”

“That pretty much sums it up,” Lexy said.

“You’ve been poking around and causing trouble, and you call that helping?”

She wasn’t exactly wrong, so he did not try to deny it. “We’re trying to figure out why a man who trained at our company showed up dead on Lexy’s floor.”

“I thought you didn’t know Mr. Henderson.”

Lexy stopped pacing. “We know who he is. That’s it.”

“Quite a coincidence that you all ended up at the same resort.” The detective reached for her notebook. Being without it seemed to make her twitchy.

“If this is where you accuse me of murder, save it.” His patience for being accused of criminal acts had expired.

“You’d rather I believe that the aerobics instructor killed Mr. Henderson.”

That was easy. “Yeah.”

The detective flipped pages until she found a blank one. “What would be her motive?”

“Sex.” It was the best motive around as far as Noah could see.

Lexy frowned at his description. “We think she was fooling around with him. She’s trying to downplay the relationship, but there was one.”

Noah flashed Lexy a questioning look, which she promptly ignored. It was quite a leap from Lexy’s previous sense that she heard a “tone” in Marie’s comment about Henderson to envisioning them all over each other.

“I thought she was seeing the resort’s owner behind her husband’s back.”

Seemed Marie was not doing a good job of keeping her affairs quiet. Noah wondered if the woman even cared. “It’s only one small back, but there appear to be several men behind it.” Noah did not want to even think about Marie’s behind or any other part.

“I’m not sure where she had all this sex, but somewhere,” Lexy added.

“She has a small apartment on the grounds.” The detective dropped that interesting bit of information as if it was not a big deal.

“Why?” Lexy asked before Noah could get the question out.

“Tate said all the employees got them. Had something to do with changing and showering.” The detective turned to Lexy. “Did she admit this other affair to you?”

When biting her lips didn’t help, Lexy fudged. “Almost.”

“Oh, that’s convincing,” Noah said.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no.’” The detective wrote something down. Noah tried to catch it, but could not see it. “She has an alibi for Henderson’s murder.”

“What is it?” Noah asked.

“If I tell you, will you stop pretending to be a policeman?”

Noah shrugged. “Maybe.”

“At least you didn’t lie to me.”

“But I thought about it.” He considered a lot of things. Getting rid of the detective. Getting out of town. Finding a decent lunch.

All of those sounded good. Unfortunately, he knew the rest of the day would be spent doing something very specific. Figuring out Marie’s tie to Henderson. Now that Lexy had the connection in her head, that’s all she would talk about. If he ever wanted to have sex again, he had to resolve this first.

“She was at a party near the dining hall. Several people reported seeing her there.” The detective scanned her notes. “Before that, she taught a class and then had a meeting with Tate. I didn’t ask about the subject matter of that meeting, but I can guess.”

“That didn’t happen.” Lexy’s hands were moving almost as fast as her mouth.

Noah could see her mind turning. She mentally examined the pieces and saw that they did not fit together. And she was right.

“You think all of those people lied for Marie?” the detective asked.

“I don’t know any guest who would cover for her. Most of them can’t stand her.” From the distaste in her tone, it was clear Lexy was included in that group. “That’s not the issue.”

“What is?”

He knew this part. “We were in the dining room with Tate.”

“Noah’s right. We sat there talking, and Marie was nowhere around.” Lexy ended the comment with a smug smile.

The detective ignored the attitude. “Was she in the dining room?”

“No.”

“No or you don’t know?”

“I know,” Lexy insisted. “Marie isn’t exactly someone who enters a room quietly and blends into the wall. She comes in with a flourish and makes sure everyone sees her.”

Noah let Lexy take the lead with this one. She was doing too well to interfere.

“Marie came into the party and made sure everyone knew she was there. She waltzed around, saying hello to everyone and hanging on Tate.”

The detective nodded. “Those were the reports we got.”

“But before that she was nowhere around. She taught the class and then I didn’t see her until she walked into the party.”

“How long in between?”

“Over an hour.” Lexy looked to him for confirmation of her memory, then continued. “And when she did arrive, she was wearing a different leotard from the one she wore to class.”

Silence filled the room as the detective scribbled down a few notes. Noah used the lull to study Lexy. Excitement pulsed off her. She thrived on analyzing information and selling her story. Whether marketing a program or describing her theory of a murder, she did it with intelligence and flair.

“No one on the staff mentioned a relationship between Marie and Henderson. She makes her connection to Tate clear. Any theories on why she would hide the other?”

Noah and Lexy shared a smile over the detective’s change in attitude. Suddenly she wanted their help.

“To keep both men happy,” Lexy suggested.

“You came up with that excuse a little too fast for my liking,” he muttered because the idea called for muttering.

“My point is that Tate is the boss. He’s her ticket to more money, prestige, and possibly her way out of a bad marriage.”

“The marriage is bad?” the detective asked.

Noah thought the answer to that one was pretty obvious. “The serial adultery didn’t give that away?”

“Cheating does not always mean the end to a marriage.”

“It does for me.” That was a nonstarter for Noah. Marriage meant fidelity. Lexy cheating on him would result in bloodshed. He could handle a lot from her. Never that.

Not that he ever expected to worry about that issue. Lexy had faults. Infidelity was not one of them.

“I can see your point about her wanting to keep Tate happy. You have to wonder what that meant to the other men in her life,” the detective said, clearly warming to the topic and idea of Marie as something more than a cheating spouse.

“Sounds like motive to me.” Lexy’s interest in the topic mirrored the detective’s.

“Why, detective, did you just admit that we might not be the killers?” Noah joked.

“I’m sure I didn’t say that.” The detective pocketed her notebook and pen. “Now let me make something clear.”

“This sounds bad,” Lexy mumbled under her breath.

“This is a police matter. You are not to get involved or get in the way.”

“Meaning?” Noah asked.

“Stay away from Marie until we know the specifics of her relationship with Henderson and whether or not she’s dangerous.”

“She’s an aerobics instructor. What is she going to do, throw a weight at me?” Lexy did not try to hide her sarcasm.

“A man is dead.”

Noah had to give the detective credit for a strong comeback. “Good point.”

“Stay away from Marie.” The detective’s threat hung in the air.

“We heard you the first time.” He did not intend to comply, but he heard her.

“Are you going to obey?”

“I have trouble with the word ‘obey,’” Noah said.

Lexy delivered a half-choke, half-laugh. “He’s not kidding.”

“Do you have trouble with the word ‘jail,’ Mr. Paxton?”

Big trouble. “You made your point.”

“Good.”