My Double Life: Wild and Wicked (15 page)

He and his dad were going to get on the same page. And soon.

“I want my name on the door at Fraser Films.” He turned over the engine, suddenly full of new purpose. He had a whole lot to do if he was going to really get out from under the shadow of his father.

If he was going to be the man that Courtney deserved.

“What are you talking about?” His father made indignant harrumphs, but Trey now took the time to look past the smoke screen.

“I’m talking about joining forces to be bigger and better than ever instead of separating our resources and tearing each other down.” Trey had thought he’d given his father his last chance when he’d worked for him the last time, but maybe he’d been just waiting for that attempt to fail. Walking away when they disagreed instead of finding a compromise. “I’m either starting a studio of my own—and you know it will be successful since I have a lot of your stubbornness in me—or we can try to come up with a way to work together and not...clash so much.”

The old man didn’t have much to say. But maybe that was just as well. Trey had sown the seed. Now he’d give it some time to take root.

“Where are we going?” his father asked, straightening the lapel on his tuxedo jacket.

“
We
are going make a plan to get back the girl, Dad.”

His father nodded slowly. “I liked her.”

“That’s a good thing. Because I love her.”

* * *

“I
CAN
’
T
BELIEVE
you were the dancer that took Natalie’s place at Backstage.” Star clutched her teacup and spoke in a whisper as I sat with her at the Sphere Asset Management conference table on Monday morning.

I’d called my boss, Pendleton, on the weekend, confessed everything and assured him I was done with my double life and that I was fairly certain no one else knew about it. I’d chosen to tell Star because she’d been a good friend to both Natalie and me. As for my boss, he’d gone from shocked, to disbelieving, to vaguely amused in the course of an hour-long phone conversation. Then he’d commended my recent work and told me he hoped I’d consider taking a larger role at Sphere as long as my dancing days were behind me. So...instead of getting fired, I got an “atta girl” and the promise of a shiny new promotion if I so desired.

I didn’t. At least not yet. I was still finding my footing with the increased responsibility I had, and even that didn’t seem as exciting without Trey in my life. Walking away from him hadn’t destroyed my newfound confidence. But I’d definitely lost the spring in my step. The lightness and joy in my heart.

My chest ached, in fact.

“Natalie dislocated her ankle that first time and she encouraged me to take her place.” I owed her for the nudge, not just because of the confidence the performance had given me, but because it had put me in Trey’s path a second time.

No matter that Trey hadn’t fought harder for us—for me—I wouldn’t trade a minute of the incredible time we’d spent together. I saw myself differently thanks to him. I just wished he was still by my side. It wasn’t as much fun being a confident, whole woman without him.

“So it was you who left with Trey after the dance.” Star grinned and leaned closer, both elbows on the conference table while we ignored our work a little longer. We were supposed to be setting up the conference room for my first meeting with the new client Pendleton had given me last week. “I thought he looked awfully possessive of Natalie, and it made me worry because I was rooting for him to like you. Guess I didn’t need to worry about that.”

The jabbing pain in my chest must have shown on my face because she frowned.

“Did I read that whole situation wrong?” Star peered over her shoulder at the door and then glanced at her watch. The office didn’t officially open its doors for another ten minutes, and my client wouldn’t arrive for an hour after that. “I thought when you didn’t come back to work after the lunch you shared with him...”

Remembering that lunch in the rain and the sprint back to his SUV, I had to smile. Going home with Trey had been...life-changing. I’d been crazy about him even then, because he’d seen through my Natalie disguise and still wanted to be with the real me. The sound of the coffeepot on the side table chiming that it was ready brought me back to reality. My magical dream was over. I was just Courtney again.

It was hard to rejoice at being a better woman when it came with a price tag of a loneliness so heavy it felt like it would suffocate me.

“We, uh...” I cleared my throat, emotion thick in my voice. “He and I were just a temporary thing.”

“Oh, honey.” Star squeezed my wrist, comforting and reassuring as her bracelets jangled against the wood surface. “He sure doesn’t strike me as a guy who does ‘temporary.’ His name hasn’t been linked with anyone in the tabloids in years.”

I wasn’t sure if I felt touched to think he had very discriminating taste, or if I should be offended that I was the only woman he’d given a short-term option for dating. I hugged my arms around my waist and half wished I hadn’t given him that ultimatum in the aftermath of an emotional evening.

At the time, it had seemed the right thing to do. The only thing to do. He needed to fix his relationship with his father. And I guess I wanted to be the one to give him that nudge. He’d done so much to help me, after all. Maybe deep down inside I thought I’d been helping him. But now that I was alone and miserable without Trey?

I had to wonder if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.

A commotion outside the conference room doors caught our attention and we rose to see what was going on.

“If you want my business, you’ll open your doors now,” a heavy masculine voice with a hint of an accent drifted through the door, the tone imperious and demanding.

I straightened. I knew that voice. It had argued with me in front of fifty black-tie gala attendees. Star pulled open the door to see what was going on out in reception with me close on her heels.

Our office intern, Claudia, was busy trying to placate Thomas Fraser II. He stood in the waiting area wearing an expensive suit and surrounded by an entourage of five others—three men and two women. All were dressed for business and toting briefcases, iPads or both.

Dread made my stomach sink. Was he here to reveal my secret to the whole office? Pendleton hadn’t fired me, but I had told him my dancing gig would remain secret.

“C-can I help you, Mr. Fraser?” I stepped forward to intervene since our office intern looked outmatched and Star hadn’t moved to greet them.

“Only if you can get top management out here to handle my concerns.” He slapped a broad hand on the reception desk, the force making a decorative basket of lemons become momentarily airborne. “I’ve got business to transfer, but only if I can get it taken care of this morning.”

Star jumped into action. “I’ll see what I can do, sir.”

But my boss was already on the scene, the news of a surprise High Net Worth client having traveled through the office fast. Pendleton told Star to hold his calls and to reschedule the appointment I was supposed to have in an hour since he’d need the conference room for Mr. Fraser. He then ushered the entourage into the meeting space.

Confused, suspicious and still worried I would somehow be unmasked by Trey’s father, I stepped back to let the group pass.

And Thomas Fraser—that stern, cranky patriarch of the Fraser family who’d given Trey such a hard time—actually winked at me.

I might have thought I’d dreamed it, but Star glanced at me, her eyebrows raised in question. Of course, I had no clue what was going on. When the reception area was cleared of everyone but Star and me, with all the higher-ups in the meeting and Claudia tasked to make a run for more refreshments, the front door opened again.

Trey walked in.

Gorgeously rumpled, in a suit that looked like he’d slept in it, Trey paused in the middle of the reception area, his dark eyes wandering over me. Was it my imagination, or were there shadows under those eyes?

If this had been a Hollywood moment, the camera would have moved in for a close-up of his face the way my eyes did now. A golden glow would suddenly shine all around him through a trick of backlighting, and the audience would sigh collectively. Just like my heart sighed at the sight of him.

But this wasn’t Hollywood
.

I hadn’t realized I said the words out loud until Trey looked around him.

“Is that a problem? Because we’re only a few blocks to the southeast of Hollywood.”

“Er. No.” At the heat I felt rising in my face, I realized that all my new confidence wouldn’t keep me from getting embarrassed. Especially in front of this man who still meant so much to me even if he hadn’t been willing to make a break from the past and confront his father. “Your dad’s party is in the conference room.”

I pointed to the closed door, though I suspected he remembered where the room was. Star had been hovering near my elbow, but she used that moment to dart toward the back offices, muttering something about needing to see someone.

Leaving us alone.

“I know where Dad is.” Trey stepped closer and I noticed he definitely didn’t look as polished as usual. One side of his shirt collar was tucked into his jacket, while the other rested on the lapel. His hair stood at crazy angles like he’d run his hands through it too many times. But seeing him disheveled didn’t do a damn thing to detract from his good looks.

I missed him so badly I hurt everywhere.

“You’re welcome to join him,” I assured him, my words stiff. “They only went in a minute ago.”

“I know.” Trey paced the reception area, checking out the artwork on the walls, in no apparent hurry. Coming closer to me all the time. “He was really proud of his mission. It was his idea for a distraction.”

Mission? Distraction?

“Excuse me?” I watched him straighten a photograph of our office in London and then stop a few feet in front of me.

“I told my dad that I needed to get you back. And he plotted a scheme to empty your office of everyone but you so we could have some time to talk.”

I was afraid my ears weren’t working. Had he just said he needed to get me back?

“Your dad knows how to command a crowd, that’s for sure.” I tried to envision Trey and his father having a conversation where they weren’t arguing. Where they were on the same side.

Could Trey have made some kind of family truce after all? I tingled inside, remembering that this was all I’d really asked him for. To step out of the shadow of the feud with his dad.

Could he have actually done just that? A spark of hope flared against the dark loneliness I’d been battling.

“I’ve realized the Fraser men are formidable when they want something.” He toyed with the lemons on Star’s desk, his hand close to my shoulder now. “Stubborn and hardheaded, someone once told me.”

I thought about that hand touching me and couldn’t take my eyes off it.

“I call it like I see it,” I insisted, needing to stick to my guns even though my hunger for him welled up inside me like an endless ache. “I’m not going to sell myself short anymore, Trey. You helped me realize that I deserved more than what I was getting out of life. And now I can’t settle for less. Especially not from you.”

“I admire that.” He stood toe-to-toe with me now, the supreme test for my willpower. “You forced me to really think about what I was doing and how I was sabotaging my future by choosing to be at odds with my father all the time.”

Inhaling, I could smell his aftershave and memories of us tangled together flooded my senses.

“You...want to fix things with your dad?” Surprise and hope sparked inside me. I hadn’t expected this after how fiercely he’d argued with his father. How emphatically he’d told me they’d butted heads all their lives...And given Trey was here alone with me, maybe he wanted to fix something else...

Us.

My stomach fluttered with nerves at the possibility.

“I don’t know that we can ever completely repair our relationship,” he admitted. “But we’re going to try to find ways to join forces from a business perspective and see if we can iron out some problems that way.”

“Honestly?” He’d done what I’d asked? Confronted his father after months of working against him? “You guys are...” I looked back and forth between the conference room and Trey. “...working together on this? He’s really helping you so you can talk to me alone right now?”

“He set up his entrance as carefully as if he was staging a scene in a film.” Trey grinned. “I never thought I would enjoy his company so much, but when we’re in agreement...he’s not so bad.”

I was finally starting to get it. Trey hadn’t just talked to his father about working together again in film. He’d had some kind of heart-to-heart that involved me. And, amazingly, the elder Fraser must have supported the decision for Trey to come talk to me today or he wouldn’t have staged that big commotion this morning.

Wow.

“I think your dad is hiding a big heart under the manipulation and bluster.”

“I’m starting to get that impression too.” He shook his head. “I’m disappointed that it took me a lifetime to figure it out.”

“I’m glad for you.” I didn’t want to assume anything about Trey’s motives in this meeting with me. But then again, I really, really hoped that he was here to show me more than the fact he’d mended a rift with his dad.

“I’m glad for
you
.” Trey caught my hand in his and lifted it, folding my fingers down against his palm in a gesture that warmed me to my toes. “Because if it wasn’t for you, I would still be hitting my head against a wall, not understanding why my dad kept pushing and testing me all the time.”

The heat of his hand sent ribbons of pleasure right through my bloodstream to my heart.

“More importantly,” he continued, picking up my other hand too, “you cared about me enough to give me the push I needed to see things in a new light.”

Had I done that? With his dark, hypnotic gaze probing mine, I couldn’t quite remember how it had all unfolded. My hip hit the edge of Star’s desk and I realized my knees weren’t working. Thankfully, Trey caught my waist with one arm, his other hand still holding mine.