Tease Me (13 page)

She surprised him by skirting the bench and heading toward … the rest rooms.

“Damn.” He should have trusted his initial instincts, but when Lainey Cooper was involved,
his gut was invariably so twisted up with her, it lost its ability to guide his
judgment. Still, it was just as well he’d taken this route. If she was indeed on her
way to meet Mr. X, then utilizing Lillian’s description as backup proof, at least
he’d know for certain what the guy looked like. He might even be able to tail the
guy from the park, find out where he was going, possibly even question him.

Lainey ducked around the back of the small public building and Tucker experienced
a moment of doubt. What if the rest room wasn’t her destination after all? This time
he ignored his twisted gut and used his head. He set out across the grounds, making
use of the sporadically placed palm trees and park benches to provide some cover but
never losing sight of the small building.

Once there, he edged carefully around the back and peeked around the corner. No sign
of her. He swore under his breath as he rapidly scanned the grounds. She was gone.
He couldn’t see how, even at a run, she could have lost him. Where in the blazes was
she? Then he noticed there were two entrances on each side of the facility. It didn’t
make sense, but it was possible she’d used the other entrance.

A quick check ruled out the men’s room. He eyed the curved entry to the ladies’ room.
Did he dare? The way his luck was going, he’d probably stick his head in the door
and give some senior a heart attack. The sound of running feet brought his head up.

He blew out a sigh of disappointment. It was just a jogger. A female jogger. An idea
formed. He stepped away from the building intent on getting her attention, but that
proved unnecessary when she slowed down and headed for the pedestal-style drinking
fountain situated in front of the building.

She was short and trim, with sporty-looking blond hair; obviously younger than the
local population by a decade or two. She wore a jade silk jogging jacket over figure-flattering
matching green leggings and blindingly white sneakers.

He waited for her to finish, then stepped forward. “Hello.”

Startled, she looked up, but her surprise quickly turned into a bright smile and a
rapid once-over. “Well, hello, there yourself.”

Now that he saw her face more closely, he realized she was closer to Lillian’s age
than his own. A walking advertisement for the wonders of exercise, he thought, and
given her smooth skin, probably cosmetic surgery as well. He wondered if she knew
Lillian. Hell, with his luck she was probably her best client.

Tucker groaned at the thought, but time was wasting and he couldn’t be choosy. He
couldn’t cover both entrances, and the longer it took to check the ladies’ room out,
the better the odds that Lainey, if she was even in there, was long gone.

“I’m Bunny MacAfee,” she said, her voice now a soft, low purr. She stepped closer
and extended a tanned, perfectly manicured hand, with several glittering rocks adorning
her fingers. “And you are?”

Claws and purrs. Just what he needed, a seventy-something-year-old Bunny in a catsuit.
“My name is Tucker. Listen, Ms. MacAfee—”

Her smile widened and she sidled closer. “It’s Bunny.”

He smiled thinly. Why him? “Bunny. Could you do me a favor? I had a little argument
with a friend, and she stomped off. I think she’s in the bathroom, and I’m wondering
if you’d mind checking in there for me to see if she’s okay.”

Bunny stared at him with avid fascination. “You’re new around here, aren’t you? I’m
sure I wouldn’t have forgotten meeting you before.”

Great, she wasn’t even listening to him. Lainey was likely long gone at this point,
and he was stuck trying not to become a scratching post. He took a step back, and
she closed the distance between them. “Hey, you know, I’m probably wrong. She probably
went straight to the car.”

Her eyes glittered. “You need a ride?”

“No! I mean, that’s okay. I’ve got the keys, so she can’t go anywhere. She’s probably
cooled off now.” He took several steps back. “Thanks, anyway. Nice meeting you.”

“Wait a minute,” she said, still ignoring him. She tapped a well-honed claw against
her expertly painted lower lip. “Tucker.” She snapped her fingers. “You’re Lillian’s
new find, aren’t you?” She closed in on him.

He took another step back and came up hard against the stone wall that fronted the
rest-room entrance.

“There has been talk, but no one said anything about …” She shook her head and looked
at him with what Tucker feared was renewed determination. Since she’d already proven
she had more determination than the average school of piranhas, it was a scary thought.

A flash of red at the perimeter of the park caught his eye. He was too far away to
be sure, but …

He took hold of Bunny’s shoulders and gently but firmly set her aside. “I think I
see her,” he said. “I really have to go.” He shot her a quick smile of apology, then
moved around and away from her at a trot.

“I’ll phone Lillian’s for an appointment,” she called out. “It was a pleasure. Until
next week, Tucker!”

He waved over his head without looking back. Over my dead body, he thought grimly.
Or over Lillian’s. He was definitely no longer in the massage business.

SEVEN

Lainey held a hand to her pounding heart as she continued to tail Damian. She’d originally
intended to march straight back to the café and sit Minerva down until the woman listened
to what Lainey had to say. She hadn’t checked out the hotel, but she knew Damian was
in this up to his beady black eyes. He’d been too evasive … and too cocky earlier.
Then it had occurred to her that maybe cornering Damian on her terms might give her
the upper hand for a change.

She had no idea what she was going to say to him when she caught up to him, but she
was determined to do whatever she had to, praying madly for divine intervention and
inspiration.

She’d almost had a heart attack when she heard Tucker’s voice outside the ladies’
room. She thought he’d left, but apparently he’d decided to use the men’s room. Then
she heard the unmistakable voice of Bunny MacAfee and had almost choked on a burst
of laughter. She’d almost felt sorry for Tucker. Almost. And, much as she hated the
fact, she now owed Bunny one. Lainey
knew it would take Tucker no small amount of time to extricate himself from Bunny’s
clutches, giving Lainey time to make her second getaway from Tucker that afternoon.
There would be no escaping a full explanation if he’d caught her back in the park.

Her luck continued on its unprecedented upswing. When she ducked out the other entrance,
she spied Damian passing under the wrought-iron archway that formed the side entrance/exit
to the park. She’d skirted the building and taken off at a run, putting as many palm
trees as possible between herself and the rest rooms … and Tucker. But if Bunny was
running true to form, she was quite safe.

Damian was now headed toward a quieter street with shops that paralleled the west
side of the park. She just had to come up with a plan before he ducked into one of
them. She darted a quick look over her shoulder and exhaled briefly in relief. No
Tucker.

Then she looked forward … and plowed directly into Damian.

“Fancy meeting you here.” His heavy sarcasm made it clear that he wasn’t the least
surprised. She wondered how long he’d known she was behind him.

As usual, he was dressed in black. He’d upscaled the look since college—crisply pleated
dress pants, a designer shirt, and leather shoes—but no matter the price tag, his
attire still lent an atmosphere of starkness to his already lean, hungry-looking frame.
The motif was completed with a tight-to-the-scalp ponytail, a neatly trimmed Fu Manchu-style
beard and mustache, all the same shade as the jet-black eyes that always made her
feel ill at ease.

“It’s a free world last I looked,” she said.
Stupid
,
Lainey. Don’t back down
. She’d met Damian in college.
Even on a campus the size of Penn State, almost everyone had known or heard of Damian
Winters. He was a certified genius and widely accepted as a certified nut as well.
His crazy moneymaking schemes were the stuff of alumni legend. He had made and lost
more money than most people saw in a lifetime, all before his junior year. Fortunately
for him, his followers had prospered often enough to keep his neck—and his business—intact
until he graduated. Though talk of a public lynching was a constant murmur around
the quad.

She hadn’t kept track of him after graduation and had no idea whether he’d gone on
to become a brilliant investment counselor or a brilliant scam artist. And until she’d
run into him at Sam’s the previous week, she hadn’t cared.

“Yes, it is a blessedly free country,” he agreed, his smile looking somewhat sinister,
bracketed as it was by the Fu Manchu. “So unless you have some specific business you’d
like to discuss … Or maybe this isn’t about business.”

Lainey shuddered inwardly as his soulless eyes lit up with an interest that had nothing
to do with mutual funds. Funny, she’d never once thought of Damian Winters—when she’d
thought of him at all—in a sexual or physical way. It had to be Tucker’s influence
on her hormones, she decided. When she thought of sex and Tucker, she shuddered, too,
although for entirely different reasons.

“It’s business,” she said abruptly. “I’m still not buying that it’s coincidence that
you happen to be in Florida.”

He shrugged and grinned, suddenly the picture of charming boyish innocence. The transformation
was nothing short of astonishing, his gleaming white teeth reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s.
The result was almost as
disconcerting as his more sinister countenance. She had always been amazed that, despite
his well-publicized less-than-pristine track record, people willingly funded his latest
scheme. Until she saw this face. She couldn’t say truthfully what she might have done
had he turned this face on her years before. This was the face that made people who
should know better part with their money. She knew better than to buy a second of
it. At least, thinking of Charlie, she did now.

“People run into folks they haven’t seen in years all the time, all over the place.
And a whole lot of people went to Penn, Lainey. There is nothing strange about it.”

“You’re a Philly boy, born and bred,” she countered, switching tactics. He sounded
quite sincere, and her heart told her, that at least this time, he was telling the
truth. Fortunately, she knew better than to trust her heart. “You told anyone who’d
listen, and even those who wouldn’t, that you’d never leave. What changed your mind?
Why Florida?”

“I’m older now, Lainey,” he said, a little of the street-smart kid edging into his
tone. “Philly is cold. Florida’s warm.”

“And full of old people with nice fat retirement pensions.” Her inference was clear.

He adopted a hurt expression, but Lainey didn’t miss the flash of heat in his eyes.
She tamped down the renewed urge to rub her arms. There was nothing sexual in those
eyes now. The heat came from anger.

“What are you sayin’? You sayin’ I’m connin’ people here?” As his control slipped,
so did his polish. “That I’m a common crook or somethin’? I’m hurt, Lainey.”

“One thing you’ve never been is common, Damian.
Let’s just say that finding you residing anywhere near a senior retirement village
is a trifle suspect.”

The hurt expression subsided, allowing the heat of anger to shine through. She felt
scorched. When he stepped closer, it took all her willpower to stand her ground.

He pointed a finger in the air between them, the gesture almost more powerful for
the lack of physical contact. “I resent your implication,” he said quietly. “And I
resent your interference. I’m living here because I like peace and quiet. I’m a businessman
just doing his job.”

Along with control, his speech had returned to the cultured tones she’d noticed that
first day she’d run into him at Sam’s. Now, however, they didn’t sound so dulcet and
smooth; they sounded mechanical, empty, and it made her blood run cold.

“And I’m doing quite nicely, thank you,” he continued, his silky tone making her skin
crawl. “Now, if you don’t have any real business to discuss with me, then I suggest
you leave me to mine. Do we understand each other?”

“As long as you understand that Minerva and her friends are to be left out of your
latest business proposition. That’s the only reason I’m here talking to you.”

“Minerva?”

“Minerva Cooper. My aunt. I’ve never accused you of being dumb, Damian, so don’t bother
with the clueless routine. I’ve talked to her, I know she’s invested in one of your
schemes. Greensleigh Knolls. Does that ring a bell?”

“They’re big girls, Lainey. They can make grown-up decisions.”

She supposed she should feel relieved that he’d finally admitted it. Instead it made
her stomach clench.