The Kincaids: Southern Seduction. Kathie DeNosky

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      They stared at each other for several seconds in a test of wills before she finally moved to sit down in the leather bucket seat. “Fine. Take me home and then you can be on your way.”

      He closed the door and walked around the car to slide into the driver’s seat. “We’ll see about that.”

      Considering her emotions at the moment, Daniel wasn’t about to upset her further by telling her that he wasn’t leaving her alone until he was certain she was going to be okay. He might be many things—ruthless in business, arrogant and fierce when he was in competition for a new client and jaded about most things in life—but he wasn’t an uncaring bastard who left an obviously distraught female to fend for herself. Especially when that female was Lily Kincaid.

      For reasons he couldn’t explain, he had been drawn to her from the moment he laid eyes on her last fall at the Children’s Hospital Autumn Charity Ball that his mother had helped organize. Young, vivacious and with a zest for life that he found utterly charming, he had introduced himself and asked her to dance, then asked her out to dinner. He hadn’t really expected her to say yes, considering the thirteen-year difference in their ages, but to his delight she had accepted. That had been over three months ago and until the past couple of weeks, they had seen each other almost every night.

      When he realized that Lily had fallen asleep, Daniel reached over to cover her delicate hand with his. He hadn’t intended for things to progress between them so quickly, but he couldn’t really say he was sorry they had. She was the most exciting woman he had ever met and the time they spent together had made him feel more alive and less cynical than he had in years. What he couldn’t understand was why out of the clear blue sky, she stopped taking his calls and started making excuses not to go out with him.

      As he turned the car into the driveway and drove around the Kincaid family home to the carriage house where Lily had an apartment, Daniel shook his head. He didn’t know what had happened or why she suddenly wanted nothing to do with him, but he had every intention of finding out.

      Parking the car, he reached over to trail his fingers along her smooth cheek. “You’re home, sweetheart.”

      Her eyes fluttered open and she slowly sat up straight to look around. “Thank you for bringing me home, Daniel. I’m sure you have somewhere else you would rather be.”

      Before she had the chance to reach for the handle, he was out of the car and opening the door for her. “Give me your key,” he said as he helped her from the vehicle.

      “Really, I’ll be fine.” She shook her head. “You don’t have to see me in.”

      “What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t see you safely inside?” he asked, smiling.

      For the first time since running into her in the law office, she looked him directly in the eye. “Give me a break, Mr. Addison. It’s midmorning and I seriously doubt that there’s a safety issue for you to be concerned with.”

      He reached up to trail his index finger along her creamy cheek. “So now it’s Mr. Addison? I thought we were a lot closer than that, sweetheart.”

      “I … uh, at one time … I suppose we were,” she said, clearly uncomfortable with his observation.

      Daniel had heard about someone looking as if they were a deer caught in headlights, but until that moment he hadn’t seen it for himself. But that was the only way to describe the expression on Lily’s pretty face. She looked trapped and desperate.

      The question was, why? What had made her so clearly uncomfortable about being in his presence?

      Unfortunately, he was going to have to bide his time until she was feeling a little more in control before he got to the bottom of what was going on with her and why she had ended their affair. The past few days had been a nightmare for her and her family and he wasn’t going to add more stress by interrogating her as to what had changed between them.

      Placing his hand at the small of her back, he felt a slight tremor course through her and instinctively knew it had nothing to do with the mild winter weather Charleston was experiencing. Good. At least she hadn’t developed a complete immunity to him.

      “I know that all this has been extremely hard on you, Lily,” he said, meaning it. “For my own peace of mind, I want to see that you’re all right before I leave.”

      “There’s nothing I can say that’s going to dissuade you, is there?” she asked, sighing heavily.

      “No.”

      She looked more tired and world-weary than he had ever seen her and he hated that the events of the past several days had suppressed her fun-loving, free spirit. Whether she realized it or not, Lily needed someone to help her get through one of the toughest times in her life and he had every intention of being the one she turned to.

      “Why don’t you sit down and put your feet up while I make coffee?” he said when they walked into the living room and he helped her out of her coat.

      “No caffeine for me.” Her long wavy hair swayed as she shook her head. “I, um, haven’t been sleeping well.”

      “I can understand that.” He nodded as he removed his overcoat, then guided her to the couch. “You’ve been through a lot in the past few days, sweetheart.”

      “You have no idea,” she said as she sank onto the cushions. Tears filled her pretty blue eyes as she looked up at him. “Why did he do it?”

      If the account of Reginald’s death in the newspaper had been correct, the man had used one of the antique guns in his collection to take his own life. Daniel knew for a fact that Lily and her father had been very close and his apparent suicide had to have been extremely difficult for her to cope with.

      “I can’t tell you why things happened the way they did, Lily,” he said, sitting down beside her to take her into his arms. “It might never be clear why your dad felt compelled to end things in such a drastic way. But once the shock has worn off, I’m sure you’ll be able to put this behind you and look back at the good times you shared together.”

      She stubbornly shook her head. “I’m not so sure. Not when everything I thought I knew about my father has turned out to be a total lie.”

      He had meant to console her, not upset her further. “Give yourself some time. Right now your emotions are still too raw to see things clearly.”

      “You don’t understand, Daniel.” She pulled away from him to meet his gaze head-on. “I mean literally—everything about Daddy was a lie.”

      Something about her impassioned statement told him there was a lot more to the story than what the media had reported and she needed to get it out or risk going into emotional meltdown. “What leads you to believe that, Lily?”

      She hesitated for a moment as first one tear, then another, spilled down her cheeks. “I might as well tell you. It’s going to be the talk of Charleston by the end of the week.”

      “I’m listening.”

      “Did you notice that older blonde woman and the two men with her that sat just behind my family at the funeral?” she asked.

      He nodded. “Are they relatives from out of town?”

      “No. СКАЧАТЬ