Chapter 7
She stayed in bed for a few more hours. Once her headache was mostly gone, she got up, took a shower, and ate some of the lunch that had been carried up to her room.
Her clothes from the night before had been freshly laundered, and the housekeeper found her a pair of more comfortable shoes so she wouldn’t have to go around in her heels. So she got dressed, clipped her hair up into a heavy knot, and went out to explore the estate.
Kelly would have expected any home of Caleb’s to be cool, modern, and stylish, but the house was an old brick Georgian that had been beautifully updated, so it was full of both character and comfort.
The house was built on a large piece of land, so she wandered around, peering at the lake, the stables, and the stretches of grassy lawn.
She avoided the wooded areas. There wasn’t much else to keep her occupied, and she figured walking around was a predictable thing for a guest to do.
She knew she was probably being watched by Caleb’s security—he had more surveillance than she’d expected to find—so she couldn’t do anything that looked suspicious.
But it was a sunny day and warm for April, and the walk and fresh air revived her considerably and banished the final symptoms of her concussion.
There was a high wall surrounding the whole estate, and—as she approached it—she noticed the iron gate that led to the road.
It wasn’t open, but it wouldn’t be very hard to get beyond it, if she were coming from inside and not from outside. She studied it idly, thinking through what she would do tonight, until a man, obviously security, stepped out into the open between her position and the gate.
He didn’t say anything, but his presence there was meaningful. Obviously he’d been told that she wasn’t supposed to leave.
But surely even Caleb wouldn’t dare to keep her here as a prisoner.
She took a short nap in the middle of the afternoon, knowing it would be wise to catch up on her sleep since she wouldn’t be doing much of that tonight. At about five thirty, she took her towel and the bathrobe she’d been offered up to Caleb’s master bathroom.
It wasn’t as if she were really in the mood for a long, luxurious bath. She was getting edgier by the minute, thinking about what would happen when Caleb returned from work. But he’d offered, and it was a good idea to accept the invitation.
She was tempted to snoop in his bedroom, but it was far too early to try something so risky.
Instead, she went into the huge bathroom, shut the door, took off her clothes, and drew herself a hot bath.
After dumping some of the bath salts she found into the enormous tub—the salts appeared to have never been opened, so she assumed Caleb wasn’t in the habit of taking baths himself—Kelly turned on the jets. She lowered herself into the water and shuddered in automatic pleasure.
Caleb hadn’t been lying about how powerful they were.
It was a very good bath, and Kelly soaked for a long time, closing her eyes and doing her best to release the tension in her body.
She wasn’t able to relax mentally, but to do what had to be done, she needed to at least take the physical edge off. So the bath was a good idea for more reasons than one.
Eventually she started draining the water. Caleb would be home soon, and she didn’t want to be here when he returned.
That might look too obvious, like she was throwing herself at him. With a man like Caleb, subtlety would be important.
After toweling off, however, she slathered some scented lotion on her skin. Hopefully Caleb would get home soon enough for the fragrance to still be lingering.
She pulled on the thick, white bathrobe and gathered up her clothes. On the spur of the moment, she dropped the tennis bracelet she’d been wearing between the tub and the potted plant.
There was nothing blatantly sexual about the bracelet. It was simply intimate, and hopefully Caleb would find it in his bathroom sometime this evening.
She returned to her room and kept her bathrobe on so she could wait until Caleb returned from work. She’d timed out the trip from his office, estimating how long it would take for him to get through rush hour traffic. Surely he’d be home soon.
She waited. And waited. And waited even more.
The housekeeper came in to offer her dinner, which she ate in her room, brewing with a growing resentment.
Thoughtless ass. Working all evening when he must know she was expecting him to return.
Some gallant host he was.
Finally she was so annoyed by his nonappearance that she changed into her clothes, grabbed her phone, and called a cab to come pick her up.
If she were really here, under the circumstances she was feigning, she might do the same thing. After all, she was better now, and there was no reason for her to hang around here all evening when Caleb failed to contact her or make an appearance.
She’d reached the entrance and was about to demand the guard let her out when the gates opened and Caleb’s car drove through.
He stopped when he saw her and got out.
“What are you doing?” He looked faintly annoyed, like she was an underling who wasn’t cooperating. He was still wearing his suit—he hadn’t even taken off the jacket—but he looked less sleek now. Slightly rumpled. A little tired.
The attitude immediately roused her anger. “I’m leaving. What does it look like?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to at least wait and let me know you were leaving?”
“I didn’t know when you’d be back. For all I know, you work all night long.”
His face changed slightly as he stepped over closer to her. “I got caught in a meeting that went longer than expected.” He gave her a faint smile. “I should have called to let you know I was running late, shouldn’t I?”
Her throat tightened as she realized he thought she was offended or hurt by his lateness. He thought it was funny. Cute.
Like she was some predictable female .
Smothering the resentment, she said coolly, “Excuse me. My taxi is here.”
It was. The cab had pulled up as they talked and was waiting beyond the gate. She started to walk toward it but stopped when Caleb reached out to take her arm.
“At least have dinner with me first.”
“I’ve already eaten dinner. Two hours ago.”
He glanced at his watch, evidently just realizing how late it was. He gave her a sheepish, flirtatious smile. “Well, have dessert with me.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t actually feel like dessert. I’m tired.”
She couldn’t help but feel a spark of satisfaction at his frustrated expression. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. Just tired.”
“Then don’t go home. Stay here tonight and rest up some more, and we can talk tomorrow morning.”
She studied his face and decided she had him right where she wanted him.
If she was going to attract him enough to hold his interest beyond a few rounds of sex, he couldn’t think she was so easy.
So she relented. “Okay. I’ll stay here tonight, but I was serious about being tired.”
He gave her a flash of a smile. “Did you think I was going to make a move?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“You’ve got me all wrong.”
Kelly knew one thing for sure. She hadn’t gotten him wrong at all.
A few hours later, she had steeled herself for what she needed to do, so she got out of bed and checked her hair, making sure it was hanging down in a thick, rumpled fall down her back.
He thought she looked innocent and untouched, so she would use that to pull him in even deeper.
She would be scared about the mysterious someone who was threatening her and sending thugs after her. She would not want to be alone tonight. She would go to his room, looking vulnerable and needy. He would get to feel all strong and protective again.
She was sure it would work.
The idea of sex with the man who killed her father was so upsetting now that her stomach churned, but she ignored it.
She’d had sex with men she didn’t know or particularly like before. She’d had sex with Caleb before. She could do this. She had to do this, if she was ever going to succeed with this ridiculous plan of getting close to him and finding evidence of his guilt.
She closed her eyes and steeled herself a little more, shaking herself off as she exhaled deeply. In the process, she bumped into a small table, making it wobble. Before she could catch it, a large crystal vase holding cut flowers toppled and then crashed to the floor.
“Damn it!” She stared in frustration at the mess and broken glass on the floor, catching her breath after being deeply startled by the accident.
She was tempted to just leave it since she’d prepared herself for sex and was afraid the mental preparations would only last a short time. But it would look decidedly suspicious for her to tumble sleepily out of bed and head for Caleb’s room, leaving a broken vase on the floor.
She needed to clean the mess up now and then decide whether she could still make her way to Caleb’s room afterward for her seduction plan.
She tiptoed down the quiet stairs and into the deserted kitchen. There, she started opening closet doors until she found the necessary cleaning supplies.
Grabbing a broom, mop, and dustpan, she hurried back up to her room and picked up all the flowers she could without getting cut by the glass. She swept the rest of them up with the broken glass into the large dustpan and then mopped up most of the water.
When she was through cleaning up the mess, she opened her bedroom door, preparing to return the supplies to the storage closet in the kitchen.
But, as she stepped into the hall, she nearly collided with Caleb.
“Shit,” she muttered reflexively, her heart leaping as she jerked backward unthinkingly. Her pulse began to pound uncomfortably, and she had some momentary trouble disguising her instinctive, negative reaction to unexpectedly seeing this man standing before her.