Secret Cinderella

“…and I don’t know why we couldn’t take the elevator,” Shereen was complaining. “Escalators are so dirty.”

“Too crowded,” he told her shortly.

“This aversion you have for elevators is really quite annoying at times, you know that?”

He paused to regard her before crossing to the next set of moving steps. “If you want to take the elevator, Shereen, feel free,” he told her brusquely and turned away.

“You really are in a mood, aren’t you?” Shereen said waspishly as she hurried after him. “You’re still miffed because I was talking to Larry earlier. You know, just because you and Larry often find yourselves rivals at times, it wouldn’t have hurt you to make nice. Larry does move in all the right circles, you know. He was just telling me how his company got a juicy new contract working with Homeland Security. Instead of acting so rudely, you’d do well to encourage a relationship with him.”

Roderick didn’t look at her. “I’ll leave that to you.”

She inhaled audibly.

“Don’t tell me you were jealous, darling,” she purred after a moment.

“I won’t.”

He stepped off the escalator and moved across the tiled foyer ahead of her to hand the valet his parking ticket. Outside, snow had coated the roads, continuing its downward spiral with growing speed.

“I didn’t realize,” Shereen said in her most conciliatory tone of voice. “You were probably bidding on the same contract.”

Roderick didn’t bother to respond. She’d realized. They’d even discussed his plans. When RAL had bid on the contract and lost, he’d simply chalked it up to part of doing business. The loss had nothing to do with his instinctive dislike of the man.

Shereen fell silent beside him as they waited for the Mercedes to be brought around. Roderick barely noticed her. He was busy planning the phone call he would make first thing tomorrow morning to begin his search for the mystery woman. Anticipation had his thoughts moving briskly as the dark green sedan rolled to a stop. Roderick reached for his billfold.

And came up empty.

“Is something wrong?” Shereen asked.

“My wallet seems to be missing.” He checked the other pocket. Empty, as well. Not just his wallet, his keys were gone, as well.

Shereen frowned. “Maybe it fell out in your car,” she suggested. “When did you have it last?”

Roderick knew exactly when he’d had it last. He’d tipped the cloakroom attendant and replaced the wallet in his inner pocket. Then the mystery woman in the sparkly green dress had slid her arms around him—beneath the tuxedo jacket.

He swore out loud. The little witch had lifted his wallet and his keys and he’d never felt a thing. He couldn’t believe he’d been suckered by a pro.

“You could have dropped it upstairs. Maybe you left it at the table. We could go back up and have a look around.”

For someone who hadn’t wanted to leave a minute ago, she didn’t sound enthusiastic at the prospect of going back upstairs.

“I didn’t lose it upstairs,” he said tersely. Well, he had, but not in the way she meant. No wonder the little imp had been looking around so frantically. He wondered how many other men in the ballroom were going to find their faces red this evening.

“Are you going to call security?”

“No,” he said absently. “I know exactly what happened to it.” And he was generally such an excellent judge of character. “Would you mind tipping the man for me?”

Roderick was more annoyed than embarrassed to admit that he’d been suckered. He should have known better, of course, but she was a pro—and not the sort he’d thought. Well, hadn’t she told him she wasn’t what he’d thought?

The irony wasn’t lost on him. Roderick thought about calling the police, but he knew he wouldn’t and not just because he’d look foolish. He preferred to deal with the little pickpocket himself. Someone else might report her, of course, but it was a chance he was willing to take. She didn’t know it, but she’d handed him the perfect excuse to find her. And he would. She’d made it easy by taking a taxi. Taxi’s kept records.

“You’re in a perfectly foul mood this evening, you know that?” Shereen asked as he pulled carefully out into traffic.

“I suppose I am.”

Wisely, she fell silent, leaving him to concentrate on the road. His thoughts were busy conjuring up mock conversations with the imp when he located her. His imagination was enjoying the exercise when Shereen turned toward him again.

“I am sorry, darling,” she offered, laying a long-fingered hand on his thigh. “I didn’t appreciate how severe your headache must be. I guess you had a beastly night. I’ll make it up to you when we get to my place.”

“Save it, Shereen. You made your point earlier. Consider it taken. Right now I need to concentrate.”

She stiffened and withdrew. He could feel her amber eyes studying him in the glow of the dash lights, but he kept his focus on the road. The windshield wipers struggled to keep up with the falling snow.

They drove in tense silence until they reached her apartment complex. Instead of pulling into the parking garage as usual, he drove to the front of the building and stopped.

“Darling, I realize you’re annoyed with me and I’m sorry. I wasn’t really flirting with your archenemy, you know. Why don’t you come in and let me make it up to you? It’s far too treacherous to drive all the way into Virginia tonight.”

Her hand moved to his thigh and stroked upward.

“Goodbye, Shereen.”

The hand stopped moving and she frowned. “Pouting is most unbecoming.”

“So is using sex to get your own way.”

She recoiled instantly.

“Happy New Year,” he added sarcastically.

The flash of anger in her expression came and went so fast he barely had time to notice. She laid a placating hand on his sleeve, her frown of concern so patently phony he had to force his arm to be still.

“We’ll talk in the morning when you’re feeling better.”

“Don’t plan on it, Shereen.”

Her eyes widened as she studied his features. “You’re dumping me? You are! Why you arrogant bastard!”

Without another word, she exited the car. The slamming of the door shook loose a clump of snow from the roof. Manfully, the wipers struggled to cope as it cascaded over the windshield.

Roderick pulled away without a backward glance. He generally used more finesse when breaking off relationships, but he suspected subtlety would have been wasted on Shereen. He also suspected at least some of her anger was more for show than anything else. If he wasn’t mistaken, Shereen had already selected his replacement. Wilhelm’s pockets better be as deep as reported if he was planning to be the next in line to woo the beautiful model. Shereen didn’t come cheap.

The snowplows and salt trucks were operating with almost negligible results. The drive to her apartment had taken longer than it did in rush hour, and what was normally a fifteen-to twenty-minute trip to his place took nearly two nerve-wrenching hours as the weather continued to worsen. His headache was truly wicked by the time he pulled into his garage.

Roderick used the spare house key concealed there to let himself into the town house. As he switched the security panel back on for the night, he gave himself a mental reminder to change the code and have the door locks re-keyed. Shereen had both and could let herself in at any time. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about that tonight.

His headache was reaching migraine proportions by the time he kicked off his dress shoes and crossed to the stairs. He was tired. All he wanted was a hot shower and a soft bed.

He had nearly reached the upstairs hall when a sudden prickle traveled up his back to lodge at the base of his skull. Roderick stopped moving.