Seduction and Lies

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 1

Danielle Holloway pranced into her kitchen wearing a pink thong adorned along the waistband with tiny rhinestones, and not much else. She pulled open the camel-colored wood cabinet above the sink and took out two plates. Cooking really wasn’t her thing, but for Nick she was willing to make the effort—hopefully she wouldn’t kill him in the process.

She opened the freezer and took out a box of Aunt Jemima frozen waffles and a box of frozen Jimmy Dean turkey sausage. She was pretty sure she had some syrup around somewhere.

“Need some help?” came the rough-textured voice behind her.

Slowly she turned around, her size-C breasts standing at attention.

Nick’s dark blue, almost black, eyes rolled over her from head to toe. Dani watched his throat work up and down as his gaze caressed every inch of her, reminding her quite vividly of the night and half the morning they’d spent together.

What she felt for Nick Mateo scared her—badly. Sometimes when she was around him, she couldn’t breathe, her thoughts would get scrambled and her heart would beat so fast she thought she’d faint. She thought about him when she should have been concentrating on a photo shoot or developing film. He made her laugh, and thoughts of being without him made her want to cry. She was in love for the first time in her adult life, and she was scared as hell. And to compound it all, Nick Mateo was white—at least legally. Well, kinda white. His mom was black, his dad Italian. She was half black and half Hispanic, which accounted for her waist-length, raven-black hair and honey-brown complexion. Both of them had to check “other” on all those applications. She had enough cultural issues to deal with on her own—and now his as well.

Nonetheless, together, Nick and Dani made a stunning couple. He, a subtle look-alike for a young Alec Baldwin, dark short hair, a sexy five-o’clock shadow and a body to die for. She, a striking beauty whose face could easily grace the pages of fashion magazines.

He sauntered toward her with a pearl-gray towel wrapped around his narrow hips and slid his muscular arms around her waist. He nuzzled her neck, and Dani’s body warmed all over.

“I…was going to fix us something to eat,” she said on a breath, inhaling his cool, clean scent from his recent shower. She tilted her head back to give him better access to that spot that made her weak in the knees.

He held her a little tighter. “I already have something to eat.” He nibbled her neck and ran his hands along the curve of her spine. Dani moaned. “God, I can’t get enough of you,” he groaned. He drew in a long, hot breath and reluctantly stepped back. He looked deep into her eyes, down into her soul. “I’m in love with you—you better know that.”

Dani’s heart banged in her chest. “Me, too.” It was as close as she had come to saying the L word.

“I’ll settle for that,” he said, knowing the emotional struggle Dani was having wrestling with her feelings. Admitting that she could be vulnerable enough to turn her heart and soul over to someone else was something she wasn’t ready to handle. He was willing to give her as much time as she needed. He knew what was in her heart. He could see it when she looked at him, when she moaned his name as he made love to her, when she laughed at his stupid jokes and told him about her life and her deepest fears. They had no secrets between them, and that was why he knew this relationship was going to work, whether or not she ever said the L word.

Danielle kissed him on the lips, tasting the minty toothpaste. “So are you going to be a help or a hindrance in the kitchen?”

He peeked over her shoulder to see what was on the menu. He turned up his nose. “How ’bout I fix us breakfast?”

A sunshiny smile bloomed across her face. “Sure.”

Nick shook his head and chuckled. “You didn’t have to give in so quickly, ya know. Let me put on some clothes—pickings are kinda thin in the fridge, if I remember correctly.” He kissed her on the tip of her nose, turned and went into the bedroom to get dressed.

“Whataman,” she murmured.

Savannah Fields woke up on Sunday morning and barely made it to the bathroom. She was only in her first trimester, and morning sickness was kicking her butt—day and night.

“You okay, baby?” Blake called from the other side of the bathroom door.

Savannah splashed cold water on her face, leaned over the sink and drew in long, slow breaths in the hopes of controlling the rocking and rolling going on in her stomach. How could something that would ultimately be so precious make you feel like you wanted to die?

“I’m…fine,” she was finally able to say. “Be out in a minute.”

Slowly she raised her head and gazed at her reflection in the mirror. The doctor assured her that the morning sickness would stop after three months. She still had one to go. She gripped the side of the sink as another wave of nausea swept through her belly and made her head spin.

Savannah moaned. How was she going to be able to fulfill her latest undercover assignment if she could barely hold her head up? She was going to need help.

Jean Armstrong, the head of The Ladies Cartel—affectionately known as TLC—had called her into the Cartel offices at the brownstone on 135th Street in Harlem three weeks earlier to congratulate her on the successful completion of her last assignment, which was to uncover a suspected land fraud deal in downtown Brooklyn. What Savannah had uncovered was not only a major scam but also the fact that the development was going to be built on top of an ancient African burial ground. It had been a difficult assignment, and not so much because it was her first but because her husband, Blake, was the contractor on the deal and she was bound by her oath to the Cartel not to reveal what she was doing to anyone—and that included her husband.

Her investigation had also led her to believe that her husband, her soul mate, was not only involved in the unscrupulous land deal but also was having an affair with the woman who was behind it all, millionaire heiress Tristan Montgomery. Savannah needed the help of her two best friends, Danielle Holloway and Mia Turner, to prove otherwise, and they did.

Unfortunately, Savannah had broken a major rule of The Ladies Cartel by involving anyone who was not a sworn member. Fortunately for her, it had turned out well, and Jean reminded her how lucky she was when she gave her this latest assignment.

Savannah flushed the toilet and rinsed out her mouth. At least her head had stopped spinning.

One thing she knew for certain was that she was going to have to break some more rules if she was to get the next job accomplished. She could certainly use the skills of the Cartel members, but she knew she could trust Dani and Mia more than any other two people on earth.

Blake knocked on the door. “Savannah, are you okay?”

“Coming.” Gingerly she made her way to the door and opened it.

Blake was standing on the other side with a distraught look on his ruggedly handsome face. She smiled wanly.

He put his arm around her shoulder. “Can I get you anything?”

“Yeah, a time machine. Speed this process up by about seven months.”

Blake grinned and kissed the top of her head, and led her back to the bed. “If I could, you know I would, baby.”

She waved off the bed. “I think I need to move around. I want to meet the girls for a late lunch.”

“You sure you’re up to it?”

She nodded. “Yeah, some ginger ale and a few crackers, and I’ll be good as new.” She left his embrace and went into the kitchen. Moments later she could hear the blare and roar of a basketball game coming from the living-room television set.

Must be Sunday, she mused, smiling as she popped open a can of ice-cold ginger ale and took a long, refreshing swallow. Sunday was game day in the Fields’ household. Blake carved out his position on the couch and watched games all day long, nonstop, even if they were on videotape, which gave Savannah the perfect opportunity to hang out with the girls. And today they needed an emergency meeting.

While Nick was at the local grocer, Dani took a quick shower and straightened up the bedroom. As she sat on the edge of the bed, applying the Victoria’s Secret brand of lotion that Nick loved, her phone rang.

She turned behind her, reached across the bed and picked up the phone from the nightstand. Lying on her stomach, she answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Dani, it’s me, Savannah.”

“Hey, girl, how ya feeling?”

“Don’t ask.”

“You’re a better woman than me.”

“Listen, I was hoping the three of us could get together this afternoon.”

“Hmm, what time? Me and Nick were getting ready to fix something to eat.”