Her Christmas Surprise

“Maybe,” he said, leaning closer and brushing one fingertip over her chin just to feel her skin. “But don’t think you’ve seen the last of me.”

“Go to hell,” she snapped, and walked away.

And he stood and watched her go.

Chapter Three

It was infuriating, Keely thought the next morning as she did a flip turn at the end of the lane in her parents’ indoor pool. He’d put his hand on her and she’d just stared at him like some idiot. Not like some idiot, like some ditzy thirteen-year-old staring at the football captain. So maybe Trey Alexander—excuse her, Lex—exuded a rough kind of charm, but she wasn’t about to let it work on her. One Alexander brother had been enough.

One Alexander brother had been too much. Men, in general, were too much for her just then. She stroked rhythmically, trying to let the soothing slide of water wash away the tension. There was nothing to put a person off relationships quite like walking in on their fiancé in flagrante delicto. Every time she closed her eyes she could see it. How long had it been going on? How long had he been running around behind her back, making love with another woman? Or other women, plural. How many of them had there been?

And had he ever come to her bed from another’s?

In a swift, fluid movement, she pushed up out of the pool. It would be a long time before she trusted her judgment again when it came to men. It would be a long time before she gave herself a chance to.

Keely rose to walk toward her towel and found it held by a tall, sandy-haired man with a bemused smile. “Need this, pumpkin?”

She grinned at her father. “I’d give you a hug but I’d get you all wet.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Carter Stafford said, wrapping the thick, white towel around her and giving her a quick squeeze. “I’m working from my home office today.”

“Is that why the khakis?” she asked, squeezing him back. Above them, light danced on the ceiling where it was reflected by the surface of the water.

“Nope, I wear those pretty much every day. The perks of being the boss.” He winked.

“You still like it, don’t you?” She stepped away to towel off her hair.

“Beats working for a living.”

“Speaking of work, I should get over to the shop and help Mom.”

“You could just relax, you know. You’ve been here less than a week.”

“And this is one of the busiest seasons of the year.” She hung the towel around her neck. “Especially with her being out tonight.”

“Can I help it if this is when my company scheduled the Christmas party?”

Her lips twitched. “You are CEO.”

“You think they ask me about these kinds of things?” He snorted. “Besides, I know your mother and her business. There’s never a good time, especially at the holidays.”

“It’s a good thing that I’m here to fill in, then, isn’t it?” Keely said over her shoulder as she walked through the French doors that led into the main house.

He followed her. “Why don’t you come with us, instead? Give me a chance to show you off.”

She shook her head. “The town tree lighting is tonight. People will be in a buying mood, so we’ll want the shop open.” Not just for flowers, but for the gift area where they sold ornaments and cards, jewelry and the kinds of foolish, pretty things that made Christmas morning surprises.

“All for the sake of the shop, eh?” Carter asked. “Nothing to do with the fact that you’ve never missed a tree lighting yet?”

“Nothing at all.”

“I see. Maybe we should stay here and go with you. After all, I am CEO, as someone just pointed out to me.”

“And as such you have responsibilities.” She grinned. “You’re just going to have to tough it out and go swill champagne and caviar with the other swells. I’ll hold down the fort.”

“You’re supposed to be taking a rest cure,” he scolded.

“If I just sat around, I’d go nuts. I’m kind of like my parents that way. Got to be useful.”

“You had to start working too soon,” he said, his smile fading a bit.

“Dad, everyone works in high school and college.”

“You, of all people, shouldn’t have had to.”

She flashed a smile and rose on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “It was good for my character.” She waggled her eyebrows and did her best Groucho Marx imitation. “And I am nothing, if not a character.”

“She could lose the house?” Lex stared across the smooth, polished ebony of the desk and into the eyes of Frank Burton, his parents’ longtime personal attorney.

“That can’t be possible.” Olivia spoke up from where she sat by Lex in a powder blue suit and pearls.

“You’re listed on the boards of five of the LLCs Bradley set up. The shell corporations, I mean, the ones he used to funnel the money away.” He glanced at the sheet before him. “Correction, five that they know of. They’re quite certain there are more.”

“But I don’t remember any of this,” Olivia said positively. “And I would have. I don’t just sign things without reading them, you know.”

“He wouldn’t have needed to have you sign, not if he had access to your social-security number and your passport. Did he?”

That stopped her. “I don’t know. He had access to my office. I suppose he could have found anything if he was looking for it.”

“At any rate, that’s only part of the trouble. The most damning fact is that he funneled money through your bank account. He deposited five million dollars on ten occasions over the past two years.” Burton held up a thick manila folder. “It’s all documented.”

Olivia stared. “Five million dollars?”

“Times ten. Fifty million, all told. The question is, why? Do you have something to show cause? A receipt, maybe? Records of business transactions? It’s important that we demonstrate the transfers were legit.”

“I didn’t… I don’t know anything about it,” she said helplessly.

Burton frowned at her over his glasses. “They were five million dollar deposits. Granted, the sums you receive from your quarterly dividends and real-estate holdings are as big, if not bigger, but still, where did you think it came from? And didn’t you wonder when it was transferred out?”

“A bank error?” she suggested.

Burton gave her a skeptical stare. “Ten times? Olivia, if you know something, now’s the time to tell us.”

“I don’t… I can’t…I—” She turned to Lex, a thread of desperation in her voice. “Your father always did our finances. You know how he was. When he passed away, I was just…” She firmed her lips. “There was so much to see to, the funeral arrangements, notifications, wills. Bradley offered to take care of things. It was a relief to hand it over to him. And then it just became habit,” she trailed off.

“You played right into his hands,” Burton said. “He used his access to launder money through your accounts, bringing it in from his shell corporations and porting it out to an accomplice.”

Olivia closed her eyes for a moment. “I can’t believe he’d do it.”