Seducing the Heiress (5 page)

Paul scowled and picked up his cup. “I can take a hint. Of course everything's all set. Do you think you'll find what you need when you get there?”

“I hope so. We're running out of leads and we've got to find evidence that Ted Jefferson Jr.—or whoever hired Alexia—planted those bogus documents in the first place.”

Ted had presented the court with twenty-year-old drawings nearly identical to the ones Robert had developed and filed their patent on. An investigation revealed a set of those same drawings had been buried in the Blake & Montgomery archived records—which presumably had been planted there by their former employee, Alexia. Everyone with system access passed the polygraphs with flying colors.

“How did she even manage to plant the documents in the first place?” Paul asked, frowning.

“That's just it. We haven't been able to figure that out.” Farrah slammed her fist against the desk. “We have records of everything in the archived database and while there was a listing for a new system authored by Ted Jefferson during the year in question, the records directed us back to the bogus files we found.”

“Wait, those documents are what...at least twenty years old?” he asked, his frown deepening.

“Yeah, and Dad was leading the company then. He knew everything that Ted worked on, and he approved his budget. He's certain that with the technology they were dealing with back then, there's no way Ted could have created anything that Robert could have used to help develop the type of complicated technological designs that he has now.”

“So there's no evidence that the system was tampered with?”

“Not that we've been able to find yet.” Farrah sat back in her chair.

“What kind of proof will you need exactly?” Paul asked with a deep scowl.

“Mainly, we need to show that Robert's designs were his own and weren't based off anything that anyone else started a million years ago.”

“Too bad Senior's no longer in the land of the living. I bet your dad could get the truth out of him. He owes him.”

Ignoring Paul, Farrah continued her rant. “And I don't give a damn what Ted Jefferson Jr. thinks. Both he and that traitorous little witch can kiss my—”

Paul sucked in a quick breath. “Calm down, girlfriend.”

“It makes me furious that we have to keep defending ourselves over such crap, like we'd stoop to something so low—not to mention hang on to the incriminating evidence. We all know what a brilliant mind Robert has, especially when it comes to computer systems. He doesn't need some old fart's road map to come up with his amazingly innovative design ideas. How dare they try and tarnish his reputation!”

Paul's smiled widened. “Man, you've got it bad...
his
reputation.”

“I said
our
reputation.” Farrah checked her desktop clock and picked up a set of files that sat in the center of her desk. “I don't have time for this. I have to get over to the law library and check on the Plan B options that Trey and his team sent over.”

“Plan B?” Paul asked, his slim lips pulling into a frown.

“In case we can't find a way to prove our innocence.”

“Hell, we don't need a Plan B. We're going to find whoever is trying to screw us and put a stop to this madness,” Paul stated.

“I agree, but we have to be prepared. We all have a lot of time and money riding on the outcome of this case. Including you, mister. Last time I checked, you had a great deal of stock in the company, too.”

“Yeah, well, remember, I already have the best thing that money could never buy—the ability and the
guts
to marry the love of my life.” Paul snapped two fingers on his right hand before walking out the door.

Unable to fight back the overwhelming feeling of loss in that moment, Farrah simply whispered, “Something I'll never have...not with Robert, anyway.”

Farrah blinked back the sting of tears in her eyes.

Chapter 5

R
obert had finally pulled into the garage of his office building after having made several stops to visit clients on his way back. He'd parked his black Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe in his spot, only a few short spaces away from the empty location where its white twin usually held ground, when his cell phone rang. Robert smiled, recognizing the number of the only woman he'd ever really trusted—his foster mother, Penny Hilton—but it faded quickly. He pushed the button to activate his car's Bluetooth.

“Momma Penny, everything all right?” he asked, nervous for her response.

“Of course. You worry about me too much,” she said with a small laugh.

Penny Hilton, or Momma Penny as Robert called her, had become Robert's foster mother after his parents died in a boating accident when he was ten years old. The African-American widow had happily taken young Robert in when no other relative had come forward. Momma Penny had been his nanny since the day he was born and later the family's housekeeper when he'd started school. She was his only family and he her only child. They adored each other. Robert's parents' unique approach to child rearing, followed by their sudden deaths, made it difficult for him to connect and trust people. Momma Penny helped him to find some semblance of security.

“Only because you've recently been released from the hospital. Pneumonia is nothing to play with at your age, so take your medicine and follow the doctor's instructions.”

“At my age,” she huffed.

“You know what I'm saying. How's the new nurse working out?” he asked, hoping she'd let that reference to her growing years slide past.

“He's just fine, although having a male nurse still seems strange to me, you know.”

“Yes, I know.” Robert grinned, checked his watch and settled into his seat. This conversation was going to take a few minutes and he didn't want to risk losing the connection by leaving the car and going into the building. “But he comes highly recommended.”

“So did the last one. What happened to that lovely nurse the agency sent over, anyway? Sonya something. She was very pretty and I liked her. I know she really liked you, too,” she said with a smile in her voice that he couldn't miss.

“And that was the problem—she liked me too much,” he murmured, more to himself than to his mother. Robert thought back to the night he'd returned home from a late business appointment only to find lovely Nurse Sonya waiting for him at his townhouse. A major problem since she was supposed to be stationed at his mother's place over forty miles away.

“What are you doing here and how the hell did you get in?” Robert demanded as he stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

“I got the address and key from Momma Penny. I waited for your housekeeper to leave and I let myself in,” Sonya explained, batting her eyes and playing with her hair. “Momma Penny's fine. Sound asleep, in fact, so I thought I'd come take care of you. Tuck you in, so to speak.”

Sonya had stolen Momma Penny's copy of the key to his house and evidently had snooped around to find the security code to his system and let herself in. She was waiting in his bed wearing a short and very sexy nurse costume. Had that happened a few years earlier, Robert would have loved playing games with the pretty nurse—even if she had been duplicitous in her attempt to gain his attention—but these days he had no interest in such behavior. He'd fired her on the spot.

Robert knew he'd earned a certain reputation when it came to women. He had fallen in love once, only to have his heart battered and tossed back to him with the gift wrapping still intact. He'd found out that his college sweetheart was only after his money and was sleeping with someone he'd thought was a good friend. A friend whom he'd met as a boy after changing schools when he went to live with Momma Penny. Someone that personally knew Robert's struggles to adjust to the world when his parents died, leaving him with a trust fund and no one, except a woman who wasn't a blood relative, to give him the unconditional love that his parents were unable to provide.

When Robert found out that Momma Penny and not his mother had been the one to bring him home from the hospital, and had been the one to stay on with the family just to keep his parents from sending him away to boarding school—the same fate relegated to them as children—things began to make sense. His mother and father's hands-off approach to parenting and ultimately their deaths had made it hard for him to trust. So the betrayal of his best friend and his sweetheart had cut deep. Their disloyalty took away the one thing Robert had yet to be able to recapture—his ability to trust his heart to another woman.

Robert promised himself never to enter into another relationship based on anything other than attraction. Lust he could handle; love was a different story. Robert thought that overwhelming feeling and total lack of control were more than anyone should have to deal with. That was, until he'd fallen hard for Farrah Blake. Now the only woman he wanted to be with was her, totally destroying his “bad boy” reputation. Unfortunately, Farrah had seen him at his worst when it came to his appetite for the opposite sex, and now she didn't believe he could ever change. Trying to convince her that he had wouldn't be easy and Robert just hoped that his plan wouldn't backfire.

“What was that?” Momma Penny asked, snapping him back to the present and making him realize she might have overheard something she wasn't meant to.

“Nothing... I need your nurse focusing on you and not me,” he said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

“Yes, but sweetheart, you really do need someone, a wife to take care of you...to cook for you when I'm gone,” she explained.

“First of all, we both know you're not going anywhere,” he said, and the thought of losing the older woman sent a piercing pain through his heart. “You promised, remember?”

Every night for three years after his parents died, in order to help him get to sleep at night, Momma Penny would promise she'd never leave him. As he became older, her promise became monthly, then yearly, and had substantially changed to “always being with him even when she wasn't because she'd always be in his heart.” Those constant promises had gotten Robert through some very dark days and he'd always be grateful to her for that.

Momma Penny sighed. “Yes, I remember.”

“Second, I've been taking care of myself for a long time now. With the exception of our weekly date night, where you insist on cooking for me, I eat quite well on my own. My housekeeper makes and freezes meals for me every week. She ensures that I have plenty to eat,” he declared.

“Yeah, most of which you
don't
eat,” she scolded.

“And how would you know that?”

“I hired your housekeeper, remember? Besides, nobody can cook like your Momma Penny,” she said.

“True,” he said, smiling to himself, picturing Momma Penny's look of gratitude after he'd cleared his plate.

“You still need someone special in your life. Preferably a
wife
,” she insisted.

“I do need someone and I'm working on it.” Robert was surprised at how honest he was being and just how good it felt.

Momma Penny gasped. “Really, who is she?” she asked, her voice filled with excitement, but not letting him answer. “I know she's beautiful since that's the only way you walk...no, wait, it's roll. Which is it, walk or roll?” she asked.

“It's ‘roll,' and Momma Penny, please stop watching all those reality TV shows,” he said, chuckling at her new obsession with housewives shows, celebrity dance competitions and anything that started with yelling and ended with fighting.

“When can I meet her?” she pressed. “I only know your male friends. I never get to meet any of your lady friends. They never stick around longer than a few weeks.”

“How do you know...? Never mind,” he said.

“So, when can I meet her?”

“Soon. I just have to convince her that she needs me, too,” Robert promised.

I will convince her, too. Although she's going to be really pissed when she finds out the truth.

“Convince her? Who is this person? She must be crazy. Doesn't she know how lucky she is to have your sights set on her?” she asked, not bothering to keep the shock from her tone.

Robert chuckled at how animated she'd gotten. He could picture her five-foot frame straightening in her favorite chair, where she would be sitting and looking out the big picture window in the living room of the three-bedroom house he'd had built for her several years ago. Momma Penny had always been a lion when it came to her only child, her blue-eyed wonder—the nickname she'd given him as a baby and still used today.

“Momma Penny—”

“You know who I really like?” she asked, that familiar excitement returning to her voice.

Robert sighed, wondering if it was another one of her church members' daughters she was always trying to fix him up with. “Who?” he ventured, but braced himself for the answer.

“One of those pretty, dark-haired girls you work with. They're sisters. Only I don't know which one is which. That could be a problem...not being able to tell them apart,” she concluded.

Oh, I can tell them apart.

“The Blake sisters. And I agree. One would be perfect for me,” he murmured, too low for her to hear. The dull ache in his chest that he'd been carrying around for days expanded into something that was spreading through his body like a virus. Last year, Meeks had almost lost his mind when Francine had constantly put herself in danger. And right now, Robert was slowly losing his, because he was in danger of losing the one woman who made him feel alive. The phone fell silent for a moment and Robert knew he'd given himself away. “Wait, how do you even know about the Blake sisters?”

“You're not the only one that can use a computer, you know. Which one is it? Which one's got you all twisted up in the game?” she asked.

“Momma Penny, you're killing me with all this slang,” Robert said, laughing.

“I'm waiting,” she said, as he heard her take a sip of what he figured was her favorite drink, masala tea.

“Farrah. Her name's Farrah Blake and she's the middle sister...the one with the blue eyes,” he explained, inwardly adding,
The color of the deepest part of the ocean.

“Like my baby boy, although I'm sure yours are much bluer and way nicer, as far as I'm concerned,” she stated proudly.

Robert heard a familiar sound entering the garage. He checked his rearview mirror and confirmed his suspicions.

“Momma Penny, I have to go. Take your medicine and I'll call you later,” he promised. “And don't give that nurse a hard time, either. Have to keep an eye out for you with these younger men.”

“Okay, but you should have thought of that before you hired him,” she shot back. “He is kinda cute.”

“Momma Penny!”

“Love you, my blue-eyed wonder.”

“I love you, too,” he replied.

Robert disconnected the call, unplugged his phone and dropped it in his jacket pocket. He exited the car, strolled to where Farrah had parked and was opening her door before she'd barely cut her engine.

“I told you I'd see you later,” Robert said, presenting her with a sexy smile. “It's later.”