Stiletto Secrets (20 page)

“Emma—”

“Nicholas, don’t. I know what you’re going to say, but the fact of the matter is that I need this job.”

God, it made him cringe to think that she actually had to work as maid in order to survive.

“You are so much more than this.” He looked into her soft blue-green eyes and felt an intense urge to take care of her, to make sure that she got what she deserved. “Let me take care of you, Emma.”

She stilled and stared at him wide-eyed, like he had just said something wrong. Nicholas lifted a brow. “What?”

“Don’t do that.” Emma scampered off the bed.

“Do what?”

“Act like I’m a damsel in distress, like you and your money can sweep in and save me.”

Nicholas got out of bed and grabbed his sweatpants. “That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Then what was that? Asking me to let you take care of me?”

“Emma, I just meant that I want to take care of you. I hate seeing you working around my goddamn house as a maid when we both know you’re so much more than that.”

“I’m not! I’m not more than that. This is what I am, Nicholas. A maid. Nothing more. I might carry the Tremaine name, but I will never be more than what I am right now.”

Nicholas was about to reach for her, to try and stop her, but she dashed out of his room so fast, his head almost started to spin.

“What the fuck just happened?” he muttered to himself. “Dammit.”

Nicholas darted out of the room, running after her. “Emma! Emma, stop!”

She had just reached the front door when he hurried down the stairs. “Emma, please. Stop.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Nicholas, please don’t.”

“I won’t, okay? I won’t. Just don’t rush out of here like this.” He reached for her hand and tugged her closer. “I don’t want you to leave like this.”

He pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders hugging her—fucking hugging her. Nicholas couldn’t remember the last time he hugged a woman without having some sexual innuendo.

“Listen.” He took her face between his palms. “I have some business I need to take care of today and tomorrow. But I’m free on Sunday. Will you let me see you Sunday?” Hell, he wanted to see her every day, but the reality was that he had shit he needed to attend to.

Her eyes softened. “Okay, Sunday.”

Nicholas kissed her tenderly, feeling a sense of relief at the prospect of seeing her again, and being with her again.

“We can go out on our official second date.” He smiled, and she smiled back, some of the tension from their earlier conversation slowly evaporating.

“I’d like that.”

And then he remembered. “Fuck. I have a goddamn charity ball on Sunday night. One of my father’s little shindigs.” Nicholas sighed. “It’s okay. I can just skip it.”

“Skip it?” She frowned. “Your father won’t like that.”

“Don’t care.”

He reached for her, pulled her closer and nuzzled her neck playfully. She giggled, and the sound shot straight to his cock. Man, he was about ready to fuck her right there against the three thousand dollar front door.

Nicholas let his hands roam down, palming those firm, round curves of beauty.

Emma pushed back slightly. “You need to go to that ball. We can have our second date some other time.”

“No way. I'm not waiting that long before I see you again. Unless…what plans do you have for Saturday? I’m sure I can finish up in time for us to go out and do something…or,” he smiled suggestively, “we can just stay in.”

Yeah, that was exactly what he wanted to do. Stay in and make love to this raven-haired beauty who seemed to have him by the balls. Completely.

She stepped back. “I can’t Saturday. I have plans…with Lizzy.”

“Oh.” Nicholas felt a little deflated there for a second, until he had a brilliant, brilliant plan. “Go with me.”

Emma’s blue-green eyes widened. “Go with you where?”

“To the ball. It’s a masquerade ball. You can be my date for real this time.” He couldn’t help the big old smile on his face.

“Nicholas, I can't.”

“Of course you can.”

Emma’s gaze fell to the ground and he noticed her fiddling with her fingers.

Then it dawned on him. “Emma, I can buy you a dress.”

Her gaze shot up and her eyes darkened.
Crap

“When is your birthday?” he asked quickly.

She looked confused. “October third. Why?”

Now Nicholas grinned like the fucking Cheshire cat. “That’s in a few weeks. You can regard the dress as a birthday present.” He winked at her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Nicholas, you know how I—”

“I know. That’s why it’s a gift.”

Emma narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her nose. Victory! Nicholas knew he had convinced her.

“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly.

Nicholas grabbed her again, and kissed her. He kissed her lips like a fucking junky looking for his fix.

He pulled back. “Good. Now go put on that hideous maid’s uniform and come clean my damn house.”

He swatted her on her ass when she turned toward the door. Even though he was teasing, making a joke, the words stuck like cold, hard cement in his throat. He hated it. But he also knew that now was not the time to push the subject. He watched while she got in the cab and left. It was agony to watch her leave when he still had a very pressing need to be inside her.

Oh well, he would just have to take an extra-long shower this morning.

As Nicholas entered his room again, he thought about Claire, and Emma, and what the hell went down between them. It just didn’t make sense that Claire’s mother—Lillian—was able to cheat Emma and Lizzy out of their inheritance so easily. Yet, knowing Emma as he did, he was pretty sure she didn’t exactly put up a fight when it came down to it. She was an incredibly peaceful human being, and he got the idea that if she could avoid any confrontation or conflict, she would. Not that he thought she was weak, in fact far from it. The way she had survived up until now, putting all her hopes and dreams aside for her sister, that took strength, that took guts and courage. Nicholas respected that. He loved that.

But something just didn’t sit right with him. Something didn’t make sense, and he needed to figure out what the hell had happened with Emma’s father and Lillian. Also, he was now even more suspicious of Claire’s motives toward him. He just didn’t know how the hell he would figure it all out, unless he had someone who could help him.

Nicholas grabbed his phone and dialed the number of the person he knew would be able to help him out.

“Hunter? Meet me for breakfast…an hour…it’s important.”

* * * *

“Please tell me you did not wake me up at five-thirty in the fucking morning to have croissants and talk about the weather?” Hunter took a seat across from Nicholas.

“No, I woke you up to have croissants and talk politics,” Nicholas replied dryly.

“Can I punch you in the face now, or later?”

“Preferably later after I’ve discussed something very important with you.”

Hunter summoned over the waitress. “Can I at least have a cup of coffee before you try to pick my brain?”

Nicholas shifted in his seat. “This is important, Hunter.”

Hunter looked at Nicholas and he must have seen the somber expression on his face, because the man was suddenly all about being serious.

He ordered his coffee and sat up straight. “What’s up, man?”

“It’s Emma.”

“What about her?”

Nicholas leaned closer. “She’s Henry Tremaine’s daughter.”

“Yeah. I know.”

Nicholas eyed him suspiciously. “How do you know?”

The man shrugged. “I just do.”

“Remind me after you’ve done me this favor to ask you how the fuck you always know everything.”

The waitress placed two coffees on the table, and Hunter waited for the waitress to walk away. “What do you need, my friend?”

“Claire Monroe and her mother, Lillian Tremaine, somehow managed to cheat Emma and her sister out of a very large inheritance. I need to know how.”

Hunter leaned back in his chair, always the epitome of complete confidence and poise. “And what makes you think I can do that?”

Nicholas lifted a brow. “Don’t play coy with me, Hunter. You’re the best fucking PI I know.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

“Whatever. Can you help me or not?” Nicholas kept his eyes etched on Hunter silently praying that the man could help him. He didn’t know who else to ask, or what else to do.

After a few seconds of Hunter staring at Nicholas like he was weighing out his options, he took a long sip of his coffee and eventually answered, “Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”

Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“What else?” Hunter asked bluntly.

“What do you mean what else?”

“Nicholas,” Hunter leaned forward over the table, “I’ve known you practically our entire lives. There is something else on your mind.” He sat back in his chair again. “Now out with it.”

That was one thing about Hunter. You could never bullshit the man. It was like he had bullshit radar and he could detect it coming from a mile away. Nicholas wondered sometimes if he didn’t miss his true calling in life, maybe being a detective, or a special agent or something that required him to use that sixth sense of his.

“There is this other thing,” Nicholas started slowly, hesitantly.

“See, I knew it. What is it?”

“Hunter, I don’t have to remind you that all of this, this entire conversation is confidential, right?”

Hunter smirked. “And by confidential you mean Adam can’t know about it.”

“Exactly.”

“Because Adam is an ass?”

“You’re an intelligent man, aren’t you?” Nicholas smirked, and Hunter snorted.

“Okay.” Hunter got all serious. “Let me hear it.”

Nicholas said exactly what he wanted to say…inside his head. Somehow he just could not find the right words without sounding like a sick pervert.

Finally giving up on finding the right words, he threw his hands in the air. “Fine, I’m just gonna say it as it is. There’s this stripper—”

“Hold up.” Hunter held up his hand. “A stripper?”

“Yes. I met her the night of my birthday party.” Nicholas paused to search Hunter’s face, trying to determine what he was thinking, but as usual Hunter’s facial expression gave absolutely nothing away.

Nicholas took a deep breath. “I need to know who she is.”

“You want to know who she is?”

“Yes. She doesn’t let you see her. I have no idea who this woman is and I need to know.” Nicholas felt like a grade A pervert with every word that came out of his mouth.

Hunter took the last sip of his coffee, placed the cup down and stared at Nicholas. “You want me to find out who she is?”

Nicholas eyed Hunter with caution, like he was waiting for the man to burst out laughing at any second. “Yes.”

Hunter lifted a brow. “What about Emma?”

“What about her?”

“Well, the fact that you want me to find out who this stripper is, is proof enough that you must have a thing for her. Yet you and I both know there’s something going on between you and Emma.” Hunter paused and narrowed his eyes. “Are you two-timing?”

“No!” he blurted out. “No, I’m not.”

Nicholas slouched in his chair and he could feel the weight of his guilt taking its toll.

“I just can’t get Cinderella out of my mind.” Nicholas noticed the confused look on Hunter’s face. “The stripper, she calls herself Cinderella.” Hunter still looked confused. “It’s a long story.”

Hunter straightened in his seat and cleared his throat. “So you’re not two-timing, yet you want info on this Cinderella stripper?”

“I know it sounds really weird, man. I just can’t explain it. I don’t want to hurt Emma, but somehow I just feel like I have to know who she is.”

“Did you sleep with the stripper?”

“No, it didn’t go that far.” Not that he didn’t want it to.

“But you’re sleeping with Emma?”

Nicholas wanted to tell him to mind his own fucking business, but then Hunter eyed him with warning. “If you want me to help you, you have to be fucking honest with me, Nicholas.”

“Fine. Yes. I’m sleeping with Emma. I just don’t know what it is. I can’t get that damn stripper out of my head. And now that I have this thing with Emma, it’s like this fucking Cinderella is in my head twenty-four-seven, even though I know I’m starting to have…” Nicholas swallowed and took a deep breath. “Starting to have feelings for Emma. It’s fucked up, I know.”

Hunter just kept on listening and staring at Nicholas, like he was making tiny little mental notes of everything Nicholas was saying.

“It’s killing me, man, feeling the way I do about this Cinderella woman, and then having Emma as well. It’s funny,” Nicholas snorted, “I’m even finding a lot of similarities between Emma and Cinderella. It’s weird. It’s like Emma reminds me of this stripper. It’s sick actually.”

Hunter shifted in his chair and then rubbed his goatee with his thumb and forefinger.

“Okay. I can see this is bugging you. So I’ll see what I can find out. But what are you going to do once you know who this Cinderella chick is?”

Nicholas didn’t think of that. He couldn’t think of that. He just knew that he had to know who she was. Whether he would do something with that information or not, he didn’t know.

“I don’t know, man, all I know is that I really don’t want to hurt Emma, and it’s killing me. But I just have to know. You know?”

Nicholas kind of expected Hunter to judge him, but he didn’t. Hunter just nodded in what looked like understanding, and Nicholas knew that Hunter had his back with this.

“Thanks, Hunter.”

Hunter got up and then fist bumped Nicholas like they always did when they were in high school. “I got you, man. I’ll see what I can find out. Just don’t beat yourself up about it too much.”

“Yeah.” Nicholas sighed, and then Hunter left.

Nicholas sat there for another half an hour just thinking. Thinking about Emma, about Claire and his father, about Cinderella.

In the span of three weeks his world had gone from uncomplicated, to very fucking complicated.

IT
was Friday night and Emma was busy in the kitchen cooking, while whistling and singing along to Katy Perry’s
Fireworks
. Nicholas had phoned her earlier, asking again what she was wearing. She smiled throughout the entire conversation which lasted for at least an hour. He was stuck at the office with work, and now Emma was planning on a movie night with Lizzy after they had dinner.