Cat Schield - A Taste of Temptation

“Okay, there is something wrong.” Harper paused, knowing Scarlett deserved more. “But you aren’t right about how I’d go to Violet instead of you. If she was here, I’d have come to both of you with this.”

“Must be serious.” Scarlett’s lips curved into a wicked smile. “Do you need some advice about Ashton Croft? I heard he’s back in town.”

“Nothing like that.”

“I suggest you sleep with him.”

“What?” Harper cursed the sudden heat in her cheeks. “I’m not going to sleep with him. Our relationship is strictly professional.”

“You should reconsider that. I know you have a thing for him. And he looks like he’d be a riot in bed.”

Harper needed Scarlett to get off that particular subject. “My mother is being blackmailed.”

All mischief went out of Scarlett. She paled. “Blackmailed? Why?”

“I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”

“Does she know who is doing it?”

Harper shook her head. “It’s all so crazy. My mother. The perfect Penelope Fontaine. I can’t imagine her doing anything wrong much less anything scandalous enough to invite blackmail.”

“How did you find out?”

“She came here needing to borrow money.”

“How much?”

“Three hundred and fifty thousand.”

Scarlett gasped. “That’s a lot.”

“I keep wondering what she’s done. It must be something truly awful for them to be asking that much.”

“From what you’ve told me,” Scarlett began, “your mother isn’t great at considering the value of something before she spends. Is she sure what happened is worth that much money?”

“It’s hard to say with my mother. She’s so big on keeping her reputation unsullied, it might be something as simple as a bump and run.” But Harper couldn’t picture her mother having a minor accident much less fleeing the scene of one.

“Could she have cheated on her taxes?”

“Impossible. Grandfather handles all her finances.” Penelope’s lack of financial smarts was what had caused Grandfather to put her on an allowance and hire a money manager to pay the bills.

“I don’t suppose she wants to call the police.” Scarlett framed the question as if she already knew the answer.

“She won’t do that,” Harper said. “The blackmailer will make her secret public.”

“Do you need help coming up with the cash? I have some money set aside.”

Her sister’s offer came so fast Harper doubted Scarlett considered the magnitude of the gesture. She was humbled by her sister’s affection. “Thanks, but I didn’t come here for that.”

“Then why?”

“I thought talking with you would put me in a calmer frame of mind before I have dinner with my mother.”

“She’s here?”

“Showed up this afternoon out of the blue.”

Harper had never spoken directly about how she and Penelope got along, but both her sisters knew that Harper’s mother had left her daughter behind in New York City and moved to Florida. It wasn’t a stretch to deduce that things between mother and daughter weren’t good. But if anyone understood that family could produce the most complicated relationships, it would be Harper and Scarlett.

“Why don’t I talk with Logan,” Scarlett suggested. “Maybe there’s something he or Lucas can do.”

“I don’t know if anyone can help at this point.”

“Are you kidding? Logan and his brother are security experts. They should be able to figure out who’s blackmailing your mom without breaking a sweat. If not before the blackmail is paid, then I know they can track where the money goes.”

Harper was suddenly feeling a whole lot better. Impulsively, she hugged Scarlett. “I don’t know what I would do without you and Violet.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I wasn’t always sure you liked having us in your life.”

Scarlett’s admission twisted Harper’s stomach into knots of regret. “I’m sorry I’ve made you feel that way. In the beginning it wasn’t easy embracing you as sisters. I’d been alone my whole life and hadn’t exactly been smothered with love by my parents. I didn’t really understand what it meant to be family.”

“I hope that’s changed.”

“It has. You and Violet are the most important people in my life along with Grandfather.” Seeing the tears that filled Scarlett’s beautiful green eyes, Harper wished she’d made this confession long ago. “I’m sorry if I made it seem otherwise. I’ve been so focused on getting Fontaine Ciel built and running that I haven’t been a very good sister.”

Scarlett waved the apology away and dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. Delight filled her voice as she said, “You didn’t need to say anything. We knew how you felt.”

Harper made a resolution to be more open with her sisters going forward. It wouldn’t be easy. She’d spent her whole life bottling up her feelings. Her mother wasn’t demonstrative and her father’s rare appearances in her life hadn’t been filled with warm moments. In school she’d been a leader and her habit of ruling by persuasion and occasional ruthlessness hadn’t won her the love of the majority of her classmates. But it hadn’t mattered as long as they followed her. Or so she’d told herself.

“Let me call Logan and see what he suggests we do.”

“I’m sure he’s not going to want you to do anything,” Harper said with a faint smile.

“Since when has that stopped me?”

Scarlett had given her fiancé a lot to worry about after inheriting some files from Tiberius Stone, Violet’s surrogate father. The casino owner had been murdered by a local councilman who’d been embezzling campaign contributions. Tiberius had accumulated a storage unit full of people’s secrets including his brother-in-law, a man who’d stolen the identity of Preston Rhodes, a wealthy orphan from California. Violet had gone to Miami intent on bringing him to justice in order to help her husband take back his family’s company.

“It’s rolling to voice mail,” Scarlett said. After leaving Logan a brief summary of the situation, she hung up. “It won’t take him long to call me back. Do you want to wait?”

About to say yes, Harper suddenly remembered she still had Ashton’s go bag. “Can’t. I have to see a man about a bag.”

Scarlett cocked her head in puzzlement, but nodded. “As soon as I hear from Logan, I’ll call you. In the meantime, can you stall your mother?”

“I can try.”

Leaving Scarlett, Harper made her way back to the Fontaine Ciel’s executive floor. Mary had gone for the day, locking Harper’s office before she left. Harper half expected Ashton to have persuaded the personal assistant to give him his bag, but to her surprise, either Mary had resisted the celebrity chef’s charm or Ashton had stuck to his part of the bargain.

Either way, she grabbed the bag and shot a quick text to let him know the luggage would be waiting for him at Batouri. But when she got there, she was surprised to find Ashton sitting at the corner table where his bag had sat earlier.

* * *

When the door to the restaurant opened, Ashton was nursing a tumbler of ten-year-old Scotch. It was his third. The first two had gone down fast and smooth. He didn’t think he should continue at that pace or his dinner with Cole might not go the way Harper wanted.

That she spotted him so fast made him smile. She felt it, too. This irresistible pull between them. How had he ignored it until now? Oh, she was good at hiding it. And he hadn’t exactly given her any reason to feel more than irritation toward him. He wanted to strip her layers of professionalism away and get to the firecracker below. How hot would the fire burn? And for how long? With fireworks, the thrill was in those seconds of exhilarating danger. The breathtaking waterfall of light. The big boom that lingered in the chest even after the sound faded.