Nowthatsurprised the young assistant. “Really? That’s good. I’m sorry I said anything.”
She turned to leave. Alicia wasn’t about to let her get the last word. “Is there something else you want to tell me, Ms. Clayborn?”
From where had she gained this gift of sweet-talking? No, notthatkind of sweet talking. Alicia wasn’t that blessed.I really am a Moreau. Thoroughly, unequivocally a Moreau. With a few carefully controlled words, she could make someone like herwife’s assistant slowly turn back around with the palest face since a man lived on the moon.
“I don’t know what I would tell you, ma’am.”
“Nothing to do with my wife, I’m sure.” Alicia had been waiting for this. Oh, she had no reason to believe that something had gone on between her wife and her assistant recently, but Alicia was quite familiar with Danica’s voracious sexual appetites by now. What was a woman to do when alone with a young, sweet thing and no others around?Don’t tell me I’m jealous. I’m not.
Sarah couldn’t look irater if Alicia told her she was as pretty as a pockmarked princess.
“There has never been anything between us. Ever.”
“Didn’t say there was.”
“You’ve changed.” That’s the last thing Ms. Clayborn said before leaving.
Alicia knew that. She knew she had changed considerably since meeting Danica, let alone since marrying her. But for Ms. Clayborn to throw a stinging remark like that at her? Alicia had to have stung her first. Well, not like Alicia wanted to think about it right now, anyway. What was that bullshit about being in the genes? That look on her face… that was pain all right. A pain that related to Alicia’s current plight.
Oh.
Oh.
When Danica came back into the bedroom, cleaned up, and no longer stinking of alcohol, Alicia was quick to ask an important question.
“Have you ever slept with Ms. Clayborn?”
“What?” Danica dropped a pair of silk pajama bottoms from her slippery fingers. “No!”
“You sure? Never been so drunk together that something may have happened when sharing a hotel apartment?”
“What the hell, Alicia? Have I held back telling you that I’ve slept with someone yet?”
“No, but you might think thatIthink Ms. Clayborn is a threat.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Danica took off her shirt. “I have no interest in her like that. I never have. Please. What is she telling you?”
“Nothing directly. Don’t worry about it. Forget I said anything. I’m sensitive right now.” That’s what Alicia said as she looked away and stared out the window darkened with night.If my wife wasn’t the one she was talking about…
That only left one other in the family. If Alicia had something in her hand, she would have broken it.
This family was in dire need of a fuckin’ overhaul.Now.
Chapter 18
“You can’t go in with me,” Alicia said to her assistant on Tuesday afternoon. “Members only, or something. If I need any notes, I’ll have to take my own.”
Abby looked around the foyer of the country club’s main hall. “Guess I’ll amuse myself at the bar, then.” She glanced at Dee. “What about her? They allow bodyguards?”
Alicia had already counted two other bodyguards hanging outside the conference room door. “She’ll get to make some new friends, looks like.”
“Joy,” Dee muttered, following Alicia to the other end of the hall. “These guys look like Green Berets. You know what that does to a seagirl like me?”
“Somehow, you’ll survive.”
“I’m only saying, if you walk out of your meeting and see a bloodbath, I didn’t start it.”
“But you finished it, right?”
