Beau bit his cheek. “Sure.”
They’d danced, his hands on her hips to keep her from straddling his leg, and he’d left feeling as though he’d escaped but left something behind. Wondering if the coast was clear, he poked his head out of the door. Drusilla was at the receptionist desk, her back to him.
Daphne caught his eye as he pressed his finger to his lips.
“Here’s your latte.” Daphne tipped the cup and splashed the caramel liquid down Drusilla’s skintight dress, making the whole thing look like an accident.
“You wretch!” Drusilla hissed.
Beau ducked down the hallway until he found a cubicle that had Cindy’s name on the brass plaque on the outside wall—if you could call these half-pint gray things walls.
Cindy may not have been there in person, but this space felt like her. It smelled like her too—a hint of citrus. He sat in her chair and opened the top drawer. Smiling up at him, Robert Knight had his arm around Cindy’s shoulders. She was so beautiful. Her hair was shorter back then, and it had highlights.
Why hadn’t she called him? He’d sent the cake—just like Tomás instructed. And he’d written that note—put his heart right there on the page.
“As I told you, Mr. Hall,” Patricia’s voice floated out the open office door. Beau ducked. He hadn’t noticed anyone in the office when he walked in, but his mind was on Cindy—always Cindy.
Patricia continued, “Cindy doesn’t have any interest in Knight Studios. I’ve kept an office for her, hoping she’d want something of the company her father built.” She sniffed. “But she washed her hands of it the day he died.”
Beau’s fingernails bit into his palms.
Tomás came into the cubicle and pulled up short. “What—?”
Beau cut him off with a quick slash of his hand. He pointed to the open office. Tomás ducked below the short walls.
“If that’s true,” replied a deep voice, “then at noon, everything in the trust will transfer to you.”
Tomás grabbed the front of Beau’s shirt and got right in his face. “Go get her—now! I’ll make sure the lawyer doesn’t leave.”
Beau nodded. He snuck around the corner and headed for the front door.
His exit wasn’t unnoticed. “Beau.” Drusilla stepped out in front of him. She had changed into a purple dress. “We’re just about to start back up.”
Beau shook off her hands. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Do you want more tea? I’ve had the break room stocked with lemon and chamomile.”
Her arms really were like tentacles. He put his hands on her shoulders and struggled to break free as she sucked herself against him. Shuddering, he turned his head.
The bright Atlanta sun filled the room as Cindy burst through the front doors. She took one look at Beau and Drusilla a tangle of arms and one of Drusilla’s legs, flipped on her heel, and disappeared in a blur of light. Her ashen face told him to get out there.
He grabbed Drusilla by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall.
“Oh, Beau!” She gasped, pushing her chest out.
His stomach roiled. “I will never settle for you or any woman like you ever again.”
Her mouth dropped open, her eyes going hard. She began to shake and he released her quickly.
Slamming through the doors, he made it to the parking lot just as Cindy’s car stopped to wait for a break in traffic. He sprinted across the lot, throwing himself on the back window like his stuntman. His leg hit the trunk with a loud BAM! A sharp pain throbbed, like her car had given him the ultimate dead leg. Instead of sticking to the window, his momentum carried him over part of the car roof and off the side. He yelled out, the asphalt coming up fast. He stuck his hands out to break his fall and lost a palm-full of skin. His left wrist groaned. He cursed and rolled, cursed and rolled, cursed … and flopped to a stop.
Chapter 13
Cindy stared in her rearview mirror. Was thatBeau? Throwing the car into park, she scrambled out of her seatbelt, out of her car, and around to the other side.
“Beau?” she asked the crumpled heap by her back tire. Bending down, she rolled him over. He cursed, holding his hands close to his chest. “What are you doin’?” she asked.
“Learning why my stuntman makes so much money.” He grimaced.
