“I’ll send the car to get you. You will stay here.”
No. She couldn’t. The night before had been an aberration. She’d thought she’d made a change in who she was and wanted to stop running and hiding the way her father did—that she’d go for what she wanted and whom she wanted. But that decision had been made without enough thought. Her actions had been impulsive. The morning had brought clarity and resolve. She wouldn’t sleep with him again, wouldn’t open herself up to that emotional vulnerability. She had to stay in control…especially now. Now that someone was out to get her. And maybe someone who was linked to what had happened to her father.
Besides, she didn’t think she could focus if she were that close to Branden. To his body. His scent. The dazzle of his smile. The way he touched her face with his hand, and her heart with the way he looked at her, as if she were the only person in his universe. She’d succumb to temptation and end up back in his bed, enveloped by his heat and his essence.
Her insides quivered with want and need and desire to accept the offer to stay with him, but instead she forced herself to say, “No, thank you. No one has threatened me, and if you know something that I don’t, I wish you would share it with me.”
“That package is threat enough.”
“Maybe,” she conceded. “But it’s only been when I’ve been with you—at one of your homes—when I’ve been photographed. How are they taking those photos with all that supposed security?”
“I intend to find that out tonight. But listen to me, okay? I have something I need to tell you.”
A long pause followed his statement and she waited, dread filling her chest.
Finally, he spoke. “I know who your father was.”
Her heart pounded. She opened her mouth, then shut it, as his words permeated her mind, swirled around, then settled into clarity. There was silence on her end. What was she supposed to say to that? If he knew who her father was, did that mean…
“Carl Davies,” she whispered.
“He was my stepfather. And as far as I’m concerned, he was—and if he’s alive, still is—the scum of the earth.”
Oh, God. Oh, God. What was happening? She’d slept with Carl Davies’s stepson? “Why wouldn’t he be alive?” she asked. Not that he deserved to be.
“I just haven’t heard anything about him in a long time. A guy like Davies can make enemies as quickly as others make friends. He probably takes his life in his hands each time he steps out his door.”
“You think he’s the one taking photos of us and sending things to me, or that he’s having someone else do it?”
“I don’t know that, either. But as soon as I realized the connection between Davis and your father, I started looking into it.”
“How did you find out, about me and my father? I changed my name because of the scandal. Tried to give myself a fresh start.”
“I had you investigated,” he said, as if it were a normal, everyday occurrence.
“Excuse me? What makes you think that my past is any of your business at all?” Her words weren’t overly heated, though. She’d done her own brand of investigation on him. She just hadn’t hired someone else to do the legwork.
“Cara, I investigate all my staff. And you’re my employee…”
She sucked in a breath. “Suddenly that’s all I am? Last night you were very clear that you wanted to be more than my boss.”
“And today you objected to that. You can’t have it both ways,” he said calmly.
She hated it when he was right. This man was pure exasperation. “Well, whatever we are, that just feels like such a violation. But if you had me investigated, you know my father was Hank Finch. He was a good man.”
“I’m confident he was. Davies is not. Please stay at my place until we get this all ironed out, Cara. I’ll stay out at the mansion if you prefer.”
“You can’t think I’m in any kind of danger from your former stepfather,” she said dryly. “I mean, the guy ruined my father, but what he did to my dad was financial, not physical. My father’s life was never in any danger. So don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?”
“Cara, I don’t know what’s happening. But someone is harassing you, and I won’t stand for it. Harassment is personal—and when things get personal, they can quickly