To his credit, he didn’t miss a beat. “Okay, three-way.”
Debi greeted them at the door. “Just tell me this. Why can’t I have a key? Some nights I want to stay late, and I see no reason why I can’t be treated like an adult. I could lock up.”
Alarm bells went off in Peyton’s head. “You want to stay late? Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“To get work done.”
“What work?”
“You know . . . the work.”
Christopher and Lucy were heading out, but Christopher stopped. “No key. Go home now, Debi.”
Debi slung her thirty-pound purse over her shoulder, nearly knocking Peyton down had she not ducked, and marched out in a huff.
Lucy was the only one who felt a little guilty. “I think she’s really trying now. She’s coming in earlier and staying later.”
“And exactly what does she do when she comes in early and stays late? Does anyone know?” Peyton asked. “It scares me to think she’s in here alone. The damage she could do . . .”
“She’s not getting a key,” Christopher repeated. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she answered. “I’ll be full force tomorrow. We just stopped in to pick up a package for Finn.”
“It’s in the conference room.”
While Finn went to collect the package, Peyton asked her sister if she’d talked to Ivy lately.
“I talked to her last night. I don’t want her to feel that we’re excluding her from making decisions, so I run things by her, but she’s so swamped right now, she doesn’t have time to worry about Bishop’s Cove. I didn’t tell her your car blew up. She’d just worry, and it’s all over now.”
It’s all over? What world was Lucy living in? Until Drew and his sidekick were locked up, nothing was over.
“How come you’re all dressed up?” Peyton asked, for she’d finally noticed the new wrap dress Lucy was wearing. It was several shades of blue that made her eyes all the more brilliant. She looked lovely. Then Peyton noticed Lucy was holding Christopher’s hand.
“Christopher and I are going into Port James for dinner,” Lucy said with a slight blush. “He needed a night away from here, and so do I.”
“Has Mimi gone home?”
“She had to drive back to the accounting firm to get some kind of software,” Lucy explained.
Finn was back with the package in hand, so they all walked out together. Peyton waited until they were back home to ask him what he was going to cook for their dinner. His track record was abysmal. If history was an indicator, she had a feeling she’d be going to bed hungry.
“I know you told Lars you were taking care of dinner, but I could cook tonight. Something light,” she offered.
“No, I’ve got it covered,” he insisted.
“What are we having?”
“It’s a surprise.”
At seven o’clock there was a knock on the door, and Peyton opened it to find a waiter from Leonard’s standing there with a large tray. Finn took it from him, set it on the table, and lifted the silver domes off the plates. Underneath were fabulous steak dinners. Peyton didn’t know how hungry she was until she took her first bite. The steaks were grilled to perfection and after eating every last morsel, she complimented Finn on his extraordinary culinary skills and thanked him for the delicious surprise.
“That’s not the only surprise,” he said. “I have some after-dinner entertainment for you.”
“What is it?” she asked.
He went to the island and opened the package he’d picked up at the office. “It’s a DVD of Randolph’s announcement in Dalton. Hutton burned a couple of discs, thinking you might want to keep one to remind yourself what a good thing you did. Would you like to see it?”
“I’d love to watch it.”
Finn took her hand and led her to the sofa. After slipping the disc into the player, he settled down next to her.
The murmur of the crowd as the employees filed into the auditorium sounded like bees buzzing. One camera focused on the stage. Another camera scanned the audience. Peyton saw Bridget push her way to the front row. She was wearing ridiculously high heels. The side door opened, and Drew and Eileen stepped into the spotlight. The sight of him made Peyton’s skin crawl. She gripped her hands together as she watched him.
Finn must have felt the tension in her body because he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.
“Look how he’s trying to work the crowd,” Finn said.
Peyton leaned back against him and didn’t say another word until Randolph made his announcement. She watched Drew’s face. It was frozen in the most benign mask, and she could only imagine what was underneath. His eyes widened a fraction the second he heard her voice over the speakers, but as fast as a blink, he was looking bored again.
“He sees the security guards coming,” Finn said.
They both watched Drew shrug off his wife’s clutching hand and stand. He made a show of adjusting his tie, then turned and strode off the stage.
“Did you see that?” Finn asked.
“See what?”
He reached for the remote and backed up the video. “Watch closely and tell me what you see when Drew gets up and walks off the stage.”
“I don’t see anything,” Peyton said.
“Watch his head,” Finn told her as he went back a few seconds.
Peyton looked more closely. “He’s looking at someone and nodding.”
Finn played it one more time. “He’s not just nodding, he’s giving a signal.”
“You’re right,” Peyton said, moving closer to the screen. “It’s Bridget.”
As the video continued to play, they could see the crowd become still, listening to the rest of the recording. Some people looked at those sitting on either side of them and shook their heads in disbelief, but no one noticed Bridget slipping out the side door.
“I’ll bet she chased after Drew,” Peyton said.
“No, she went to his office. Erik had posted a security guard at the door so that Drew couldn’t take anything. The guard told us a woman came to him crying, and when he wouldn’t let her in the office, she got really upset. He said he couldn’t imagine any woman caring that much about the bastard.”
“The woman was Bridget,” Peyton concluded.
“Yes,” Finn said.
“What was the signal Drew was giving her? What do you think she wanted from his office?”
“Hutton watched them pack up every single item and cart it off. If it wasn’t nailed to the floor, it went into boxes and out the door. They’ve got a list of everything they boxed up. I looked it over before I left Dalton, and I don’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary. Maybe I’ll have Hutton e-mail it to me and take another look. There might be something there.”
“Like a rifle?” she teased.
“Yeah, like a rifle.”
“Can’t Drew demand his things back?”
“He has demanded them back. He’s not getting them, though, not for a while. Randolph Swift is holding on to them.”
Peyton watched Finn as he became very quiet, mulling over what he had just discovered. His brow creased in lines of concentration. Even as he was lost in thought, he didn’t stop touching her. At first he had his arm around her shoulder rubbing her arm, and then his other hand began to slowly move up and down her thigh. He didn’t realize what he was doing until he looked over at her. He kissed the sensitive spot just below her ear and his warm breath tickled her skin giving her goose bumps. She closed her eyes and with a soft moan she leaned into him and turned her face to his.
Finn wasn’t tentative. He kissed her with such raw passion, letting her know that she belonged to him, only him. It was only after he’d ended the kiss that she came to her senses. “No, we aren’t doing this again.”
Standing, she wagged her finger at him. “We want different things, remember? You don’t ever want to get married or have children,” she reminded. “I do. So, please, leave me alone.”
Time to give herself another talking-to, she told herself, and she rushed to her bedroom and closed the door. She knew she kept giving Finn mixed signals. One minute she was telling him not to touch her, and the next she was throwing herself into his arms. No wonder he was confused. He was confused, wasn’t he? She supposed she’d have to ask him before apologizing. Once she explained, there wouldn’t be any more mixed signals.
Finn called to her. “Peyton, get your suit on. We’re going swimming. I need to think.”
Even though her bedroom door was closed Finn could hear her groan. Grinning, he went into his bedroom to find his swim trunks.
Peyton was in a quandary. Should she go with him or not? Seeing him nearly na*ed again was definitely not a good idea. But then, what harm could there be in a little exercise? Wearing the string bikini was out of the question. She wanted to discourage him, not encourage him, so, after weighing her choices for several minutes, she put on her old, reliable but boring, pink two-piece suit, grabbed her robe, and met him at the door.
He pointedly glanced at his watch, impatient.
“Oh, don’t give me that look. I didn’t take all that long,” she said.
“Twenty minutes to put on a damn suit?”
She heard about the importance of being punctual all the way over to the hotel. By the time he unlocked the door to the pool, he had wound down. She hadn’t said a word, just nodded every once in a while to encourage him to continue, and she realized once again how much she was like her mother. Her father liked to occasionally go on a rant about something or other inconsequential, and her mother would seem to be concentrating on his every word, but she really wasn’t. She was usually thinking about something she needed to get done.
Content to sit on the side of the pool while Finn did laps, Peyton thought about her parents and came to the conclusion that they had a good marriage. Odd, but she’d never really given it much thought until now.
She watched as Finn glided back and forth, back and forth. She knew he found peace when he was in the water. His mind cleared and he could work out problems as soon as he fell into the rhythm of his strokes. Whatever was bothering him tonight must be very complicated, she thought, because he had done countless laps without a break.
She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there with her legs dangling in the pool, thinking about life in general and Finn in particular, when he suddenly rose out of the water in front of her. Neither one of them said a word as he stared into her eyes.
“I love you, Peyton.”
He put his hands on the lip of the pool, lifted up, and kissed her, then dropped under the water and went back for another lap.
Peyton couldn’t move. She tried to open her mouth to speak but nothing came out. What had just happened? Did he say what she thought he said? No, her ears were playing tricks on her. She was mistaken.
The next time he surfaced in front of her, he said it again. “I love you.”
She slipped into the water and had every intention of letting him wait for her while she did a lap, but she didn’t get far. He came up underneath her and, before she realized what he was doing, he turned on his back and she was stretched out on top of him. How were they staying afloat? She decided she would let him worry about keeping them above water. Stacking her hands, she rested her chin on his chest. The warmth in his eyes sent shivers along her spine, and she whispered, “I love you, too. I’ve loved you for a very long time.”
He wrapped his arms around her and they sank beneath the water. He kissed her under water and again when they surfaced.
“Marry me.” It wasn’t a question but a demand.
“Why?” she asked. Pulling away from him she climbed out of the pool and reached for her robe.
Finn didn’t push for an immediate answer. He knew his proposal had shocked her and he owed her an explanation, but he decided he would wait until they were in bed before telling her what was in his heart. Maybe by then he would find the right words to convince her.
Their walk back to the condominium was silent until she glanced up at him and said, “You know what they say. Once burned, twice shy.”
“No one says that,” he replied.
Peyton knew he didn’t understand how scared she was. Finn didn’t believe in marriage, so why was he asking her to marry him? What changed his mind? She was determined to find out before she gave him her answer.
After a shower, she put on her nightgown and got into bed. Then she patiently waited for Finn. The room was dark except for a dim light from down the hall. She had left the door wide open, and she could hear him on the phone. He was still talking as he walked in and sat down beside her. She could tell the phone call frustrated him, but she didn’t ask him who was on the line or what the conversation was about.
Finn turned to her with every intention of explaining, but she looked so provocative, he changed his mind. He had her flat on her back in a second and was settled between her thighs. Now that she was where he wanted her, he calmed down. He kissed the pulse beating wildly at the base of her neck, then moved up and tugged on her earlobe. Her soft moan told him she liked that.
“I want you,” he whispered. “I always want you.”
He showed her how much he loved her as he worked his way down her body. Frantic to have her, he didn’t remember removing his clothes or hers. The feel of her na*ed body pressed against his was exquisite, and she was every bit as aggressive as he was. Their lovemaking was uninhibited. He brought her to a cl**ax twice before he allowed his own, and it was glorious.
Resting her head on his shoulder, Peyton barely had the energy to move. The scent of their lovemaking surrounded them, and she was blissfully content.
“Peyton?” Finn said softly.
“Hmm?” she purred.
He gently stroked her hair with his fingertips. “There are things about my life you should understand.”
She raised up on her elbow so she could look at him.
“I’ve seen some pretty awful things,” he continued. “There’s real evil in the world, and when you come face-to-face with it, it sticks in your head. You can’t get away from it. Even when you’re asleep.”
In the shadows she could see him staring at the ceiling as though envisioning some horrific scene, and she wondered what horrible things were lodged in his memory.
“As hard as some of those situations have been, I’ve only been scared . . . really scared . . . twice in my life,” he said. “I’ve been in knife fights, gunfights, brawls. I was never scared then. The adrenaline would be there, but I was doing my job. The first time was when I was fourteen and looked out my window and saw you go under the water. I almost froze, I was so scared. To this day I haven’t forgotten that feeling.”