Page 23 of The Heartbreaker (Chandler Brothers 3)
She wanted to confide in him more than she wanted her next breath. Maybe even more than she wanted him to kiss her, and that was saying a lot. But the working part of her brain, small as it had to be right now, prevailed. “Do you really expect me to answer your questions while most of mine go unanswered?”
“Honey, I’m an open book.” He rose, spreading his hands before him in a gesture of giving.
One she didn’t buy, not for an instant. The man was as big an enigma as when she’d met him in the bar. Still, if he was offering answers, she wanted them. “Did you know I’d be in town, and if so, how?” Because she and her stepmother had carefully covered her tracks as best they could.
“I’m going to opt for honesty here.” His blue eyes twinkled with a hint of mirth, but mostly with caution.
Whatever his secret, he was wary of revealing it. Join the club, she thought. “Honesty would be nice.”
“I met your stepmother at your father’s press conference.”
“That’s why you were in Washington? To cover the story?”
He nodded.
She shouldn’t be surprised, nor should she be disappointed he wanted news coverage about her father. Possibly about her family as well. She could see the headlines now: SMALL TOWN JOURNALIST LEAPS TO NATIONAL PROMINENCE BY EXPOSING SENATOR CARLISLE’S DEEPEST SECRETS. Thanks but no thanks, she thought. She wasn’t about to contribute to Chase’s career coup.
“So then you came home.” She stretched her legs out, feeling the pull of muscle as she settled in for a continued series of questions. “Did you know I was in town?” She couldn’t imagine Madeline revealing such private, possibly dangerous information to a stranger, let alone a reporter.
He sat on the couch beside her chair, leaning close. So close she smelled the remnants of smoke mixed with the masculine after-shave she associated with Chase. It was a familiar, comforting scent in a time of complete chaos, and she found it difficult to maintain the distance she knew was necessary between them.
“I knew you were here. It seems that your stepmother and my sister-in-law Charlotte are good friends.”
She blinked, surprised at a family connection. “The Charlotte who owns the lingerie store here and in D.C.?”
He nodded. “She’s married to my brother Roman.”
“Good Lord, there’s another one of you?”
He chuckled, showing a flash of white teeth. “You got it, babe. Around here we’re known as ‘the Chandler boys.’ The three of us are grouped together. We always were.”
“Izzy mentioned you,” she recalled. “But you and I hadn’t exchanged last names, so I had no way of putting two and two together.” She felt the heat rise to her cheeks at the memory of how she’d come on to him in the bar. A stranger whom she’d let take her to bed. But he hadn’t felt like a stranger then, any more than he felt like one now.
Without warning, his hand came up to stroke her cheek. “Don’t go getting embarrassed on me. I have no regrets and I refuse to let you have any either.”
Soft yet callused, his fingertips caused an erotic tingling throughout her body and she felt the distinct puckering of her nipples beneath her shirt. “I can’t say I have any regrets either,” she admitted. Not even now, knowing who and what he was.
His reporter status hit her like a painful punch in the stomach. He might have saved her life, but he probably had an agenda. She forced herself to relax against the chair, sad at the reminder that he couldn’t be her Prince Charming, after all. “But even with no regrets, we have a lot more to deal with than a one-night stand that’s over.”
He flinched and now she had regrets. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. She only sought to put up a barrier that would keep her family safe.
She sighed and forced her mind to deal with the still-unanswered questions. “So you met my stepmother, and she told you … what?” Sloane asked, not convinced Madeline would set a reporter on her tail.
“She told me that you were dealing with some difficult issues, needed time alone, and came home to find your mother’s roots.” He spoke matter-of-factly, no emotion, no caring, the wall she’d erected firmly in place.
If her heart hurt a little, she reminded herself it was for the best. “In other words, she asked you to look out for me,” Sloane guessed. That would be a typical response for Madeline, who’d given in too easily to Sloane’s request to travel here alone, without protection. She’d been planning a counter mission of her own.
“In a nutshell, yes. And believe me, honey, once I put the pieces together of who you really were, it wasn’t a hardship to see you again.” Yet Chase didn’t even crack a smile. With the way she’d dismissed their one night, he obviously hated admitting he’d wanted to see her again. “But Madeline didn’t mention Samson at all,” he continued. “And considering his house blew up and you were almost in it, I have a lot more questions. Starting with, what’s your connection to Samson Humphrey?”
