Heir to Murder

“I will.”

This time when Ruby climbed into her car, she drove away, leaving Noah staring after her.

His life felt surreal. He’d been talking to his mother all afternoon, and she was a stranger.

He wished he could talk to Emmaline, the woman who’d raised him as her son. When the DNA results had been confirmed, she’d disappeared. How could she hide at a time like this? Noah had so many questions only she could answer.

But then she’d kept a stolen baby that belonged to her brother, hiding the secret for thirty-seven years. It would explain why she’d isolated him from the rest of her family for so long. There had to be a law against doing that. When she’d been found out, she probably ran, afraid of going to prison.

His mind was churning and he didn’t want to go home. He surveyed the scene below him. The bistro was perched on a hill overlooking the beautiful harbor town of San Diego, and Noah thought of Rachel.

She lived in the city, only a few short minutes away. After he’d kissed her that afternoon, Noah wondered if she’d want to see him again. She calmed his soul at the same time she stoked the flames of desire.

The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to see her. Perhaps she could help him make sense of his life. Even if she couldn’t, he wanted to explore where their relationship was going. One kiss wasn’t enough with Rachel.

Digging his cell phone out of his pocket, he entered her number and waited.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hi, Noah? Did you have a nice visit with Ruby?”

“I did.” He ran his fingers through his hair, his pulse pounding in his veins. He’d never asked Rachel out on a date, having felt he wasn’t in her social stratosphere. She might still consider him nothing more than the hired help and turn him down. But if he didn’t ask, he’d never know. “Look, I’m still in town. Would you like to have dinner with me?”

“As in a date?”

Noah drew in a deep breath and let it out. “Yes.”

She laughed. “I thought you’d never ask. I’d love to have dinner with you, but let me do the cooking. You can come to my place. I grill a mean steak.”

“I didn’t mean for you to have to cook.”

“I love to cook. So is it settled? You’re coming to my place.”

“When?”

“Two hours.”

“Good, I have a few errands to run while I’m in town.” His heart lighter than it had been in days, he smiled into the phone. “I’ll see you then.”

His world might have turned upside down, but the one person he knew he could count on and trust was Rachel.

Chapter 3

“Why didn’t you tell him over the phone?” Landry Adair asked.

Rachel glanced around her beautiful apartment, decorated with homey touches and cheerful artwork, unlike the estate she’d grown up in only a few miles away. The home her parents left her was large, sprawling, lavishly decorated and made her feel achingly lonely. She only lived there when she entertained others of the socially elite.

Any other time she stayed in her apartment in a quaint, older section of San Diego. The apartment was just the right size for a single woman.

Realizing that she was stalling, Rachel sighed.

“Like I said, I started to tell him while we were out riding, but...well I got sidetracked.” He’d kissed her and every thought of telling him that she’d been spying on him had flown out of her head. By the time she could think again, they were back at the barn and his mother was there. “And I refuse to tell him over the telephone. I’ll tell him tonight.”

“At least we made good progress on the plans for Elizabeth’s baby shower. Don’t forget, we need to get together soon with Georgia to finalize them. Why don’t you come out to the ranch later this evening?”

Rachel knew they needed to finish planning, but she had a different commitment for the evening. “Noah’s coming to my apartment tonight.”

“That’s interesting.” Landry’s bright blue eyes sparkled as she swept the long brown hair with the soft gold highlights back from her forehead. “How’d that come about?”

“He asked me out to dinner. I thought it would be better if we had dinner at my place.”

“I didn’t know you two were dating.”

“We weren’t. This is a first. I could have gone out to a restaurant with him, but just couldn’t. If he gets angry, and we’re here alone, it’s just me, not a roomful of strangers staring.”

Landry chuckled. “And if he walks out, you don’t have to worry about finding a ride home.”

“Something like that.” Rachel paced across the floor of her living room, her cell phone pressed to her ear. The sun shone bright through the ground-level windows of her town house apartment. The sky was crystal clear and the harbor, with the mix of motorboats and sailboats, couldn’t have been more beautiful. Still, those things didn’t hold her attention. All she could think about was the fact she had to tell Noah that she had been spying on him for Landry and her brothers.

Georgia Mason, Carson’s fiancée, had been the one to notice the similarity between her stepmother’s and Noah’s facial structures and cleft chins. Until she’d pointed it out, none of them had seen it. They knew Noah as their cousin. Landry, Whit and Carson had decided it would be best to keep an eye on him. If he was the long-lost son Reginald Adair had been searching for almost four decades, had he known and was he aware of the inheritance his father had left him? They wanted to be sure he wasn’t some gold digger looking for a way to claim money that didn’t belong to him.

When she’d hired Noah to give her riding lessons, Rachel didn’t know much about him. Spying on him seemed harmless and a way to help her friend and the family she cared so much about.

What she hadn’t counted on was falling in love with the kind and gentle man who knew his way around horses more than he did around humans. He was patient with the animals, and with her and all her questions. She hadn’t told him she already knew how to ride, pretending she’d only done so on the rare occasion and that she was nervous around the large animals.

They’d ride out for hours, several times a week, stopping to rest by the creek she’d found him skinny-dipping in earlier that day. God, she’d wanted to join him, to feel his naked body against hers.

With the whopping lie between them, she didn’t feel she had the right to slip into the water and seduce him. Hadn’t she already tricked him into revealing so much of his heart and soul to her?

His comment about not knowing who to trust had struck far too close to home.

Rachel couldn’t go another day without confessing. If he refused to see her again, it was the price she paid for not being up-front with him to begin with.

“Why do you have to tell him?” Landry asked.

“I’d rather he heard it from me than finding out from someone else.”

“Whit, Carson and I wouldn’t tell him.”

“Not intentionally.” Rachel couldn’t risk it. And she wouldn’t feel right being with him when a lie stood between them.

“Look, Rachel, since I was the one who roped you into spying on him, I should break it to him.”

“No. That would make it worse. I own up to my mistakes. The sooner the better.”

“If that’s the way you want it,” Landry conceded. “Just promise you’ll let me know how it goes.”

“I will.” Rachel ended the call and glanced at the clock, her heart ratcheting up a notch. One hour and thirty minutes before Noah arrived.

She hurried around the apartment, straightening bright yellow and red throw pillows, dusting surfaces of the rich mahogany antique curio cabinets and occasional tables. Some of them had come over from Europe with her great-grandmother. She’d found them hidden in the attic of her estate, collecting dust. They would never have matched the elegant, modern furnishings of the larger estate. But they were perfect for her little apartment. She’d pulled them out of the attic, lovingly repaired what was broken and moved them into her apartment, giving them the home they deserved. And she’d collected over the years. She liked that her furniture had seen many generations of use. With a final swipe of the dust cloth over her already immaculate living space, she admitted it was as good as it would get.

* * *

Later, with less than an hour to spare, she began preparation of their meal.

She knew enough about Noah to realize he wouldn’t be impressed with Cornish hens or a pilaf—he’d want a hearty supper fit for a man who worked outside all day long. Steak, baked potatoes and a fresh green salad would do the trick. Thankfully, she’d been to the grocer that morning with Noah in mind.

Pulling the ingredients from her refrigerator, she prepared a marinade in a rectangular dish and laid the steaks inside to soak. She covered the dish and left it on the counter to give the steaks time to warm up to room temperature for when Noah arrived. She’d fire up the grill on her balcony and have it hot and ready to go when Noah walked through the door.

Rachel loved to cook but had very few occasions to do it. She stayed busy with her social obligations, organizing charitable events and philanthropies. The money she’d inherited from her parents gave her a hefty cushion to live off of the rest of her life, if she chose not to work another day.

She’d gone to college and graduated with a degree in International Business with a minor in Marketing. It helped her run the charitable foundations her mother and father had started and set up to run in perpetuity.

As much as she enjoyed helping others, she’d love nothing better than to cook and care for one man. As soon as she’d started going to Noah for riding lessons, she’d begun to see that he was just the kind of man she wanted. The kind of man she could see spending the rest of her life with.

But was she the type of woman he could see himself spending the rest of his life with? For weeks, she’d basically lied to him.

Tonight, she’d tell him the truth. If he couldn’t forgive her or trust her after that, well then, that was the end of the time she’d spent with him. Sure, as Landry’s best friend, she’d see him occasionally, but the long days riding out over Adair Acres with Noah would stop.

She swallowed hard on the lump forming in her throat. She hoped and prayed it wouldn’t come to that. In the meantime, she would look her best to deliver her confession.

In her bathroom, she touched up the curls in her hair with a curling iron, applied a light dusting of blush to her cheeks to mask their paleness and added a little gloss to her lips.

Dressing for her confession was more difficult. What did one wear to a declaration of wrongdoing? She pulled a pretty yellow sundress out of the closet, held it up to her body and tossed it aside. Too cheerful.

A red dress was too flamboyant and jeans were too casual. She finally settled on a short black dress with thin straps. Though it could be construed as what she’d wear to her own funeral, it hugged her figure to perfection and made her feel a little more confident. She knew she looked smooth, sleek and pretty.

As she held the dress up to her body, a knock sounded on the door. She squealed and the hanger slipped from her fingers. “Just a minute!” she called out.

Grabbing the dress off the floor, she unzipped the back and stepped into the garment. Quickly, she slipped it up over her hips and the straps over her shoulders.

“I’m coming,” she said, hurrying toward the door as she zipped the dress as far up the back as she could, while running across the living room.

She had her hand on the doorknob, twisting it before she realized she hadn’t put on a pair of shoes or sandals. Too late to go back for shoes, she opened the door and her breath caught.

Noah’s broad shoulders filled the doorway. Wearing crisp blue jeans and a soft blue polo shirt that matched his eyes and complemented his sandy blond hair, he made her heart slam hard against her chest and then beat so fast she thought she might pass out. “I’m sorry, I was just getting dressed and I forgot shoes, and I haven’t started the grill...”

He stepped through the door and closed it behind him. “My fault. I finished my errands earlier than I expected. I could have waited at a park or stopped for coffee, but...I wanted to see you.” Already standing close to her, he reached out, cupped her cheek and gazed down into her eyes. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” She laid her hand against his and leaned into his palm. “I’m glad you came early.” And she was. The right clothes, food and shoes didn’t mean anything when he was standing in front of her, looking so handsome.

For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. He leaned forward, his head dropping low, his lips hovering over hers.

She held her breath, her chin tipping up. She could practically feel his lips on hers. Then the reason she’d invited him to her place popped into her head and she knew she couldn’t have that kiss without first revealing what she’d done. But before she could tell him her news, she decided to feed him first. Her tongue snaked out and wet her suddenly dry lips. “If you can wait thirty minutes, I’ll cook the steaks and potatoes.”

“Where’s your grill? I can get that started.”

Grills and steaks were the last things on her mind. She could barely think past his broad chest and the way he filled the room in which he stood. “On the balcony,” she managed to say, but she couldn’t budge. Her feet seemed stuck to the floor.

Noah chuckled. “I don’t know about you, but I have the uncontrollable urge to kiss you.”

“Same here,” she confessed. If only telling him she’d spied on him was easy. “Maybe we should get started cooking, or we won’t have anything to eat tonight.”

As soon as she stepped away from the hand on her face, she regretted moving at all. She liked how warm and work roughened his palm felt against her skin and wondered what it would feel like if he ran those hands all over her body. She’d gotten a small teaser that afternoon. It wasn’t enough. She wanted more.

Ready to retreat to the safe zone of her kitchen, she spun on her bare heels and would have walked away.

Noah’s hand closed on her shoulders. “Um, sweetheart, did you have a little trouble getting dressed?”

“What?” Hearing him call her sweetheart made her knees weak.

His fingers brushed the bare skin of her back. “Let me get that zipper for you.”

Once again, his rough fingers skimmed across her skin and a shiver of anticipation rippled through her.

“I find myself wanting to skip dinner altogether.” Rather than zip the dress up her back, his fingers hesitated.

Rachel closed her eyes, willing herself to control the raging desire rising up like a tsunami inside. “Me, too,” she said, all her self-coaching flying out the window with Noah’s fingers touching the middle of her naked back.

She leaned against his hand, filling her lungs with much-needed air and letting it out a little at a time, hoping to slow her racing heart.

“Is it wrong to go straight to dessert?” He whispered the words against the back of her neck, his warm breath stirring tendrils of her hair, causing her nerve endings to ignite.

“Who needs steak?” she said, turning in his arms, her determination to hold off until she spoke to him crumbling.

“I can wait to eat.”

Resting her hands on his chest, she gazed up into his eyes. “Why now?” she asked.

“Because I ate a late lunch, and I can’t think of anything else but kissing you.” He bent to brush his mouth across hers.

“No, I mean we’ve been seeing each other at the ranch for weeks. Why the sudden interest in me now?”

He shook his head, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Not sudden. I’ve always been interested. I just didn’t know if you returned the interest until today. I was taking it slow.”

She snorted. “Slow? You made turtles look speedy.” Her eyes narrowed. “And now?”

“And now my life has been turned upside down. The truth as I knew it is a lie, and I don’t know anyone anymore. You are the only constant in my life and I guess I was afraid if I didn’t do something soon, I’d lose you.”

“Oh, Noah, I’m not going anywhere. I was waiting for you to show interest in me.” She bit her bottom lip, knowing now was the time to tell him her part in the events that led up to his DNA test and the revelation that he was Reginald Adair’s son. “Noah, I need to tell you something—”

He didn’t give her the opportunity. He swept his mouth across hers and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue past her teeth.

Rachel melted into him, her arms circling the back of his neck. This was where she’d wanted to be. Forgotten were the marinating steaks and the potatoes waiting to be popped into the microwave.

Noah’s fingers slid down her back to where she’d half zipped her dress. Instead of sliding the zipper up, he dragged it downward and slipped the straps off her shoulders.

The dress dropped to the floor around her feet and she stood in only a pair of sexy black lace panties. Nothing else.

She dragged his shirt up out of the waistband of his jeans and over his head, tossing it to the floor. Next she unbuckled his belt and slid it through the loops. It joined the shirt. Then she loosened the top button on his fly.

Noah lifted her by the backs of her thighs and backed her against the wall. “If this is going too fast, say the word and I’ll stop.”

Too fast? He wasn’t moving fast enough. “Please, don’t stop.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and wove her fingers into his hair, bending to press her lips to his temple.

He captured one beaded nipple between his lips and sucked it into his mouth, tonguing it until it tightened into a bud.

Her heart racing, she arched her back and urged him to take more.

Holding her against him, he spun around and carried her to the middle of the living room and settled her on the Persian carpet in the middle. She’d never lain naked on the carpet and felt the deliciously soft texture against her skin.

The sun sinking low on the horizon spread a golden glow over Noah’s naked torso, casting him in bronze as he dropped over her, settling between her legs. A shadow moved over him and then disappeared as if something had briefly blocked the sun through the window. Perhaps a bird, a plane or a passing truck on the street outside.

Rachel had been so intent on drinking in his tapered muscles and gleaming chest she wouldn’t have noticed the shadow if it hadn’t blocked the golden glow.

Then he was kissing her again and she forgot who she was, that this was supposed to be a dinner date to confess her sins.

Noah caught her mouth in a long, lingering kiss. He scraped his mouth over her chin and down the length of her throat and over her collarbone, angling toward the swells of her breasts.

She rose up to meet him, her breasts beaded and already sensitive to his touch. He tongued one, rolling the nipple between his teeth, then performed the same ritual on the other. Moving downward, he blazed a path of kisses and nips over her belly and down to the apex of her thighs.

Her breathing grew more ragged the lower he swept.

Hooking his fingers into the elastic waistband of her panties, Noah dragged them down her legs and off before tossing them to a corner.

Rachel’s knees fell to the side and she raised her hips.

Noah parted her folds and touched her there with his tongue, tapping gently.

Like fireworks exploding in rapid succession, her nerves ignited and sent sparks shooting to the very outer edges of her skin. Her breath caught and she held it as his tongue swirled, flicked and dipped lower, until she catapulted over the edge of reason.

Noah was climbing up her body, his member nudging against her entrance, where he paused.

“Why are you stopping?” she cried, ready to take him inside.

His jaw tight, he gritted between clenched teeth, “Protection.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and removed his wallet, fumbling through. “Damn.”

“You don’t have any?”

“No.” He stared down at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “I don’t suppose you do?”

Rachel shook her head, her racing heart barely slowing at the possibility of calling a halt to what she craved so much.

Noah tossed his wallet to the side and bent to kiss her, then rolled to his side and lay on the floor beside her, draping an arm over his forehead. “I’ll come more prepared next time.”

Rachel turned onto her side and rested her cheek against his chest. “I could run to the drugstore,” she offered.

“We can wait.” He brushed his fingers over her nipple. “I can wait.”

“But what if I can’t?” She caught his hand and pressed his open palm to the full swell of that breast he’d teased.

He dragged in a deep breath and let it out. “There’s nothing I want more than to make love to you. But you invited me to dinner, not to take advantage of being alone with you in your apartment. And besides, we probably shouldn’t be half-naked in front of your open windows.” He winked. “What will the neighbors think?”

“To hell with the neighbors.” She pulled him closer to kiss his lips. “But I did invite you to dinner. The least I can do is feed you.”

Noah reached over her to the sofa, where a light throw blanket lay. He snagged it and handed it to her. “It’s getting dark outside and the lights on in here will make us even more easily visible to prying eyes.”

“Thanks.” Her cheeks burning, she wrapped the blanket around her while Noah zipped his jeans, tucking the evidence of his passion inside.

“I’ll be just a minute.” Rachel rose, grabbed her dress and panties and made a beeline for her bedroom, glancing at the windows as she did. It had gotten darker and there was a woman walking her dog beneath the streetlight. All she’d have to do was turn and she’d have gotten an eyeful.

Her cheeks burning even hotter, Rachel entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her before she dropped the blanket. Holy hell, she had just had the best foreplay of her life and would have gone all the way with Noah had either one of them had protection. And she still hadn’t accomplished what she’d intended to. She ducked into the bathroom to splash water over her heated face, wondering how she’d tell him now that they’d made love on her living room floor.

* * *

Noah gathered his shirt and slipped it over his shoulders. He moved around the town house as he threaded his belt through the loops on his jeans.

A soft brown leather sofa could have been considered masculine, but the bright pillows in orange, yellow, red and teal tones gave it a cheerful, more feminine appearance. The two overstuffed chairs on either side of the sofa used the same color palette as the pillows, tying the furniture together. The Persian carpet was a modern design made of high quality wool.

Oil paintings strategically placed along the walls could have been selected by an interior designer to complement the furnishings and accent tables. Everything was tasteful and the overall impression was one of light, broken up by rich colors and textures. It was a warm and inviting home and reflected its owner.

Noah wandered over to the floor-to-ceiling window and searched for the mechanism to close the curtains. When he couldn’t find a string or rod, he started to grab the edge of the curtains and drag it over. In the process, he noticed a button on the wall. He pressed it and the curtains started sliding slowly. As he waited for them to close all the way, he glanced out the window. A figure moved in the shadows, just out of reach of the solitary streetlight on the corner. He wouldn’t have been concerned if the figure had moved on as if walking home. But it remained just out of the light, standing still, not moving.

A ripple of awareness slid across Noah’s skin. Though it seemed ridiculous and paranoid, he felt as though the person outside was staring at him as he stared back. The curtain closed, shutting out the shadow and cocooning Noah and Rachel inside the town house.