No Stranger To Scandal

“Thanks for your time,” he said, his voice almost a growl. “I’ll be in touch when I need to speak with you again.”

She tucked her notebook and pen into her bag and stood. “Mr. Black, I understand that you’re just doing your job. But I hope you haven’t already discounted the possibility that Graham Boyle might be innocent.”

Hayden pushed to his feet and rested his hands low on his hips. “If the evidence shows he’s innocent, Ms. Royall, that’s what I’ll report back to Congress.”

But his gut instinct never lead him astray, and his gut told him that Lucy Royall’s stepfather was as guilty as they came. It was up to him to prove it.

He held the door open for her then watched her walk down the hall, her hips subtly swaying. Beauty and a glorious accent had covered surprising strength and determination in his interviewee—and had caught him off guard.

Luckily, he was even more determined.

Next time he met Lucy Royall, he’d be ready for her.

Two

Lucy quietly slipped through the door to her stepfather’s office—his secretary had told her he was on the phone but to go through anyway. Graham nodded when he saw her, then barked more orders at whoever was on the other end of the line.

Used to being in the background while he worked, Lucy took the chance to look through his top-floor window at the panoramic view of D.C. She loved this city. She’d moved here from Charlotte, North Carolina, when she was twelve and her mother had married Graham. The town—and Graham—had been good to her.

From a basket under the desk, Rosebud, his bulldog, lifted her head and, recognizing Lucy, lumbered out to greet her. Lucy dropped her bag beside the chair and crouched down to rub the dog’s velvety, wrinkled face.

“How’s it going, Rosie?” she whispered and was rewarded with a wide doggie smile, complete with a pink tongue almost curled back on itself.

With a final terse comment, Graham ended the call and crossed the room.

“Lucy!” he boomed and held out his arms. She stood and leaned into his bear hug, letting go of all her worries for a few precious seconds. He was the one person she could always count on. Her only family.

“Hang on,” he said, pulling back. “I’ve got something here for you.”

She couldn’t help the smile at the familiar words. “You didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did.” And she knew he was right—it was the way he showed love. In the same way he was her only family, she was all Graham had. They made an odd couple in some ways, but their unusual little family worked for them.

He opened a door in the sleek cabinets that lined one wall and pulled out a deep blue velvet box. He handed it to her, his grin proud. She opened the lid and took out an exquisite crystal bulldog the size of her palm.

“It’s Rosebud.” At the sound of her name, the real Rosebud thumped her curly tail on the carpet. “Thank you,” Lucy said and kissed Graham’s cheek.

Graham smiled with his heart in his eyes, as he always did in these moments, then he cleared his throat and strode back to his desk. He’d never been particularly comfortable with emotions, so the moments, although heartfelt, were always short. “Tell me how the interview with Black went.”

She sank into an upholstered armchair in front of Graham’s heavy desk. “Shorter than I expected.” She’d puzzled over that on the cab ride back. “He only asked a few questions, really.”

He flicked his wrist dismissively. “That means he was just taking your temperature. There will be more.”

“He said he’d be in touch when he needed to speak to me again.” Remembering Hayden’s words—and his deep voice saying them—sent a shiver across her skin. If she wasn’t careful, she’d develop a crush on the investigator, which would be bad on more levels than she could count. But, oh, that man had been delicious. So tall and broad, with a dark, brooding demeanor to accompany his looks. Even his hands had fascinated her—he’d flicked his pen over and under his fingers as he’d considered a point and she’d been mesmerized. They were long fingers with blunt ends, dexterous, lightly tanned. Instead of paying attention to the questions, for one sublime, stolen moment she had imagined his palm cupping the side of her face, those fingers stroking her cheek.

Graham leaned back in his chair and laced his own fingers behind his head, bringing her attention back to the present. And to the gravity of the issue on the table.

“Our biggest risk here,” he said, eyes narrowed and aimed at a point on the wall, “is that someone with an ax to grind will falsify testimony. Feed Black lies and say they saw something.” He glanced back to her. “Did you get a sense from him that he’s got anything like that?”

“He played his cards close to his chest. But one thing was obvious,” she said gently, as if she could soften the blow. “He thinks you’re guilty.”

Graham swore under his breath. “I refuse to sit back and wait for an investigator who’s not objective to ‘find’ evidence to support his theory. We need to expose Black before he does too much damage.”

She tilted her head to the side. “What do you have in mind?”

“I want you to start your own investigation,” he said in his trademark firecracker rhythm. “I’m taking you off all other duties. You’ll run this on your own. No word to anyone else. You’re the only one I can trust one hundred percent not to stab me in the back for the notoriety, or whatever-the-hell reason people frame other people for.”

None of it was a question, but he was waiting for her response. She reached over and clasped one of his cold hands between hers. “I’ll start right away.”

“You’re a good girl.” He patted her hands, then released them. “Congress will have vetted him for the job, dug into his past, but we’re better. Find the skeletons in his closet and bring them out to play. We’ll air an exposé as soon as you have enough.”

Her insides fluttered. This wasn’t a style of journalism that she liked or particularly wanted to be involved in. And Hayden Black being the target made her even less comfortable. She shifted in her chair. The discomfort could have been a result of the stirrings of attraction, but she still didn’t like the idea of targeting him.

Then she remembered his closed-off expression when she’d left his suite less than an hour ago—he was going after Graham, already convinced of his guilt. Doing an exposé might leave a bad taste in her mouth, but Hayden Black’s own actions made it necessary. Besides, if he had no skeletons hidden away, there’d be nothing to find.

She nodded, decision made. “You can’t have me on air with this. Everyone knows I’m your stepdaughter. We’ll need someone with a good reputation and a bit more distance from you.”

“We’ll worry about that when we have the content ready to go. You do the research, get the story, and I’ll bring someone in to host then.”

Her mind clicked over into journalist mode and she took out a notebook from her hold-all bag. “Who’s our source at the Sterling Hotel?”

Graham picked up the phone on his desk, dialed, barked an order, then after he had his information, disconnected and looked at Lucy again. “Concierge named Jerry Freethy.”

“Okay.” She dropped the notebook back in her bag and stood. “I’ll keep you up to date.” She blew Rosebud an air kiss and headed for the door.

“Lucy,” Graham said gruffly, and she turned. “Thank you.”

Emotion clogged her throat but she found her voice. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got your back, Graham.”

The next day, at half past one, Lucy saw her target. The concierge had told her Hayden Black liked to take a walk in the park across from the Sterling Hotel with his son on his lunch break, but that the time of the break varied. So Lucy and Rosebud had been wandering the park since just after eleven. Rosebud was panting from the exertion, but thoroughly enjoying her day out meeting random people who stopped to pat her.

Hayden was striding along a paved path about twenty feet away, talking to an infant he carried in one arm, holding a brown paper bag in the other. The sight of him trapped her breath in her lungs. Wide, strong shoulders that tapered to narrow hips. Long legs that walked with confidence and purpose. The masculine grace in the way he held his son.

She swallowed hard. “Come on, Rosie, I have a little boy I want you to meet.” Rosebud looked up, her curled tongue poking out as she smiled.

Lucy had spent the afternoon and evening before gathering as much information as she could on Hayden Black. There wasn’t a whole lot available on the web, but then, he was a professional investigator, so it made sense that he protected his own information. She’d found New York newspaper articles about his wife’s death a few months earlier in a car crash, leaving Hayden the single father of a nine-month-old baby, Joshua, who would now be one year old. And currently wearing denim overalls, a bright-blue hat and a cheeky grin.

As they came closer, Lucy gazed at the trees, their branches heavy with spring flowers, but kept man and child in her peripheral vision. Hayden had his head bent, talking to his son, not paying a lot of attention to where they were, the people rollerblading past or the joggers making their way along the wide path. The hitch in her lungs had smoothed out and now her breaths were coming a little too fast for comfort, which she told herself was excitement about the story, but she suspected had more to do with seeing Hayden Black again.

When they were only ten feet apart, she heard a squeal, followed by, “Goggie!” Lucy finally glanced up to see Hayden had stopped midstep, and probably midsentence, given the way his mouth was open, as if forming a word he’d since forgotten.

She’d never paid much attention to men’s mouths—shoulders and biceps had usually caught her attention first—but Hayden’s mouth was a thing of beauty. Sensual lips that she could almost feel tracing a path along the side of her neck. Her skin heated and prickled.

Before becoming too carried away, she found a smile and walked Rosie over. A gentle breeze blew her hair around her face, and she tucked it behind her ears as she stopped in front of father and son.

“Ms. Royall,” he said. His voice was pleasant, probably for his son’s benefit, but his face told a different story—eyebrows slashed down, jaw tight. He was annoyed at running into her. Just because he didn’t want to mix work and family? Or was there something more …?

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” she said, leaning down to give Rosie a scratch behind the ears. “Little birds in the trees, the flowers are out, the weather’s warm—everything is just so perfect. Rosebud and I love April.”

A speculative gleam appeared in Hayden’s eye. He’d know everything there was to know about Graham from his shoe size to what he liked for breakfast, so knowing Rosie belonged to one of the targets of his investigation was guaranteed. And he’d just realized he could use Rosie to engage Lucy in conversation about Graham, and hope the casual setting caused her to slip up. Precisely what she was doing to him.

Although that didn’t explain why he’d been annoyed when he first saw her—he was renowned for his investigative acumen, so that should have been the first thing that occurred to him. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted his time with his son to be interrupted. Entirely possible, but it had felt like more than that….

Perhaps he disliked her personally and was annoyed at running into her away from work? Her belly hollowed out before she gave herself a mental shake. Just because her hormones went haywire when she saw him didn’t mean the chemistry was mutual. Besides, the man had lost his wife only a few months ago.

She should be pleased that at least one of them wouldn’t be carried away by flights of fancy. Getting involved with the man she was investigating, and worse, who was investigating ANS for Congress, would be unthinkable.

“Goggie!” Josh squealed again, apparently impatient to be getting to the dog-patting action.

Hayden looked from Rosie to her. “Is it okay for Josh to pet her?”

“Sure,” she said, laying on her Southern accent thick and smiling innocently. “She’s as gentle as a lamb.”

Hayden crouched down beside her and supported Josh as he found his feet and reached out to touch Rosie’s ear.

“Her name’s Rosebud,” Lucy said to the toddler.

As they watched Josh and Rosie interact, Hayden asked, “How long have you had her?”

“She’s Graham’s dog,” she replied, as if she hadn’t worked out that he’d know that. “He’s had her for six years. Since she was a puppy.”

Hayden leaned forward and joined Josh in petting her. “Nice dog.”

His shoulder was only a couple of inches from hers—if she moved a little she’d bump against him. A mischievous impulse urged her to lean into him, knowing he’d be solid and warm, and it took all her willpower to resist. The scent of clean, masculine skin surrounded her, made everything else fade into the background, made a hum resound through her bloodstream.

Rosie rolled over onto her back, producing her tummy for rubs with no shame at her brazen request for attention. Lucy blinked down at the dog, fully aware she walked a knife’s edge of being just as obvious. She squared her shoulders. Time to move away from temptation and remember she was a journalist working on a story.

Hayden rubbed the dog, barely able to concentrate on anything but Lucy at his side. Within touching distance. If he wanted to, he could reach out a hand and trail it down her arm. Or wrap his fingers under her curtain of silky blond hair and discover if the skin on her neck was as soft as it appeared. His heart thudded like a bass drum. The jolt of attraction when he’d first seen her in the park had thrown him off balance and part of him was still scrambling to find his equilibrium.

Lucy stood, breaking the spell. “I was just about to give Rosebud a drink.” She took out a bottle of water and a rolled-up waterproof canvas bowl from her bag. “Would Josh like to help?”

Hayden looked down at his son and, for the briefest of moments, was at a loss, uncertain what Josh would or wouldn’t like. His gut twisted tight. He hated not instinctively knowing these things. Then he gave himself a mental shake. Of course Josh would like to help—it was a dog and water, both of which spelled fun.

“He’d love to,” he finally said.

Lucy gave Josh the bottle of water and explained how to fill the canvas bowl in terms a one-year-old could understand. Josh sloshed more water on the ground and on Lucy than in the bowl, but no one seemed to mind, and soon the dog was enthusiastically drinking and Josh was trying to catch her wagging, curly tail. Hayden’s heart expanded to see his son smiling and so obviously filled with joy.

Lucy screwed the top back on the water and slid it into the same large red bag she’d had yesterday at the interview. Seemed she had all contingencies covered inside that bag—yesterday a muffin, notebook and pen; today a water bottle and a dog bowl. He wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled out a picnic blanket and folding chairs next.

He sat back on his haunches. “I read somewhere that Graham had a dog that he takes to work each day,” he said conversationally.

“This is her.” She didn’t look up, but gave Rosebud an extra rub on the neck.

“So you spend a bit of time in Graham’s office to see Rosebud?”

She smiled, obviously aware of where his questions were leading. The dog finished her drink and Josh, looking for the next interesting adventure, held his arms out to Lucy. Without hesitation, she bundled him in.

“How’s it going, Josh?” she said, charming his son, then looked at Hayden over his son’s head and said, “I see Graham and Rosie a few times a week.”

Instead of following the line of questioning he’d planned in his head, Hayden couldn’t draw his eyes from the easy way Lucy interacted with his little boy. Josh had only just met her, but was already happy in her arms. And Lucy was relaxed, as if she knew just what to do with a toddler. Lord above, Hayden wished he knew what to do with one. Sure, he had the basics covered, like sleeping, bathing and feeding, but he was still getting used to being the primary caregiver to a child, and most of the time he felt he was swimming out of his depth.

Why did it seem so natural for her? From his research, he knew she had no siblings, no young cousins around, yet she seemed supremely confident where he often felt awkward and unsure. Maybe because he wanted to be a good father so damn much and Lucy had nothing riding on it at all.

He blew out a slow breath and stood—he was losing his focus with Lucy Royall again. This time he’d almost recovered from the force of her allure and managed to steer the conversation toward Graham Boyle, but now he’d become distracted again by her natural way with his son. He rubbed his fingers over his eyes and refocused on his new plan—build rapport and see what else he could discover in the casual setting.

“We’re walking this way, how about you?” he said, sinking a hand into his pocket. “Josh and I have just come out for our lunch break.”

Lucy beamed over at him. “We’d love to join you for a walk, wouldn’t we, Rosie?”

Hayden hoisted Josh up onto his shoulder, but the boy leaned toward Lucy with his arms out. Hayden arched an eyebrow. Josh didn’t normally go to new people this easily—why did he have to overcome his trust issues with someone Hayden was investigating?

Lucy laughed and held up Rosebud’s lead. “How about we swap?”

Still, he didn’t move. Building rapport while taking a walk was one thing, but letting her carry his son, crossing personal lines, was dangerous, and something he’d never done before.

“Daddy,” Josh said, pointing to Lucy. “Up.”

And right there was his Achilles’ heel. Josh wanted Lucy, and Hayden wanted Josh to be happy. Complex ethical issues boiled down to pure simplicity.

“Sure,” he said. He took the dog’s lead and handed over his son, trying to minimize touching Lucy in both tasks since he was in enough trouble as it was. “I’ll take that bag while you have Josh.”

“It’s fine.” She tickled Josh’s side and was rewarded with giggles. “I’m used to having it over my shoulder.”

He nodded and they started along the paved path that wound alongside the sparkling river, Hayden busy trying not to physically smack himself over the head. He’d been brought in by a congressional committee to investigate ANS, and Graham Boyle in particular. And now here he was, in a D.C. park, talking a stroll with the man’s stepdaughter, allowing her to cuddle his son, offering to carry her bag and walking the wretched man’s dog.

Not to mention that his pulse was pounding too hard for a casual walk, which had less to do with the exercise than with the woman whose elbow was mere inches from his own. So close he could practically feel all her vibrant energy radiating out and filling the air around her.

He cleared his throat. “Ms. Royall—”

“Lucy.” With his son’s fist wrapped around her fingers, she glanced up at him. “We’re walking in a park on a lunch break. I think you can call me Lucy.”

“Lucy, then.” The name felt unusual as his mouth moved around the word. He’d only said it aloud together with her surname before, but alone it seemed special, prettier. More intimate.

“Yes?”

He looked down at her, frowning. “Yes, what?”

“You were about to say something when I told you to call me Lucy.”

Good point. But he had no idea what it had been. He thrust the fingers of his free hand into his hair. He’d called their interview to a halt because he was getting distracted. Seemed the extra twenty-four hours to regroup hadn’t helped any.

He searched his brain for a way to informally find a path to the information he wanted. “Did you always want to be a journalist?”

They waited while Rosebud sniffed the base of a tree, and Lucy shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe not always. But since I interned with Graham when I was sixteen.”

“What did you want to be before that?”

“My father’s family is in department stores,” she said casually. “When he died I inherited his stock. I always thought I’d do a business degree and work there.”

Her family was “in department stores”? He almost laughed. In his preliminary research he’d found that Lucy was one of the Royall Department Stores Royalls. A family of old money that stood alongside the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Gettys in stature. The woman had pedigree coming out her ears.

Genuine curiosity nibbled. “Have you stayed in touch with that side of your family?”

“Occasionally I see Aunt Judith and her family,” she said softly, with just a tinge of regret. “She has a gorgeous lodge in Fields, Montana, where we sometimes gather for birthdays and Christmases.”

“Fields is a nice place,” he said. Great ski fields and snowboarding, although now just as famous for being the birthplace of President Morrow as its natural charms.

“We’ve had some good family times there. Plus, a couple of times a year I go to a board meeting, and occasionally talk to them about charity events.”

As she tapped a finger on his son’s nose, Hayden watched her and tried to get it all to make sense. Her choices didn’t quite add up with the image he had of a pampered princess.

“Wouldn’t it have been an easier path to work in the Royall family business? You already own significant stock there. You wouldn’t have had to start out at the bottom like you did at ANS.” That was what his wife, Brooke, had done—worked in her family’s banking empire. But in effect, it had only been role-playing. She’d had a big corner office and taken a lot of long lunches.

Lucy arched a challenging eyebrow. “What makes you think I’d want to take the easier path?”

“Human nature.” He didn’t try to hide the cynicism in his voice. “Who wouldn’t want the easier option?”

She was silent and the moment stretched out; the only sound was Josh’s gurgling baby talk. Then she looked up at him with eyes that seemed far too insightful. “Tell me, Hayden, did you take the easiest career option available to you?”

“No,” he admitted. But then, he hadn’t been brought up an heiress like Lucy or Brooke. Completely different situation.

“How long have you been a criminal investigator?” she asked.

“A few years now.” But he wasn’t here to talk about himself. He rolled his shoulders back and changed the conversation’s direction. “What story are you working on now?”

She moved Josh onto her other hip and adjusted his blue hat. “Are you officially asking me?”

He could sense her reluctance, but that wasn’t unusual with journalists trying to keep their scoop under wraps. And since his investigation was about past practices, her current story was irrelevant. He shrugged. “No, just conversation.”

“Then I’ll pass on the question.” She looked up at him and unleashed a dazzling smile. “Did you come out just to walk, or do you have lunch in that bag?”

He held up the brown paper bag. “Lunch. I can offer you half a room-service cheese and tomato on rye.” He’d found that when dealing with hotels, the plainer the order, the less likely they were to ruin it with some embellishment meant to impress but usually falling short. He was a man of simple tastes—he’d take sandwiches on fresh bread from the deli near his office over a fancy restaurant lunch any day.

“You can keep your sandwich,” she said. “I have mine in my bag.”

“Tell me you don’t have a picnic blanket in that bag,” he said, one corner of his mouth turning up.

Her forehead crinkled into a confused frown. “A picnic blanket wouldn’t fit in here.”

“You seem to pull out all sorts of things, so a blanket wouldn’t have surprised me,” he said dryly.

They found a patch of grass under a weeping willow a little farther back from the path. He pulled out a sealed plastic bag with a wet washcloth inside and wiped off Josh’s hands before passing him a banana.

“That’s pretty organized,” Lucy said, watching him with those huge hazel eyes.

His hackles went up. “For a dad, you mean?”