Seductive Secrets

While teasing Paul was a danger similar to stepping too near a lion’s cage, Lia discovered having his full attention was exhilarating.

“Actually.” Pivoting to face him, Lia summoned her cheekiest smile. Everything she’d heard from Ethan indicated that Paul was ruled by logic rather than his emotions. Challenging the cybersecurity expert to confront his feelings was bound to blow up in her face. “I’m more intrigued that you wanted to.”

Two

King Street melted away around him as Paul processed his response to Lia’s challenging grin. Her expression wasn’t sexual in nature, but that didn’t lessen the surge of attraction that rocked him, demanding that he act. He clenched his hands behind his back to stifle the impulse to snatch her into his arms and send his lips stalking down her neck in search of that delectable fragrance. Frustrating. Intolerable. This woman was trouble. In more ways than he had time to count.

What was her endgame? Money, obviously.

Based on the fact that she’d chosen to live in one of downtown Charleston’s priciest neighborhoods, she obviously had expensive taste. After meeting Ethan, she’d obviously targeted him, using their grandfather’s illness to ingratiate herself. Was she planning on getting Ethan to pay off her debt or to invest in some sort of business?

“Ophelia Marsh, born March first—” he began, determined to unnerve her with a quick rundown of her vital statistics.

“Fun fact,” she interrupted. “I was almost a leap-day baby. My mom went into labor late on February twenty-eighth and everyone thought for sure I would be born the next day, which that year was February twenty-ninth. But I didn’t want to have a birthday every four years. I mean, who would, right?”

Her rambling speech, sparkling with energetic good humor, soured his mood even more. “Right.” He had no idea why he was agreeing. “Born March first in Occidental, California...”

“A Pisces.”

He shook his head. “A what?”

“A Pisces,” she repeated. “You know, the astrological sign. Two fish swimming in opposite directions. Like you’re a goat,” she concluded.

Paul exhaled harshly. Horoscopes were nothing but a bunch of nonsense. Yet that didn’t stop him from asking, “I’m a goat?”

“A Capricorn. You just had a birthday.”

He felt her words like a hit to his solar plexus. “How did you know that?”

Her knowing his birthday filled him with equal parts annoyance and dismay. He was the security expert, the brilliant investigator who hunted down cybercriminals and kept his clients’ data safe. To have this stranger know something as personal as his birth date sent alarm jolting through him.

“Ethan told me.”

“Why would he do that?” Paul demanded, directing the question to the universe rather than Lia.

“Why wouldn’t he?” She cocked her head and regarded him as if that was obvious. “He likes to talk about his family and it helps me to picture all of you if I know your signs. You’re a Capricorn. Your mother is a Libra. She’s the peacekeeper of the family. Your father is a Sagittarius. He’s a talker and tends to chase impossible dreams. Ethan is a Taurus. Stubborn, reliable, with a sensual side that loves good food.”

This quick summary of his family was so spot-on that Paul’s suspicions reached even higher levels. Obviously, this woman had been researching the Wattses for some nefarious purpose. What was she up to? Time to turn up the volume on his questioning.

“You don’t stay in one place for very long,” he said, remembering what he’d managed to dig up on her. “New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, now South Carolina, all visited in the last twelve months. Why is that?”

In his experience grifters liked to work an area and move on when things became too hot. Her pattern fit with someone up to no good. She might be beautiful and seem to possess a sweet, generous nature, but in his mind her obvious appeal worked against her. He knew firsthand how easily people were taken in by appearances. He was more interested in substance.

“I’m a nomad.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I like life on the road. It’s how I grew up.” She paused to assess his expression and whatever she glimpsed there made her smile slightly. “I was born in the back of a VW camper van and traveled nearly five thousand miles in the first year of my life. My mother has a hard time staying put for any long period of time.”

Paul was having a difficult time wrapping his head around what she was saying. For someone who belonged to a family that had lived within ten square miles of Charleston for generations, he couldn’t fathom the sort of lifestyle she was talking about.

“Was your mother on the run from someone? Your father? Or a boyfriend?”

“No.” Her casual shrug left plenty of room for Paul to speculate. “She was just restless.”

“And you? Are you restless, too?”

“I guess.” Something passed over her features, but it was gone too fast for him to read. “Although I tend to stay longer in places than she did.”

Follow-up questions sprang to Paul’s mind, but he wasn’t here to dig into her family dynamic. He needed to figure out what she was up to so he could determine how much danger she represented to his family. He changed subjects. “Where did you and Ethan meet?”

“He’s been a client of mine for about a month now.”

“A client?” Paul digested this piece of information.

“I work for Springside Wellness,” she said, confirming what Paul had already unearthed about her. The company was a wellness spa on Meeting Street that operated as both a yoga studio and alternative treatment space. A lot of mind, body, soul nonsense. “Ethan is a client.”

This confirmed what Paul had gleaned from his brother’s explanation about how he knew Lia. Still, Paul had a hard time picturing his brother doing yoga and reflexology. “What sort of a client?”

“I’m a massage therapist. He comes in once a week. I told him he should probably come in more often than that. The man is stressed.”

Her answer took Paul’s thoughts down an unexpected path. “Well, that’s just perfect.”

Only it wasn’t perfect at all. A picture of Lia giving Ethan a massage leaped to mind but he immediately suppressed it.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” she said, frowning. “And I don’t have time to find out. I have to be at work in an hour and it takes a while for me to get out of costume. Nice to meet you, Paul Watts.”

He quite pointedly didn’t echo the sentiment. “Just remember what I said about staying away from my grandfather.”

“I already said I would.”

With a graceful flutter of her fingers, she zipped through the building’s front door, leaving him alone on the sidewalk. Despite her ready agreement to keep her distance, his nerves continued to sizzle and pop. Logic told him he’d seen the last of Lia Marsh, but his instincts weren’t convinced.

Paul shot his brother a text before sliding behind the wheel, urging him to reiterate to Lia that Grady was off-limits. Thanks to this detour he was going to have to hustle to keep from being late for his charter flight.

Ethan’s terse reply highlighted the tension between the brothers that seemed to be escalating. The growing distance between them frustrated Paul, but he couldn’t figure out how to fix what he couldn’t wrap his head around.

Pushing Ethan and the problem of Lia Marsh to the back of his mind, Paul focused his attention on something concrete and within his control: the upcoming conference and what he hoped to get out of it.

As much as Ethan had thoroughly enjoyed seeing his brother utterly flummoxed by Lia in a Rapunzel costume, as soon as Paul headed off to dig into her background, Ethan’s satisfaction faded. Leave it to his brother to chase a tangent rather than deal with the real problem of their grandfather’s condition. In the same way, Ethan’s brother had neatly avoided dealing with Grady’s disappointment after Paul chose a career in law enforcement over joining Watts Shipping and eventually taking his place at the helm of the family business. Nor had Paul understood Ethan’s conflicted emotions at being the second choice to take up the reins.

While Ethan recognized that he was the best brother to head the family company, he wanted to secure the job based on his skills, not because Paul refused the position. Also, it wasn’t just his pride at issue. Ethan was adopted and in a city as preoccupied with lineage as Charleston, not knowing who his people were became a toxic substance eating away at his peace of mind.

Although no one had ever made him feel as if he didn’t belong, in every Watts family photo, Ethan’s dark brown hair and eyes made him stand out like a goose among swans. Not wishing to cause any of his family undue pain, he kept his feelings buried, but more and more lately they’d bubbled up and tainted his relationship with Paul.

He’d shared some of his angst with Lia. She was a good listener. Attentive. Nonjudgmental. Empathetic. Sure, she was a little quirky. But Ethan found her eccentricities charming. That Paul viewed them as suspect made Ethan all the more determined to defend her.

Clamping down on his disquiet, Ethan reentered his grandfather’s hospital room and noted that Grady’s eyes were open and sharp with dismay. Had he heard the brothers arguing in the hallway? Although Grady never shied away from confrontation, before the stroke, he’d confided to Ethan that he was troubled by his estrangement from Paul and also the growing tension between the brothers. Ethan knew Paul was equally frustrated with the rift, but none of them had taken any steps to overcome the years of distance.

“Sorry about earlier,” Ethan murmured, settling into the chair between Grady’s bed and the window. “You know how Paul can get.”

He didn’t expect Grady to answer. In the weeks following the stroke, Grady had made some progress with the paralysis. He still couldn’t walk or write, but he’d regained the ability to move his arm, leg and fingers. It wasn’t so much his body that had failed him, but his willingness to fight.

Grady’s lips worked, but he couldn’t form the words for what he wanted to express. For the first time in weeks this seemed to frustrate him.

“He worries about you,” Ethan continued. “Seeing Lia here was a bit of a shock.” He couldn’t suppress a grin. “Did you like her Rapunzel costume? The kids down on the pediatric floor really loved her.”

Grady started to hum a toneless tune Ethan didn’t recognize. And then all at once he sang a word.

“Ava.”

Ethan was shocked that Grady had spoken—or rather sung—his daughter’s name. “You mean Lia,” he said, wondering how his grandfather could’ve confused his daughter for Lia. Blonde and green-eyed Ava Watts bore no resemblance to Lia, with her dark hair and hazel eyes. Then Ethan frowned. Had Lia ever come to visit as herself or was she always in costume? Maybe Grady thought she was blonde. And then there was the age difference. If Ava had lived, she’d be in her forties. Of course, the stroke had messed with the left side of Grady’s brain where logic and reason held court. Maybe he was actually mixed up.

Ava had been eighteen when she’d run away to New York City. The family had lost track of her shortly thereafter. And it wasn’t until five years after that that they found out she’d died, leaving behind an infant daughter. The child had been adopted, but they’d never been able to discover anything more because the files had been sealed.

“Ava...baby,” Grady clarified, singing the two words. How had he learned to do that?

“You think Lia is Ava’s daughter?” While Grady nodded as enthusiastically as his condition allowed, Ethan’s stunned brain slowly wrapped itself around this development. Grady was obviously grasping at thin air. With each year that passed he’d grown more obsessed with finding his missing granddaughter.

“Ava’s daughter is here?” Constance Watts asked from the doorway. “Where? How?”

Ethan turned to his mother, about to explain what was going on, when his grandfather’s fingers bit down hard on Ethan’s wrist, drawing his attention back to the man in the bed. Grady’s gaze bore the fierce determination of old, sending joy flooding through Ethan. What he wouldn’t give to have his grandfather healthy and happy again.

“Ethan?” his mother prompted, coming to stand beside him.

“Lia...” Grady sang again, more agitated now as he tried to make himself understood.

“Lia?” Constance stared at her father-in-law, and then glanced at her son for clarification. “Who is Lia?”

But when the answer came, it was Grady who spoke up. “Ava...baby.”

After her run-in with Paul Watts the day before, the last place Lia expected to find herself was seated beside Ethan in his bright blue Mercedes roadster on the way to the hospital to visit his grandfather. Overhead, clouds dappled the dazzling February sky. Around them the sweet scent of honeysuckle and crab apple blossoms mingled with the sound of church bells coming from the Cathedral of Saint Luke and Saint Paul. It was a glorious day for driving with the top down, but this was no joyride.

“I’m really not sure this is the best idea,” Lia said, shuddering as she pictured her last encounter with Paul Watts. “Your brother was pretty clear that he didn’t want me anywhere near your grandfather.”

“Paul’s occupation makes him suspicious,” Ethan said. “And Grady’s illness has made him even more edgy. Add to that the fact that he doesn’t like surprises and that explains why he overreacted at finding a stranger visiting his grandfather.” Ethan shot her a wry grin packed with boyish charm. “And you were dressed like Rapunzel so that had to throw him off, as well.”

Lia rolled her eyes, unmoved by his attempt to lull her into giving up her argument. “Are you sure Paul will be okay with me visiting?”

She craved Ethan’s reassurance. No one had ever treated her with the level of suspicion Paul Watts had shown.

“He wants Grady to get better just like the rest of us.”

“That’s not the same thing as being okay with my visiting,” she pointed out, the churning in her stomach made worse by Ethan’s evasion. Paul’s bad opinion of her bothered Lia more than she liked to admit.

“Look, Paul’s not in town at the moment so you don’t need to worry about running into him. You just visit Grady a few more times and be the ray of sunshine that will enable him to improve and by the time Paul gets back, Grady will be on the mend and Paul will realize it was all due to you.”

“I think you’re overestimating my abilities,” she demurred, even as Ethan’s praise warmed her. Each time she’d visited Grady she held his hand and sung to him, pouring healing energy into his frail body.

“Trust me,” Ethan declared, taking his espresso-colored eyes off the road and shooting a brief glance her way. “I’m not overestimating anything. Your visits have been transformative.”

“But I’ve only been to see him four times,” Lia murmured, determined to voice caution. If Ethan gave her all the credit for his grandfather’s improvement, what happened if Grady took a turn for the worse? “I can’t imagine I made that much of an impact.”

“You underestimate yourself.” Ethan spun the wheel and coasted into an empty spot in the parking garage. “He started communicating a little yesterday by singing the way you suggested. That’s given him a huge boost in his outlook and he’s growing better by the hour. You’ll see.”

In fact, Lia was excited to see Grady improve. She believed in the power of spiritual healing and trusted that she could tap into the energy that connected all living things and bring about change because she willed it. It didn’t always work. Some concrete problems required real-world solutions. For instance, the broken axle on her camper trailer and her totaled truck.

Meditating hadn’t gotten Misty fixed. She’d needed money and a mechanic for that. But after asking for help, the universe had found her a wonderful job, terrific coworkers and an affordable place to live. She’d been offered a solution at a point when she was feeling desperate.

Ethan shut off the engine and hit her with an eager grin. “Ready?”

“Sure.” But in fact, she was anything but.

When they got off the elevator on the fourth floor, Ethan’s long strides ate up the distance to his grandfather’s hospital room, forcing Lia to trot in order to keep up.

As they neared Grady’s room, Lia spied a familiar figure emerging. “Hi, Abigail,” Lia said, as the distance between them lessened. “How is Grady doing today?”

For a moment the nurse looked startled that a stranger had called her by her name, but then she took a longer look at Lia and her eyes widened. “Lia! I didn’t recognize you out of costume.”

Lia gave an awkward chuckle and glanced at Ethan. “I’m not sure Grady will recognize me, either.”

“Mr. Grady will know who you are.” The nurse’s reassuring smile did little to ease Lia’s nerves. “There’s a keen mind locked up in there.” She glanced at Ethan and when he gave her a confirming nod, Abigail continued, “He’s going to be so glad you’ve come today. Your idea to encourage him to sing has worked wonders. He’s so excited to be able to communicate with people again.”

Beside her, Ethan radiated smug satisfaction.

“That’s great,” Lia said, delighted that her suggestion had produced a positive result.

“His family and all the staff are so thrilled that things started to turn around yesterday. He’s doing so much better that the doctor thinks he’ll be able to go in a few days.”

“Wow,” Lia murmured, “that’s wonderful news.”

“We’re so glad she showed up when she did,” Ethan declared. “She’s worked a miracle.”

“Please stop,” Lia protested, the praise making her uncomfortable. “The credit really should go to all of you who’ve been taking such good care of him this whole time.”

“There’s only so much medicine can do when the will to keep on living is gone,” the nurse said.

“Mind over matter,” Ethan said. “People don’t give it enough credit.”

“They certainly don’t,” Abigail agreed before heading down the hall toward the nurses’ station.

Ethan set his hand on Lia’s elbow and drew her into Grady’s hospital room. As soon as she stepped across the threshold, Lia was struck by the room’s buoyant energy. The first time she’d visited Grady Watts, he’d been an immobile lump beneath the covers, unconscious and unaware that she’d taken his hand and softly sung to him. Today as she stepped closer to the bed, she noticed that he was wide awake and eagerly watching her approach. The directness of his gaze reminded her of Paul and she shivered. Ethan had mentioned his grandfather had a sharp temper and forceful manner when crossed.

Grady wiggled his fingers and she took his hand. His dry skin stretched over bones knobby with arthritis. She gave his fingers a light squeeze, shocked at the rush of affection for someone she barely knew. Yet was that true?

Usually she moved on every couple months and rarely got tangled up in people’s lives. In this case, her accident extended her time in Charleston, leading to numerous massage sessions with Ethan where he’d spoken at length about his family. As the weeks turned into months, Lia had grown ever more invested in their stories until she almost felt like part of their circle.

“Hello, Grady,” Lia said, her voice warbling as affection tightened her throat. “It’s Lia. You probably didn’t recognize me without my costume. How are you feeling today? You look really good.”

Grady’s fingers pulsed against hers as he acknowledged her with two sung words. “Ava daughter.”

Ethan had explained how Grady had been desperate to reunite with his missing granddaughter before the stroke, even speculating that the patriarch’s illness had been brought on by the crushing disappointment of a recent dead end. Since then, Grady had brooded nonstop about what had become of her and the family’s failure to bring her back into the fold.

“That’s right, Grady,” Ethan said, beaming at Lia. His eyes held a wicked twinkle as he added, “Ava’s daughter has come home at last.”

Delighted by the news, Lia glanced at Ethan and noticed the way the handsome businessman was regarding her with purposeful intent. Her heart began hammering against her ribs as the import of what Ethan was saying struck her. She shifted her attention to the man lying in the hospital bed and she caught her breath to protest. But before she could voice her sharp denial, she saw the love shining in Grady’s eyes for her. No. Not for her. For his missing granddaughter.

Head spinning, Lia turned her full attention on Ethan. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that Grady knows you’re his granddaughter.” Ethan gripped Lia’s elbow with long fingers while his eyes beseeched her to go along. “I explained how Paul located you through one of those genetic testing companies. It’s long been Grady’s dream to reunite you with your family. And now here you are.”

Lia’s mind reeled. The position Ethan had put her in was untenable, and to drag his brother into the mix was only going to create more drama. But the sheer joy in Grady’s eyes tied her tongue in knots. This could not be happening. She had to tell the truth. She wasn’t Ava Watts’s long-lost daughter. To claim that she was the missing Watts granddaughter would only lead to trouble.

“We need to talk about this,” Lia growled quietly at Ethan. She put her hand on Grady’s shoulder. “We’ll be right back.”

Leaving a confused Grady behind, Lia fled out into the hallway. To her relief, Ethan followed her. Worried that Grady might overhear their conversation, Lia grabbed Ethan’s arm and towed him down the hall toward the waiting area near the bank of elevators.

“Have you lost your mind?” she whispered as soon as they reached the empty family lounge. “How could you tell him I’m his granddaughter? And why put Paul in the middle of it? He’s going to be furious.”

“Grady came to that conclusion all by himself,” Ethan explained. “And the reason I gave Paul credit was to help repair the strained relationship between him and Grady.”

“Your brother will never go along with this.”

“He will when he sees the way Grady is recovering. Overnight his whole prognosis has changed. And it’s all because he believes you’re his granddaughter. It was his deepest desire to reunite with her and now he has a reason to live.”

“But I’m not his granddaughter. Why would he think I am? I don’t look like any of your family.” Lia’s heart twisted as she realized her protest might rouse Ethan’s angst over being adopted.

“You could be Ava’s daughter.” Ethan lifted his hands in a beseeching gesture. “We’ve been trying for years to find her with no luck. I told you that after my aunt died, her baby was adopted and the records were sealed. Believing you’re her has given Grady a reason to go on. Do you seriously want to go back in there and break his heart? He’s been so depressed since the stroke. In less than a week you’ve brought him back from the brink of death.”

Lia closed her eyes and spent several seconds listening to the pounding of her heart. This could not be happening. And yet it was.

“I just can’t do this.”

Besides being wrong, even if she agreed to a temporary stint as Grady Watts’s missing granddaughter, there was no way Paul was going to let her take on the role.

“You can,” Ethan insisted. “Making people feel better is what you do.”

“Sure, but not like this,” Lia protested. “And I don’t want to lie to your family.”

“I understand, but they aren’t any good at keeping secrets. We’ve never thrown a successful surprise party or gotten into trouble without everyone in the family knowing about it. For this to work we need to leave them in the dark or else risk that someone will slip up and give you away.”