The Kincaids: Southern Seduction: Sex, Lies and the Southern Belle

“Where’s it located?”

“In the Battery.”

“Nice area,” he said, meaning it. He had been raised in the Battery, and it was where some of the finest homes in Charleston were located. Steering the car into the restaurant’s parking lot, he switched off the engine and turned to face her. “Since we’re already out, why don’t I drive you over there after we eat?”

She gave him that look again—the one she had been giving him all afternoon. If he didn’t know better, he would swear she suspected him of something. But he didn’t have a clue what he could have done to deserve it.

“That might be a good idea,” she finally said. “I think I’d like to get your opinion on what I should do with the place.”

As he guided her into the bistro, Daniel grinned. “If you want to know how to pack it, ship it or liquidate it, I’m your guy. Decorating? Not so much.”

After a scrumptious dinner, Daniel drove along South Battery Street toward the Beauchamp mansion, and Lily couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive about touring the house with him. She purposely hadn’t told him that the home she inherited was once owned by his mother—the very house that was supposed to one day be his. She wasn’t sure why she had omitted the information, other than she had a feeling his immediate reaction when he saw the place would tell her if he was interested in getting it back or really didn’t care about it.

“That’s it,” she said, pointing to the stately home up ahead.

“You inherited Colonel Sam’s old place?” Daniel asked, clearly astounded. “Up until fifteen years ago, this used to belong to my mother.”

His surprise was genuine and Lily was almost certain that Daniel was unaware her father had bought the home. “I’ve always thought it was one of the most beautiful mansions in the Battery,” she said, smiling.

He shrugged as he turned the car into the driveway. “I guess it’s all right.”

“Don’t you like historic homes?” she asked, wondering how anyone could resist the charm and beauty of antebellum architecture.

“I think they’re great when someone takes the time to keep them up,” he answered, getting out of the car. When he came around to open her door for her, he added, “It’s when they’re allowed to fall into a state of disrepair that they look like any other old house that’s been let go.”

“The outside looks as if someone has been taking good care of this one,” she said, crossing her fingers that the inside looked just as nice.

“I hope for your sake they have,” he said, guiding her up the steps onto the piazza. “The last time I was in this place it was in need of some serious renovations and looked to me like it could turn into a bottomless money pit.”

Reaching into her handbag, Lily removed the set of keys Mr. Parsons had tagged as belonging to the house. “I hope the electricity is on. Otherwise, I’ll have to come back tomorrow in the daylight to see what needs to be done.”

Daniel took the keys from her and, unlocking the door, stepped inside ahead of her. “Let me find the switch and we’ll see if the lights work.”

When the foyer’s crystal chandelier sparkled to life, Lily crossed the threshold and felt as if she had indeed entered the princess’s castle. Apparently her father had seen to it that the mansion had been completely restored to its original grandeur.

“This is everything I thought it would be and more,” Lily said, in awe of her surroundings.

The walls, wainscoting and ornate dentiled ceiling cornice had been painted a rich cream that glowed warmly in the chandelier’s light and contrasted perfectly with the highly polished heart-pine floor. A graceful sweeping staircase with a black cypress banister and steps ascended to the upper floors and Lily could only imagine how beautiful the rest of the house had to be.

“Wow,” Daniel said, looking around. “I’m impressed. Your dad spent a small fortune to bring this old place back to life. I’ve never seen it look this good.”

“I can’t believe it’s mine,” Lily said, falling in love with the house all over again.

“Let’s check out the rest of it,” he said, taking her by the hand.

As he led her through the mansion, Lily marveled at the attention that had been paid to detail. Every room was fully furnished and although the furniture was new, it had been chosen to complement the antebellum style, while still projecting a comfortable homey atmosphere.

Whoever designed the master suite had pulled out all the stops to make it the most luxurious room in the house. From the balcony off the sitting room overlooking the courtyard below, to the his-and-her bathrooms, the interior designer had outdone himself.

By the time she and Daniel had toured all the rooms and walked out onto the lighted terrace, Lily had to ask, “How could your mother part with such a beautiful place?”

“It didn’t look anything like this when she owned it and besides, she really didn’t have a choice.” Putting his arm around her shoulders, he led her across the yard toward the carriage house. “Right after I graduated from college, my dad died and I had to take over Addison Industries. That’s when we discovered that he wasn’t the best of managers. The business was in such bad shape financially, it took her selling off the summer home on Hilton Head Island, as well as parting with this place, just for her to survive until I could get the business back in the black and out of the danger of bankruptcy.”

“I’m so sorry, Daniel.” Lily couldn’t begin to imagine how stressful the situation had to have been for him. “You’ve done an amazing job of bringing it back. I’ve heard RJ and my father talk about Addison Industries being TKG’s toughest competitor.”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t easy, but I think it was harder on my mom than anyone else. For the first time in her life, she had to adhere to a strict budget and she was scared to death that some of her snooty friends would find out that she was on the verge of being destitute.”

Lily couldn’t help but wonder how Charlotte Addison’s pride had survived such a devastating blow. “Did you know she had sold the home to my father?”

“I had my hands full with getting Addison Industries back on its feet,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t have time, nor did I care what she did with this place, just as long as I didn’t have to deal with it.” His adamant tone convinced Lily that Daniel truly had no idea who had bought the mansion or that he had any interest in getting it back.

As he started to unlock the door to the carriage house, she turned and, rising on tiptoe, impulsively kissed his cheek.

“What was that for?” he asked, chuckling as he turned and wrapped her in his arms.

“I’m just happy,” she said, not wanting to explain about her unfounded suspicions. “Do you mind?”

“You’re not going to get any complaints out of me,” he said, using his index finger to trace her jawline.

His gentle touch reminded her of how tender he could be, how much care he took when he made love to her. “Daniel, I’m not certain—”

“I’ll be sure for both of us,” he said, lowering his head to brush her lips with his.

When his mouth settled over hers, Lily brought her hands up to his chest to push away from him, to put distance between herself and the temptation he posed. The issue of how much he knew about her father buying the house had been settled, but she had yet to tell him the news that would no doubt put a permanent end to his attraction to her.

But as his arms tightened around her and he traced her lips with his tongue, she abandoned all thought and allowed him to kiss her the way she had wanted him to do the night before. There would be plenty of time within the next few days to tell him about the baby and face the future without Daniel in her life.

As he explored her with a thoroughness that threatened to turn her insides to warm pudding, a tingling sensation began to spread throughout her body and she welcomed his deepening of the kiss. It had been the better part of three weeks since he had held her like this, made her feel as if she was the most cherished creature on earth. And heaven help her, she didn’t want him to stop.

He pulled her closer and the feel of his hard, muscular body pressed to hers sent a flash of heat racing from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. His chest muscles beneath her hands flexed as she clutched his shirt and she could feel his heart pounding against her fingertips.

“I’ve missed you, sweetheart,” he said, easing away from the kiss. “I’ve missed holding you like this.”

“Me, too.”

Lily could have denied that she had missed him, but what was the point? Her response to him had been every bit as eager as it had always been and there was no sense in her lying to either one of them.

“What happened, Lily?” he whispered close to her ear. “Why did you stop seeing me?”

“Please, not now,” she begged, not wanting reality to intrude. She kissed the exposed skin at his open collar. “Could we please leave this for another time?”

Just when she thought he was going to press the issue, he leaned back and, staring down into her eyes for several long moments, finally nodded. “It can wait for now.” He gave her a smile that made her feel warm all over. “Why don’t we check out the carriage house, then lock up and go back to your place.”

“It sounds like we have a plan, Mr. Addison,” she agreed. “You can drop me off and then go home.”

He gave her an exasperated look, but didn’t comment.

She knew he was confused by her insistence that she wanted to be left alone, then her allowing him to hold her, kiss her. But she was doing her best to distance herself from him and if he wasn’t such a source of temptation for her, she would be able to do that. Unfortunately, from the moment he took her into his arms at the Autumn Ball, she had discovered a weakness within herself that she hadn’t known existed. Whenever Daniel touched her, she seemed to lose a will of her own. It was something she needed to work on—had to work on—or risk losing her sanity when he found out about the baby and lost interest in her.

When they entered the carriage house, they found that her father had turned it into a studio with huge floor-to-ceiling windows to let in plenty of natural light. “It looks like your dad had planned on an artist using this,” Daniel said, giving her a knowing wink as they looked around the spacious work area.

Lily had a hard time blinking back her tears. It was clear her father had her in mind when he’d commissioned the renovations of the property, meaning that he had planned for some time to make her childhood dream of living here come true.

“When I was a little girl, Daddy used to take me to White Point Gardens across the street. We would sit for hours on one of the benches staring at this place and I would tell him stories I made up about the princess who lived here.”

“I’ll bet she had red hair and blue eyes,” Daniel teased, walking up behind her to put his arms around her.

She nodded as she indulged herself just one more time and leaned back against him. “The princess would stand in the cupola and look out at Charleston Harbor.”

“What was she looking for?” His deep baritone vibrated against her back and caused a delightful fluttering in her lower belly.

“She was watching for her prince to sail into Charleston Harbor and come home to live with her in the castle,” Lily answered.

“Of course,” he murmured close to her ear. “Any princess worth her salt always waits for her prince, whether he’s sailing up in a ship or riding a big white horse.”

“Now you’re making fun of me,” she said, smiling as she turned in his arms to face him.

“Maybe just a little,” he said, grinning. “Have you ever thought of writing children’s books, instead of just illustrating them?”

“My father always thought I should,” she said, doing her best to stifle a yawn. She had missed the afternoon nap that she had been taking since becoming pregnant. “But since college, the major children’s publishers have kept me so busy illustrating for others, I haven’t had time to think much about it.”

“You should,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Now, why don’t I walk you to my car and then I’ll go back and lock up. You’re starting to look pretty tired.”

She nodded as they left the carriage house. “It has been a long day.”

While Lily waited in the car for Daniel to return from turning off lights and locking the house, she couldn’t help but think about what her father had said in his letter. She was a strong, capable woman who he was confident would make the right decision about the mansion. He hadn’t insisted that she keep the property, but he had everything in place for her, anticipating that she would want to.

Staring up at the stately home, she knew it was foolish for one person to even contemplate living alone in a house with more than ten thousand square feet of living space. But her father had spared no expense in getting it ready for her. He had given her her dream and, wise or not, she was going to take it.

“I’ve made a decision about what I’m going to do with the mansion,” Lily said when Daniel returned to the car.

“And just what might that be?” he asked, starting the car and driving it down the driveway to the street.

“It’s going to take me a week or so to make arrangements, but as soon as I can get things packed up, I’m going to move in and live here.”

Four

For the next week after touring the mansion with Lily, Daniel found himself embroiled in a labor dispute with the dockworkers that left little time for anything but a few hurried phone calls and a standing order at the local florist for a daily bouquet of flowers to be delivered to her apartment. Lily hadn’t asked him to stop calling and seemed to appreciate all of the flowers, but they still weren’t completely back to where they had been with their affair before Christmas. That was the first thing he intended to remedy as soon as possible.

It would already have been taken care of by now, if not for the snag that had developed with the labor force. He had thought he and the union president had worked things out the day he had taken Lily to the aquarium, but apparently the rank and file had other ideas. Just that afternoon, he had been able to come to an agreement with the dockworkers and anticipated being able to spend a lot more time with her.

Unfortunately, tonight was not one of those times. In one of their phone conversations, Lily had explained that she would be babysitting her nephew on Thursday evenings for the next few weeks, while her brothers worked on getting reports ready for Jack Sinclair. So what was he going to do with his evening?

As he sat at his desk contemplating his options, his cell phone rang. “Daniel Addison,” he said, answering the call.

“Daniel, I’m so glad I caught you.”

“Hello, Charlotte.” At her request, he hadn’t called her “Mom” or “Mother” in years.

“I haven’t talked to you since Christmas Day and I was wondering when I may expect a visit,” she said in her usual formal tone.

“I’m free this evening,” he answered, deciding not to put her off. He did want to talk to his mother about the night of the dinner party and what she might have said to Lily. This evening seemed as good a time as any to do that.

“I think that would be marvelous, Daniel. Shall I have Cook set an extra place for dinner?” she asked.

Barely able to keep from rolling his eyes at her pretentiousness, he sighed heavily. “Sure, why not.”

“I’ll expect you at six then.” His mother ended the call as she always did, without saying goodbye.

Twenty minutes later, as he drove to the home he had grown up in on East Battery Street, just half a mile from the Beauchamp mansion, Daniel couldn’t help but think about how vastly different his childhood had been from Lily’s. She had been raised in a loving home with several brothers and sisters, who remained quite close as adults.

He, on the other hand, had been the only child of a frequently aloof mother and a father who could only be described as a dreamer. To say his parents were a mismatched couple was an understatement and Daniel couldn’t understand how they had managed to stay together for over twenty-five years of marriage.

Charlotte Beauchamp-Addison was all about maintaining her standing in society and feeling superior among her circle of so-called friends, while George Addison had drifted through life with a laid-back, “whatever will be, will be” attitude. Daniel sometimes even wondered if his father had purposely ignored the signs of an impending heart attack, in order to die and get away from the pretentiousness and snobbery of life with Charlotte.

When he parked his car, Daniel entered through the back door of the house. He had always liked coming in through the kitchen. At least he got a warm greeting from Rosemary, the housekeeper and cook who had worked for his parents for as long as he could remember. It hadn’t been easy, but he had managed to see that the woman remained on the job, even through the times when he hadn’t been sure he would be able to bring Addison Industries back to solvency. But the woman was, and always had been, considered part of the family.

“How’s my favorite girl?” Daniel asked, smiling as he walked over to where the gray-haired woman stood, stirring something in a pot on the stove.

“I’m mad at you, Daniel Addison,” she said, her attention never wavering from what she was cooking. “You haven’t been by to see me in almost three weeks. Do you know how hard it is for a woman my age not seeing the boy I helped raised? I could very well die of a broken heart.”

Daniel chuckled as he kissed the woman’s wrinkled cheek. “I’m sorry, Rosemary, but there’s been a lot going on since Christmas. Will it make you feel better if I try to do better in the future?”

She turned to give him a sympathetic look. “I heard about Miss Lily’s daddy. How is that poor child doing?”

“As well as can be expected under the circumstances,” he answered. The woman had only met Lily once, at the dinner party before the holidays, but she and Lily had hit it off right away.

“My heart goes out to that girl, losing him the way she did,” Rosemary said, her kind brown eyes shining with unshed tears. “You be sure to tell her that I’ve got her and her family in my thoughts and prayers.”

“I’ll do that,” he said, knowing the kind-hearted woman his mother insisted on calling “Cook” was completely sincere with her sympathy.

Continuing into the sitting room, he found Charlotte posed by the window, staring out at Charleston Harbor. It was her favorite place to be when receiving guests.

“I don’t know why you insist on coming in the back way like a common servant, Daniel,” she admonished, turning to face him.

“Hello to you too, Charlotte,” he said, sitting down in one of the chairs by the fireplace. “How have you been?”

His question was all it took to get his mother started on the various charity functions she was helping to plan and the latest gossip circulating through the garden club. Barely listening, something she said suddenly caught his attention.

“What was that?” he asked, sitting up straight in the chair.

“I said that Madelyn Worthington told me all about poor Elizabeth Kincaid’s betrayal by that wretched man,” Charlotte said, patting an imaginary out-of-place hair back into place. “I’ve known for years that Reginald Kincaid was nothing but a low-bred scoundrel and I’m not the least bit surprised he turned out to be such an embarrassment to his family. Having a mistress and two bastard children in Greenville is just a disgrace.”

“Only one of the woman’s sons belongs to Kincaid,” he corrected. “And when did you start feeling sorry for Elizabeth Kincaid?” He distinctly remembered Charlotte referring to the woman as being a fool for marrying beneath her station.

His mother ignored the question, asking one of her own. “Are you still keeping company with that youngest Kincaid girl?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” he said proudly.

Charlotte looked anything but pleased. “Really? I thought the two of you had a parting of the ways just before Christmas.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes. Now he knew his mother had something to do with his and Lily’s breakup. Otherwise, how would she have known?

“We stopped seeing each other for a few weeks, but just recently started dating again.” Technically they had only gone out once since running into each other at the lawyer’s office, but he fully intended for their trip to the aquarium to be the first of many outings they shared. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, the night of my dinner party it seemed like she was losing interest in continuing your association,” his mother said calmly.

With years of practice at being a master manipulator, he wasn’t fooled by Charlotte’s disinterested demeanor. His mother knew a lot more about why Lily tried to end their affair than he did and he intended to find out what that was.

“What did you say to her?” he asked. “And don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about, Charlotte. I know exactly how you operate.”

She didn’t so much as flinch at his accusation. “I just pointed out that since your divorce, you’ve made it no secret that you aren’t interested in anything long-term with a woman or marrying to carry on the family name.” Her smug smile caused him to clench his back teeth together so hard, he was surprised it didn’t break his jaw. “She comes from a large family and I’m sure that she has ideas of raising a brood of her own one day. It’s better that she knows now that isn’t what you’re interested in than to give her false hope for the future. Besides, she doesn’t have the breeding of a young woman suited for a man with your standing in the community.”

“And I guess Charisma did?” Daniel retorted.

“I’ll admit that Charisma was a bit high-strung, but you can’t deny she had a suitable background,” Charlotte answered as if the issue was as important to him as it was to her. “Her family has been a part of Charleston society almost as long as the Beauchamps and Addisons. She would have passed along the traits you would want in an offspring.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised that you thought she was good wife material,” he said, unable to keep the bitter tone from his voice. “She’s just like you, and I think that the traits you seem to think are so important would be better off not polluting the next generation.”

“Charisma is like me, isn’t she?” Charlotte said, smiling as if he had paid her a compliment and completely ignoring his disdain for the qualities her grandchild might inherit. She shook her head. “She was my best hope for a grandchild to carry on the family’s esteemed name.”

“Yeah, the two of you were as alike as I’ve ever seen—sweet as honey when things are going your way, but when they aren’t, you turn as vicious as a shark in a feeding frenzy.” He shook his head. “If I had wanted to carry on the family name, it certainly wouldn’t have been with Charisma.”

“Then why did you bother marrying her in the first place?” Charlotte asked, raising one darkly penciled eyebrow.

“Because, like you, she only showed the side of herself that she wanted me to see until she got her hooks in me,” he said, disgusted with himself for not seeing through his ex-wife’s facade sooner. “By the time she showed her true colors, it was too late. We had already walked down the aisle.”

“But you must have cared for her at some point,” his mother persisted. “The two of you were married for almost three years.”

“I tried to make things work, but I’m not like my father,” he stated flatly. “I finally faced the reality of the situation and realized that no matter what I did or how I did it, it was never going to keep her from making my life a living hell. I chose the peace and freedom of being single over a life of the abject misery Dad suffered.”

“Your father needed a strong woman to guide him,” Charlotte said, unabashed by her son’s observations.

“Well, I don’t.” He glared at his mother. “I prefer a woman to be my equal, not one who tells me every move to make and how to make it.”