The Illegitimate Heirs: Caleb, Nick & Hunter: Engagement between Enemies. Kathie DeNosky

“I’m a mess.”

      “Don’t worry about it. We won’t get there until midmorning.” He gave her his most reassuring smile. “Everyone will be busy and you can get your car without anyone being the wiser.”

      She looked more than a little doubtful. “I hope you’re right.”

      He didn’t tell her, but he hoped like hell he was, too.

       Five

      When Caleb steered the truck into his reserved parking space, Alyssa immediately noticed that something was wrong with her car. Instead of sitting level, it was tilted to one side. So much for making a quick getaway before someone in the office saw her disheveled appearance.

      “Looks like you have a flat tire,” Caleb commented when he got out of the truck and came around to open the passenger door for her.

      “Great. Just what I wanted to do before I go home,” she said, wondering what else could go wrong. “I get to change a tire.”

      He frowned. “You’re going to do it yourself?”

      She nodded. “I’ve been changing my own tires since I learned to drive. My father insisted on it.”

      “You don’t have an auto service plan?”

      “No.”

      He held out his hand. “Give me the keys.”

      “Thanks, but I’ll take care of it,” she said, removing her suit jacket.

      “Not while I’m around.” He took the keys from her, then motioned toward the building. “Why don’t you go inside and get out of this heat?”

      She nibbled on her lower lip. The temperature was rising, but so was her apprehension that someone would see her.

      “I’d rather not.”

      She could just imagine the stares if she walked into her office looking the way she did. Her clothing couldn’t have been more wrinkled from spending the night in the truck and her hair was hanging down her back like a limp mop because Caleb had lost most of the pins when he’d taken it out of her usual chignon.

      “Don’t be silly.” He opened the trunk of her sedan. “It’s already in the nineties and—”

      “No need for you gettin’ all hot and dirty, Caleb,” Ernie Clay called as he hurried out of the building toward them. The security guard stopped in front of them, then, grinning like a Cheshire cat, he nodded at her car. “Clarence noticed Ms. Merrick’s tire was flat and had me call my brother-in-law. He owns a garage and tow-ing service and should be here in a few minutes to take care of it.”

      “Thanks, Ernie.” Caleb placed his hand at the small of her back and started urging her toward the entrance. “We’ll be in our offices. Let us know when your brotherin-law has the tire changed.”

      The last thing Alyssa wanted to do was walk into the office looking the way she did. But before she had a chance to protest, Caleb ushered her through the building entrance and over to the elevators.

      When the elevator door slid shut, she looked down at her clothes. “I’m a complete mess.”

      He frowned. “You look fine to me.”

      She shook her head. “My hair is down, my pantyhose has a huge run and I look like a raccoon from the mascara smudges under my eyes.”

      Removing her glasses for a closer look, he shook his head. “Just one little place under your left eye.”

      Her jacket fell to the floor as she was thrown off guard by his unexpected touch, and she braced her hands on his chest to keep from falling when the elevator came to a halt on their floor. “I’ll take care of—”

      The doors opened at that very moment and to Alyssa’s horror, Malcolm Fuller and the entire publicrelations department observed her clinging to Caleb as he used his thumb to wipe gently at the tender skin below her eye. From the looks on their faces, she could tell exactly what they were thinking.

      “Well, hello there,” Malcolm said, not even bothering to hide his ear-to-ear grin. “We’re headed out to our first team-building picnic. Would you two like to join us?”

      “No, thank you,” she said before Caleb could get them into something else that would no doubt cause her further humiliation. “But have a good time.”

      Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she picked up her jacket, then brushed past the group and headed straight for her office. She didn’t wait to see if Caleb followed, nor did she care that he still had her glasses. She’d spent two and a half nerve-racking days with him and she needed some space.

      Although her father would strongly disapprove and probably come back to haunt her for being such a coward, all she wanted to do was hide out in her office until her car was fixed. After that, she had every intention of going home, climbing into bed and sleeping the entire weekend. Hopefully, when she woke up Monday morning, she would escape the nightmare she’d been trapped in for the past week.

      But even as she mourned the loss of her wellor-dered work environment, she couldn’t deny that her body still hummed from Caleb’s touch. And just the memory of his steamy kisses was enough to leave her aching for things she had no business wanting.

      As she walked down the hall toward the conference room to meet with a client, Alyssa finally began to relax. It had been a week since she and Caleb had returned from the Roswell trip and it appeared that he’d been right about the gossip dying down once they’d told the whole story. To her immense relief, she hadn’t heard a single word about them spending the night together or being caught in a compromising position in the elevator. Other than a few smug smiles and knowing looks from a couple of her male coworkers, it had been business as usual around the office.

      “Has anyone seen them together since Friday?” Alyssa overheard someone ask as she approached the door to the break room.

      The hushed voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

      “No. I think they’re probably trying to be a little more discreet about their affair.” The woman laughed. “I mean really, getting caught in the elevator like that, then trying to convince us that he was looking at her eye. How dumb do they think we are? I heard that half of her clothes were on the elevator floor and she was tearing at his shirt when the doors opened.”

      A chill raced through her and it felt as if ice water had replaced the blood in her veins. She wanted to scream that they were wrong in their assumptions, that it really was just as Caleb had told them. But she knew it was useless.

      “You know there’s a door connecting their offices,” she heard a third voice chime in. “There’s no telling how many times during the day they get together for a little tête-à-tête.”

      The laughter that followed the erroneous statement made Alyssa nauseous. Feeling as if her world had just caved in on her, she retraced her steps and headed back to her office. She’d heard enough to know that her professional reputation at Skerritt and Crowe had gone down in a blaze of glory—and that there was nothing left but cinders.

      “Please call Geena Phillips and have her meet with Mr. Holt in the conference room,” she said, placing the client file on Geneva’s desk.

      “Is something wrong?” the older woman asked, her obvious concern reflected in the tone of her voice. “You don’t look like you feel well.”

      “I don’t.” That was the understatement of the year, Alyssa thought as she walked into her office and closed the door.

      She’d been a naive fool to think that people weren’t talking about her and Caleb. How could she have been so stupid? The employees weren’t going to discuss their thoughts on the issue in front of the two people involved.

      Walking