Miss Prim And The Maverick Millionaire. Nina Singh

food on others’ laps.

      She tried to take a deep breath. She probably shouldn’t have done that. It was reckless and impulsive. Rather than calmly and reasonably defending herself, she’d let her emotions take over. She’d succumbed to the urge to lash out.

      Just as her mother would have done.

      And she was her mother’s daughter. The apple and the tree and all that. Why did she ever think she could escape that simple truth? The rest of the world wouldn’t ever let her forget that fact.

      It didn’t matter how hard she worked, or how many hours she put in. All the years of studying and working her butt off didn’t mean a thing to people like Cabe Jordan. The only thing they saw when they looked at her was where she’d come from.

      She’d been fooling herself.

      Well, if Cabe hadn’t intended to fire her right there on the spot, there was no doubt he would now. She’d dumped his lunch in his lap! Never mind that she’d never actually stolen anything. She wouldn’t even get a chance to defend her innocence now.

      She no doubt should have handled it better. But she’d been barely functioning given what little sleep she’d gotten and the stress of being prepared for Cabe’s visit.

      How could he have even suggested such a thing?

      She didn’t realize she’d asked the question out loud until a voice across the room responded.

      “Trust me, it wasn’t easy.”

      Jenna’s head snapped up. Cabe stood in her office doorway, pants stained and shirt wet. She resisted the urge to cover her mouth in horror.

      She pulled her planner out of the desk drawer. “I was just leaving.”

      “Could you recommend a good dry cleaner first?”

      He had the nerve to joke at her predicament? God help her, if the coffee tray were still here she might have very well dumped more on him.

      “Jenna, listen—”

      “What?” she interrupted. “What could you possibly say to me? Do you want me to confess?”

      He stepped into the room and shut the door gently behind him. “I simply want to talk.”

      “About how I stole from you?”

      “I was given the information from my head of security. About a theft at the Boston store.”

      She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Right. And then you decided that if something had been stolen, it must have been that no-good Jenna Townsend. She must have had a hand in the whole mess. It only makes sense. She comes from bad stock. She’s never had much to begin with and she can’t be trusted.”

      “Jenna, stop. That’s not how this all came to be.”

      She merely glared at him. How dare he deny it?

      He walked up to where she stood and gestured to the chair. “Please sit.”

      “Why? Would you like to accuse me some more? Should I call an attorney?” Now that she’d said it, she had the frightening thought that she may actually need one.

      Her vision grew dark. This couldn’t be happening. After today she may very well have no job. And no hope of finding one if word got out that she couldn’t be trusted. Despite all the years of hard work and sacrifice, she was going to end up penniless on the street. Exactly what she’d feared all along.

      To think, the cause of her nightmare would be none other than Cabe Jordan, the man of her teenage daydreams. Who would have thought?

      “Jenna, let’s try to talk this out.”

      She lifted her bag. “Perhaps you want to go through this. Maybe pat me down before you let me go.”

      He blinked. “Pat you down? No. Of course not. I just want to clear all this up.” He leaned over with both palms on the desk between them. “About a week ago my head of security requested an urgent meeting. Apparently, someone realized that a piece of rare jewelry at the Boston store had been switched out during a routine security department inventory. The real piece had been replaced with a cheap replica that looked exactly like the original.”

      “And you assumed I did it. Because you know where I come from and what I might be capable of.”

      He held one hand up. “Hold on. That’s not what happened. The management team is always considered under such circumstances. It’s just routine.”

      At her silence, he continued. “Additionally, there’s an electronic log of anyone who’s used their key to access that particular case, the one with the higher-end items. Your key was the one used.”

      Her blood went cold. But that just couldn’t be. “Who says?”

      “My head of security up at headquarters. He’s always been very good at his job. I had no reason to distrust him.”

      Of course he didn’t. “But you had every reason to distrust me.”

      Something shifted in his eyes. “Listen, Jenna. The only reason I came here personally was because it was you. I wanted to get to the bottom of it myself, do some investigating. But there’s a sudden matter that needs my attention with a store opening in the Caribbean. I have to get down there. In my haste, I handled it very badly. I see that now.”

      People tended to do that with her, rush to judgment. She couldn’t expect to be granted the benefit of the doubt, not given where she came from. Cabe may claim objectivity by saying he came to look into the matter personally, but it hardly mattered. No, she would have to find a way to fully clear her name, in such a way that there would never be any more doubt.

      “There has to be some kind of mistake,” she muttered, trying to think. There had to be an explanation, a way to prove her innocence. But how? She suddenly felt deflated. How could this be happening? Pulling out her desk chair, she plopped herself into it.

      A sudden, encouraging thought occurred to her. She looked up at him. “The video? There has to be video footage. We have cameras all over the store.”

      He gave her a sympathetic look. “The video surveillance system was conveniently disengaged for a forty-eight-hour period on the fifteenth and sixteenth of last month. We believe that’s when the theft occurred.”

      Oh, God. His words knocked the wind right out of her. If there was no video to exonerate her, she had no other ideas. Her eyes began to sting. There was nothing she could do, no way to clear her name. She had no job. She had no real family. She’d probably end up with a criminal record. Despite everything, all the years of busting her behind to get ahead, she’d end up like her mom after all.

      Cabe Jordan would always question whether she was a no-good thief.

      Wait a minute.

      She snapped her head up. “Wait. What date did you just say? The fifteenth of March?”

      He nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.”

      “You’re certain?”

      “That’s what I was told.”

      She knew it! Hopeful relief surged in her chest. “Cabe, I wasn’t even in town the week of the fifteenth. I was away at a jewelry designers’ expo in San Diego.”

      He quirked an eyebrow. “And?”

      “And my keys were safely locked up in the main vault right here in this building. Including the one that would have opened that particular case. I have proof.”

      * * *

      He didn’t want to examine why he was so relieved. For some reason, Cabe had been hopeful all along that Jenna was completely innocent. And apparently she could prove it. “Proof? You have a way to prove your key was locked up?”

      She nodded triumphantly. “Yes. The security officer on call the day before I left signed off on the