I didn’t want to leave, so I hadn’t.
And I couldn’t regret what had happened. It was the most intense pleasure I’d ever experienced. I never imagined sex could be like that. Could make me feel like that.
Though I wasn’t a virgin, I was pretty close to one. Reid made me feel like I’d never been touched before…and that I’d never be touched that way again by anyone else.
No man could possibly compare to Reid Wolfe. No man on earth or in heaven.
Lydia delivered the food—I averted my gaze the whole time she was in the room setting it up—and we sat down at the small table between the two wingback chairs in the bay window alcove.
The sun was just beginning to set, and the pink and orange hues over the skyline were beautiful indeed. I couldn’t help a satisfied sigh. “It’s a gorgeous sunset.”
“Believe it or not, the Manhattan smog makes it quite pretty.”
I shook my head. “It’s beautiful to me. I don’t get to see the sunset much, as I’m always working during that time.”
“What about the nights your show is dark?”
“I’m not usually outside. You’ve seen where I live. Not really a good view anyway.”
Reid picked up the bottle of wine that had come with the dinner. “Would you like a drink?”
I shook my head. I didn’t want anything to detract from the natural high coursing through me. “I really don’t drink much. Not after being so dependent on drugs for so long.”
“You drank Champagne at the wedding.”
“I did. It was a special occasion.” Plus I’d been nervous as hell, meeting the Wolfes and having just told them my story.
“Tell me about your addiction,” Reid said.
I averted my gaze. It wasn’t something I talked about. “Alcohol was never the problem. It was meth.”
His eyes widened. “Meth? For how long?”
“Years.”
He regarded me as I took a bite of salad, his gaze focused on my mouth.
I chewed and swallowed. “The settlement from your father,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re wondering why I don’t have meth teeth. I have good teeth, so I had minimal problems from the drug use, but the problems I had I got fixed with some of that money.”
“I see.”
Did he think less of me now? He hardly could. He already knew my history of addiction and rehab. He just didn’t know I’d been a meth head. I took another bite of my salad. Even though we’d just had sex for a couple hours, the appetite I’d worked up had waned quickly.
I didn’t like to think about my past.
“You’re a strong woman, Zee,” Reid said.
I lifted my eyebrows. Not what I expected.
“You took the bull by the horns,” he continued. “You got clean. You did what you had to do to survive.”
“I could have turned your father in,” I said.
He shook his head. “It was better that you didn’t. He would have made your life a living hell. He would have gotten out of it somehow.”
“But I might have been able to save some of the others.”
“Don’t play the what-if game,” Reid said. “I’m a master at it, and it never changes a damned thing.”
I’d told myself the same thing many times, and Reid was right. I’d made the decision I thought was best at the time.
And it had all led me here.
To this man.
Reid Wolfe.
I was falling hard.
48
Reid
After making sure Zee was comfortable after our evening and subsequent night together, I headed down in the elevator to the meeting Rock had called.
All eyes went wide when our mother walked in.
“What the—” Rock started.
“I invited her,” I said. “She’s promised to help. Right, Mom?”
My mother, looking pale and a little bit green, nodded. “Yes. I know none of you killed your father. I didn’t either.”
“You wouldn’t kill off your gravy train,” Rock said snidely.
Lacey slid him a stink-eye for the comment. No one else said anything.
So I spoke up. “We all have our problems with our mother. We need to put them aside for now, at least until this case is solved. We need to work together to make sure the guilty party is found.”
Riley bit her lower lip. Matt sat next to her, holding her hand.
I stood and made introductions. Mom hadn’t yet met Matt and Charlie. It was awkward, but I got it done in two minutes flat.
“Lace and I have come up with a working theory,” Rock said. “There’s no evidence that anyone other than Dad himself made the phone call to me from Reid’s office, posing as Reid.”
“You do all sound a lot alike,” Mom observed.
“Right, so here’s the theory.” Rock drew in a breath. “Dad was planning to stage his own death implicating all of us, but someone got wind of his plan and actually killed him, knowing they’d get away with it because Dad had put the whole plan in place to implicate us.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Have you—”
“Yes,” Rock said, appearing to read my mind. “The body we cremated was definitely Dad. The body the police found was definitely Dad. He is not alive. We’ve checked it out and gone over and over it with a fine-toothed comb.”
Riley nodded, trembling. “I identified the body in the morgue. It was Dad. I swear to you.”
“Suspects, then,” I said. “Father Jim, of course. Hank Morgan?”
Rock nodded. “Lacey and I believe he is a suspect. Dad had a considerable amount of pull in the NYPD. And then there’s Irene Lucent.”
My eyes shot wide. “You’ve talked to her?”
“No. We haven’t found her yet, if she exists at all.” He turned to Mom. “What do you know about her?”
“Nothing,” Mom said quietly.
“I believe her,” I said. “She wouldn’t have married Dad if she’d known there was someone else who could possibly have split his pie with her.”
“Fair enough,” Rock said. “We need to find her. But would she really be behind Dad’s murder? Why not take care of him years ago?”
“Maybe,” Roy, who was usually quiet, began, “Dad had decided to go back to Irene.”
“Give up his billion-dollar enterprise?” Rock said. “Doesn’t sound like him.”
“Are you kidding?” Roy continued. “He probably planned to live the high life on some Caribbean island while getting reports of the chaos his will had caused. Forcing you to come here and run the company. Watching Reid have to give up what should have been his birthright. Watching us all be implicated. He had all the hoops set up and ready for us to—”
“Oh my God,” Riley broke in.
“What?” Several of us asked in unison.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before,” she said. “Actually, I do know why. I’ve kind of erased it from my mind. Dad has an island. A private island.”
My heart threatened to jump out of my chest. “How do you know?” I asked.