One of the things Kirk had inherited from his mother was dogged determination. His phone had buzzed at least half a dozen times while Bethany slept peacefully in his arms. Cursing under his breath he slid out of bed, making sure not to wake her. He knew it was his mother calling before he even managed to yank his phone out of his pocket.
“What is it, Mom?” he answered through gritted teeth.
“Where are you?” his mother demanded, her tone icy. “I’ve been looking all over for you. For you and that woman.”
He clenched his jaw, fighting to keep his temper in check. His mother was up to something, but if he started arguing with her now he’d wake Bethany. “What is this about?”
“Your cousin and his new wife are almost on their way out,” she said. “Why don’t you come meet me so we can say goodbye to them?”
“Are they leaving immediately?” Kirk was in nothing but his boxer briefs. He was going to need time to freshen up to see them off.
“They’re leaving soon. Don’t bother bringing your date, since she’ll likely slow you down.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just hurry, will you?” His mother hung up, leaving him to contemplate what she might be up to.
This was more than likely a ploy for her to talk to him without Bethany around. Still, he did want to say goodbye to his cousin. Sighing, he put his phone away, grabbed his clothes, and headed into the adjoining bathroom to get cleaned up.
Fifteen minutes later, he was back in his clothes and stepping out of the guest room. He’d left a note for Bethany on the bedside table so she wouldn’t worry in case she woke up to find him gone. Knowing that she’d be waiting for him in the guest room made him want to race back inside and wait for her to wake up. Having sex with her hadn’t cooled his desire for her one bit. Truth be told, he wanted her again. And sex wasn’t all that he wanted.
He headed to the other side of the clubhouse to meet his mother in the library. As he made his way past dozens of wedding guests, Kirk realized what he really wanted with Bethany was to get to know her. She’d said she wanted to discuss something with him, and he knew it had to be important. Maybe she would end up telling him she didn’t want anything more, but he wasn’t going to give her up that easily. What had started off as a phony relationship to fool his father was turning into… something. Just what that something was, he didn’t know. But Kirk was determined to find out.
His mother was waiting in the clubhouse library—more an office for club members than anything else—tapping her foot impatiently by one of the bookcases.
“Ready to say goodbye to Ian and Margaret?” he asked.
“They left an hour ago,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively.
“What do you mean?” He scowled. “I should have known that was some trick to get me here.” Disappointment laced through him. He was sorry he had missed the chance to say goodbye to his cousin, and now he was pissed that his mother had lied to get him away from Bethany. “What is this about? Now that you have me here, why don’t you spit it out?”
“Oh, so now you want me to say something. You seemed very eager to get away from me hours ago.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously and she crossed over to him. “Where have you been anyway?”
“Does that matter?”
Her nose wrinkled in distaste. “Did you sleep with that woman?”
“What woman?”
“Don’t try to play games with me,” his mother snapped. “You know very well who I mean. The woman you brought as your date. That cloying blonde.”
He scoffed. “Cloying? You barely said more than three words to her.”
“Answer the question, Kirk.” She folded her arms. “Did you sleep with her?”
“I don’t have to dignify that with an answer.” In anger, he turned around to leave.
Her hand on his arm stopped him in his tracks.
“Do you care about her?” his mother asked.
Kirk stared down at her hand. A hand decorated with the jewels she’d never been able to have when he was a boy. A hand that wasn’t as soft as the hands of the upper-class women who had never done a day of real work in their lives. As well-dressed as she was now, his mother had started off dirt-poor. Knowing that, he hesitated to leave.
Clawing her way to the top had only intensified her paranoia. According to her, everyone was out to get them. Out to destroy the Sterlings for their good fortune. Maybe that was why she felt threatened by Bethany. His mother must have thought Bethany was up to no good. Or maybe there was another reason. A reason that infuriated him.
“What kind of question is that?” he demanded. “I brought her to the wedding, didn’t I?”
“She’s not the girl for you,” his mother said harshly.
He pulled his arm back, shocked at her words. “I know you’ve been rich for a long time now, but I never thought of you as a snob. You don’t have the right to look down on her. Her family might have ended up poor—”
She laughed bitterly. “Poor? You really have no idea, do you?”
“I see what this is.” He went tense with anger. “You know that Dad wants me to find stability. Stability would get the old families to invest in our bank like Dad wants. Having a steady relationship gets me that stability and you can’t stand it. Because if Dad approves of the job I do, that means I’ll finally be named president. Over you. Over your favorite son.”
“Harrison isn’t my favorite,” she said sharply. “You know I love you and your brother equally.”
Bringing up his younger brother was only going to derail the conversation. He folded his arms and stared down at her. “Why do you even care if I have feelings for Bethany?”
She looked stricken. Like his words had struck a nerve. “Because you’re my son. Believe it or not, I do want what’s best for you. And that woman is not it.”
“What’s wrong with her, then?” he asked.
“She’s not what she appears to be,” his mother replied.
“I know about that already. She started off rich, and now her family is poor. It’s a sore subject for her, so I suggest you drop it. I don’t care about her income bracket. Neither should Dad and neither should you.”
“Did that girl tell you what her family did to end up poor?”
He shrugged. “Not in so many words, though I’m almost certain the Livingstons have something to do with it.”
“Oh, they have something to do with it all right.” Another bitter laugh.
“A lot of people got screwed over by Lloyd Livingston,” he said in exasperation. “It isn’t a character flaw.”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
“Then enlighten me,” he commanded.
“How can I, when you obviously don’t want to hear the truth?” she retorted.
“The truth? So you’re accusing Bethany of being a liar. You’re telling me she wasn’t ruined by Lloyd Livingston.”
“Oh, she didn’t lie about that,” his mother said with a sneer. “She told you the truth about that. I suppose Lloyd Livingston did ruin her. In a way.”
“How?”
“She really did lose all of her wealth, Kirk,” she replied. “Lost it all because Lloyd Livingston is her father.”
There was no way he’d heard that right. For some reason his brain was rejecting what his mother had just told him. That didn’t stop the bile from rising in his throat. “What are talking about?”
“That girl is a Livingston,” she spat out. “It’s been ten years, but I’d recognize that face anywhere. Though she’s a Livingston through and through, she looks exactly like her mother. Remember her mother? That simpering, horrible debutante who spent her life humiliating every working-class person she ever came across.”
He barely remembered Lloyd Livingston’s wife. Probably because she was the type to spend all her energy on cocktail parties rather than business. Wracking his brain, the image of a haughty blond woman flashed in his mind. “I suppose there might be a passing resemblance. But wouldn’t I remember Lloyd Livingston’s daughter?”
“She was about sixteen at the time of her father’s arrest. Still in high school,” his mom explained. “You were in your last year of college. I doubt Bethany was on your radar.”
“That was their daughter’s name?” he asked. “Bethany?”
She averted her gaze, as if his line of questioning unnerved her. “I’m almost certain of it.”
“Mom,” he began in a warning tone, “if this is all a ploy to ruin things with me and Dad—”
“It’s not,” she interrupted. “I swear it’s not. A quick internet search should put an end to your doubts. Maybe you should have looked into her from the start.”
That was true. Jesus, had he been so taken with Bethany that he’d ignored his usual security measures? He’d always made sure to look into new people in his life, but he hadn’t done that with her. Kirk had just accepted everything she had told him. “She came to the bank as a client, though,” he said, more to himself than to his mother. “I’d have no reason to suspect her. Besides, she was looking for a loan. Why would she bother lying if that was what she was after?”
“Because that wasn’t what she was after,” his mother muttered.
“What was she after? Me?” He shook his head. “No. She had no way of knowing that I’d be the one handling her loan at the bank that day. It’s obvious that she was there to get a loan.”
“Well, unlike you, she recognized who was sitting in front of her.” Her nostrils flared as her anger mounted. “If she didn’t come to the bank for nefarious purposes, she certainly changed her plans very quickly when she saw you.”
“That doesn’t make sense. She wrote Bethany Walker on all her forms, which means she didn’t give me some fake name. It’s her legal name. I know that for a fact.”
She laughed derisively. “So, she changed her name. If that crook Lloyd Livingston was my father I’d change my name, too. She probably pulled a lot of strings to bury her old name.”
“You really expect me to believe that she came in for a loan, figured out who I was, and then immediately decided to concoct a bunch of lies?”
“Why are you fighting this?” She sighed in frustration when he didn’t respond. “Of course. You don’t want to believe this because you care for her.”
It was like the air was being knocked right out of him. For all of this to be true, Bethany would have to be a master manipulator. A liar. The magnitude of the betrayal was almost too much to comprehend. Had inviting her to stay at his property been his idea, or had she manipulated him into doing it?
A terrible thought made his insides knot up painfully. They’d just had sex. She’d responded with so much passion. Held nothing back once they were in bed together. If all that had been fake, she was a damn good actress. An actress with the power to seduce him so utterly he was still grasping at anything that might absolve her.
“Look her up if you still doubt me,” his mother went on.
With anger making his temples pound, he yanked his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He did a quick internet search for Bethany Livingston. A handful of photos of a young blond girl appeared on the screen. Kirk stared, trying to see if he recognized the teenager in the photos. Her hair was blond, only the short bob was much closer to an ice blond than to the long golden waves she had now. Same blue eyes. Plus, the teenager’s face was rounder, though with a familiar upturned nose and confident smile. There was none of the usual teen awkwardness in the photos. Bethany Livingston had been a girl who had it all and knew it. His Bethany might have a similar confidence, but she had a jaded wisdom in her eyes that rarely came with inherited wealth. Could they really be the same person?
“They look similar.” He held up his phone to her, realizing now that he must have recognized Bethany for this very reason. Somehow his subconscious had known he must have glimpsed her before all those years ago.
“Because they’re the same person,” she said. “You know she’s up to something. I can see it in your eyes.”
“She couldn’t have known I’d be there.” His defense of Bethany was going around in circles. Mostly because, deep down, he knew something wasn’t right. Didn’t add up.
“Kirk, you don’t find it strange that she showed up right after her father’s release? The Livingstons are planning something. Just like I knew they would,” she hissed. “If you’d listened to me or your father, none of this would have happened.”
“What does Dad have to do with this?”
“He told you that we need to understand the world we’re now a part of. We need to understand how the upper class works. How these old-money families operate. Fit in with them.” She blew out an angry breath. “But you didn’t want that, did you?”
Silence fell. There was nothing to say to that. His mother was right. Dad had demanded that he learn everything about fitting in with the new world of wealth they had barged into. Instead, in his arrogance, he’d practically rejected that idea. The only reason he’d bothered even taking that wine lesson from Bethany was to spend more time with her. Maybe if he’d actually taken the time to learn about the upper class, he would have been able to recognize Bethany. Or, at the very least, he would have figured out how to beat her at her own game.
She pursed her lips. “Well, there’s no use dredging that up now. Leave her here and cut off all contact with her.”
“It’s not that easy.” He rubbed his temples in a futile effort to clear his mind. “She’s been staying on my property.”
“That woman has been living with you?” His mother stared daggers at him as she balled up her hands. “Of all the insane, reckless things you could have done. That’s what her plan is. She probably conned her way into your life so that she could snoop around your house.”
“Anything worth finding is in the study, and that’s locked down. There’s no way she could break in without me knowing,” he ground out. He had screwed up, but the last thing they needed was hysterics. They needed to contain this as much as possible. Figure out exactly what Bethany was up to.
Kirk forced down a breath, struggling to breathe as the full force of the betrayal hit him again. It was as if he heart had been chewed up and spit out. Spit out by a cunning, seductive enemy he hadn’t seen coming. His mother had seen it, though. Too bad he hadn’t listened. If he had, he wouldn’t feel like such a fool now. He’d fallen for Bethany’s charm. Fallen under the spell of her ravishing beauty.
Her passion had ignited a fire inside him. Not to mention her courage through all her financial troubles. Kirk had thought she was extraordinary. Brilliant and worldly. Low lucky could a man be to have someone like her be so genuinely interested in him? When she had rejected his offer to pay her for coming to the wedding, he had really started to trust her. Because he’d believed that meant she wasn’t interested in him for his money like so many others. Now he knew that money didn’t interest her because something else must have. But what? Was she after some twisted revenge?
“So, maybe that’s why she’s still hanging around,” his mother said. “She hasn’t accomplished her goal yet because she hasn’t been able to get into your study.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she started to finger the string of pearls around her neck. “Hold off on confronting her.”
He nodded. “I want to hold off until I’m completely sure that she’s Livingston’s daughter. In the meantime, I can also figure out exactly what she’s after. Find out if she’s managed to get some kind of dirt on us.”
“I don’t need to remind you of the consequences of the truth about us getting out.” His mother grabbed the pearls around her neck and clamped down so hard her knuckles went white. “We cannot have our secrets aired out in public. Do you hear me, Kirk?” Her eyes were on him, but it was like she was staring at something in the distance. The look in them was crazed, as if she was ready to snap at any moment.
Every business had its secrets. But their family secrets could knock down the entire empire they had spent years building. If they lost everything because he got ensnared by a beautiful woman, he’d never forgive himself. He wouldn’t rest until he saved his family from whatever Bethany was planning.
He had actually entertained the idea of pursuing something more with her. For the first time in a long time, he’d thought he had met a woman who was right for him. Bethany must have inherited her father’s talent for lying so easily. She had probably told Kirk everything he wanted to hear in order to seduce him, to get what she wanted. Was he that much of an open book to her?
“I need to get out of here,” he bit out. It was like the walls were closing in on him. “This discussion does not leave this room. Not until we have more concrete information to give Dad.”
“Agreed. No sense in worrying your father with this just yet. You call me the second you learn any new information about that girl. I’ll dig up everything I can about what Lloyd Livingston has been up to since his release.” She paused to squeeze his shoulder. “I am sorry that things have turned out this way.”
It was cold comfort. Because he now had to harden his heart to a woman he had just started to care for. He was going to have to pretend he didn’t know who she really was. Worst of all, the part of him that still cared about her wanted her to come clean. Own up to her lies so that she could prove she wasn’t completely horrible. Shaking away that sentiment, he sauntered towards the door. Now wasn’t the time to let her continue fooling him. With his options running out, he now had no choice but to beat Bethany at her own game.
