Loe raamatut: «King's Million-Dollar Secret»

One

Rafe King liked a friendly wager as much as the next guy.

He just didn’t like to lose.

When he lost though, he paid up. Which was why he was standing in a driveway, sipping a cup of coffee, waiting for the rest of the work crew to show up. As one of the owners of King Construction, it had been a few years since Rafe had actually done any on-site work. Usually, he was the details man, getting parts ordered, supplies delivered. He stayed on top of the million and one jobs the company had going at any one time and trusted the contractors to get the work done right.

Now though, thanks to one bet gone bad, he’d be working on this job himself for the next few weeks.

A silver pickup truck towing a small, enclosed trailer pulled in behind him and Rafe slanted his gaze at the driver. Joe Hanna. Contractor. Friend. And the man who’d instigated the bet Rafe had lost.

Joe climbed out of his truck, barely managing to hide a smile. “Hardly knew you without the suit you’re usually wearing.”

“Funny.” Most of his life, Rafe hadn’t done the suit thing. Actually, he was more comfortable dressed as he was now, in faded jeans, black work boots and a black T-shirt with King Construction stamped across the back. “You’re late.”

“No, I’m not. You’re early.” Joe sipped at his own coffee and handed over a bag. “Want a doughnut?”

“Sure.” Rafe dug in, came up with a jelly-filled and polished it off in a few huge bites. “Where’s everyone else?”

“We don’t start work until eight a.m. They’ve still got a half hour.”

“If they were here now, they could start setting up, so they could start working at eight.” Rafe turned his gaze to the California bungalow that would be the center of his world for the next several weeks. It sat on a tree-lined street in Long Beach, behind a wide, neatly tended lawn. At least fifty years old, it looked settled, he supposed. As if the town had grown up around it.

“What’s the job here, anyway?”

“A kitchen redo,” Joe said, leaning against Rafe’s truck to study the house. “New floor, new counter. Lots of plumbing to bring the old place up to code. New drains, pipes, replastering and painting.”

“Cabinets?” Rafe asked, his mind fixing on the job at hand.

“Nope. The ones in there are solid white pine. So we’re not replacing. Just stripping, sanding and varnishing.”

He nodded, then straightened up and turned his gaze on Joe. “So do the guys working this job know who I am?”

Joe grinned. “Not a clue. Just like we talked about, your real identity will be a secret. For the length of the job here, your name is Rafe Cole. You’re a new hire.”

Better all the way around, he thought, if the guys working with him didn’t know that he was their employer. If they knew the truth, they’d be antsy and wouldn’t get the work done. Besides, this was an opportunity for Rafe to see exactly what his employees thought of the business and working for King Construction. Like that television show where employers went undercover at their own companies, he just might find out a few things.

Still, he shook his head. “Remind me again why I’m not firing you?”

“Because you lost the bet fair and square and you don’t welsh on your bets,” Joe said. “And, I warned you that my Sherry’s car was going to win the race.”

“True.” Rafe smiled and remembered the scene at the King Construction family picnic a month ago. The children of employees spent months building cars that would then race on a track made especially for the event. In the spirit of competition, Rafe had bet against Joe’s daughter’s bright pink car. Sherry had left everyone else standing at the gate. That would teach him to bet against a female.

“Good thing you let your brothers do all the talking at the picnic,” Joe was saying. “Otherwise, these guys would recognize you.”

That’s just the way Rafe liked it, he thought. He left the publicity and the more public areas of the business to two of his brothers, Sean and Lucas. Between the three of them, they had built King Construction into the biggest construction firm on the West Coast. Sean handled the corporate side of things, Lucas managed the customer base and crews, and Rafe was the go-to guy for supplies, parts and anything else needed on a site.

“Lucky me,” he muttered, then looked up at the rumble of another truck pulling up to the front of the house. Right behind him, a smaller truck parked and the two men got out and walked toward them.

Joe stepped up. “Steve, Arturo, this is Rafe Cole. He’ll be working the job with you guys.”

Steve was tall, about fifty, with a wide grin, wearing a T-shirt proclaiming a local rock band. Arturo was older, shorter and wearing a shirt stained with various colors of paint. Well, Rafe thought, he knew which one of them was the painter.

“We ready?” Steve asked.

“As we’ll ever be.” Joe turned and pointed to the side of the house. “There’s an RV access gate there. Want to put the trailer in her back yard? Easier to get to and it’ll keep thieves out.”

“Right.”

Joe positioned his truck and trailer through the gate and in minutes, they were busy. Rafe jumped in. It had been a few years since he’d spent time on a site, but that didn’t mean he’d forgotten anything. His father, Ben King, hadn’t been much of a dad, but he had run the construction arm of the King family dynasty and made sure that every one of his sons—all eight of them—spent time on job sites every summer. He figured it was a good way to remind them that being a King didn’t mean you had an easy ride.

They’d all grumbled about it at the time, but Rafe had come to think that was the one good thing their father had done for any of them.

“We did the walk-through last week,” Joe was saying and Rafe listened up. “The customer’s got everything cleaned out, so Steve and Arturo can start the demo right away. Rafe, you’re going to hook up a temporary cooking station for Ms. Charles on her enclosed patio.”

Rafe just looked at him. “Temporary cooking? She can’t eat out during a kitchen rehab like everyone else?”

“She could,” a female voice answered from the house behind them. “But she needs to be able to bake while you’re fixing her kitchen.”

Rafe slowly turned to face the woman behind that voice and felt a hard punch of something hot slam into him. She was tall, which he liked—nothing worse than having to hunch over to kiss a woman—she had curly, shoulder-length red hair and bright green eyes. She was smiling and the curve of her mouth was downright delectable.

And none of that information made him happy. He didn’t need a woman. Didn’t want a woman and if he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t be going for one who had “white picket fences” practically stamped on her forehead.

Rafe just wasn’t the home-and-hearth kind of guy.

Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the view.

“Morning, Ms. Charles,” Joe said. “Got your crew here. Arturo and Steve you met the other day during the walk-through. And this is Rafe.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said. Her green eyes locked with his and for one long, humming second there seemed to be a hell of a lot of heat in the air. “But call me Katie, please. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, after all.”

“Right. So, what’s this temporary cooking station about?” Rafe asked.

“I bake cookies,” she told him. “That’s my business and I have to be able to fill orders while the kitchen is being redone. Joe assured me it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“It won’t be,” Joe said. “Of course, you won’t be able to cook during the day. We’ll have the gas turned off while we work on the pipes. But we’ll set it up for you at the end of every day. Rafe’ll fix you up and you’ll be cooking by tonight.”

“Great. Well, I’ll let you get to it.”

She slipped inside again and Rafe took that second to admire the view of her from the rear. She had a great behind, hugged by worn denim that defined every curve and tempted a man to see what exactly was underneath those jeans. He took a long, deep breath, hoping the crisp morning air would dissipate some of the heat pumping through him. It didn’t, so he was left with a too-tight body and a long day staring him in the face. So he told himself to ignore the woman. He was only here long enough to pay off a bet. Then he’d be gone.

“Okay,” Joe was saying, “you guys move Katie’s stove where she wants it, then Rafe can get her set up while the demolition’s going on.”

Nothing Rafe would like better than to set her up—for some one-on-one time. Instead though, he followed Steve and Arturo around to the back of the house.

The noise was incredible.

After an hour, Katie’s head was pounding in time with the sledge hammers being swung in her grandmother’s kitchen.

It was weird, having strangers in the house. Even weirder paying them to destroy the kitchen she’d pretty much grown up in. But it would all be worth it, she knew. She just hoped she could live through the construction.

Not to mention crabby carpenters.

Desperate to get a little distance between herself and the constant battering of noise, she walked to the enclosed patio. Snugged between the garage and the house, the room was long and narrow. There were a few chairs, a picnic table that Katie had already covered with a vinyl tablecloth and stacks of cookie sheets waiting to be filled. Her mixing bowls were on a nearby counter and her temporary pantry was a card table. This was going to be a challenge for sure. But there was the added plus of having a gorgeous man stretched out behind the stove grumbling under his breath.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

The man jerked up, slammed his head into the corner of the stove and muttered an oath that Katie was glad she hadn’t been able to hear. Flashing her a dark look out of beautiful blue eyes, he said, “It’s going as well as hooking up an ancient stove to a gas pipe can go.”

“It’s old, but it’s reliable,” Katie told him. “Of course, I’ve got a new one on order.”

“Can’t say as I blame you,” Rafe answered, dipping back behind the stove again. “This thing’s gotta be thirty years old.”

“At least,” she said, dropping into a nearby chair. “My grandmother bought it new before I was born and I’m twenty-seven.”

He glanced up at her and shook his head.

Her breath caught in her chest. Really, he was not what she had expected. Someone as gorgeous as he was should have been on the cover of GQ, not working a construction site. But he seemed to know what he was doing and she had to admit that just looking at him gave her the kind of rush she hadn’t felt in way too long.

And that kind of thinking was just dangerous, so she steered the conversation to something light.

“Just because something’s old doesn’t mean it’s useless.” She grinned. “That stove might be temperamental, but I know all of its tricks. It cooks a little hot, but I’ve learned to work around it.”

“And yet,” he pointed out with a half smile, “you’ve got a new stove coming.”

She shrugged and her smile faded a little into something that felt like regret. “New kitchen, new stove. But I think I’ll miss this one’s occasional hiccups. Makes baking more interesting.”

“Right.” He looked as if he didn’t believe her and couldn’t have cared less. “You’re really going to be cooking out here?”

The sounds of cheerful demolition rang out around them and Katie heard the two guys in the kitchen laughing about something. She wondered for a second or two what could possibly be funny about tearing out a fifty-year-old kitchen, then told herself it was probably better if she didn’t know.

Instead, she glanced around at the patio/makeshift kitchen setup. Windows ringed the room, terra-cotta-colored tiles made up the floor and there was a small wetbar area in the corner that Katie would be using as a cleanup area. She sighed a little, already missing the farmhouse-style kitchen that was, at the moment, being taken down to its skeleton.

But when it was finished, she’d have the kitchen of her dreams. She smiled to herself, enjoying the mental images.

“Something funny?”

“What?” She looked at the man still sprawled on the tile floor. “No. Just thinking about how the kitchen will be when you guys are done.”

“Not worried about the mess and the work?”

“Nope,” she said and pushed out of the chair. She walked toward him, leaned on the stove top and looked over the back at him. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not looking forward to it and the thought of baking out here is a little high on the ye gods scale. Still, the mess can’t be avoided,” she said. “As for the work that will be done, I did my research. Checked into all the different construction companies and got three estimates.”

“So, why’d you choose King Construction?” he asked, dragging what looked like a silver snake from the back of the stove to a pipe jutting out from the garage wall.

“It wasn’t easy,” she murmured, remembering things she would just as soon put behind her permanently.

“Why’s that?” He sounded almost offended. “King Construction has a great reputation.”

Katie smiled and said, “It’s nice that you’re so protective of the company you work for.”

“Yeah, well. The Kings have been good to me.” He scowled a bit and refocused on the task at hand. “So if you don’t like King Construction, what’re we doing here?”

Sighing a little, Katie told herself she really had to be more discreet. She hadn’t meant to say anything at all about the King family. After all, Rafe and the other guys worked for them. But now that she had, she wasn’t going to try to lie or squirm her way out of it, either. “I’m sure the construction company is excellent. All of the referrals I checked out were more than pleased with the work done.”

“But …?” He patted the wall, stood up and looked at her, waiting for her to finish.

Katie straightened up as he did and noticed that though she was five foot nine, he had at least four inches on her. He also had the palest blue eyes she had ever seen, fringed by thick eyelashes that most women would kill for. His black eyebrows looked as though they were always drawn into a frown. His mouth was full and tempting and his jaws were covered with just the slightest hint of black stubble. His shoulders were broad, his waist narrow and those jeans of his really did look amazingly good on him. A fresh tingle of interest swept through her almost before she realized it.

It was nice to feel something for an ordinary, everyday, hard-working guy. She’d had enough of rich men with more money than sense or manners.

He was still waiting, so she gave him a bright smile and said, “Let’s just say it’s a personal matter between me and one member of the King family.”

If anything, the perpetual scowl on his face deepened. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not important.” She shook her head and laughed. “Honestly, I’m sorry I said anything. I only meant that it was hard for me to hire King Construction, knowing what I do about the King family men.”

“Really.” He folded his arms over his chest and asked, “What exactly do you think you know about the Kings?”

His gaze was narrowed and fixed on her. She felt the power of that glare right down to her bones and even Katie was surprised at the tingle of something tempting washing through her. Suddenly nervous, she glanced over the back of the stove to look at the pipes as if she knew what she was seeing. Still, it gave her a second to gather her thoughts. When she felt steady again, she said, “You mean beside the fact that they’re too rich and too snobby?”

“Snobby?”

“Yes.” Katie huffed out a breath and said, “Look I know you work for them and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I only know that I never want anything to do with any of them again.”

“Sounds ominous.”

She laughed at the idea. Katie doubted very much that Cordell King had given her a second thought since he’d abruptly disappeared from her life six months ago. No, the Kings steamrolled their way through the world, expecting everyone else to get out of their way. Well, from now on, she was going to oblige them.

“Oh, I don’t think any of the Kings of California are staying up nights wondering why Katie Charles hates their guts.”

“You might be surprised,” he said, dusting his hands off as he looked at her. She shifted a little under that direct stare. “You know, I’m a curious kind of guy. And I’m not going to be happy until I know why you hate the Kings.”

“Curiosity isn’t always a good thing,” she said. “Sometimes you find out things you’d rather not know.”

“Better to be informed anyway, don’t you think?”

“Not always,” Katie said, remembering how badly she’d felt when Cordell broke things off with her. She’d just had to ask him why and the answer had only made her feel worse.

Rafe smiled at her then and she noted how his features softened and even his eyes lost that cool, dispassionate gleam. Her heartbeat jittered unsteadily in her chest as her body reacted to the man’s pure male appeal. Then, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, that smile of his widened and he actually winked at her.

But a moment later, he was all business again.

“Your temporary gas line is hooked up. But remember, we’re shutting the gas off during the day. We’ll let you know when it’s safe to use the stove.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She took a single step backward and Rafe walked past her, his arm brushing against hers as he did. Heat flashed through her unexpectedly and Katie took in a deep breath. Unfortunately, that meant she also got a good long whiff of his cologne. Something foresty and cool and almost as intriguing as the man himself. “And Rafe?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t repeat any of what I said about the King family. I mean, I probably shouldn’t have brought it up and I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable while you’re working here.”

He nodded. “Won’t say a word. But like I said, one of these days, I’m going to hear the rest of your story.”

Katie shook her head and said, “I don’t think so. The Kings are part of my past and that’s where I want to leave them.”

By the end of the first day, Katie was asking herself why she had ever decided to remodel. Having strangers in and out of her house all day was weird, having noisy strangers only made it worse.

Now though, they were gone and she was left alone in the shell of what had been her grandmother’s kitchen. Standing in the center of the room, she did a slow circle, her gaze moving over everything.

The floor had been torn up, right down to the black subfloor that was older than Katie. The walls were half torn down and the cabinet doors had been removed and stacked neatly in the back yard. She caught a glimpse of naked pipes and groaned in sympathy with the old house.

“Regrets?”

She jumped and whirled around. Her heart jolted into a gallop even as she blew out a relieved breath. “Rafe. I thought you left with the others.”

He grinned as if he knew that he’d startled her. Then, leaning one shoulder on the doorjamb, he folded his arms across his chest. “I stayed to make sure your gas hookup in the back room was working.”

“And is it?”

“All set.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

He shrugged and straightened up languidly as if he had all the time in the world. “It’s my job.”

“I know, but I appreciate it anyway.”

“You’re welcome.” His gaze moved over the room as hers had a moment before. “So, what do you think?”

“Honestly?” She cringed a little. “It’s horrifying.”

He laughed. “Just remember. Destruction first. Then creation.”

“I’ll try to remember.” She walked closer to where the sink had been. Now, of course, it was just a ripped-out wall with those naked pipes staring at her in accusation. “Hard to believe the room can come back from this.”

“I’ve seen worse.”

“I don’t know whether to be relieved or appalled at that statement,” she admitted.

“Go with relieved,” he assured her. He walked closer, stuffing his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “Some of the jobs I’ve seen took months to finish.”

“So you’ve done a lot of this work?”

“My share,” he said with a shrug. “Though this is the first job site I’ve worked on in three or four years.”

The house was quiet … blessedly so, after a full day of hammers crashing into walls and wood. The decimated kitchen echoed with their voices, and outside, the afternoon was fading into twilight. There was a feeling of intimacy between them that maybe only strangers thrown together could experience.

She looked at him, taking her time to enjoy the view, and wondered. About him. About who he was, what he liked—and a part of her wondered why she wondered.

Then again, it had been a long time since she’d been interested in a man. Having your heart bruised was enough to make a woman just a little nervous about getting back into the dating pool again.

But it couldn’t hurt to look, could it?

“So if you weren’t doing construction, what were you doing instead?”

He glanced at her, long enough for her to see a mental shutter slam down across his eyes. Then he shifted his gaze away and ran one hand across the skeleton of a cabinet. “Different things. Still, good to get back and work with my hands again.” Then he winked. “Even if it is for the Kings.”

He’d shut her out deliberately. Closing the door on talking about his past. He was watching her as if he expected her to dig a little deeper. But how could she? She had already told him that she felt curiosity was overrated. And if she asked about his past, didn’t that give him the right to ask about hers? Katie didn’t exactly want to chat about how she’d been wined, dined and then unceremoniously dumped by Cordell King either, did she?

Still, she couldn’t help being curious about Rafe Cole and just what he might be hiding.

“So,” he said after a long moment of silence stretched out between them. “Guess I’d better get going and let you get busy baking cookies.”

“Right.” She started forward at the same time he did and they bumped into each other.

Instantly, heat blossomed between them. Their bodies close together, there was one incredible, sizzling moment in which neither of them spoke because they simply didn’t have to.

Something was there. Heat. Passion.

Katie looked up into Rafe’s eyes and knew he was feeling exactly what she was. And judging by his expression, he wasn’t much happier about it.

She hadn’t been looking for a romantic connection, but it seemed that she had stumbled on one anyway.

He lifted one hand to touch her face and stopped himself just short of his fingertips tracing along her jaw. Smiling softly, he said, “This could get … interesting.”

Understatement of the century.