and a large bouquet of white roses.
Seeing it, Carly’s pretty face crumpled.
Nathan put his arm around her protectively, meeting Ben’s gaze over the top of her head and letting him know he could handle a few tears. With obvious reluctance, Ben did his duty by showing Sonny around the room, his face pensive and his mouth hard.
Like most men, overt displays of emotion were not his style, but intuition told her how difficult the situation was for him. His concern for Carly was marked, and he must have felt guilty about what had passed between him and Lisette. The girl had fled the safety of his house-and the warmth of his bed, to put a finer point on it-right into the hands of a killer. Having Lisette’s mother pant after him at her own daughter’s wake was incredibly awkward.
Underneath all that, at a time like this, he must be missing Olivia desperately.
“Let’s go outside,” he said, so Sonny knew the ambience was getting to him. When she nodded, he took her by the hand and they strolled like lovers through the gardens flanking the side of the house, pausing on the west-facing lawn to take in the ocean air.
On a clear day, you could see all the way to Catalina Island from Mount Soledad. It was a crystal clear day.
He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles before he released her hand, making her tingle with unexpected pleasure. “You know who you look like, with your hair that color?”
She touched the black velvet band on the top of her head, feeling self-conscious. “Winona Ryder?” she asked hopefully.
He laughed. “No. James.”
Sonny felt the blood drain from her face.
“You’re much prettier than he is, of course,” he said, backpedaling. “Not that he isn’t handsome. Carly seems to think so anyway.”
She found his discomfort oddly amusing. It must have felt weird for him to compare a woman he’d been intimate with to a skinny teenaged boy. “I guess we
Now she’d shocked him. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” she said, fumbling around in her handbag. “You remember how I told you I didn’t know who my real father was?”
He nodded.
“Now I know.” Finding her sunglasses, she covered her eyes. “Surprise.”
“Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I showed a picture of him to my mother.”
He studied her carefully, his face showing a hint of distrust.
She deserved it, but that didn’t make his suspicion any easier to bear. “Not everything I told you was a lie,” she whispered.
He cupped her chin in the palm of his hand, forcing her to look at him. “What did you tell the truth about?”
She bit down on her lower lip, feeling the hot press of tears behind her eyes. “All the important stuff.”
As if she hadn’t just bared her soul to him, he stared back at her in silence, his gaze cool, assessing, unresponsive. She disentangled herself from his grasp and turned to leave, clutching her handbag beneath one arm like a lifeline, needing to put some distance between them before she broke down completely.
“Don’t,” he said softly, reaching out to grasp her wrist. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“What way?”
He lifted her sunglasses, exposing her emotionally. She knew love was brimming in her eyes, and coursing down her cheeks, but she couldn’t look away. “Apart,” he said, brushing his thumb over the tears on her face.
Held captive by his touch, paralyzed by the intensity of her longing, she stayed motionless while he pressed his lips to hers. In contrast to their sincere conversation, his kiss felt contrived, technically proficient but devoid of all feeling.
She blinked up at him in confusion when he lifted his head. He wasn’t drowning in her sweetness, lost in her eyes. He wasn’t even looking at her.
Following Ben’s gaze, she saw Tom Bruebaker standing at a polite distance, staring out at the sea. Perhaps he was uncomfortable with having interrupted their private moment, because he turned and left without saying a word.
Sonny backed up a step, feeling betrayed. Ben hadn’t kissed her because he wanted to. He’d done it for Tom’s benefit. “What was that all about?” she asked, glancing at Tom’s retreating form.
Ben shoved his hands into his pockets. “You want everyone to think we’re dating.”
“That was more proprietary than affectionate,” she pointed out.
“I guess I’m not as clever with deception as you are.”
She wiped the tears from her cheeks, embarrassed that she’d been so caught up in him, while he was just playing a part. “Does he hate you because you slept with Sheila?”
His eyes cut back to her. “You must be joking,” he said flatly.
“I never joke.”
His gaze cruised over her face, as if he could solve the mystery of her existence by analyzing its components. “I don’t know why he hates me. Maybe because his wife makes a fool of herself, trying to get his attention.”
“I could have sworn she was trying to get
He shrugged, as if the difference were negligible.
Sonny examined his insouciant expression. He was hiding something from her, and she was going to find out what. “That lame kiss you just gave me was like an ownership stamp. Why do want Tom to know I’m yours?”
His mouth tensed, causing the tiny, crescent-shaped scar above it to stand out in harsh relief. “He slept with Olivia.”
Her jaw dropped open. “No,” she breathed. “Why?”
“I told you why. I was a selfish bastard. She did it to hurt me.”
Sonny felt a pang inside her own chest, aching for him, and for herself. It was so painful to hear him talk about his wife. “Why did she pick him?”
“Probably because of Sheila,” he admitted. “Tom and I went in together on several business ventures, so we’d all known one another a long time. Olivia didn’t like her.”
She nodded. Tom Bruebaker owned a hugely successful corporation that manufactured everything from sunglasses to sportswear. Ben had been part of a very lucrative marketing campaign in the early stages of his career.
“Why didn’t you tell the police about her affair?” she asked, her mind reeling.
“It wasn’t an affair, it was one isolated incident,” he said through clenched teeth. “And it was none of their goddamned business.”
“They would have questioned him in connection with Olivia’s death, Ben,” she said, struggling to keep her voice low. “You impeded the investigation.”
“He was out of the country at the time,” he replied, “so he couldn’t have done it. Besides, he’s hardly the forceful type, despite being a financial heavyweight. He lets Sheila walk all over him. I still can’t believe he had the balls to fuck my wife.”
“Did you argue with him about it?”
“No. Olivia cried and begged and-” He broke off, shoving a hand through his dark hair. “Goddamn it! I put this behind me years ago. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Okay,” she said, taking a calming breath. Tom Bruebaker had been thoroughly investigated by local police and wasn’t considered a suspect in Lisette’s murder. Sonny couldn’t imagine Sheila putting the cord around her own daughter’s neck, either. Sheila seemed obsessed with Ben, though, and that raised red flags.
Sonny had been looking for a suspect with connections to Lisette and Olivia. Both of the Bruebakers fit the bill.
“I’m going to poke around inside the house,” she decided. “You can be my lookout.”
