Double-Cross My Heart by Carol Rose Read Free Book Online

finished buttoning his shirt and slipped a tie around his neck. As uneasy as he was about the way he’d started things with Eden, he wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about it.
    Through the communicating doorway, the bathroom still radiated warmth from his shower. The muscles in his legs protested faintly as he bent to put on his shoes, feeling the after-effects from his usual morning run. The inky darkness before dawn had called to him. If he had to be awake, he might as well make use of his time.
    Running during these early, sleepless hours seemed appropriate, anyway. Memories couldn’t be outrun, he knew, but he couldn’t keep from trying.
    “Things appear to be going well with Eden,” Alex said, deliberately keeping his response low-key. “She’s a smart woman. Our plans are really in her favor, whether she realizes it or not.”
    Bryan, his friend and lawyer, said, “She doesn’t realize it? Have you started putting on the pressure?”
    “You know me better,” Alex chided, finding his friend’s words jarring. In the past, he may have pressured people, but he found himself recoiling from the idea of doing the same to Eden. “It’s not so much a matter of pressure as in pointing out Eden’s best interests. Naturally, she’s hesitating. I told her she should think it over, but unfortunately we need her decision quickly. I’m seeing her tonight. Now that we’ve started our campaign to quietly buy up Michele Cosmetics stock, the market is beginning to respond. Just yesterday, the stock ticked up another half a point.”
    Thinking about the purely-business angle was easier and certainly what Bryan would expect of him.
    “And we really need her help?” Bryan said, a shade uneasily.
    “Yes. We need product information, marketing strategies—everything we can get our hands on, basically. We’ve got to sway the board. This isn’t quite the same game we’ve played ten times before,” he reminded Bryan, “I want to diversify our projects with as minimal a risk as possible. That means a new industry, and a new industry means some new angles to play.”
    “I still don’t understand why you had to handle this yourself. Why didn’t you let Jason do it? He does our investigative work pretty well. You usually don’t get so personally involved.”
    Knotting the tie around his neck, Alex debated how to respond. Bryan had worked with him a long time and knew him as well as any friend could, but that very fact made it less likely that he’d understand this.
    “I don’t usually attend to the details,” Alex agreed, stalling, still refusing to give any clue of the niggling guilt he felt.
    He’d run his operation with great success for a number of years. How could he explain the jolt that had shook him when he first saw the photos of Eden Merritt? He liked her smile, dammit, and now that he knew her, he liked the woman even more.
    “So what gives?” Bryan prodded.
    Alex shot him a sideways glance, weighing his responses.
    The unvarnished truth was too irrational, too gut-punched. How could he explain that he’d just known if anyone was going to woo Eden and win her over, it had to be him.
    The last month had been an intoxicating mix of business and pleasure. With thoughts of Eden, he had something more than solitaire and FreeCell to while away the early morning hours. To his own surprise, he felt more for her than simple lust. Now that he’d gotten to know her, he was even more sure of their making Michele Cosmetics the next company to secure and dismantle. Even if Eden didn’t yet realize what was in her best interests, he had little doubt about the subject.
    She was in a precarious position at the company, what with her little deceit about her uncle. Alex remembered the way her face had gone blank when he’d revealed that he knew her dark secret. Her uneasiness was understandable. With one phone call, he could topple her entire career and leave an ugly stain on her future, not that he ever would. But