“But it’s a moot point anyway. We can’t do anything until we find him. And, so far, we haven’t been able to find him.” Jared gave Alec a significant look.
A moment of silence passed.
“You want me to check into his whereabouts?” asked Alec.
“Amber’s friend Katie says you have contacts.”
Katie Merrick was a lawyer working for Alec’s father’s firm, Creighton Waverley Security. Where Creighton Waverley was conservative and by the book outfit, Alec had contacts who could be a little more creative.
“His name is Norman Stanton,” Jared offered. “Frank Stanton, Stephanie’s biological father, was his brother. The blackmail payments are all tied up in some off-shore company called Sagittarius Eclipse. That’s pretty much all we know.”
“That’s a start.” Alec nodded decisively. He’d be more than happy to help track down the man who had targeted Stephanie.
Stephanie needed to purge her wayward fantasies once and for all. And Wesley was the key. Across the arena, he was calling her name, making his way toward her through the soft, deep dirt.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he gasped, as he grew close enough to speak. He ducked through the rails, rising up beside her.
Stephanie was observing Brittany, one of her youngest students, in the starting area of the jumping course.
She smiled briefly at Wesley then nodded to Brittany’s trainer, Monica, where she held the bridle of Brittany’s horse. Monica stepped back and gave the start signal, and Brittany cantered her horse toward the first two-foot plank.
“How was California?” Stephanie asked Wesley, glancing his way again.
He truly was a fine looking man. His blond hair curled around his ears. He had bright blue eyes and an aristocratic nose. And his quick sense of humor and easy laugh had made him friends throughout the stable.
“It was a long three days,” he responded with a warm smile. “My sister has boyfriend trouble. My mother cooked five meals a day. And I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Stephanie told herself it wasn’t really a lie, since she wanted so much for it to be true. She rested her elbow on the second rail, tipping her head to look at him.
Truth was she hadn’t thought much about him while he was away. Her only excuse was that she’d been busy training. The Brighton competition was coming up in a few short weeks, and it was the unofficial start of qualifying for the Olympic team.
Training was important. It was hard to find time to think about anything else.
Well, except for Alec.
She clamped her jaw down hard, ordering herself to forget about Alec. He’d been skulking around the stable all week, asking questions, printing financial reports, and generally making a nuisance of himself.
Wesley did his part. He took a step closer to her, his shoulder brushing against her elbow.
Brittany turned her horse and headed for jump number four.
Wesley brushed his fingers along Stephanie’s bare forearm, easing closer still. He touched the back of her hand, turning it to feather his fingertips across her palm, before cupping her hand and giving her a squeeze.
It was a gentle touch. A pleasant touch. She forced herself to concentrate on enjoying it.
“We need to talk, Stephanie.” His blue-eyed gaze went liquid.
“About?”
His smile widened. “About us, of course. I’m dying to kiss you.” He moved her hand from the rail and turned her, tugging her toward him, voice going breathy. “I’ve been thinking about you for three long days.”
Stephanie opened her mouth, but the words she wanted to utter wouldn’t come out. She hadn’t been thinking about Wesley for three long days. And she wasn’t dying to kiss him.
Okay, she wasn’t exactly opposed to kissing him. But the rush of excitement she’d felt the last two times they’d come close was decidedly absent.
“Tell me how you feel,” he breathed.
Brittany cantered past. The clomp of her horse’s hooves tossed sprays of dirt, while the whoosh of its breathing filled the air. Stephanie used the instant to pull back.
“I really like you, Wesley,” she told him.
“That’s good.” He smiled confidently and moved in again.
“I’m…” Curious? Hopeful? Desperate to have you erase Alec from my thoughts?
“You’re what?” he prompted.
“Worried.” The word jumped out before she could censor it.
He frowned. “About what?”
“You’re my student.”
It was a lame excuse, and they both knew it.
Jessica Henderson had been her now husband Carl’s student for three years before they announced their engagement. Nobody had been remotely scandalized by the relationship. In fact, half the state horse jumping community had attending their wedding.
“You make me sound like a kid,” said Wesley.
“You’re younger than me,” Stephanie pointed out, feeling suddenly desperate to get out of the kiss she’d been planning for so long.
“Barely,” he told her, the hurt obvious in his tone.
“Still-”
“Stephanie, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she lied again.
“I missed you.”
She tried to come up with something to say.
He stepped into the silence. “You’re beautiful, funny, smart-”
“I have a business to run and a competition to train for.”
“What are you talking about? What happened while I was gone?”
“Nothing.” It was the truth.
His lips puffed out in a pout. “I don’t believe you.”
Stephanie took a breath and regrouped. “It’s just…I need to focus right now, Wesley. And so do you. Brighton is only a few weeks away.”
She sped up her words, not giving him a chance to jump back in. “And we both need to nail it. It’s your first major, senior event, and I need the ranking.”
“I still don’t see why we can’t-”
“We can’t, Wesley.”
He reached for her hand once more, squeezing down. “But we’re so good together.” With the sun slanting across his tousled hair, and the pleading tone in his voice, he suddenly struck her as very young.
“We can be friends,” she offered.
His brow furrowed. “I don’t want to be friends.”
“Yes, you do. We’re already friends. We’re going to train together and nail Brighton.”
“And then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“After Brighton? If we still feel the same way?”
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t feel the way she wanted to feel, and she didn’t see that changing.
He grinned, obviously taking her silence for agreement. The eager, puppy-dog look was back in his eyes. “I know we have something special.”
“We have friendship and mutual respect,” she offered carefully.
“There’s more than that.”
Stephanie took a step back. “Seriously, Wesley, I can’t let you-”
“Not right now. I get it.” He gave a vigorous nod. “But we both know-”
“No, we don’t know-”
Brittany shrieked, and Monica shouted, and Stephanie whirled to see the horse shy to one side. It refused the jump and sent Brittany bouncing into the soft ground.
The girl’s breath whooshed out as she landed with a thump on her rear end.
By the time Stephanie was through the fence, Brittany had grabbed two handfuls of dirt and tossed them down in disgust.
She was obviously more angry than injured, but Stephanie rushed to assist just in case.
Stephanie was angry with herself.
But she was also angry with Alec.
What was he doing to her? Why did he have to usurp Wesley? Why couldn’t she get the bare-chested image of him out of her head. And why hadn’t he been interested in her when she was standing half naked in front of him?