Pandora's Box (previously Worth the Wait, a Zebra print best seller) (22 page)

Carefully, she untied the string from the faded envelope. Her stomach knotted. Was she really ready to face the past? Did she have a choice if she wanted to move on with her life? She slid the contents onto her lap. On the top of the pile was an old black-and-white photograph torn at one corner. A young, curly-haired girl, striking a pose for the camera, stood between two indulgent adults. Charlie guessed that the two older people standing beside her mother were her grandparents. Were they still alive? Did they know what had become of their daughter? Did they care?

She laid the picture on the coffee table and picked through the remaining pile of papers. Disappointment caused her heart to sink. She couldn’t make heads or tails of the foreign documents. With the exception of Marguerite’s driver’s license and the alien registration card, all the papers were in French or Arabic, the two official languages of Algeria. Her mother’s history was destined to remain a mystery until she could get them translated at the Algerian consulate.

The decision to read through Peter’s journal took a bit more courage. She ran her fingers over the leather-bound book. To know was to accept—and to accept, forgive. Was she ready to bury her anger with her father? She had more now than she’d ever had in her life. A brother who loved her and would never intentionally hurt her. Her own home, even if she weren’t staying there. An education so that she wouldn’t have to depend on anyone.

And Damian. She wasn’t quite sure what they had. Good sex? No, she amended, incredible sex—and so much more. Every experience with him was new and exciting. She felt as if she had awakened from a lifelong coma and was discovering the beauty of the world for the first time. Food tasted better. Flowers smelled sweeter. Even the sounds of the city had taken on a melodious quality. She had heard love turned perfectly rational people into fools, but she had never expected to become a blissful idiot herself.

Her life had become an enchanting dream, but somewhere in the back of her mind she was afraid she would wake up one morning to find it all gone. Resolving not to worry about a future she didn’t know, Charlie opened the old journal and began to read.

The handwriting was clear and bold, the words as poetic as his art itself. His descriptions of Algeria in the sixties were as detailed as a tour guide. It was the people Peter had trouble describing clearly. Perhaps because he didn’t relate well to them. Erik was right. Peter was passionate about only one thing— art. Even the passages about her mother were strangely detached. He described her beauty, but only in an aesthetic manner. There were no words that evoked emotions, either passionate or angry. Something must have happened, they had had a child together. But if he had felt something for Marguerite once, he never put those thoughts into words.

A second section of the journal was begun after she was born. His words were no longer clear, but the rambling of a man obsessed. His passion for art was far stronger than any second thoughts he harbored about his absent daughter. He enjoyed the torment; he fed on it.

Charlie closed the journal and tossed it on the table. That might be what had made him a great artist; but in her eyes, he was a lousy excuse for a man.
She could forgive him his weaknesses, but she would never understand.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Charlie finished off the last of the payroll checks and placed them in the tray for Damian’s signature. Liz Peters, the woman she would be filling in for, shook her head.

“What did I do wrong?” Charlie asked. She had become fond of Liz in the two weeks they’d been working together. Liz’s jokes about her very pregnant condition were a breath of air in the otherwise stuffy office atmosphere.

“You’re making me look bad. I made an art of stretching this out into a full-time job,” Liz complained. “It’s only Wednesday morning. If you’re not careful, the Dragon Lady will put you to work in the file room the rest of the time.”

The Dragon Lady was the office manager, Rose. Charlie didn’t work for her, but that didn’t stop her from issuing orders anyway.

“It wouldn’t kill me to do some filing.”

“We call it the pit. And once you start, they won’t let you stop.” Liz looked as if she were about to add something, then put her hand on her stomach and moaned. “Excuse me. Mother Nature is torturing my bladder again, and then I’m off to lunch.” Charlie gave her a hand up from her chair and opened the door. She saw Rose checking up on her the minute Liz left, so she buried herself in a report and pretended to be busy. A soft tap on the doorframe seconds later made her cringe.

“How’s it going, runt?”

She exhaled in relief. “Erik. It’s only you.”

He looked her over in her business suit and black pumps. “Well, I’ll be damned. You do own something other than jeans and sneakers.”

“Did you come here to mock me?”

He entered the office and took the empty chair. “I came to take you to lunch. And Damian, too, if he’s free. I got accepted on an archeological dig for the summer in North Dakota.”

Charlie leaned back in her chair and smiled. “That doesn’t pay much while you’re still a student. Maybe you should save the money for the apartment that you’ll be renting very soon, I trust”

“Why? The rent on yours is paid until the end of July”

She landed the tip of her shoe into his leg and grinned. “You drip. I’m homesick.”

“Liar. You haven’t come to visit it once in the past ten days. I’m thinking about taking over the lease when I come back for graduate school. Find your own apartment ... if you dare.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve already moved in with Damian. Why won’t you admit it?”

“I have not.” Not officially anyway, and it had been a sore spot with Damian. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t change her mailing address or give up her apartment.

Erik sent her a disbelieving frown. “I won’t argue with you. Are you free for lunch?”

She had planned to go to the Algerian consulate to pick up the translation of her mother’s papers, but after twenty-five years, she could surely wait another day.

“You’ll have to give me a few minutes. I wouldn’t want to upset Rose’s lunch schedule.”

“Ah, the Dragon Lady is on your case,” Erik noted. “Has she tried to put you in the pit yet?”

Charlie hissed at him. “Thanks for the warning.”

“If you want to play in the corporate world you’ll have to toughen up, kid. Office politics is dirtier than mud wrestling.”

“And less fun,” Charlie added.

Erik rose. “I’ll go see if the workaholic is free.” He returned in less than a minute. “He wasn’t in his office and Rose said he has an appointment for lunch already.”

“Oh, well. His loss,” Charlie said lightly, trying not to show the disappointment she felt. She changed into her red high-tops to walk the city streets and grabbed her jacket. “Come on. Let her fire me for leaving early.”

As they waited for the elevator, they debated where to have lunch. When the doors opened, Charlie, thinking only of food, stepped forward without looking and smacked right into Damian getting out.

“Oh, sorry,” she mumbled, shyly wriggling out of the hands that held her waist.

“My pleasure,” Damian drawled.

She raised her head slowly and lowered it again when she saw his laughing expression. That would teach her not to look where she was going. Damian stood next to a stone-faced Raymond Shapiro, who apparently didn’t find the situation amusing.

“Where are you two going?” Damian asked.

Erik grinned. “I’m taking Charlie out to celebrate my summer stint on a dig.”

“I guess I’m not invited to the celebration festivities,” Damian complained.

“Your pit-viper told me you already had a luncheon engagement,” Erik returned.

Charlie’s hand flew to her mouth to hold back a roar of laughter. “How awful, Erik.”

“And inaccurate,” Damian agreed. “She’s more like a boa constrictor. I don’t have any plans that can’t be altered. Give me a minute. I’ll meet you in the lobby.” He headed for the offices, leaving Raymond standing with Charlie and Erik.

The lawyer offered his congratulations to Erik and then turned to her. “How nice to see you again, Charlotte. I didn’t get a chance to welcome you aboard.”

“Thank you.”

Something about Raymond’s defensive stance set Charlie’s nerves on edge. He didn’t seem to trust her, but she had no idea why. He knew about her relationship with Erik, but she got the feeling he knew something more—something she herself didn’t know—and it made him nervous. Although he had seen her several times since she’d started, he had never once spoken with her.

“How’s the job?” Raymond asked.

“It’s not what I’d like to do permanently; but for now, it’s fine.”

He arched one bushy eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”

His question sounded more like an accusation than idle curiosity. It crossed her mind to tell him she wanted a vice presidency just to see his reaction, but she stifled the sarcastic urge. “I prefer accounting. Numbers are my life.”

“Oh. Maybe something will open up here in the future.”

She lifted her shoulders indifferently. “Or maybe I’ll find a job somewhere else in the future.”

To her relief, the elevator returned, so she wasn’t forced to make more inane small talk with Damian’s pompous lawyer. She bid him a pleasant farewell with a smile frozen on her lips that dropped the second the door closed.

“Aggh,” she let out, shaking her body in disgust. “I guess you don’t like Raymond very much,” Erik noted wryly.

“He doesn’t like me.”

“He’s very good at what he does. And his job is to protect his client. He’s afraid that you’re after something. He was the one who hired the private investigator to find you, but he tried to talk me out of it numerous times.”

That meant he was aware of every detail of her background. Now she knew why he looked at her so strangely. Or perhaps she was paranoid. Maybe he was just looking out for his client. “If I wanted something, I would have demanded it by now.”

The elevator reached bottom and they stepped into the lobby to wait for Damian. Erik sat on the edge of a small fountain and stared into the water. “I know you don’t want anything. Maybe he’s thinking as my mother’s lawyer.”

“I don’t know what your mother’s so afraid of. I’ve always known who my father was. If I had planned to make an announcement, I wouldn’t have waited twenty-five years to do it. Who’d really care anymore?”

“Give her time, Charlie. She’ll get used to it eventually.”

And pigs will fly, thought Charlie.

* * * *

They chose an Indian restaurant a few blocks from the office and loaded up on spicy food that had Charlie’s eyes tearing. After goading her into taking an extended lunch, Erik left abruptly to meet Shelly, leaving Damian and her with the bill.

“I knew he was going to do that,” Damian said as they waited to pay the check.

Charlie took two of the mints from the small dish by the register and popped one into her mouth. She offered the other to Damian. When she put it in his mouth, he caught her finger in his teeth, running his tongue over the tip as she pulled it out. She was grateful that the dark lighting of the restaurant covered her blush. “Cut it out. We’re still on work time.”

“Not me. I’m taking a half day today.”

“You did get in rather late last night.”

“And I didn’t get any sleep.” He flashed a seductive smile that made her entire body blush. He put his arm around her shoulder and led her out the door. “I noticed Peter’s journal on the table. Were you reading it.”

“Yeah. I read it”

“Do you feel like talking about it?”

The busy city street was not the ideal place to hold a conversation under normal circumstances, and particularly not such an important one. “Right now?”

“If you want. Just call in and say you got indigestion from the food. Anyone who’s eaten here would believe you.”

“No. I wouldn’t want people to start talking.”

“Later?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

He raised his eyebrows invitingly. “I’ll cook.”

Charlie laughed. “One case of indigestion a day is enough, thank you. I’ll pick up a couple of steaks on the way home.”

He stopped at the corner across from the office building. “I might be a few minutes late. I have to go see my mother. There are some papers she has to sign. I really don’t want to, but . . .” He left the thought hanging.

“You don’t have to explain. It doesn’t bother me if you want to visit her, Damian. She is your mother.”

“I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

Her dark eyes sparked with humor. “I think I’ll survive until you get there.”

* * * *

Charlie checked the crossing light, then blew a kiss to Damian and stepped off the sidewalk. His gaze remained riveted on her as she sashayed across the street with a sexy sway of her hips. She was perfection in motion. He loosened the tie at his throat She might survive until he got home, but he wasn’t sure he would. The last thing he wanted was a trip to the suburbs when he could be with her.