Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (15 page)

“I get the impression I’ve seen you
somewhere before?” Ridge queried, trying to spur a reaction.

“You’ve probably seen my face in the
papers. My family is extremely well known in the tabloids, unfortunately,” she
dismissed casually.

Given her quick response, Ridge surmised
that she’d been anticipating his question.
The lady’s good, I’ll give her
that
, he thought. She was hiding something from the boss, and them.
I’ll
bet my next paycheck on it, even my new Glock.
He’d seen her somewhere
before, but she was definitely dressed better, and looked different. He wasn’t
sure how he knew, he just did. His instincts had never let him down and every
one of them was screaming at him now. He decided to back off for the time
being, until he could get the pieces to fit together.

Parry turned to Alex. “Well I would
think being rich can’t be all that easy, all those men throwing themselves at
your feet all the time? Care to compare notes?” Parry said hopefully. “I find
it tedious myself, how women just can’t seem to stop hurling themselves at me.
I feel it is so mundane, wouldn’t you agree? I wouldn’t want you to get the
wrong idea of course, I love the attention, but it’s so trying on a man with
such little time on his hands.” He said it all with a straight face,
occasionally brushing his fingertips through the hair at his temple.

Everyone laughed at his antics.

“What?” he said deadpan, looking injured
because they found it so humorous and apparently unbelievable.

“Why don’t you go unload the rig?” Ty
said poignantly, hoping Parry would take the hint and leave. He had known it
was inevitable, flirting with Alex, but it was still annoying. Ty wanted to
make sure Parry didn’t get any lasting ideas.

“Trying to get rid of the competition I
see. Fine…” Parry said, raising the collar of his shirt dramatically as he got
up. Not expecting Ty to comment on his implication, he grinned at Alex as he
slid around the table and came to a stop in front of her. “Until we meet again,
fair lady,” he stated, bowing dramatically as though she was royalty.

“I’ll give you a hand, carrot top.”
Ridge stood up, grabbed Parry by the scruff of the collar, and proceeded to
drag him from the room amid Parry’s protests, not the least of which was his
claims that he was cutting off the circulation to his brain.

Alex and the others laughed at their
dramatic display.

“Don’t worry miss, he’s harmless. We
just keep him around for the entertainment. It’s what he’s good for, that and
he really is a wizard with electronics, though I hate to admit it,” Tennessee
leaned back in his chair, shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh I think he’s cute actually, like a
pesky kid brother.” She returned.

Alex met Tennessee’s warm smile with one
of her own. Ty was happy to see Alex hadn’t taken any of Parry’s practical
jokes seriously.

“I’ll go make sure they stay out of
trouble, Boss,” Tennessee volunteered. Rising to leave, he placed a battered
brown Stetson on his head and turned to Alex as he headed outside. “It was nice
meeting you Miss. I hope to see you again real soon.” He tipped his hat to her
with a wink and swaggered out the door.

“I like them, especially Tennessee,” she
stated warmly.

She smiled at him for the first time
since he had arrived on the ranch and he felt the breath catch in his throat.
She looked stunning when she smiled; it transformed her into a completely
different woman. Ty felt the shock go through his hardening body. He couldn’t
remember the last time she smiled so openly at him, even before she’d fled her
grandparent’s home. She hadn’t looked at him with such warmth and laughter in
her eyes since she was a kid. Her smile was like a sucker punch to his gut.

“You’re beautiful when you smile, did
you know that?” he whispered huskily. Reaching out, he tucked a piece of hair
that had fallen from her ponytail behind her left ear. The smile left her face
and she froze; a reaction to his touch as well as his words. Ty longed to see
her smile like that again, but at him and him alone.

“You don’t have to flatter me. I know
what I look like,” she grimaced.

Alex made to leave her chair, trying to
get away from him and his touch, but mostly from the way it made her body
respond. He leaned into her as he placed his arm on the back of her chair,
boxing her in between himself and the table. Alex turned nervous eyes toward
him when she realized that he had her trapped.

“Scared?” Looking at her face he could
tell she wasn’t as confident as she pretended. “Why do you put yourself down?
You really are beautiful, you just need to let the rest of us see the real you.
Talk to me!” he said gently.

Waiting for her to respond to him, he
watched her expression closely. “You can’t keep running, Tidbit. Besides, I
know the truth about who you really are, Alex. Sooner or later you’re going to
have to deal with it.” He saw her eyes dilate as they connected with his, her
pulse jumping at her throat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.” Alex denied.

Has he guessed that I’m
Fire?
Reading his body language in an attempt to determine if he knew, she
immediately realized he didn’t have a clue. She swung her gaze around the room
before settling with an unfocused stare on the table. She didn’t need him to
see the anxiety his observations caused. He always could read her like an open
book. If Ty suspected she was hiding something from him he would dig and dig
until he uncovered the truth behind her evasiveness with him. That was the last
thing she wanted.

“Yes, you do, and the sooner you talk to
me about it the sooner I’ll leave you alone,” Ty told her forcefully. At his
statement, she turned her focus back to Ty. He read how uncomfortable she was
with his close proximity, but this time there was no anger blazing back at him
through her lens covered green eyes.

He can’t uncover the
truth about Fire. Maybe if I just give in and hear him out, he’ll get tired of
playing this ridiculous game with me and leave me alone, once and for all?,
she reflected.

“I wish you would just listen to me,” he
said gruffly, pleading silently for her to at least meet him halfway as he
locked his gaze with hers. She nodded her head reluctantly, indicating that she
was willing to listen. It was a small step but it was a start, one Ty would
take. “I can’t talk right now, my men just arrived and I need to get them
squared away. Meet me in the den tonight around nine? We’ll talk then?”

He felt he was taking a chance and it
was likely she wouldn’t show up once he let her go. He may very well be
throwing away his only chance to plead his case, risking the one opportunity
when she was susceptible to hearing him out.

“I will meet with you tonight to hear
what you have to say, but I never want to discuss this with you again. Deal?”

Ty nodded and released the back of the
chair, reluctantly letting her go. He wished he had more time to talk right
then. She stood and walked swiftly to the kitchen door to make her escape. He
watched her until she was out of sight, his face solemn and thoughtful. He
hoped he could convince her to let the past die.

Alex went back to the den, her appetite
now nonexistent. She wouldn’t have been able to eat anyway, she was too
apprehensive about how Ty planned to persuade her to believe his lies about the
past. She didn’t need to relive the past. Her life was good; she had friends,
the guys in the band, and her family. She knew something was still, as always,
missing from her life but she was content with the knowledge that people
weren’t able to hurt her. Maybe this was her last chance to show Ty, as well as
herself, that she was finally over him. Had she just built him up in her mind
as Sam had suggested? Was that why his betrayal had hurt so brutally? If she
spoke with him, maybe her disillusions would fade and she would finally see he
was just a man.

Perhaps, but she still didn’t want to
spend time trying to figure out why Ty made her heart run wild just by being
near him. She knew she wasn’t ready for the answer buried somewhere deep in her
heart. She needed to convince herself, and her heart, that they had nothing in
common anymore. They may have a sexual attraction but nothing more. She had her
music and he had his security company. Ty would never understand her passion to
sing and perform or her unconditional love for music. It was her sole grace.

Her career was the only constant in her
life. Music had saved her when she left Ty and her family. With Fire’s
reputation, people just assumed she was being reclusive when she didn’t get
close to anyone. With the “mystery man” utmost in people’s minds, they didn’t
wonder why she didn’t socialize much. Sam was right; Fire was her defense
mechanism.

When she was her persona she had all the
confidence in the world. Fire could do anything. She could look any man in the
eye and have him panting on the floor by the time she finished her first set.
When Fire steps in front of a camera, men claim her eyes make love to them
through the lens. They say the eyes are a mirror to the soul.

She was happy keeping people from
knowing the real her. She had never been comfortable around large groups of
people. It probably had something to do with growing up with the media always
around. As Fire, she could laugh at the press and their antics while in pursuit
of a story. Fire could feel comfortable performing to a stadium full of people.
Her life as Alex was far simpler and much less glamorous.

Steven was her biggest fan. He wanted
more out of their relationship, but had never pushed the issue. She knew he
suspected the man she sang about in her songs really did exist and had broken
her heart, and she was afraid of being that vulnerable to anyone again.

The guys in the band always teased her
about the “mystery man” in her life. They were as curious as everyone else
about who he was. Well, it looks like they would be meeting him this week.
Hopefully they wouldn’t put two and two together, she thought optimistically.

“Come on girl you’ve got work to do,”
she said out loud as she went back to work. She couldn’t keep living in the
past. “Start thinking about the future,” she lectured herself.

Late into the day when she came out for
dinner, Martha told her that Sam had gone into town to meet a friend. When she
inquired about Ty and his men, Martha informed her that they had stopped by to
take some sandwiches out with them in order to keep guarding the ranch. She
opted to do the same, and went back to finish up her work from the day.

When she glanced at the clock and
noticed it was close to nine, she stashed her papers in the piano bench, closed
up the piano and unlocked the soundproof door. She went to relax on the couch
while she waited for Ty.
It feels like a first date
, she mused. “Come
on, relax!” she told herself.

Remembering the breathing techniques
Steven had taught her to steady herself before she went out on stage; she
focused on them, encouraging her muscles to relax. Lost in the exercises, she
didn’t hear Ty enter the room until he spoke softly at her ear.

“Waiting for me, Tidbit? I'm touched,”
he taunted from behind her.

Whirling with a gasp, Alex saw him
leaning casually over the back of the couch. He had been so close to her he
could have touched his lips to her cheek before she would have known he was
even there.

Dressed all in black from his jeans to
his long sleeve pullover, he had a sinister appearance as he stood up and
leaned one hip against the couch. His hair was still damp from the shower he
must have taken before coming to meet her. He was looking more relaxed than she
had seen him since he arrived.

“You wanted to talk, so talk.” She could
smell the soap he had used as well as the cologne he wore and it was doing
strange things to her equilibrium. She felt the panic rise at his nearness, making
her feel claustrophobic. She felt the breath leave her burning lungs as he
stepped slowly away; she hadn’t even realized she had been holding it.

“Yes. I did want to talk, didn’t I?”

He had watched her openly for some time
when he had first come down. Seeing her sitting on the couch with her eyes
closed behind her black rimmed glasses, so lost in thought, he knew she hadn’t
heard him enter the room. He had taken advantage of that and looked his fill.
He watched her unobserved, noting the changes that had taken place in her face
and body over the years.

Ty went to the oak liquor cabinet in the
corner of the room. He splashed bourbon into a crystal glass. Alex watched,
captivated as he raised the glass to his mouth; longing for his mouth on her,
not the glass. She swung her gaze to the center of the room and tried to erase
the searing picture of the clear glass pressed against his sensual lips.

He found himself pleasantly surprised by
her eyes on him, devouring him openly just as he had devoured her a moment
before. Moving around the sofa, he sat down in a wing backed chair angled
across from her. Nursing the drink in his hand, he let out a long tired sigh
causing Alex to bring her attention back to him. His eyes caressed her face,
looking for any sign of softening toward him. He needed her to understand and
to forgive him for hurting her the way he had years before.