“You felt violated?” She clamped her jaw so tight he worried she might crack her teeth. She wasn’t easy to rile, but once he got her going…damn.
“But I’m willing to forgive and forget,” he said.
“I’ve read your e-mails and listened to your phone messages. I know the kind of man that you are, and I’m telling you to back off. I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to, but you have done such a thorough job of ruining my family that I need this position. The way I see it, we’re stuck with each other. If you’re trying to get me to quit, it isn’t going to work. And if you continue to prance around naked in front of me and touch me inappropriately I’ll slap a sexual harassment suit on you so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
He couldn’t repress the smile that was itching to curl the corner of his mouth. “I was prancing?”
Her mouth fell open, as though she couldn’t believe he was making a joke out of this. “You really are a piece of work.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment! You have got to be the most arrogant, self-centered—” she struggled for the right word, but all she could come up with was “—jerk I have ever met!”
He shrugged. “Arrogant, yes. Self-centered, occasionally. But anyone will tell you I’m a nice guy.”
“Nice?”
“And fair.”
“Fair? You orchestrated the deal that ruined my father. That stole from us the land that has been in our family for five generations, and you call that fair? We lost our business and our home. We lost everything because of you.”
He wasn’t sure where she was getting her information, but she was way off. “We didn’t steal anything. The deal we offered your father was a gift.”
Her face twisted with outrage. “A gift?”
“He wouldn’t have gotten a better deal from anyone else.”
“Ruining good men in the name of the royal family doesn’t make it any less sleazy or wrong.”
This was all beginning to make sense now. Her lack of gratitude toward the royal family and her very generous employment contract. And there was only one explanation. “You have no idea the financial shape that the Houghton was in, do you?”
She instantly went on the defensive. “What is that supposed to mean? Yes, my father handled the financial end of the business, but he kept me informed. Business was slow, no thanks to the Royal Inn, but we were by no means sinking.”
Suddenly he felt very sorry for her. And he didn’t like what he was going to have to do next, but it was necessary. She deserved to know the truth, before she did something ill-advised and made a fool of both herself and her father.
He pressed the intercom on his desk. “Penelope, would you please bring in the file for the buyout on the Houghton Hotel.”
“What are you doing?” Victoria demanded.
Probably making a huge mistake. “Something against my better judgment.”
Victoria stood there, stiff and tight-lipped until Penelope appeared a moment later with a brown accordion file stuffed to capacity. She handed it to Charles, but not before she flashed him a swift, stern glance. Penelope knew what he was doing and the risk he was taking. And it was clear that she didn’t approve. But she didn’t say a word. She just walked out and shut the door behind her.
“The contents in this file are confidential,” he told Victoria. “I could be putting my career in jeopardy by showing it to you. But I think it’s something you need to see. In fact, I know it is.”
At first he thought she might refuse to read it. For several long moments she just stared at him. But curiosity must have gotten the best of her, because finally she reached out and took the file.
“Take that into your office and look it over,” he said.
Without a word she turned and walked through the door separating their offices.
“Come see me if you have questions,” he called after her, just before she shut the door firmly behind her. And he was sure she would have questions. Because as far as he could tell, everything her father had told her was a lie.
Four
Victoria felt sick.
Sick in her mind and in her heart. Sick all the way down to the center of her soul. And the more she read, the worse she felt.
She was barely a quarter of the way through the file and it was already undeniably clear that not only had the royal family not stolen anything from her and her father, they had rescued them from inevitable and total ruin.
Had they not stepped in, the bank would have foreclosed on mortgages she hadn’t even been aware that her father had levied against the hotel. And he was so far behind in their property taxes, the property had been just days from being seized.
The worst part was that the trouble began when Victoria was a baby, after her grandfather passed away and her father inherited control of the hotel. All that time he’d been riding a precarious, financial roller coaster, living far above their means. Until it had finally caught up to him. And he had managed to keep it a secret by blatantly lying to her.
She had trusted him. Sacrificed so much because she thought she owed him.
Because of the royal family’s generous offer, she and her father had a roof over their heads. And she had the opportunity for a career that would launch her further than she might have ever dreamed possible. Yet she still felt as though the rug had been yanked violently from under her. Everything she knew about her father and their business, about her life, was a lie.
And she had seen enough.
She gathered the papers and tucked them neatly back into the file. Though she dreaded facing Charles, admitting her father’s deception, what choice did she have? Besides, he probably had a pretty good idea already that something in her family dynamic was amiss. If nothing else, she owed him an apology for her unfounded accusations. And a heartfelt thank-you for…well…everything. His family’s generosity and especially their discretion.
And there was only one thing left to do. Only one thing she could do.
She picked up the phone and dialed Charles’s extension. He answered on the first ring. “Is now a good time to speak with you?”
“Of course,” he said. “Come right in.”
She hung up the phone, but for several long seconds just sat there, working up the courage to face him. And she thought yesterday had been humiliating. Getting her butt out of the chair and walking to his office, tail between her legs, was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.
Charles sat at his desk. He had every right to look smug, but he wore a sympathetic smile instead. And honestly she couldn’t decide which was worse. She didn’t deserve his sympathy.
She handed him the file. “Thank you for showing me this. For being honest with me.”
“I thought you deserved the truth.”
She took a deep breath. “First, I want to thank you and the royal family for your generosity. Please let them know how much we appreciate their intervention.”
“’We’?” he asked, knowing full well that her father didn’t appreciate anything the royal family had done for them.
Although for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why. Pride, she supposed. Or stubbornness. Whatever the reason, she was in no position to make excuses for him. Nor would she want to. He had gotten them into this mess, and any consequences he suffered were his own doing.
“And