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Automatically she reached under her bed and pulled out the plastic storage container filled with her snacks. After grabbing a frosted cupcake, she unwrapped it.
This was it—she’d officially hit bottom. Nothing would ever be worse than this exact moment. It was like dark matter in the universe. The absolute absence of anything. It was the death of hope.
She took a bite of the cupcake. Shame made her chew fast and swallow. When the sugar and fat hit her system, she wouldn’t hurt so bad. She wouldn’t feel so lonely or totally rejected by Jack Howington III. Damn him.
Why couldn’t he love her back? She was a good person. But she wasn’t busty and blond and tiny, like the girls he dated and slept with.
“I have a brain,” she murmured. “That scares guys.”
She said the words bravely, but she knew it was more than her incredible IQ that chased off boys. It was how she looked. How she’d allowed food to be everything, especially after her mom died four years ago. It was turning down her father’s badly worded offer to take her to a plastic surgeon to talk about her nose. She screamed that if he really loved her, he would never, ever talk about it again, when in truth she was scared. Scared of changing and scared of being the same.
She stood and stared at the closed dorm room door. “I hate you, Jack,” she said as tears slipped down her cheeks. “I hate you and I’ll make you suffer. I’m going to grow up and be so beautiful you have to sleep with me. Then I’m going to walk away and break your heart. Just watch me.”
Present day
Jack Howington III had driven two days straight to get to Lake Tahoe. He could have flown his jet, then picked up a rental car for the month he was going to be forced to stay at Hunter’s house, but he’d needed the downtime to clear his head.
His assistant had been frantic, unable to reach him in the more rural parts of the country, but he’d enjoyed the silence. There hadn’t been enough silence in his life for a long, long time. Even when he was alone, there were still the damn ghosts to contend with.
He drove down a long driveway toward a barely visible log house. The place stood surrounded by trees with a view of the lake behind. There were windows and stone steps, along with a heavy double wood door.
Jack parked, then climbed out of his Mercedes. Hunter’s house had been built just recently, nearly ten years after the death of his friend, but Jack had a feeling that Hunter had left detailed instructions on what it should look like. The place reminded him of Hunter, which was both good and bad.
It was just a month, he told himself as he walked around to the trunk and grabbed his suitcase and computer bag. If he stayed in here for a month, per the terms of Hunter’s will, the house would be converted to a place for cancer patients and survivors to come for free. Twenty million would be given to the town or charity or something like that. Jack hadn’t paid attention to the details. All he knew was that Hunter had asked him for one last favor. Jack had failed his friend enough times to know that this time he had to follow through.
He took a single step toward the house, then stopped as the front door opened. The lawyer’s letter had promised quiet, an office he could work in and a housekeeper to take care of day-to-day necessities.
Easy duty, Jack had thought at the time. Now, as a petite, pretty woman stepped onto the porch, he wasn’t so sure.
Next to Hunter, who was long dead, she was about the last person he wanted to see.
“Hello, Jack,” she said.
“Meredith.”
Her blue eyes widened in surprise. “You recognize me?”
“Sure. Why not?”
She drew in a breath. “It’s been a long time. We’ve both changed.”
“I’d know you anywhere.”
Which wasn’t exactly the truth. He’d kept tabs on Meri over the years. It was the least he could do after he’d promised Hunter he would look after his sister. Jack hadn’t been able to deal with her in person, but distance made things safer. Easier. The regular reports from his staff meant he wasn’t the least bit surprised by her appearance. Although she looked more…feminine than usual. He’d known she’d been working in California on a temporary assignment with JPL—Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but not the details. He hadn’t known she was here.
She muttered something under her breath, then said, “Good to know.”
Her eyes were still as blue as he remembered. The same color as Hunter’s eyes. The same shape. Other than that and an easy laugh, the siblings had had little in common.
He hadn’t seen her in years. Not since Hunter’s funeral. And before that—
He pushed the memory of her heartfelt declaration and his piss-poor handling of it out of his mind. Let’s just say they’d both traveled a lot of years and miles, he told himself.
She’d grown up, he thought as she walked down the stairs and stood in front of him. The baby fat was gone. She looked like what she was—a beautiful, sexy woman who was confident of her place in the world.
Under other circumstances, he could have appreciated the changes, but not with her. Not with the promises he’d made.
“Obviously you received the letter from the lawyer or you wouldn’t be here,” she said. “You’re required to stay for a month. At the end of that time, there will be a brief but meaningful ceremony deeding the house to the town, handing over the keys and the money. You and the other Samurai are free to mingle and catch up, then you’re free to go.” She glanced at the single suitcase and computer bag. “You travel light.”
“Makes it easier to move around.”
“But it doesn’t give you many choices for that unexpected costume party.”
“Is there going to be one?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then I’m good.”
She tilted her head slightly, a gesture he remembered. Funny how he could still see the girl in the woman. He’d always liked the girl. He didn’t plan to get to know the woman.
He looked her over, then frowned. Was it just him or were her shorts way too short? Not that he didn’t appreciate the display of leg, but this was Meredith—Hunter’s baby sister. And should her shirt really be that…revealing?
“I’m staying here, too.”
Her voice was low and sexy, and had she been anyone else, he would have welcomed the distraction.
“Why?” he asked bluntly.
“I’m the housekeeper. The one you were promised. I’m here to make your life…easier.”
There was almost a challenge in the statement. “I don’t need a housekeeper.”
“You’re not being given a choice. I come with the property.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he said flatly. He happened to know she worked for a D.C. think tank and was currently on loan to JPL and some private company, helping them develop a better solid rocket fuel.
“Such language,” she scolded gently, then smiled. “It’s what Hunter wanted. We’re both here because of him.”
He frowned. He didn’t buy her story. Why would Hunter want his sister at the house for a month? But then, he’d asked all his friends to spend time here, so it was possible. Besides, it wasn’t as if Meri would want to be in the same house as him. Not after what had happened on her seventeenth birthday.
He’d hurt her. He hadn’t meant to, but he had, and after the fact he’d been unable to figure out a way to make things better. Then Hunter had died and everything had changed.
Or maybe he was making too big a deal out of all this. Maybe Meri didn’t give a damn about what had happened… or not happened…between them.
“Let’s go inside,” she said and led the way.
They walked into a large entryway with a staircase and a stone floor. The place was welcoming and masculine. It might not be the house he would have built, but it wasn’t going to drive him crazy with lots of frills and smelly bowls of dried flowers.
“You’ll get your exercise climbing the stairs. Your room is on the next floor.”
He glanced around. “You’re down here?”
She smiled. “No, Jack. I’m on the second floor, next to the master. We’re only a wall apart.”
Meri deliberately widened her eyes and leaned toward him as she spoke. She wanted the invitation to be clear. After what Jack had put her through eleven years ago, he deserved to squirm.
She started down the hall before he had a chance to respond. “There’s an office loft area,” she continued. “You can use that. It’s set up with Internet access, a fax. I’ll be in the dining room. I like to spread out when I work. I tend to get really…involved.”
She emphasized the last word, then had to consciously keep herself from laughing. Okay, this was way more fun than she’d thought it would be. She should have punished Jack a long time ago.
She made sure she swayed her hips as she climbed and bent forward slightly so he would be sure to notice her very short shorts. She’d worn them deliberately, along with the halter top that left very little to the imagination. It had taken her nearly two days to come up with the perfect outfit, but it had been worth the time.
The shorts clung to her and were cut high enough to show the bottom of her butt. Tacky but effective. Her sandals had a spiked heel that was practically a weapon, but they made her legs look long—a serious trick for someone as short as her.
The halter was so low-cut that she’d had to hold it in place with double-sided tape. She had fresh highlights, sultry makeup and long, dangling earrings that almost touched her nearly bare shoulders.
If the guys back at her science lab could see her now, they would probably implode from shock. Around them she only wore tailored suits and lab jackets. But for the next month she was dressing as a sex kitten and she planned to enjoy every minute of it.
She deliberately sped up at the end of the hall, then stopped suddenly. Jack ran into her. He reached out to steady himself or maybe her. She’d planned that he would, so she turned and held in a grin as the palm of his hand landed exactly on her left breast.
He stiffened and pulled back so fast he almost fell. Meri tried to decide if she minded seeing him in a crumpled heap on the polished hardwood floor.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“Jack,” she purred. “Are you coming on to me? I have to say, that’s not very subtle. I would have expected better.”
“I’m not coming on to you.”
“Really?” She put her hands on her hips as she faced him. “Why not? Aren’t I your type?”
He frowned. “What the hell is this all about?”
“So many things. I’m not sure where to start.”
“Try at the beginning. It usually works for me.”
The beginning? Where was that? At conception, where some quirk of the Palmer gene pool had decided to produce a child with an exceptional IQ? Or later, when Meri had first realized she was never going to fit in anywhere? Or perhaps that long-ago-but-never-forgotten-afternoon when the man she loved had so cruelly rejected her?
“We’re spending the month together,” she told him. “I thought we could have more fun if we played. I know you like to play, Jack.”
He swore under his breath. “This isn’t like you, Meri.”
“How can you be sure? It’s been a long time. I’ve grown up.” She turned slowly. “Don’t you like the changes?”
“You look great. You know that. So what’s the point?”
The point was she wanted him desperate. She wanted him panting, begging, pleading. Then she would give in and walk away. It was her plan—it had always been her plan.
“I’m not going to sleep with you,” he said flatly. “You’re Hunter’s sister. I gave him my word I’d look after you. That means taking care of you, not sleeping with you.”
She’d meant to keep her temper. Honestly she’d even written it on her to-do list. But it was simply impossible.
“Take care of me? Is that what you call disappearing two seconds after Hunter’s funeral? All of you left—all of his friends. I expected it of them but not of you. Hunter told me you would always be there for me no matter what. But you weren’t. You were gone. I was seventeen, Jack. My father was a basket case, I was a total social outcast with no friends and you disappeared. Because that was easier than facing your responsibility.”
He put down his luggage. “Is that why you’re here? To tell me off?”
He had no idea, she thought, still furious and wishing she could breathe fire and burn him into a little stick figure, like in the cartoons.
“That’s only part of the fun.”
“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”
“No, it wouldn’t.” Nothing would change the fact that he’d abandoned her, just like everyone else she’d ever loved.
“Meri, I know we have some history. But if we’re stuck here for a month, we need to find a way to get along.”
“Be friends, you mean?” she said, remembering how he’d said he would always be her friend, right after rejecting her.
“If you’d like.”
She took a deep breath, then released it. “No, Jack. We’ll never be friends. We’ll be lovers and nothing else.”
Two
The next morning Meri woke up feeling much better about everything. After leaving out food for Jack, she’d escaped to her room, where she’d had a bath and a good cry. Some of her tears had been about her brother, but a lot of them had been for herself. For the geek she’d been and the losses she’d suffered.
After Hunter had died, their father had totally lost it. He’d been less than useless to her. Within a year he’d started dating nineteen-year-olds, and in the nine years since, his girlfriends had stayed depressingly young.
She’d been on her own and she’d survived. Wasn’t that what mattered? That she’d managed to get the help she’d needed to move forward and thrive?
She turned on her clock’s radio and rocked her hips to the disco music that blasted into the room. She was sorry she’d missed the disco years—the music had such a driving beat. Of course, she was a total spaz on the dance floor, but what she lacked in style and grace she made up for in enthusiasm.
After brushing out her hair, she braided it, then dressed in a sports bra, tank top and another pair of skimpy shorts. Ankle socks and athletic shoes completed her outfit.
Humming “We Are Family” under her breath, she left her room and prepared to implement the next part of her plan for revenge.
Jack was in the kitchen. She walked up to him and smiled.
“Morning,” she said, reaching past him for the pot of coffee. She made sure she leaned against him rather than going around. “How did you sleep?”
His dark eyes flickered slightly, but his expression never changed. “Fine.”
“Good. Me, too.”
She poured the coffee, then took a sip, looking at him over the mug.
“So,” she said. “A whole month. That’s a long time. Whatever will we do with it?”
