HER SECRET, HIS DUTY Read online

  “You’ll make the right decision,” Debra said confidently. “You always do. Either way, you’ll do what’s best for both your family and the country.”

  Kate flashed her the bright smile that had been her trademark both when she’d served her four years as vice president and as a beloved ambassador to France. “You’re the special secret in my pocket, Debra. There are days that your efficiency and loyalty are responsible for my very sanity. Thank goodness you possess the organizational skills that keep me on track.”

  “I have a feeling you’d be just fine without me, but I love what I do, and now I’d better get back to my office and take care of the RSVPs on these invitations.” Debra stood. “You’ll let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you. You have nothing on your calendar for the day so hopefully you can give yourself a break and just relax a bit.”

  “Maybe.” Kate stood and carried her coffee to the window that looked out on a lovely garden.

  Debra left the room aware that Kate didn’t know how to relax—until she made up her mind about the next presidential election, she would worry and stew, weigh pros and cons, until she made a final decision about what her future would hold.

  Debra didn’t even want to think about her own future. She knew that the first thing she needed to do was see a doctor. She’d try to schedule an appointment with her gynecologist for the weekend to confirm what she already knew.

  In the meantime, day by day—that’s how she would have to take things right now. She’d scarcely had time to process the reality of her condition.

  Eventually her pregnancy would show and she’d have some explaining to do, but until that day came she had to focus on her work.

  She remained at her desk until just after eleven when Kate used the intercom to call her back into her office. Debra grabbed her notepad and reentered Kate’s office, only to stop short at the sight of the ridiculously handsome man seated in the chair she had vacated earlier.

  Trey Winston was not only incredibly handsome with his rich dark brown hair and striking blue eyes, he was also the CEO of Adair Enterprises, the family business, a rich and powerful man who was well liked by his employees and friends. He was also the father of the baby Debra carried.

  * * *

  “Here we are,” Kate said as Debra entered the room. She gestured her assistant to the chair next to Trey’s. Trey offered Debra a faint, rather uncomfortable smile.

  Uncomfortable. That’s the way things had been for him whenever he saw Debra after the crazy one night they’d spent together—a night that should never have happened.

  He’d been at the popular bar/restaurant celebrating the close of a big business deal and she’d been there commiserating a breakup with her boyfriend. The two of them had somehow hooked up, shared too many drinks and then had continued to make the mistake of heading to a nearby hotel and having hot, passionate sex.

  He hadn’t been too drunk to know what he was doing and neither had she, but he should never have allowed it to happen at all.

  He’d spent the past six weeks putting it out of his mind, trying to pretend that it had never happened. Unfortunately, trying to forget had been difficult.

  His mother would kill him if she found out. Kate would give him a motherly smackdown to end all smackdowns if she believed he had taken advantage of her assistant, a young woman he knew his mother loved and trusted.

  “Trey has just informed me that I’m not the only political beast in the family,” Kate said once Debra was seated next to Trey. “He’s thinking about running for the Senate.”

  Debra looked at him in surprise and then quickly averted her gaze back to Kate. “I’m sure he’d make a fine senator.”

  “You know that and I know that, but what we need to do is see how much support he would be able to get behind him,” Kate replied.

  Trey could see the wheels turning in his mother’s head. Of all the people in his life, Trey trusted his mother more than anyone. He’d been flirting with the idea of entering politics for some time and finally felt the time was right now.

  “What do you have in mind?” Debra asked.

  Her voice was sweet and soft, but Trey had memories of husky moans and sighs of pleasure. He also couldn’t help but notice and remember the fresh, clean scent of her, so unlike the cloying perfumes most of the women in his social circle wore.

  “A fund-raiser dinner party.” Kate’s words snapped Trey back to the matter at hand. “And we’d need to get it scheduled and on the calendar in the next two weeks.”

  “Two weeks?” Debra sounded horrified as she stared at Kate. “But that’s impossible.”

  “Nonsense. Nothing is impossible,” Kate replied confidently, “especially if you’re in charge. You’ve set up these kinds of things a thousand times for me in the past, Debra.”

  “But not in less than a month,” she protested.

  Trey watched the interplay between Debra and his mother, knowing no matter how the conversation went the dinner would get done in two weeks’ time. Kate usually got her way and Debra was one of the most efficient women Trey had ever known.

  “I’ll have Haley step in and do most of the work you normally do for me,” Kate said, mentioning one of her senior interns. “That will free you up to work closely with Trey to get this done. I recommend you both go into the sitting room right now and figure out a specific date and a venue. Let’s get this thing rolling.”

  Trey could tell that this was probably the last thing on earth that Debra wanted to do. He could see her reluctance as she slowly stood from her chair, in the small crease that darted across her forehead.

  He wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea of working closely with his one-night stand, either. But, he also knew that if anyone could pull this event off on time and with flair, it was Debra Prentice.

  They could work together, he told himself as he followed her slender frame into the informal sitting area at the back of the house. All they had to do was continue doing what they had been doing for the past six weeks: pretend that crazy night they had shared hadn’t happened.

  “I didn’t realize she was going to pull you into this,” he said as she sat in one of the plush, comfortable beige chairs and he sank down on the sofa opposite her.

  The family sitting room was large, with floor to ceiling windows on one side and comfortable, yet attractive furnishings. A bar was located at the back of the room and doors led out to the patio and pool area.

  It was in this room that the family had often come together to discuss problems or simply to enjoy each other’s company and catch up on busy lives.

  “My job is to do whatever Kate needs done and since this is important to you, it’s important to her.” She stared down at her notepad. “The first thing we need to do is find a venue. With less than a month lead time that might be a problem. Do you have any place specific in mind?” Her vivid green eyes finally made contact with him.

  “I was thinking maybe the Raleigh Regent or the Capital Hotel,” he suggested. “Both places are popular for such events.”

  “That’s the problem.” That tiny crease deepened again across her forehead. “I’m fairly sure that the Capital Hotel ballroom will be impossible to get at this late date. I’ll check with the Regent and see what’s available. Last I heard the ballroom was undergoing some renovations and I’m not certain if they are complete or not. I’m still not sure I’m going to be able to make this happen so soon. I’m assuming you want a Saturday night?”

  “Or a Friday night would be fine,” he replied. He watched as she made several notes on the pad. Debra Prentice wasn’t a knockout kind of woman, but she also didn’t play up her pretty features. She wore little makeup and her hair always looked as if it had been tortured into a position at the back of her head that it couldn’t possibly hold.

  Still, he knew that her light bro
wn hair was incredibly silky and that she had a cute, perfectly proportioned figure that had fit perfectly in his arms. He knew how her eyes sparkled while in the throes of passion and exactly how her lips tasted.

  “Trey?” Her eyes held a touch of impatience, making him realize she must have tried to get his attention while he’d been lost in thought.

  “Sorry. What was the question?”

  “How many people are you expecting to invite?”

  “Two hundred or maybe two hundred and fifty,” he replied.

  “Pick a number,” she said with a light edge to her voice. “I need a specific number to tell the event planner when we settle where this is going take place.”

  “Two hundred and fifty,” he said firmly.

  She nodded. “I’ll need the guest list from you as soon as possible. Invitations will have to go out in the next couple of days or so. Thank goodness it’s January and there isn’t much else going on around town.” She wrote a couple more notes on her pad and then met his gaze again. “I think that’s all I need from you to get started. By the end of the day I’ll have a list of dates and places for you to consider.”

  She stood as if dismissing him, her body instantly poised to run back to her little office.

  “Then tomorrow let’s make arrangements to see some of the venues together,” he said as he also stood. “And I’ll want to be with you when you speak to the event planner. We’ll need to pick the menu and make decisions on a number of other things.”

  It was obvious he’d surprised her. She’d probably just assumed everything would be left up to her. But Trey freely admitted that he was something of a control freak. He couldn’t run Adair Enterprises and be as successful as he’d been without being detail oriented and on top of every element in his life.

  “I just assumed...” Her voice trailed off.

  “This is important to me, Debra. Assume that I’ll be at your side every step of the way until this dinner party is over.”

  Her eyes widened slightly and then she gave him a curt, professional nod. “Then I’ll call you later this evening and we’ll make arrangements for tomorrow.”

  She left the sitting room and Trey sank back into the chair, his thoughts a riot inside his head. He’d taken over the running of the family business when his grandfather had died. Walt Winston had mentored Trey and instilled in him the need to be the best that he could be.

  It was Walt who’d wanted to see Trey in politics. The old man had even made a list of women he thought would be an asset in his quest for public office. At thirty-five years old, Trey knew it was time for him to marry. He also knew he’d make a more attractive candidate if he had a wife by his side.

  With that thought in mind he’d dated dozens of women over the past year and finally eight months ago he’d begun to see Cecily McKenna exclusively.

  Although he wasn’t madly in love with Cecily, he knew she’d make the perfect wife for him. She was a thirty-three-year-old heiress. Articulate, charming and beautiful, Cecily also possessed a fierce ambition not just for herself, but for him, as well.

  He knew there were rumors swirling of an imminent engagement between him and Cecily, rumors he suspected Cecily had started herself. He smiled inwardly. He wouldn’t put it past her.

  He looked up as Sam came into the room. “So, word has it that you’re joining the ranks of the sex-scandal-ridden, fake and crooked politicians of the world.” Sam threw himself into the chair that Debra had vacated.

  It was obvious his brother was in one of his foul moods. “Actually, I’m hoping to do something good for the people of North Carolina.”

  “That’s my big brother, the overachieving perfect son.”

  Trey drew a steadying breath. He knew the man seated before him with the scowl on his handsome face wasn’t the brother, wasn’t the man who had left here to serve his country.

  “Sam, why don’t you talk to me?” he asked softly. Sam had spent three months imprisoned overseas and months in a hospital recovering from the severe torture he’d endured while a prisoner. He had since been deemed unfit to return to duty and had been mad at the world ever since.

  “I don’t need to talk to anyone,” Sam growled and got up from the chair. “I’m fine just the way I am.”

  Trey watched helplessly, troubled for his brother as Sam left the room. Sam was a powder keg, but he refused to speak about his time in prison or what had been done to him. The scars he carried were deep and dark and Trey wished he’d share some of the horror with somebody...anybody who could help him heal.

  Unfortunately, Sam wouldn’t be fixed until Sam wanted to be fixed and at the moment he appeared to be perfectly satisfied being angry.

  Trey checked his watch and stood. It was time for him to get back to his own office. Now that he’d pretty much made up his mind to run for Senator, he didn’t want to just run, he wanted to win.

  He also needed to call Cecily. He hadn’t even told her yet that he’d made up his mind to begin the process of gaining support and throwing his hat in the ring. She would be beyond thrilled. She’d been telling him for months that he was what the state needed, that he could do great things.

  As he left the house he found himself wondering what Debra thought of his decision to run. Did she believe he was capable of doing great things?

  Who cares what she thinks? he asked himself. All he needed from her was her skills at pulling together an event that would provide him a solid foundation on which to begin to build his campaign.

  Chapter 2

  Debra had suffered a crush on Trey Winston from the very first time she’d met him years ago. She’d always known he was out of her league, but her crush had never really diminished over the years.

  She couldn’t help the fact that her heart always leapt a bit at the sight of him, that she often grew tongue-tied and clumsy in his presence. Even sharing the single night that they’d had together hadn’t changed her attraction to him; instead it had only deepened her feelings for Trey.

  But, it didn’t matter what she felt about him because she knew that she was the last woman on earth he would ever want to have a public relationship with. He had his future neatly planned out with Cecily McKenna by his side.

  As she drove to the Regent Hotel to meet both him and the hotel manager to discuss the event, she couldn’t halt the tingling nerves that fluttered through her veins at the thought of working with him so closely.

  She knew he’d probably marry Cecily, a gorgeous heiress who had the social savvy and political chops to be an asset to him.

  Debra also knew that she would be a definite liability to Trey. She’d been born out of wedlock. Her father, who had been a married CEO of a Fortune 500 company at the time, had never acknowledged her existence personally. In fact, Debra had been raised by her mother to never mention her father’s name, to never expect anything but a monthly support check in the mail from him.

  When her mother died right after Debra’s graduation from college, she had met with her father for the first and the last time. She had requested one thing from him—she wanted him to use his influence to get her a job in the political arena, specifically with Kathleen Adair Winston. As one of Kate’s top contributors to her political campaign when she’d run for vice president, he had been instrumental in her attaining her position with Kate.

  That’s the only thing Debra had ever asked from the man who had never been anything but a name on a check, but he hadn’t even managed to follow through on that. In recent years, there had been whispers of scandals within his company and talk of her father having some shady dealings.

  Debra could crush on Trey all she wanted, but she knew she would only be an embarrassing one-night stand and right now a valuable tool to use to achieve his dreams. She would work her butt off to help him in his bid for a seat in the Senate. She wanted him to have his d
ream and she’d also do the best she could because Kate had asked her to.

  She parked in front of the prestigious thirty-story hotel and looked at her watch. She was twenty minutes early for their ten-o’clock appointment so she remained in the car with the engine running and warm air blowing from the heater vents.

  She’d been surprised when she’d called the hotel and discovered that the ballroom was available on a Friday night two weeks from now. Two weeks. Jeez, Kate must think she was some kind of magician.

  But there had to be some magic at work for the ballroom not to already be booked, Debra thought.

  Her hand fell to her stomach, caressing the place where she knew eventually there would be a baby bump, a bump that could potentially destroy Trey’s future plans.

  Politics thrived on scandals and any of Trey’s adversaries would turn a simple night between two consenting adults into something ugly to use against him. Everyone knew he’d been seeing Cecily so that one-night stand would be a testimony to a lack of morals on both their parts. He would be painted with the same brush that had darkened his father’s Senate term.

  Debra knew that neither of them lacked a moral compass. The night had simply gotten away from them, both of them making mistakes in judgment.

  He would never know about the baby, although it broke her heart that she felt like she was somehow repeating a history she’d never wanted for any child of her own.

  She loved the baby, despite the circumstances of the conception. She would be the best mother she could and maybe eventually she’d meet a man who wanted her and her child enough to form a family unit.

  She checked her watch once again and then cut the car engine. She grabbed her purse with her electronic notepad inside and then got out of the car. She’d power dressed today in a stylish dark brown skirt and suit jacket with a beige blouse. Brown pumps adorned her feet and tiny gold hoop earrings were her only jewelry.