Sutton had never been so elated to read a piece of paper in his whole life. He supposed he could only be more relieved to read the charges against his family were dropped. But since that wasn’t likely to happen, he would be happy enough with this.
Lauren Roberts’s background check came back sparkly clean. Miles had gone above and beyond researching her and hadn’t come up with anything questionable. She had no contacts with their company or competitors. Nor had she received any large payments from a mysterious source. Which proved she wasn’t a spy or out to ruin his family, best anyone could tell.
It was a huge weight off his shoulders. He liked Lauren. A lot. He’d been enthralled by his mystery lover, but surprisingly enough, getting to know the woman behind the mask was just as exciting. If this background check had held adverse information about her, he would’ve been extremely disappointed.
But now that he knew for certain, he was faced with an ugly truth. He was the only liar in this relationship. Sebastian’s suspicions were based on a lack of chemistry, but that hadn’t been a problem for Sutton because Lauren was his masked lover. Sebastian’s girl was still out there somewhere, so they had no real reason for switching places on Lauren.
It was time to come clean. And he would do it at dinner tonight. Not only because he had to, but because he wanted to. He told himself he couldn’t seduce her while she thought he was Sebastian. But he wanted her. Badly. And the only way he could have her was to explain who he really was. And then, if she didn’t hate him when he was done, maybe they could take their relationship to the next level.
It was a risky prospect, but he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to see Lauren again. Simple as that.
Sutton made reservations that night at The Glass House. He knew Sebastian had already taken her there, but he was limited on options in Royal. Unless they wanted to go to the Silver Saddle Bar or the Royal Diner on Main Street, it was The Glass House or eating at the club. Lauren really should open a place here in town. Royal needed another great dining option and she was the perfect person to do it. If he wasn’t in such a pinch, he’d bankroll it himself.
But considering all he really had left to his name was his white Audi R8 Coupe, he’d have to wait until all the crap with Wingate Industries blew over.
Tonight, he dressed like Sutton, not his brother. He chose his favorite gray suit and a navy silk shirt. No tie. He hated wearing ties. Then he fixed his hair in the messier style he preferred and wore his cologne of choice. It was a relief to finally step out the door as himself. Being his brother was frustrating and frankly—a little boring.
When he pulled up in front of Lauren’s house, he watched her step outside with a wrinkle of confusion between her brows. He got out and opened the door for her to get inside.
“What happened to the BMW?” she asked. Then she turned to look at him. “And what happened to you?”
Sutton grinned. “I decided to let it all hang out tonight,” he said. “I’ll explain more at the restaurant.”
She looked at him curiously, but got into the car without any more questions. “I’m surprised you suggested we go back to The Glass House,” she remarked as they drove toward the Bellamy Hotel. “But then I noticed their seasonal menu has completely changed and I didn’t mind so much. They’ve added a few amazing new dishes.”
Lauren continued speaking with enthusiasm about the food and what she was going to order tonight. While Sutton appreciated the excitement that emanated from her when she talked about her passion for food, he barely heard a word she had to say. All he heard, all he could think about, were the worries in his own head. How would he tell her? When should he do it? Right away? Maybe wait until dessert? Was he only delaying the inevitable demise of this relationship?
Probably. But every moment he got to spend with Lauren was a gift. And she looked especially lovely tonight. She was wearing a sexy little black dress that clung to her delicious curves and showcased her shapely legs. It was like a sucker punch to the gut the moment she opened the door. And if she’d worn it alone, they might never have made it to the restaurant. But it was a cooler night, so he waited as she put on a demure cream sweater with shiny pearl buttons. It covered a lot of skin, but also drew his attention to her exposed collarbones, long neck and bare earlobes. He immediately wished he could buy her a strand of pearls and matching earrings to wear with that outfit. The old Sutton wouldn’t have thought twice about making that purchase. He might even take a detour on the way to the restaurant to buy it on the spot at the local jewelry store.
But this Sutton just pasted on a smile, swallowed his irritation and walked her to his car. The situation with his family wouldn’t last forever. And when they were vindicated and things went back to normal, he would buy her that necklace. Even if she wasn’t speaking to him any longer.
“Sebastian?” Lauren asked after they’d been driving for a few minutes.
He snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that for now, he was still answering to his brother’s name. “What?” he asked.
“I asked you what you thought about the red snapper.”
“Fish isn’t my favorite,” he said.
“Didn’t you get the grouper when we went there last time?”
Damn it. This charade needed to be over so he could stop worrying about every word that came out of his mouth. “I did. Grouper is fine. I just meant red snapper. I’ve always thought it smelled too fishy to me,” he said, hoping that would patch his mistake for now.
“It’s actually a very mild fish, a little nutty and almost sweet. You should try it.”
“Maybe,” he said, dismissing the conversation as they pulled into the hotel parking lot. Sutton opted to valet the car, tipping extra to keep it close. He didn’t need the valets going on a joyride in his baby. And once he told the truth, the date could end sooner than he expected. Might as well keep it on hand, just in case.
Once they were settled into the restaurant, food ordered and wine in hand, he decided it was time. He couldn’t put this off anymore.
“Lauren, I need to talk to you about something.”
Her eyes widened slightly as she set down her wineglass. “What is it?”
This was it. He just had to say the words out loud the way he’d practiced them in his head. “I told you the other night about how volatile the situation is with my family right now. Lately, we’re not sure who we can really trust.”
“That’s reasonable,” she murmured.
She was being too understanding. Normally that would help, but now it just made him feel worse about lying to her. He held up his hand before she said anything else that would make this harder. “When you came to the house that first day, it was because you thought you’d had a one-night stand with Sebastian Wingate. But you didn’t.”
Her gaze narrowed at him. “I don’t understand.”
“You saw the photo in the paper and assumed you’d been with Sebastian because of the mask. But there were two men at the party that night with the same mask. I was the other man.”
She searched his face as though she were looking for the answers she needed, shaking her head. “What are you talking about? You are Sebastian Wingate.”
Sutton took a deep breath. “I’m not. I’m his identical twin brother, Sutton. You’ve been going out with me while I pretended to be Sebastian, since I visited you at the food truck.”
Her jaw dropped. He could almost see her running through the last week, thinking about all the signs she’d missed. Dread pooled in his gut, and he gave her a moment to process it all before he dared to say anything else.
“So, you’re just like the others,” she spat after the long silence.
That stopped him short. That wasn’t what he expected her to say at all. “What others?” What was she talking about?
“All you rich snobs in Royal are the same. Do you just sit around your clubhouse, celebrating how much money you have and thinking of amusing ways to mess with people that don’t fit in? Do you enjoy making them feel like you accept them into your little clique, then pull the rug out from under them just for fun?”
Where was this coming from? “No, Lauren.” He reached across the table to take her hand. “Of course not. It isn’t like that at all. We just weren’t certain we could trust you.”
“Trust me?” she said with her voice hovering on the edge of hysteria. Her face had flushed red with anger and her eyes were glassy with unshed tears as she untangled her hand from his fingers. “You’re the untrustworthy one, Sam. Steve. Whatever the hell you said your name is.”
“Sutton,” he repeated. “Please don’t be upset. I can explain everything.”
“I—” she hesitated “—I have to go.” She pushed up from the table and tossed her napkin into her seat.
“At least let me take you home,” he insisted. This hadn’t gone the way he had hoped, but even if she never wanted to see him again, he still wanted to take her home. That was the least he could do.
“No, thank you. I’ll call an Uber.”
“Lauren, please.” He reached out for her arm as she turned to leave.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed with a fiery gaze. The tears were gone now, replaced with pure anger and betrayal. He’d never seen a look like that on her face and he never wanted to see it again. She jerked her arm from his grasp and spun to make for the exit.
Every eye in the restaurant was now on the two of them, so as much as he wanted to chase her out of the restaurant, he held up his hands in surrender and let her go. Instead, he could only watch as Lauren slipped through the tables to the door and disappeared into the Bellamy lobby.
He’d screwed up. Bad.
“What’s wrong with you today?”
Lauren sighed, but didn’t turn to face Amy. She’d been avoiding having this discussion with her all day, but now they were cleaning up at the end of the night and without any customers to distract them, Amy always got chattier. “Nothing is wrong. I’m just tired.”
“I’ve seen you tired. This isn’t tired. Did something happen with Sebastian?”
You could say that. And yet, not exactly. Nothing much had happened with Sebastian. But everything had happened with Sutton, who she hadn’t even known existed until last night.
Identical twins. Really? When had her life become so melodramatic?
“Hey look, it’s Gracie.” Amy opened the window to the food truck and shouted out the window. “Gracie!”
Lauren turned to see Gracie Diaz walking down the sidewalk past the truck. But she didn’t stop when Amy called out to her. That was odd. She opened the back of the truck to intercept her. “Gracie?”
She stopped short, looking at Lauren as though she wanted to escape instead of chat. “Um, hi, Lauren. I’ve got to go.” She turned to start back down the sidewalk.
“Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Normally even if she wasn’t hungry, she would pop in to say hello. They hadn’t seen her in days, now. It wasn’t like her at all.
Gracie hesitated a moment and then returned to the truck where Lauren was waiting. “I’m fine,” she said. “How are things going with you and Sebastian?” Her tone was unusually cold when she said it.
That wasn’t the question she was expecting. Aside from Amy, she hadn’t spoken to anyone about Sebastian. Or Sutton, either. “How did you know about Sebastian and me?”
Her jaw flexed with what looked like suppressed irritation. Or anger, even. “I saw you two out at the Courtyard Shops the other day. You looked pretty cozy together.”
Lauren couldn’t help but notice that Gracie almost seemed jealous. Her dark brown gaze nearly cut right through her. She’d never heard of any talk about Gracie and Sebastian, but perhaps the other woman carried a torch for him from her time working for the Wingates.
“That wasn’t Sebastian,” she said, ignoring the shocked expression on Amy’s face as her head hung out from the truck window. “That was Sutton.”
Gracie flinched, her nose wrinkling in confusion. “He was driving his black BMW,” she argued. “That’s Sebastian’s car.”
“Sutton borrowed it, I guess. Maybe his car was in the shop, because he picked me up for dinner last night in his white Audi.”
That was enough. A weight seemed to lift from Gracie’s shoulders. “Oh. I didn’t realize you were seeing Sutton. When I saw you together and Sebastian’s car was there, I just assumed.”
“It’s a relatively new development. But nothing is going to come of it,” Lauren insisted. “Things didn’t go so well last night.”
Regular Gracie returned fully with a sympathetic tilt of her head. “I’m sorry to hear that. Sutton is a nice guy.”
“Thanks. But what about you?” Lauren asked the question lingering on her mind before fully thinking it through.
“What about me?”
Good question. She couldn’t very well say that Gracie seemed super jealous and she wanted to know what was going on with her and Sebastian. So while she wanted to ask, she wouldn’t. “I, uh, haven’t seen you much lately. You usually eat at the truck once or twice a week.”
“Oh,” Gracie said, her expression brightening. “I’m okay, it’s nothing. My stomach just hasn’t been great lately, so I’ve been sticking to chicken noodle soup and crackers. I think it’s just the stress of everything. I’ll be back, I promise.”
“I’m sorry you haven’t felt well. But whenever you’re ready, it’s on the house.”
Gracie smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “Seriously? No. I didn’t become a multimillionaire to shaft my friends. I’ll be back, and I’ll pay in full,” she insisted. “I’ll talk to you two later.”
Lauren waved as the other woman continued down the street. That was a weird conversation. One that made her glad she hadn’t actually been with Sebastian that day at the Courtyard Shops. She certainly didn’t want to upset one of her friends and best customers.
“I’d really like to wrap all this up and get home at a decent time!” Amy shouted from the truck.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lauren said as she stepped back into the truck to finish breaking down for the night.
She hadn’t even shut the door when Amy spoke up. “So, I’m going to need more information about everything I heard just now.”
Lauren sighed. Her best friend had lured her back under false pretenses. She didn’t care when they got home, she just wanted information. “As long as we can talk and clean, then fine.” They both returned to their tasks and Lauren relayed the prior night’s revelations as succinctly as she could.
“So you’re saying that was Sutton, not Sebastian, that came by the truck that day?”
“Apparently.”
“And which one did you sleep with at the masquerade ball?”
“Sutton.” There was no question of that. Last night as she’d lain in bed thinking about the crazy situation, the pieces finally seemed to fall into place. Things with Sebastian had never made sense, but they’d suddenly changed that day when Sutton showed up in his place. That was when the potent chemistry that had been missing had returned with a vengeance. Things between them had been amazingly good since Sutton had stepped into his brother’s shoes.
At least until last night, when she’d learned it was all a lie.
“And which one is this at the window right now?”
Lauren spun around to look out the service window, where one of the Wingate twins was standing there with a bouquet in his hands looking ashamed. “Oh come on,” she lamented.
“So is that Sutton or Sebastian?”
Lauren felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach. The messy hair, the crooked smile. It was Sutton for sure. But why was he here at her truck after last night? Didn’t she make it perfectly clear that she needed some space?
With a groan, she walked back to the door and stepped into the street. “We’re closed for the night,” she said as she rounded the truck and he came into view.
He turned to her and she got a better look at the bouquet in his arms. It wasn’t a bouquet of flowers. It was a bundle of fresh herbs, like rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil. The perfect offering for a chef.
“I’m not here to order food,” Sutton told her. “I’m here to apologize.”
Lauren wasn’t sure what to do. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into a gift as he came to see her. And the way his eyes pleaded with her made her knees—and her resolve—start to soften beneath her. She’d never reacted to any man the way she reacted to Sutton. She wished she could turn it off, but despite it all, she still wanted him with a fiery passion she couldn’t deny. She supposed she could at least hear what he had to say.
He held out the bouquet and she accepted it. “Thank you,” she said before inhaling all the different aromatics.
“It’s not enough. Not nearly enough. But it’s a start. I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but I really hope you’ll hear me out. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours trying to figure out how to tell you how I really feel about you. If you’d just give me the chance.”
A thud sounded over Lauren’s shoulder and when she looked to see what made the sound, she saw her purse lying on the curb behind her. Amy waved at her through the window and the next thing she knew, the food truck engine roared to life. Amy left, leaving her with no choice but to listen to him or walk home.
Sutton gestured over to a nearby park bench. She grabbed her purse and followed him over there. Sitting side by side, she focused her eyes across the street at the line of closed shops. If she looked at him, she would give in too easily. She needed to be firm. Stand up for herself.
“Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Being a Wingate is a complicated thing,” he began. “I’m not using it as an excuse, I’m just trying to explain what it’s like. When we were rich and successful, it was hard to trust people because someone always wanted something from you. Whether it was someone looking for an investor, or a handout or a Sugar Daddy, it was hard to tell who was really your friend and who wasn’t.” He cleared his throat. “So when everything fell apart with the business, there was a new layer of suspicion added. Who was behind it all and why would they do something to us like that? It had to be someone we knew. Someone we trusted. It was a hard pill for all of us to swallow.
“That night at the masquerade party, I was not having a good time. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, judging my whole family for things we didn’t do. And then I saw you and everything changed.” He stopped speaking for a moment.
Lauren couldn’t stop from turning to him then. He was looking at her with a pleading gaze. Desperate for her to listen and understand. Fighting the urge to reach out and touch her before she was ready.
“You didn’t look at me like that,” Sutton continued. “You had no idea who I was. You weren’t after a lifetime of alimony payments or someone to front cash for your latest sure thing. You just wanted to dance with me. To kiss me. To give yourself to me. And that felt amazing. I couldn’t wait to find out who you really were. And then you disappeared on me, leaving nothing but a mask to prove you were even real.”
Lauren’s gaze dropped into her lap. She felt guilty for leaving now, even though at the time it seemed like the best thing to do. The real Lauren just wasn’t that exciting. Or glamorous. Or so she thought. Was it possible that he was more than interested in her, without the mask and gown?
“I thought I might never figure out who you were,” Sutton explained with a sad shake of his head. “And then my brother told me that the woman he’d had a fling with at the party had showed up on his doorstep. I was so incredibly jealous. But he kept insisting it didn’t feel right. So we started to wonder if there was more to it. Had we both been seduced by a woman or a pair of women set on getting information from us? Was it related somehow to the company’s troubles? We had no way of knowing. So he suggested I go out with you once and see what I thought.
“The minute I laid eyes on you, I knew the problem was that you were my mystery woman, not his. And when I touched you, it was all over for me. I was so excited to have found you, Lauren. Until you called me by my brother’s name and I realized I had a big problem. I wanted to tell you the truth, but I didn’t know how. So I kept my distance. I didn’t want to let things go too far while you thought I was Sebastian.”
She closed her eyes as she realized the truth of why he hadn’t kissed her again since that first night. “I thought maybe you didn’t want me. That without the excitement of the mask and my makeover, you just weren’t that into it. I’ve felt like an obligation since the beginning, especially with Sebastian.”
Sutton reached out to cup her cheek and turn her gaze to meet his. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth, Lauren. I’ve wanted nothing more than to hold you. And kiss you and make love to you again. But when I did it, I wanted you to call out my name, not my brother’s.”
She gasped at his words. They were sincerer, more intense than she ever could’ve imagined. A man had never spoken to her that way before.
Lauren couldn’t resist leaning into him. He met her advance with his mouth, pressing his lips firmly against hers. It was just like she remembered from the club. Passionate. Hungry. He groaned as her tongue slid along his and invited more.
His arms wrapped around her waist, tugging her closer to him on the bench. Lauren ached for the feel of his fingertips pressed into her flesh and the hard wall of his chest beneath her own. She wanted to unbutton his collar and touch him like she had before. But not here, on a city park bench. If she’d learned nothing else from her conversation with Gracie today, it was that people were always watching. She wanted to take him home and do whatever she wanted without witnesses or a hard pool table limiting her.
Lauren pulled away from his lips, near breathless. “I know your name now,” she said with a wicked smile.