Page 68 of Moonlit Colorado

She nodded. “Until later. Then, I wouldn’t mind hearing about how good I’m being.”

I growled, my grip tightening on her again. Dammit, I wanted her right now. Wanted to skip this stupid rehearsal dinner altogether and spend the rest of today doing far more pleasurable things.

Maybe it was wise Margot had shown up after all.

“I’ll bring in your suitcase and your new clothes in a few minutes.” I forced myself to take a few steps back from her, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. “Let’s get through this dinner,” I said. “And then the rest of the night is ours.”

When I got back to the living room, Margot said, “I called downstairs to have all your things brought up immediately. Should be here any minute.”

“Thank you. But I’m a big boy. I don’t need you to manage me. No matter what my father claims.”

“You think I wanted to bother you? Your father’s assistant made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that I had to make sure you were on time tonight.”

“Of course he did.”

“Your absence at the other wedding activities this week has been noted.”

“I was absent because I wasworking. The Silver Ridge project is important to me. Dad already lectured me about how it had better be profitable, and I’m not going to put my entire life on hold just because Kip is getting married.”

She held up her hands. “You and me both. But you know how your father is.”

“Yeah, I do.” Everything was about loyalty. And I never managed to show enough.

There was a knock at the door. I opened it a bit roughly, making the guy outside jump. “Your bags, Mr. Knightly?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” I shoved a generous tip at him. Hopefully that made up for my shitty mood.

Grabbing Grace’s suitcase and the garment bag with her new clothes, I excused myself and carried them into my bedroom. The shower was running, the bathroom door not quite closed. Like an invitation. And did I ever want to accept it.

But my conversation with Margot wasn’t finished, and I preferred to get this over with while Grace wouldn’t overhear.

I went out to the great room again, and Margot was in the kitchen fiddling with my coffee maker. As soon as I walked in, she handed me a shot of espresso. I downed it and said, “Thank you.”

She went to make one for herself, sticking a fresh pod into the coffee maker. It was some hard-to-find European model Margot had ordered for me for my last birthday. Because she knew me. She cared.

I had very few people in my corner in Manhattan these days, but I had Margot, and thank goodness for that.

“Sorry I grumped at you,” I said. I went to pour a glass of water from the fridge.

“Already forgotten. There’s something else I wanted to share with you in person. You asked me to find out more about Dirk Lancaster.”

I snapped to attention. “Yes? Did you locate him?”

Since I’d first heard that name from Tobin the hotel manager almost a week ago, I’d been pestering Kip for info on Lancaster. The man in the blue mask. My brother had conveniently ignored my calls and messages. Margot had tracked down Lancaster’s business number, but the man hadn’t responded either.

“Lancaster’s assistant kept claiming he was unavailable,” Margot said, “and I finally learned he left the country a few days ago for a vacation in Fiji.”

“Fiji?”

She shrugged. “Apparently, the trip had been planned ages ago, but who knows. Since Kip’s assistant wasn’t helpful either, I decided to look up Lancaster in the Knightly Global system myself. He committed recently to a significant investment in your brother’s pet project in the Bahamas.”

“So Kip does know him.”

She nodded. “And your brother’s calendar showed he had dinner with Lancaster two weeks ago.”

Which would’ve beenafterthe masquerade ball.

“Technically, I shouldn’t have been accessing Kip’s personal calendar,” Margot said, “but if he insists on being mysterious about Lancaster, then I had to resort to more extreme measures.”

---