In Serena's Web

by Kay Hooper

  “Her major?”

  Josh was clearly amused. “Electronics.”

  Brian sighed. “Dammit.”

  “I don’t suppose you ever asked her?”

  “It never came up.” Brian swore aloud. “I just assumed she’d been traipsing all over Europe having a good time. Then I found out about her foster kids. Now you tell me—what was she doing over there?”

  “Well, she set up two foundations. And I believe there was a hospital in Switzerland….”

  “Hell.” Brian wondered rather desperately if he’d ever get to the bottom of Serena’s enigmatic person.

  Josh pulled out his cigarette case and looked meditatively at its polished surface. “She uses my lawyers to go over her drafts of by-laws, organizational charters, and so forth,” he said absently, “but they tell me it’s sheer busywork; Serena knows what she’s doing. And even though she couldn’t teach Stuart about electronics, there’s damn little he could teach her. She’d be a sterling asset for somebody in that business. Any business.”

  “Don’t you start,” Brian snapped.

  Surprised, Josh said, “Serena’s been extolling her virtues?”

  “No.” Brian ran a hand through his hair. “The opposite, in fact. She’s so closemouthed about herself, she’d give a clam rough competition.”

  Josh bit back a laugh. “You sound offended.”

  “Well, she might have told me. At least about having a degree in electronics; she knows damn well that it’s my business. It’s something I just might have been interested in, after all. Why the hell didn’t she tell me?”

  Replacing his case in an inner pocket without opening it, Josh offered quietly, “Maybe she doesn’t want to be accused of listing the ways in which you two are compatible. See you later, Brian.”

  Brian went into the restaurant and waited for Serena. He pushed Josh’s last statement out of his mind, unwilling to think about it. But it hardly meant he didn’t want Serena to answer his question.

  He said nothing about it until they were seated across from each other, their coffee poured and their meal ordered. Then he spoke casually. “So tell me about this foundation of yours.”

  Serena opened her mouth, closed it, then stared at him with an absurdly guilty expression. “Josh passed me in the lobby. You talked to him, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  She toyed with her coffee cup. “Oh.”

  Since she was clearly reluctant to say anything more, Brian aired his grievances. “Foundations. Charters and by-laws. Stanford—graduated with top honors. An electronics major. Serena, did you deliberately play dumb with me?”

  “You know I’m not dumb, Brian.”

  “Well, it isn’t any of your doing that I know. I’ve had to piece things together from the beginning. I’ve heard of hiding your light under a bushel, but, really.”

  Serena smiled. “It didn’t seem important, Brian. It still doesn’t.”

  His mouth gaped in surprise as he realized that he’d come within a hair of breaking one of his own rules. If he claimed Serena’s business and electronics knowledge was important, then he would also be claiming two points of compatibility between them.

  Ties.

  For a moment, a split second, he felt a peculiar leap of his senses. An odd, tense, cliff-hanging cessation of everything. As if the world stopped for an instant. The feeling left him bewildered and disturbed.

  Serena, whether deliberately or not, didn’t let him dwell on it. She began talking about the foundation, specifically about the doors being opened to little Scotty Jenkins even as they talked. She was casual, genial, offering no further information on her own involvement.

  Brian accepted the conversation, responded, and tried inwardly to recapture that feeling of being on the brink of—something.

  “You’re a rat and a snake, and I hereby disown you.”

  Josh gazed at his half sister with a raised brow, but didn’t bother to dissemble. “Present a man with a puzzle and most often he’ll set about solving it. If he hadn’t asked me, Rena, he would have asked someone else.”

  “I suppose.” Serena sat down on the edge of the ornamental pool, sighing. “He’s taking the horses back now.” She looked around the peaceful garden, then at Josh. “No pianist?”

  “No, and stop changing the subject. Why are you so concerned about my answering a few innocent questions?”

  “When you’re walking on eggshells,” she told him, “there’s no such thing as an innocent question.”

  Josh sat down beside her. “I had a feeling it was something like that. I also have a feeling that Brian knows too.”

  “Knows what?” she said evasively.

  “What you’re doing. It’s a little obvious, honey. You’re trying so hard not to make demands on him.”

  “It’ll be easier this way,” she interrupted firmly.

  “I don’t know about that. But it’s your business.” Since the conversation was clearly at an end, Josh stood up. “I have a few calls to make.”

  “See you.” Serena gazed after him. She thought in amusement that it was odd how Josh still didn’t know her even after all these years. And she smiled slowly, a smile Brian had no trouble recognizing when he reached her a few moments later.

  “Mona Lisa. Are you plotting?”

  The enigmatic smile became a welcoming one as he sat down beside her, and she responded easily. “Just thinking about Josh, that’s all. He’s avoiding the pianist. I think he’s afraid she bleaches her hair.”

  Brian looked puzzled.

  “A brunette in disguise,” Serena explained blandly. “It makes him nervous.”

  “Why do I get the feeling,” Brian remarked, “that the complex and tangled minds of us mere males are open books to you?”

  Serena was a little startled, and laughed before she could stop herself. “Now, that’s an odd thing to say.”

  He looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m not so sure. You see, Rena, there’s a problem I keep stumbling over in trying to understand you.”

  She had the peculiar feeling that the male book wasn’t the only one lying open to scrutiny. It was a feeling she hadn’t often experienced in her life. “Oh, really? And what’s that?”

  “Well, it’s been my experience that everyone has a single, basic personality trait; we all have more than one, but there’s always a single trait stronger than all the rest.”

  “What’s mine?” she asked lightly.

  “That’s the problem I keep running into. You have a basic desire to help people, but somehow, I don’t think that’s your strongest trait. You’ve admitted to a need to control what you can, but that isn’t it either.”

  “I knew you were thinking about something while we were riding,” Serena remarked. “Now I know what it was.”

  “Now you know,” he agreed.

  She decided rather hastily to head him off. “I think I know what your basic trait is. Discipline. You have a very orderly mind.”

  “Once. Long ago, maybe,” he murmured.

  Serena cleared her throat and got up. “Why don’t we go in? If I don’t soak in the tub I’ll be sore tomorrow; I haven’t been riding in a while.”

  “I’ll scrub your back,” he offered politely, rising and taking her hand as they headed for the building.

  Serena was no fool. She knew, for instance, that a detour was simply a route one took to bypass something before getting back on the right track. In other words, neither of them forgot that Brian was busily sifting through various personality traits in an effort to discover Serena’s strongest one. And it was, she thought, only a matter of time before he found it.

  She honestly didn’t know what would happen then. But she did know that once Brian had his answer, he would understand her completely.

  Her father had pinpointed Serena’s strongest trait years ago. Josh knew, but didn’t know he knew. Which was why she could still surprise him.

  Once Brian knew, she wouldn’t be able to surprise him. It gave her
a peculiar feeling of excitement to realize that. Although she felt anxious about the outcome, she wanted Brian to understand her. And he would—once he began adding things in his mind, once he pinpointed the motive behind almost every action she had taken since they had met. The trait behind all her other traits.

  And Brian was working toward that target.

  “Layers,” he murmured. “Layers and layers.” Since he was drying her body at that moment and had just pressed a warm kiss to the left of her navel, Serena didn’t pay much attention.

  To his words, anyway.

  Some time later, he declared, “Room service,” in a drained voice.

  She stirred at his side and yawned. “You don’t want to get dressed for dinner?”

  “I don’t want to move.”

  Serena began toying with the hairs on his chest. “The modern American male has no staying power,” she observed.

  “It takes nerve for you to say that. And don’t lump me into a group.”

  “I have a lot of nerve. And you do belong to that group.”

  Rather abruptly Brian pulled her on top of him, staring up at her bemusedly. “Yes,” he said slowly. “You do have a lot of nerve.”

  “I don’t like your tone,” she told him.

  Pursuing what seemed to be an elusive trail, Brian spoke in an oddly cautious voice. “It occurs to me that you have a great deal of nerve. Meaning patience, stamina, and courage. The courage of your convictions, I think.”

  Serena thought that he had thought quite enough. She took advantage of her position to move seductively. She kissed his chin, his jaw. Obvious as the ploy was, she was certainly enjoying it. And so was Brian.

  He groaned. “Don’t distract me! I’m getting close.”

  “I’ll say,” she muttered, discovering somewhat gleefully that he had underestimated his body’s ability to recover from exhaustion. “And I believe you were saying something about not moving?”

  “Don’t gloat. It’s unbecoming.” Then he gasped. “For heaven’s sake, Serena!”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Oh, hell …”

  Serena hastily reached for the ringing telephone, swearing softly. She glanced at Brian, relieved to find him still sleeping. She’d been drowsy herself, even though it was before midnight.

  “Hello?” she said in a quiet voice.

  “Rena, they may have found you,” Josh said evenly.

  She glanced again at Brian. “What makes you think so?”

  “The fact,” he said bitterly, “that someone was asking questions about you of the kitchen staff. They came in the back door, dammit. I’d forgotten your tendency to be known to everyone working in a hotel.”

  “Any descriptions?” she asked.

  “The usual. Average height, average weight. Said they were reporters, and a rather impressionable busboy fell for it.”

  Serena chewed on her bottom lip. “What now?”

  He sighed roughly. “Well, the damage is done. I think you’re safe enough, particularly in Brian’s room. But from now on I don’t want you alone—ever. Got that?”

  “I’ve got it. Josh, do we have to tell Brian?”

  “You know the answer to that.”

  It was her turn to sigh. “Right.”

  “I mean it, Serena!”

  “Don’t snap. I’ll be sensible.”

  His voice softened. “Honey, we can’t be sure what their plan is. Stuart thinks it’s possible they may be feeling some heat, and that means they could decide to grab you. How would Brian feel if he was caught off guard because he didn’t know?”

  “Yes, yes. I’ll tell him in the morning.”

  “If you don’t, I will.”

  “I’ll tell him,” she said. Then, glancing again at her sleeping lover, she added glumly, “Their timing is lousy.”

  “Nobody ever said they were nice guys. Good night, honey.”

  “Night, Josh.”

  Serena lay very still for a while, her hands resting on the tanned forearm across her waist. She frowned at the ceiling. “Plan for the unexpected,” her father had always told her. Well, that was a fine bit of advice, but it wasn’t very helpful at the moment.

  How could one plan against a possible kidnapping?

  Especially when one was the kidnapee …

  “Why’s the light on?” Brian asked sleepily.

  “I like to look at your manly face,” Serena replied, turning her head to do that.

  “You were looking at the ceiling.”

  “I’m looking at you now.”

  “Hope you like what you see, then.”

  “Fishing?”

  “Depends on your answer.”

  “I like what I see.”

  “I was fishing,” he admitted.

  Serena smiled and reached out to turn off the light before moving closer to him.

  “Layers,” Brian murmured, his arm tightening around her.

  EIGHT

  “YOUR NAME,” BRIAN told her the next morning, “is perfect for you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. How the hell can you be so calm about this?”

  Serena had just told him of her conversation with Josh the night before, and now resisted an urge to confide just how upset she was—and why.

  “What am I supposed to be if not calm?” she asked reasonably. “There’s nothing I can do about it, after all.”

  Brian gazed at her, thinking how absurdly young she looked in jeans and a knit top, how lovely. She was sitting in a chair by the window, with one leg thrown over its arm, regarding him with her usual tranquility.

  Her usual serenity.

  They might have been discussing the weather, rather than the probable presence of large men with large guns who kidnapped people and were quite likely waiting for a chance to grab her.

  Suddenly, huskily, Brian said, “I’m tempted to lock the door and keep you here for the duration. Room service isn’t bad.” He was more than tempted; it was an urge almost too powerful to resist.

  She smiled. “It might be days, Brian.”

  “Afraid I’ll drive you crazy?”

  Dispassionately she said, “I doubt you’d do that. The other way around’s more likely. I’m not the easiest person to live with.”

  He was surprised by the statement. “I haven’t had any problems so far,” he observed.

  “We haven’t been confined in this room alone.” She stood up, smiling again. “And we won’t be. I refuse to be locked up, even with you, and even for my own protection.”

  He had expected it. Sighing, he said, “Then I don’t want you out of my sight all day.”

  “I won’t object to that.”

  As the day passed, Brian realized that Serena was the only one of the three of them—four, counting the P.I.—who was blithely unconcerned about her safety. She made no objection to having both him and Josh close by her all day, but didn’t bother to hide her amusement.

  “Why?” Brian demanded midway through the morning.

  The three of them were in the hotel gift shop because Serena wanted to buy a present to send to Scotty in the hospital, and since it was a small shop, the two rather large men crowded things a bit.

  “Because I can’t move with you two at my elbow every minute. Wait outside?”

  Josh moved to the door, chuckling, but Brian was made of sterner stuff. “That isn’t what I meant, and you know it. You obviously believe you aren’t in the least bit of danger. Why?”

  Serena was contemplating a huge stuffed panda. “Because they know we’re on to them,” she answered absently.

  “Come again?”

  “They’re pros, Brian.” She handed the toy to the salesclerk and requested that it be gift-wrapped, and the girl disappeared into the back of the store. “They know we’re aware of them. And they know we’ll be on guard—at least at first. But people can’t stay on guard indefinitely, so they’ll wait for a bit, until we relax.”

  Brian stared at her for a moment. “Plotting. You do understand
that, don’t you?”

  “It’s just common sense,” she said easily.

  He grimaced. “Something Josh and I are short of at the moment?”

  Serena hesitated, seemed about to touch him, then merely crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “You’re just worried about me,” she said. “I know that.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t—” He broke off abruptly, gazing at her with a frown.

  “Wouldn’t what?”

  Brian sighed explosively. “Serena, I don’t mind your touching me. I like it when you touch me.” He reached out himself, brushing a strand of dark hair from her cheek, his fingers lingering to cup her neck warmly. “I like it very much,” he finished huskily.

  She didn’t move, gazing at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes. “All right, Brian.”

  Frustrated, he realized that she would go on guarding her impulses to touch him. He opened his mouth to speak, but the salesclerk returned with Scotty’s gift. With a smile Serena turned to deal with the details of the purchase.

  Brian went to join Josh outside the door.

  “Something wrong?” Serena’s brother queried, studying Brian’s frown.

  “No.” Brian looked at the younger man, then asked abruptly, “Is it true that Serena’s heart condition was cured years ago?”

  “It wasn’t a condition,” Josh said. “A defect. But, yes, it’s cured. Repaired. We haven’t had to worry about it for twenty years.”

  “There’s no danger now?”

  “No danger. She had a rough time of it as a kid, though. The doctors said …”

  “Said what?”

  Josh hesitated, then sighed. “That she was one hell of a fighter. She nearly died, Brian.”

  Brian stood staring across the lobby. Very softly, he said, “It’s just wonderful the amount of information no one’s thought to let me in on.”

  Since he had been an interested observer of Brian’s developing relationship with Serena, Josh wasn’t surprised to hear anger in the soft tone; he would, he decided, have felt the same way himself in Brian’s place. But he tried to put things into perspective for the other man.