He drew in a ragged breath, seeming to be fighting an inner battle before he smiled at her. ‘Even though I was so easy to ravage last night?’
She knew he was trying to lighten the tension that suddenly existed between them, but she also knew there was an underlying seriousness to his previous question. But it was his coy expression at the suggestion that she had ravaged him last night that was her undoing, and she returned his smile.
‘Don’t do that,’ Reed warned urgently as she laughed. ‘Or I won’t be answerable for the consequences to your delectable body!’
Those ‘consequences’ kept them in bed another hour, and Diane and Chris were long gone by the time Darcy joined Reed in the kitchen.
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Burning our breakfast?’ she teased at the smell of burning.
He shook his head as he carried their breakfast out to the patio. ‘There are a few forest fires going because of the length of the dry spell; the smell of the smoke from those fires carries for miles.’
‘Has anyone been hurt?’ she asked in concern.
‘Not yet,’ he shrugged. ‘But it’s always a danger.’
‘How awful,’ she frowned as she poured their coffee.
He shrugged. ‘It’s something you get used to when you live here.’
The smell of smoke remained all day, the numerous fires that had started all over the state making the headlines on the news that evening.
‘I’ll arrange for us to go home in a couple of days,’ Reed told her later that night when they were comfortably stretched out in bed together, his hair damp on his brow from their heated lovemaking of minutes ago.
‘Shouldn’t I be the one to do that?’ she teased.
His eyes darkened. ‘You can’t continue to be my secretary now, Darcy,’ he told her quietly.
She stiffened, moving to look at him, sure he couldn’t actually have said what she thought he had. ‘Why on earth not?’ she demanded to know in a stunned voice.
‘Because we’re lovers,’ he stated reasoningly.
Darcy wasn’t in a mood to be reasoned with! ‘What possible difference does that make to my continuing as your secretary?’ She was incredulous.
‘I can’t work with you now, Darcy,’ he stated flatly.
He couldn’t mean it, had to be teasing her. But she could see he wasn’t by the regret in his eyes! She turned away, swinging her legs down to the floor as she sat on the side of the bed. ‘You should have told me the rules of this affair before it began, Reed.’ She pulled on the nightshirt she hadn’t bothered to wear earlier. ‘I might have thought twice about going to bed with you!’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You would rather have remained my secretary?’
‘I would rather be your lover and your secretary!’ She glared across at him as she stood beside the bed.
Reed shook his head. ‘It just isn’t possible.’
‘For heaven’s sake, why not?’ she demanded to know exasperatedly.
‘I have a business to run,’ he shrugged. ‘A high-powered business that absorbs me totally during the day; I don’t have the time to chase my secretary around the office!’
‘Chase your—!’ She broke off impatiently.
‘Reed, that is so silly—’
‘Is it?’ he rasped. ‘And just what do you know about it, Darcy?’
‘I know you,’ she dismissed impatiently. ‘Good God, I’m hardly the type to drive any man insane with lust just by walking into a room!’
‘That’s exactly the effect you have on me,’ he bit out tightly.
‘Then you must be the exception,’ she said exasperatedly. ‘Jason didn’t even—’
‘I don’t want to hear about your effect on other men,’ Reed cut in gratingly, getting out of bed to impatiently pull on a robe. ‘All I know is that I become aroused just looking at you!’
She didn’t want to stop working with him, to be reduced to just being the mistress in his life, found his whole attitude unreasonable. ‘Then you’ve managed to hide it very well all these months!’ she snapped angrily.
‘No, I didn’t hide it at all, you were just too naïve to notice!’
‘Naïve!’ she repeated furiously. ‘I am not—’
‘Darcy, let’s not argue about this,’ he sighed wearily, running a hand through the thick darkness of his hair. ‘We’re good together like this, so damned good, let’s not do anything to spoil it.’
It was already spoilt as far as Darcy was concerned. How did he expect her to continue to make love with him now as if he hadn’t just told her she would be out of a job as soon as they got back to London.
‘I’m not asking you to leave straight away, Darcy,’ he reasoned impatiently. ‘I just want you to start looking around for another job after we get back.’
‘And in the meantime?’ she challenged.
He shrugged. ‘We carry on as we are.’
‘As we are now or as we were then?’ she demanded sharply, her mouth tight.
‘As we are now!’ he rasped. ‘I can’t go back to that platonic relationship.’
‘And just how long do you think you’ll require me as your mistress?’
‘Darcy—’
‘How long, Reed?’ she prompted forcefully.
His mouth thinned. ‘How the hell do I know?’ he snapped. ‘Darcy, I’m not even sure—’
‘Neither am I,’ she cut in firmly. ‘I’m not sure at all! You should have told me the conditions of this affair, Reed,’ she bit out with controlled emotion. ‘I happen to prefer being your secretary!’
‘You can’t mean that,’ he gasped.
Of course she didn’t mean that, but if she had to choose between being his mistress for a few weeks or remaining his secretary on a permanent basis, she knew she would have chosen the latter, that at least that way she could continue to be with him.
‘I do mean it, Reed,’ she told him flatly.
‘You’re upset,’ he dismissed. ‘A lot has happened the last few days. I should have known better than to have let this develop as quickly as it has—’
‘Reed, I have been upset by the robbery and other things, but I do know what I’m saying. How can you expect me to give up my job, a job I happen to like very much, to become your mistress for a few weeks?’
‘Darcy—’
She drew herself up proudly, knew she wasn’t getting through to him at all. ‘I think I’ll make use of the other bedroom if you don’t mind—’
‘But I do mind.’ He spun her round to face him. ‘Do you have any idea how long I waited to make love to you, to—’
‘For me to fall into your bed?’ she finished angrily. ‘You said you wanted me from the beginning, so that must make it six months, three weeks and two days!’ She was so angry at his high-handedness that she didn’t even care that his eyes had darkened with the anger that was usually so ominous it made her forget everything else.
‘Stop putting words into my mouth, damn it,’ he rasped furiously.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she derided hardly. ‘I won’t say another word. In fact, I’ll be glad to make the arrangements for us to go home, it can be my last task as your secretary. And that doesn’t mean I intend becoming your mistress!’ she glared.
‘Darcy…!’ he groaned pleadingly.
She closed the door on him, willing herself not to be moved by his harassed confusion at her reaction. What had he expected, damn him? That she was going to let him keep her for a few weeks and then meekly go on her way to a different job and a different man when he had had enough of her!
God, it had all been so perfect last night and today, seeing a side of Reed she had never thought to see, that of the indulgent lover. But he was right, it had all happened so quickly that they hadn’t had time to think about what they were doing. At least, Reed didn’t seem to have done. Sometime during the day he had realised the awkwardness of working with the woman he had made his latest lover.
But as she lay miserably alone in one of the single beds, she couldn’t h
elp wondering if she had been too impulsive by turning down what he offered. This way she was out of a job, too!
But she had seen too many women go in and then just as quickly out of Reed’s life the last few months to settle for the same herself. She had thought he genuinely cared for her. God, of course he cared for her, just not in the way she had hoped he would. She was here, and he had wanted her, had wanted to comfort her after the trauma she had experienced. She loved him all the more for that, could even appreciate his honesty with her now; it just wasn’t enough for her.
Where did they go from here?
Reed was probably no more sure of that than she was. What a mess it all was!
‘Darcy! Darcy, for God’s sake wake up!’
The hand pushing at her shoulder was very insistent, and she pushed it away irritably. She was still tired, just wanted to continue sleeping.
‘Darcy, you have to wake up!’ That voice persisted in interrupting her dreams.
‘Go away,’ she mumbled, turning over to snuggle beneath the bedclothes.
‘Darcy!’ This time she was shaken until her eyes opened in startled accusation.
‘Reed!’ She glared at him, the mists of sleep taking a long time to clear. ‘What time is it?’ she frowned at her watch. ‘My God,’ she groaned when her vision cleared enough to read it. ‘You should have woken me earlier, it’s ten o’clock, and—’
‘Darcy, we don’t have the time for this.’ Reed was frantically pulling open the drawers containing her clothes, pulling out several items haphazardly to throw them to her on the bed. ‘Get dressed,’ he ordered forcefully. ‘I’ll pack as many of your things as I can while I wait for you.’
She watched in stupefaction as he began to throw her belongings into her case.
‘Darcy!’ he rasped fiercely as he turned to see she hadn’t made a move. ‘For God’s sake get your clothes on or I’ll take you out of here as you are!’
‘We’re leaving now?’ she queried disjointedly. ‘But there aren’t any flights available until later today.’ She had checked before she fell asleep the previous night.
‘I know that,’ he rasped, snapping her case shut on the few things he had managed to throw inside. ‘Let’s go,’ he instructed harshly. ‘We don’t have the time for you to dress.’
‘But where are we going? Reed—’
‘Darcy,’ he became suddenly still, ‘one of those forest fires raging out of control is heading this way. Soon. Understand?’
She was too frightened to do anything but what Reed told her after that, knowing he was as taken aback as she when they emerged from the house to the smell of trees, dry and brittle from prolonged heat, being consumed by flames, smoke settling threateningly in the air as it made their eyes sting and their throats burn.
‘Chris and Diane?’ she managed to gasp as Reed took one look at the flames that could be seen in the distance before running to the car.
‘Chris’s at work and Diane went shopping,’ Reed supplied economically as he helped her into the car.
‘The other people—’
‘All warned.’ He climbed in behind the wheel of the car.
‘Reed…’ she questioned faintly as the distant fire seemed to hold her mesmerised in its grip.
He turned to her with narrowed eyes. ‘Yes?’
She wrenched her gaze away from the smoke and flames. ‘Are we going to get out of this?’
His expression softened. ‘You think I’m going to let anything take you from me now?’ he teased lightly
‘Reed, please, I’m serious!’ she groaned.
‘And you think I’m not?’ he grated. ‘After sleeping alone last night I decided that nothing was going to keep me from your bed in future,’ he declared with a return of his usual arrogance.
Darcy looked at him searchingly, but there was no real time for questions, only action. The time for questions could come later.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WADE and Linda asked questions, Diane asked questions, but by eight o’clock that night Darcy felt too weary to want to do anything more than fall into bed.
Reed’s prompt action in getting them both away to safety had been what saved them, the fire missing them by minutes as it rolled along, burning all in its way. Darcy knew she owed her life to him, that if it weren’t for his calm quick-thinking the two of them would have been as black and charred as Diane and Chris’s house had been when she insisted Reed drive her back, once the fire had passed on, to survey the damage. The house had been burnt to the ground, along with everything around it. One minute there had been beautiful houses and trees surrounding the tranquillity of the lake and the next there had been nothing but ashes.
Reed had cursed his stupidity in allowing her to persuade him to let her see the destruction, had insisted on taking her to hospital to be checked over for shock. After the doctor declared her fit, Reed had driven them both to Linda’s house. Reed had been fully dressed when he woke her, but Darcy was still in her nightshirt hours later, and a bath and a change of clothes had never seemed so welcome.
Everything had been destroyed, and it was Chris and Diane Darcy felt most sorry for; they had lost everything to the fire. Diane accepted it, just relieved that no lives had been lost, but Chris seemed in shock when the couple arrived that evening; the two of them staying at their hotel for the moment. He spoke little during their visit, and Darcy’s heart went out to him. A house was so personal, became so much a part of the people who lived in it, and the happy memories shared there had burnt along with it.
‘I’m so sorry.’ She moved to squeeze Chris’s arm in sympathy.
He gave her a sharp look. ‘You’re sorry?’
She nodded. ‘This must be so painful for you.’
Emotion flickered in his eyes. ‘I—Yes,’ he answered abruptly. ‘Diane, we should be going,’ he told his wife sharply as she sat chatting with Linda and Marie.
Diane frowned at the sharpness of his voice. ‘Honey, are you—’
‘Let’s go.’ He stood up disjointedly. ‘I’m sure Darcy and Reed would like to get to bed.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘I said let’s go!’ he grated forcefully, his hands clenched tensely into fists at his sides.
‘I know it’s been a blow for him,’ Mike murmured once the other couple had left, Diane looking confused by her husband’s unwarranted aggression. ‘But Diane lost her home, too!’
‘Leave it,’ Reed advised gruffly. ‘It’s been a hell of a day for all of us.’ He ran a hand through the dark thickness of his hair, several strands falling boyishly across his forehead. ‘It will all seem a little less traumatic after a good night’s sleep.’
‘Well the fire has made me see sense,’ Linda put in shakily. ‘Life is too damned short for the type of stubbornness I’ve been showing lately.’ She turned to her husband. ‘Could I entice you to bed, my darling?’ she said huskily.
Wade eyed her warily. ‘You could entice me off a cliff edge, and you know it!’
‘Could I entice you into giving me a baby?’ she added throatily.
Her husband swallowed convulsively. ‘You’re sure it’s what you really want? I’m not going to push you any more; the fire has also shown me how stupid I’ve been. I have you, what more do I want?’ he dismissed.
‘I’ll show you, darling,’ she murmured seductively. ‘Let’s go to bed and discuss it.’ She looked pointedly at their listening audience.
‘What a good idea,’ Wade’s arm came about her shoulders. ‘Excuse us, won’t you?’ he mockingly addressed the rest of the family. ‘My wife has something very urgent to “discuss” with me.’
‘You should be so lucky,’ Mike derided, giving Marie an affectionate smile as she punched him lightly on the arm. ‘Come on, wife-and-a-bit, let’s go home and have a cuddle!’
Darcy had been dreading and yet anticipating the time for her and Reed to go to bed, dreading it because she was no longer sure what Reed wanted from her, anticipating it because she knew what s
he could make him want from her, if only for a few hours. And she did need him tonight, needed to feel close to him again after the way she had clung to him after they had driven away from the fire. Sleep suddenly seemed unimportant.
She lay in the bed and watched him as he stood just inside the bathroom doorway shaving the day’s growth of beard from his jaw. His movements were deft and unhurried, only the deep lines beside his eyes and mouth showing that he had found the events of the day a strain, too. He had been so much in control throughout the day that no one, including herself, seemed to have considered he might have been badly shaken, too.
‘Reed.’ Darcy went to him, her arms about his waist as she pressed her head against his chest. ‘God, it was so awful!’
‘Yes.’ His arms closed about her. ‘Remind me never to take you on a business trip again,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘So far I’ve managed to make you faint on the plane, be involved in a robbery, and now this damned fire,’ he rasped. ‘I should never have brought you here and exposed you to this!’
‘You couldn’t have had any idea—’
‘You’re going home tomorrow,’ he interrupted harshly, his tone brooking no argument.
It was a warning Darcy didn’t heed. ‘But—’
‘I’ve already booked the flight.’
‘I see,’ she frowned.
His arms contracted about her. ‘This trip is something I hope you can forget!’
‘But you haven’t found out yet who’s betraying your confidences; you need me here for that,’ she protested.
‘Do I?’ he rasped.
She frowned up at him. ‘You said that you did.’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe at first I thought I did. But now I just want you to get back to London and away from here.’
‘You aren’t coming back with me tomorrow?’ She looked at him worriedly.
‘I hadn’t planned to.’ He shook his head. ‘Not unless the situation resolves itself before then.’
‘Before tomorrow?’ Her eyes widened. ‘But—’
‘Put it out of your mind, Darcy,’ he instructed harshly. ‘I wouldn’t have brought you here at all if—’ He broke off, his mouth compressing as he gave a self-impatient sigh.
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