Mistress on His Terms

by Catherine Spencer

  Well, damn it, she wouldn’t allow it!

  Choking and spluttering, she clung to the hull of the dinghy with one hand and with the other struggled to free her ankle from the rope. Was that what caused the boat to turn turtle again—her putting her weight too much on one side and the waves pushing too hard from the other? Or was she engaged in a losing battle from the first? Whatever the reason, it slowly heaved up like some prehistoric creature, turned slowly on its side and started filling with water.

  As the painter around her ankle tightened, Lily tasted a fear like nothing she’d ever known before. A scream tore loose from her throat and, involuntarily, a name. “Sebastian!”

  A light appeared, weaving erratically down the path from the cottage and, miraculously, he was there, racing along the jetty and flinging a lifeline to her. “Let go of the boat!” he shouted, aiming the lantern he carried so that he could see her. “Push yourself away from it and I’ll pull you in.”

  “I can’t,” she gasped, sobbing the words between breaths that burned her lungs like fire. “I’m trapped in the mooring line.”

  “The hell you are!” In a flash, he’d dumped the lantern on the dock and was in the water beside her. The blade of a knife glimmered as he raised his hand. And then, blessedly, the awful tension around her ankle lessened and he had her by the scruff of the neck and was towing her ashore. She had never felt anything as welcome as the fine gravel scoring her knees and elbows as he heaved her above the waterline.

  For the longest time, she lay in a heap, incapable of speech or movement. When she at last lifted her head, she found him kneeling beside her. “You know,” he said, “you’ve really got to stop this business of swimming after dark. You’re obviously not very good at it.”

  “I know,” she said, and tried to smile. Instead she burst into tears. “I thought I was going to die,” she wailed, burying her face against his sodden shirt. “I thought the boat would sink and take me with it, and I’d never see any of you again.”

  “Fat chance! For a start, it’s designed not to sink. And you’re not getting rid of us that easily,” he said roughly.

  But his hand was gentle on her hair, his arm tight and comforting around her shoulders. And when she lifted her face to his, his mouth closing over hers was warm and tender.

  “You’re turning into one big headache for me, you know that?” he murmured, when they came up for air. “What the devil am I going to do with you?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE storm blew itself out before midnight. The next morning, Sebastian repaired the roof, Hugo mopped up the damage inside the cottage and Natalie and Lily cleaned up outside while Cynthia prepared lunch on the screened porch.

  Sebastian was the last to join them. He took his place at the foot of the table, with Natalie on his right and Lily on his left. Before he’d even helped himself to the cold chicken salad, Natalie began quizzing him. “What made Penny leave early? We practically have to evict her, as a rule.”

  “Natalie!” Cynthia’s eyebrows rose in reproof.

  “Oh, Mom, it’s true and you know it! You said yourself you were surprised she only stayed a couple of hours.”

  “Perhaps,” Sebastian said mildly, amusement flickering at the corners of his beautiful mouth, “she had to work again last night.”

  “That might explain her taking off in such a hurry, but not why you went with her—unless she needed help getting into her uniform!”

  “Watch your mouth!” he said, but there was no bite in his words, and when he turned his glance on Lily, it seemed to rest on her longer than necessary and with particular warmth, before he continued, “I had some matters to attend to in town. Phone calls to make.”

  “On a Saturday?” Natalie snorted, disbelievingly.

  “They were urgent,” he said, helping himself to iced tea. “As a social worker-in-training, you ought to know better than most that not every problem conveniently arises during normal business hours.”

  Ignoring Cynthia’s frown of disapproval, Natalie planted her elbows on the table and wagged a finger at her brother. “Sebastian, you’re hiding something!”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re talking like a lawyer and you only ever do that around us when you’re up to something. Come on, we’re your family. You can tell us. What’s going on? Did you dump Penny?”

  Again, his gaze drifted over Lily before he answered. “We reached an understanding.”

  “And…?”

  “We agreed to remain friends, but otherwise go our separate ways.”

  In the babble of comment that followed his news, no one seemed to notice that his eyes locked with Lily’s and conveyed a silent message meant only for her. Was she delusional to think he was telling her she was the reason? Had the fact that they couldn’t keep their hands off each other whenever they were alone dealt a death blow to his other relationship?

  His slow smile told her it was so.

  “But that doesn’t explain why you decided to come back here last night, instead of staying in town,” Natalie said.

  He laughed. “I think you’re chasing the wrong profession, Nat. You should be studying law. You’d make a great prosecutor.”

  She grimaced. “Quit trying to change the subject.”

  “I heard there was a storm headed this way and thought I’d better come back in case you ran into trouble out here.”

  “And thank heavens you did! We were so concerned about the roof leaking that we weren’t paying attention to how long Lily had been gone.” Cynthia shuddered. “What might have happened to her if you hadn’t shown up to rescue her doesn’t bear thinking about.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” he said, covering Lily’s hand.

  A warmth stole through her at such an open gesture of affection and for the first time in many months, the hurt she’d carried inside began to ease. Gratefully she looked around the table: at Cynthia who’d welcomed her without reserve; at Natalie with whom the bonds of sistership had grown so strong in such a short time; at Hugo, who’d risked losing her a second time rather than shattering her illusions about Genevieve.

  And then, last, first and always, there was Sebastian.

  Flustered, she shied away from his glance. She’d lost a very great deal. Jonathan Speirs had cheated her and because of him, she’d been subjected to embarrassing cross-examination by the police. But she’d held fast in her belief in the justice system and emerged in the end with her reputation intact.

  Her parents were dead, they hadn’t always been quite the perfect people she’d believed them to be, and they’d lied to her, even if only by omission. But they’d given far more than they’d ever taken away.

  Never be afraid to follow your heart, her mother had said. It’s the one thing that will never lead you astray.

  Nor had it. Instead it had brought her to this moment. To her destiny. She’d been avoiding facing the obvious for days, but suddenly it overwhelmed her and refused to go ignored any longer. She’d fallen in love with Sebastian Caine. Often difficult, at times impossible, he was the only man for her. She knew it as surely as she knew her own name.

  As if the same realization had crept up on him, too, he squeezed her fingers and she looked up to find him smiling at her with that special intimacy shared only by lovers. Perhaps Hugo and Cynthia saw what was happening, but were too discreet to comment openly.

  Natalie showed no such restraint. “Uh-oh! I smell romance in the air,” she crowed.

  Although meaning no harm, her throwing something so new and untried under public scrutiny ruined the moment. Hot with embarrassment, Lily pulled her hand free and sprang away from the table.

  “Honestly, Nat, talk about nineteen going on five!” Sebastian exploded, glaring at his sister with rare annoyance. “When are you going to grow up?”

  Obviously crushed, she muttered, “Sorry. I was only teasing. I didn’t think—”

  “You never do, that’s the trouble! Your mouth’s in gear long befor
e your brain’s engaged!”

  “Perhaps,” Hugo said, obviously hoping to defuse the tension, which threatened to turn a pleasant get-together into a family free-for-all, “it’s time we thought about heading back to town. Last night was long and trying for all of us, and I know I’m feeling the effects today.”

  “Good idea.” Cynthia dabbed her napkin to her mouth and stood up. “If everyone’s had enough to eat, I’ll start clearing away these dishes.”

  Ignoring Natalie, Sebastian came to where Lily had drifted to the end of the porch overlooking the lake. “I’m sorry about that, Lily. I don’t know what came over Nat. The last thing I wanted was for you to be made to feel uncomfortable.”

  “It was as much my fault as hers,” she said quickly. “If I hadn’t overreacted the way I did, we’d all have had a good laugh and that would have been the end of it. Look at her, Sebastian. She’s devastated.”

  “She’ll get over it. And don’t blame yourself. She pulls this kind of thoughtless stunt too often and I meant what I said. She does need to grow up.” He stepped close enough that his breath stirred wisps of hair on her forehead. “Will you drive back to town with me, Lily? There’s something I need to talk to you about—a lot of things, in fact.”

  The urgency in his voice struck a chord, and she’d have liked nothing more than to be alone with him so that she could express all that was in her heart, too. But, “It’s more important that you straighten things out with Natalie,” she said. “Take her with you instead.”

  He stood with his back to the others so that when he opened her hand and traced lazy circles over her palm, no one but she was the wiser. “But you’re the one I want to be with.”

  Under his heated gaze, happiness swelled inside her like a flower bursting open under the sun. Past tragedy and broken trust left scars. Nothing would ever bring back her parents, or alter the fact that she’d been fooled into entering into a business contract with a criminal.

  But with Sebastian looking at her like that, what she’d gained outweighed what she’d lost and she wasn’t about to let anything intrude on the perfection of the moment. “I want to be with you, too, but we’re only talking about an hour. Take Natalie, Sebastian, and put things right between you. You and I can see each other later.”

  He heaved a sigh. “It’ll have to be a lot later. Hugo mentioned that you’re all invited next door to the Andersons’ for cocktails this evening. You’ll be lucky if you get away from there before nine or ten.”

  He was wearing shorts and an open-necked shirt. Taking advantage of the privacy screen his width of shoulder provided, she slid her fingers between the buttons of his shirt and rested them against his bare chest. “Would you rather wait until tomorrow to get together, then?”

  “Keep that up, and you can forget waiting any time at all,” he warned her thickly. “I’m likely to put on a floor show right here and now that’ll send your father and my mother into orbit, never mind Natalie.”

  “Perish the thought!” She pursed her lips in a kiss. “So what—?”

  “So as soon as you can escape the Andersons, come to the apartment.”

  “You aren’t going to join us for cocktails?”

  “Not a chance, sweetheart. I’ve got a party of my own to organize.”

  “Semi-dressy,” Cynthia told Lily, when she’d asked about the Anderson affair. “Winona isn’t one to stand on ceremony, but she likes to do things with style.”

  Style and elegance pretty much defined everything that took place in the Preston circle of friends, from what Lily could determine. “If I were staying here much longer, I’d need to buy a whole new wardrobe,” she muttered, subjecting herself to a last inspection in her bedroom mirror.

  The plainly cut black dress with its narrow skirt and fitted waist had seen more than its share of wear lately. But with the addition of a single string of pearls, matching earrings and the pearl dinner ring her parents had given her on her last birthday, she thought it passed muster.

  However, the disfavor with which Sebastian regarded her when she finally escaped the cocktail party and at last showed up at his door, made her wonder if it was time she consigned the outfit to a used-clothing store. Not, she thought, noting his rather rumpled look, that he’d have topped anyone’s best-dressed list himself just then!

  “Were you sleeping?” she said, dismayed that he confined his greeting to a peck on her cheek and a wordless gesture, which she took to be an invitation for her to climb the winding staircase. “You look a bit…out of sorts.”

  He shook his head. “Merely anxious to clear up a few things.”

  But the warmth he’d shown earlier was lacking, and instead of heralding anticipation, his words seemed to clang with foreboding.

  “Want something to drink?” he inquired offhandedly, when they reached the living room.

  “Thanks. Perrier, if you have it,” she said, not liking the situation at all. It reminded her too much of the only other time she’d been a guest in his home, except that, then, she’d wanted information and he’d been bent on seduction. Now it seemed to be the other way around.

  “So, how was the cocktail party?”

  “Very nice.”

  He served her drink and waved her to a seat on the same couch where they’d first made love, but seemed in no hurry to join her. Yet just that morning, his every gesture and glance had indicated he was eager to explore the romantic dimensions of their relationship. “Meet any new people?”

  “A few. No one interesting enough to keep me there a moment longer than necessary,” she said, her glance roaming over the room. No moonlight tonight to bathe it in mystery. No candles, either, or soft music filling the air, or imported wine chilling in ice.

  Yet, I’ve got a party of my own to organize, he’d said, when she’d asked him why he wasn’t going to the Andersons’. But although the halogen lamp spilling light on the papers spread over his desk was unquestionably efficient, it hardly made for romantic ambience. At their present rate of nonprogress, he’d be showing her the door before much longer with nothing resolved between them.

  Well, she wouldn’t allow it! Not when they’d come this far, and not until he’d aired whatever was preying on his mind! “What’s wrong, Sebastian?” she said, placing her glass on the coffee table and going to where he stood by the window. “Is it Natalie? She begged off coming with us tonight, claiming she had to catch up on her studying, but I thought she seemed a bit down. Are the two of you still on the outs with each other over this morning’s incident?”

  “No,” he said, the look he turned on her about as warm as April in Antarctica. “Thanks to you, we’re fighting about something else.”

  “Me?” She almost laughed. “What have I done now?”

  “Oh, plenty, not the least being your latest interference in this family’s affairs! Just who do you think you are, encouraging her to take off on some wild-goose chase to India?”

  “So that’s what this is all about! I gather you don’t like the idea very much?”

  “No, I do not.”

  Still not able to take him too seriously despite his black scowl, she said, “Well, the last I heard, it’s okay for people to disagree sometimes, Sebastian. It doesn’t make them sworn enemies.”

  “This amounts to more than a disagreement. We’re talking about my sister here—a nineteen-year-old girl who thinks the sun rises and sets on every damn thing you say or do. And I don’t like the influence you’re exerting over her. I’m beginning to think I was right in the first place—we’d all have been a sight better off if you’d never come here.”

  “I think you’re exaggerating,” she said, her earlier hopes and optimism suddenly seeming as absurdly farfetched as her misplaced amusement. If something this trivial could so easily derail them, perhaps they weren’t quite as firmly set on the rosy path to romance, after all. “You’re her idol, Sebastian, not I, and your influence far exceeds anything I might have to say. But do go on with your diatribe. I can hardly wait
to hear the rest of it.”

  “Lately it’s what you think that carries the most weight with Natalie. In my book, that means you’re obligated to show some responsibility for the advice you dish out.” Nostrils pinched with annoyance, he glared at her, the almighty Sebastian Caine conveying displeasure to a lowly subject. “You had no right encouraging her to put herself in danger.”

  And to think she’d been ready to lay her heart on the line for him!

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped, all the old hostility surging to life with renewed vigor. “Natalie’s going to Bombay with a team of professionals to work with underprivileged children, not setting out alone to conquer Everest. You need to get a sense of proportion here, Sebastian!”

  “When I want your advice, I’ll ask for it.”

  “I’ll be sure to remember that,” she said. “Meanwhile, Natalie did ask for my advice, and I gave it to her.”

  “Where are your brains, for God’s sake? You’ve seen firsthand how immature she still is—how she acts like a kid, half the time.”

  “I agree. Unlike you, though, I don’t see that as an indication of impaired mental ability. Natalie’s bright, intelligent and eager to learn. And I happen to think this special project will go a long way toward helping her grow up.”

  She headed toward the stairs, as eager to be gone as she had been to arrive. Whatever sweet promise the evening had held had long since evaporated. She thought he’d accepted her place in the family but it was obvious she was as much an outsider as ever. “At least give me credit for being up-front and open about it. I didn’t go sneaking around behind your back.”

  “Not this time, perhaps.”

  She flung an outraged glance over her shoulder. “Exactly what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Oh, can the innocent act, Lily! It’s pretty ludicrous, coming from someone who’s been covering up ever since the day she set foot in this town. It strikes me, from the mess you left behind in Vancouver, that you’d be better off attending to your own business and leaving other people to mind theirs.”