Sydney groaned. “Not when one of us has a hangover.”
* * *
Nicholas, standing in the moonlit shadows of the porch watched as Sydney and two bright-haired women climbed out of a minicar. An Aborigine having parked right behind them, soon joined them.
He heard one of the women, the one with the shoulder-length cinnamon-colored hair, laugh and say, “Jacto!”
The other woman had shorter hair, a flaming red. She said something that he couldn’t quite make out, but he definitely heard a cuss word. It surprised him since she had such an angelic look about her.
But Sydney had the major portion of his attention. Her head was down, her eyes on the path. When she reached the steps, she looked back. “Manda, do you have the key?”
“Right here.” Manda moved past Sydney and bounced up the steps, coming to a stop when she saw Nicholas.
Jacto immediately moved into a position where he could intervene if necessary.
Manda eyed Nicholas with interest. “Hel-lo! Who are you?”
“Nicholas Charron.” He looked past Manda to Sydney, who at the sight of him had stumbled and fallen against Addie. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“She’s fine.” Addie assured him. “You’re the one who owns the ‘Glass Palace,’ aren’t you?”
“I own the Isle of Charron,” he answered, and took the few steps necessary to bring him to Sydney’s side.
Addie looked at Manda. “That’s what I said.”
Manda’s eyes were on Nicholas. “Hi. I’m Manda and this is Addie. We’re Sydney’s sisters.”
“How do you do,” he said.
“Can we please go inside?” Sydney requested, not at all sure how much longer her legs were going to hold her up.
“Oh, right!” Manda suddenly sprang into action, inserting the key into the door and opening it.
As they all filed into the small flat, Sydney’s head whirled, and this time it wasn’t because of the champagne. What could Nicholas possibly be doing here? She had known that he might be upset to find that she had left, but she never for a moment considered that his anger would propel him off the island to find her.
Her eyes met his. Oh, yes, he was definitely angry, but he seemed to be dealing with another emotion too. How puzzling, she thought, and tried to decide what to do with him.
With her two sisters, the tall, silent Jacto, and Nicholas in it, her flat seemed full to overflowing. She supposed that, technically speaking, she was the hostess, but for the life of her she couldn’t think what to do.
Addie took the matter out of her hands. “I think Sydney could do with coffee. Why don’t we all go into the kitchen?”
“Good idea,” Manda said with an enthusiasm that Sydney wished for.
But then again, Sydney mused, following her sisters into the kitchen and taking a chair at the small table that filled most of the space in the room, Manda didn’t know Nicholas. She didn’t understand how he could take a woman and tangle up all her emotions so that she didn’t know what she was doing.
Sydney decided to warn Manda and Addie. “Nicholas comes out only at night. I’m sure he’s a vampire.”
Her sisters looked at her worriedly, then Addie turned to Nicholas. “She’s fine. She’s just had a sip too much champagne.”
They didn’t understand, Sydney thought mournfully, and dropped her head into her hands.
“Looks like she’s had more than a sip too much.” Nicholas murmured, gazing at her with a worried frown on his face.
“Never you mind,” Manda said, pushing him unceremoniously into the chair across from Sydney’s. “She’ll be right as rain as soon as we get a few cups of coffee and some protein into her. I’m going to make some sandwiches. Would you like one?”
“No, but I’ll take a cup of coffee.”
Addie already had the pot perking. “It’ll be ready in a jiffy.”
Manda poked her head into the refrigerator. “Sydney, you don’t even have a stick of celery in here!”
“Ivebeenaway.”
“What?”
Sydney raised her head out of her hands. “I’ve been away.”
Addie cast her a disapproving glance. “That means you didn’t have anything to eat before you went to The Wombat. What in the hell were you thinking about? No wonder you got drunk.”
“I didn’t get drunk,” Sydney mumbled.
“You went to The Wombat!” Nicholas exclaimed. “That place is dangerous.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” Sydney answered.
“Not until the police came,” Manda put in, her head now in Sydney’s pantry. “Look, you’ve got some cans of tuna here. If we could lay our hands on some bread, we’d be in business. Maybe one of your neighbors has some.”
“All my neighbors will be asleep,” Sydney said. “Better send Addie.”
Addie nodded. “Right, then. I’ll be back soon.” Silently Jacto followed her.
Nicholas frowned. “Who is that man?”
“He’s my friend,” Manda responded. “We go lots of places together.”
“What are you doing here, Nicholas?” Sydney asked.
“I’ve come to take you back.”
“Coffee’s ready.” Manda announced, placing a cup in front of both Sydney and Nicholas. “Drink,” she ordered her sister, then sat down to watch that she did.
Nicholas looked down at his coffee cup. “Sydney, can I speak to you alone?”
Manda crossed her arms over her chest and fixed steady amber eyes on him. “No, you can’t. Not until she’s feeling better. I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, but I can tell with one glance that a person would need to be feeling at the top of her form to deal with you.”
“It’s all right, Manda.” Sydney reached across the table and patted her sister’s hand. “Nicholas, I can’t go back to the island.”
“I’m not leaving here without you.”
“What are you going to do when the sun comes up?” Manda asked with real interest.
Sydney took a sustaining drink of the coffee. The heat and strength of it hit her immediately. “I can’t go back to the island, because tonight I lost all of my money.”
“All of it?”
Addie breezed in, with Jacto behind her. “Hi, everybody, we’re back. Sydney, your next door neighbor, Mr. Carson, is a love. He gave me a whole loaf of bread.”
“Mr. Carson is one of the grouchiest neighbors I’ve ever had. Addie, and no one who lives around here has ever described him as a love.”
Addie’s brows drew together in bewilderment. “That’s funny. Oh, well, who wants sandwiches?”
Manda hopped up from the table. “We all do, and I’ll help you make them.”
Without taking his eyes off Sydney, Nicholas leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette. “I don’t understand how you could have lost all your money. You’re just too good.”
“She was dealt a three,” Addie explained.
“And then there was the champagne,” Manda added.
“What?”
Sydney pushed back from the table and stood up. “Look, I really don’t want to talk about this right now. I’m going to take a nice long shower.”
“That’s a good idea.” Addie said. “You’ll feel lots better when you’re done.”
“And while you’re gone, we’ll get to know Nicholas better.” Manda said. “Nicholas, how do you like your tuna sandwiches?”
Sydney was perfectly sure that Nicholas never ate tuna sandwiches. However, that wasn’t her concern, she decided as she slipped from the kitchen and made her way into her bedroom. Although Manda and Addie were a formidable twosome, Nicholas was well able to handle himself.
She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower. Leaning against the wall, she let the water beat down on her, hot and hard, massaging her tense muscles and clearing her head.
But soon she became aware of tears slipping silently down her face and an awful sickness that ached in her stomach, and neither had
anything to do with the champagne she had drunk. She had let down her sisters by losing that money, and more important, she had let down her father. Without her portion of the money, there was no way they would be able to reclaim the land that would make Killaroo whole again.
For long minutes she let the water pour over her head until her hair was soaked and the color of dark burgundy. Slowly the last effects of the champagne cleared from her head, and she began to feel more like herself. She wasn’t quite so ready to give up as she had been. But what could she possibly do in two weeks’ time, she asked herself, to earn, gain, or win five hundred thousand dollars?
And last but not least there was Nicholas—sitting in her kitchen. He had come to take her back. He could have his pick of the women at his casino, but he had come to get her. She was amazed.
She shut off the water and stepped out to dry herself and dress. Ten minutes later she was back in the kitchen, wearing a pair of jeans and a plain cotton blouse.
Addie looked up. “There you are and looking more like yourself, I must say.”
Manda handed her a cup of coffee.
“Thanks.” She glanced at Nicholas and found him watching her. She looked back at her sisters. “Listen, if you wouldn’t mind, I think I had better speak with Nicholas alone.”
Sydney could tell Addie and Manda were dying of curiosity, but to anyone who didn’t know them, there would have been no clue.
Manda picked up her coffee cup. “Sure, no problem. We’ll just wait in the other room.”
When Manda, Addie, and Jacto had left the room, she turned to Nicholas.
“Sit down, Sydney. Have some coffee.”
She took a sip, but remained standing. “Hadn’t you better be getting back to your island, Nicholas? It will be getting light in four or five hours.”
“As soon as you say you’ll come with me, we’ll be on our way.”
“You have never listened to me, Nicholas. I lost all my money! I can’t go back.”
Smoke from his cigarette momentarily blocked her view of his face, but she heard the anger in his voice. “And of course gambling would be the only reason you would want to go back to the island.”
She looked away. “I couldn’t even afford the price of a room.”
“And if I said you could stay with me?”
“I’d say no.”
“And if I said you could have a room in the hotel without cost?”
“I’d say no.”
He crushed the cigarette out with particular vengeance. “And if I offered you a job?”
“A job!”
“A job, with room and board thrown in.”
“Doing what?”
“As a dealer.” She opened her mouth to object, but he held up his hand. “Hear me out, Sydney. I’ve never seen anyone better with cards than you. I’ve watched you, and I’ve finally figured out that you have a photographic memory. When you lose, it’s not because you make a mistake in the count of the cards. As a dealer, you could put that ability to use for me.”
“But—”
“I said, hear me out. Now, I know you have this obsession about winning five hundred thousand dollars. If I don’t understand it, I accept it. So, I will stake you with ten thousand dollars. If at the end of, say, three weeks you have not made your goal, you will come to work for me.”
“I don’t have three weeks. I only have about two weeks.”
“Even better for me. You’ll be working for me that much sooner.”
Never before had her perfectly ordinary kitchen seemed charged with so much peril. Briefly she wondered how he did it. He was sitting perfectly still, but she could feel his energy coming at her in waves. In spite of it, or perhaps because of it, she met his gaze steadily. “And what if at the end of that time I can pay you back your ten thousand dollars?”
He seemed to hesitate. “Then your obligation to work for me will be ended.”
Her heart was thudding heavily and there was nothing she could do about it. “Why are you willing to do this, Nicholas?”
“You have an obsession, Sydney—winning that money. Well I also have an obsession.” He smiled. “I notice you’re not asking what my obsession is.”
“N-N-Nicholas—”
“What’s your answer. Sydney? Will you accept the job?’
She combed her fingers through her still wet hair. “Ten thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money.”
“Don’t worry about it. I figure I can’t lose. You’ll either pay me back or you’ll come to work for me. And either way I’ll have you on my island for at least two more weeks.”
“Y-y-you understand that most of my time during the next two weeks will be taken up with gambling.”
“Most of your time... not all.” He paused. “So, Sydney, what is your answer?”
She told herself that she had no choice.
She told herself that she could handle two weeks on the same island as Nicholas.
She told herself, but she didn’t believe it.
“I accept. And thank you very much.”
Seven
Sydney awoke late that afternoon in the room she had left nearly thirty-three hours before. Nicholas had wanted to give her a larger room, but she had remained firm that she would have the same small room. She would pay him back the ten thousand dollars, she told herself, plus the cost of the room and board. To owe Nicholas Charron anything might prove too costly. The emotional interest alone could bankrupt her.
Yet she had come back with him.
And although it was true that he was giving her a second chance to win the money that she needed for her father—and for that chance alone she would have done almost anything—there was so much more involved in her decision to accept Nicholas’s offer, and she knew it.
He waited beautifully. And he watched. And he seemed to know that deep inside her, emotions were churning and building.
He wasn’t a cold man; he was just a guarded man. She knew all about guarding. She had fought all her life to conquer her stutter. He, on the other hand, had spoken of death and suffering.
He was a man who walked the night, because daylight was too bright and memories were too harsh.
Surrendering to him would be to be wrapped in night. But there were stars at night, scintillatingly bright, she reminded herself. And some nights were so soft and sensual, they seemed made of velvet.
* * *
The gambling was going well, Sydney reflected as she made her way back to her room for a respite. Time was too short for caution now, and this evening she had played all out. Of course, the luck of the cards decreed that she lose a certain number of hands, but her mind was clear, her resolve strong, and she had no doubt she would win the money she needed.
She inserted the key into the door and started to push it open.
“So, you’re back.”
She turned to find Mike, but a different Mike from the one she had seen before. Gone was his easygoing smile. Gone was the twinkle in his green eyes that she had grown so used to. The man standing before her was rigid with fury, and menace was written in every line of his body.
“Mike, what’s wrong?”
“You might well ask. What was it, Sydney—a power play—leaving the island to see if Nick would follow you? You knew he would.”
“Mike, I’m sorry, but I have no Idea what you’re talking about.”
“First of all, you lied to me. It wasn’t like the first time you left. You never intended coming back, did you? When I inquired at the front desk, I found that you had checked out.”
“I’m sorry. I admit I misled you, but it was important that I leave. I knew that you would wake up Nicholas if I told you I was leaving for good.”
Her apology did nothing to appease him. “And that wouldn’t have suited your purposes, would it? You had to lure him off the island.”
Her brow pleated in bewilderment. “Lure? Mike, I had no idea Nicholas would come after me. You have to believe me. And I think you’d better tell me exactly
why you’re so angry.”
Mike studied her closely for a moment, obviously trying to make up his mind about something. “Don’t you know? Didn’t he tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Sydney, Nick put himself in serious danger by going after you.”
“D-d-danger! What are you talking about?”
“If he didn’t tell you, then he’s not going to appreciate my giving you the details. All I’ll say is that he was warned not to leave the island. I can protect him as long as he stays here.” His face twisted grimly. “When I found out that he had gone after you, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“I had no idea.”
“Okay, I believe you, and I suppose I owe you an apology. But, Sydney, don’t leave the island again. It’s imperative that Nick stay where I can protect him.”
“Mike, I have no power over what Nicholas does or doesn’t do.”
Mike’s hard green eyes swept over her. “Don’t you?”
* * *
When some ten minutes later she opened the door of her bedroom to Nicholas, the shock of what Mike had told her was still plainly etched on her face.
Nicholas had only to take one look at her. “What’s wrong? I was watching you earlier and you were winning.”
“I did. It’s not that. Nicholas, Mike says you put yourself in danger by leaving the island to bring me back.”
His dark brows drew together. “Mike says far too much.”
“But is it true?”
He sat down and crossed one elegantly clad leg over the other. “Perhaps. But Mike takes his job too seriously. He’s protected me for so long, he forgets I can take care of myself.”
She dropped to the edge of the bed so that she could be close to him. “Nicholas, what is this danger? Why are you supposed to stay on the island?”
He smiled. “It seems I’m always telling you not to worry. Not,” he added dryly, “that it seems to do much good. But in this case, please believe there really is nothing to worry about.”
She crossed her arms. “Once again, Nicholas, you’re not answering my question.”
He eyed her thoughtfully. “And is it important to you that I do?”
“Yes, very.”
Sydney, the Temptress (The Delaneys of Killaroo) Page 9
