"No," Tess said with a shrug. "But because of Monet, I didn't mind so much."
Jane turned the conversation to a less personal discussion of some of the jewelry that would soon be up for auction, and Tess kept the conversational ball rolling with the utmost relief. Remembering Miami and the Carswells, let alone talking about them, always set her nerves on edge.
The stress of maintaining her con and surviving Luke's hooded gaze left her exhausted by the end of the meal. She couldn't help but yawn over her hot chocolate, while Jane and Luke sipped their coffee as they chatted away about Luke's sister Miriam and her penchant for attracting over-the-hill athletes.
"Good heavens, child," Jane said, interrupting Luke to turn on Tess. "Stop yawning away like a hippopotamus and go to bed."
"You're tired of my scintillating company?" Tess inquired.
"You ceased being scintillating twenty minutes ago. Why else have I engaged Luke in gossip? Go to bed, Tess."
"Yes, ma'am."
Tess saluted and gratefully escaped the dining room and Luke Mansfield. It had been a long, stressful day, she told herself as she slowly climbed the stairs to the second floor. That was why her defenses had been so weak tonight. That was why it was safer to turn tail and run rather than slug it out. A good night's rest and old memories or Luke Mansfield wouldn't be able to disconcert or distract her again.
She opened the door to Elizabeth's room and held back a groan. It was just as awful as she remembered it. She had unpacked before dinner and in her absence someone had turned down the bed and left the bedside lamp on. If she had been a five-year-old child, she might have felt peace and contentment entering such a haven.
But Tess was a twenty-five-year-old woman who had worked hard to create her own haven these last seven years and she wanted none of Elizabeth's. Still, maybe she could put it to some use. The room could be blamed for the return of some of Elizabeth's "memories."
Slowly she undressed and pulled on her over-sized white cotton pajamas. She ran a brush through her hair and then looked around for a book to lull her to sleep. Her gaze fell on the toy box. Slowly, reluctantly, she walked across the room and lifted up the wooden lid. Dozens of toys, books, games, and stuffed animals, including Fred, were carefully arranged inside. She needed no one to tell her they had belonged to Elizabeth. The books, of course, were children's books: several by Dr. Seuss, a Winnie the Pooh collection, The Wizard of Oz. Having never read them in her youth, Tess didn't intend to start reading them now. Jane had given her carte blanche of the Cushman library and she would use it.
She padded down the back stairs in her bare feet, to avoid Jane and Luke, and walked into the library. Luke stood at the river-rock fireplace, a snifter of brandy balanced in his long fingers. He stared into it as if seeking the answers to the universe.
"Oops! Sorry," she said, striding briskly into the room as if her very being were not centered on the green-eyed monster from Hell. "I didn't mean to disturb you. I just came for a book. Something like Richardson's Pamela. Guaranteed to knock you out cold inside of two minutes."
Luke's emerald gaze stopped her half way across the room. "You're looking for Pamela?" he said. "You nearly fell asleep over your cup of after-dinner hot chocolate."
Tess forced herself to look away from Luke. She walked toward the bookshelves, hoping to find a book and escape quickly. "Hodgkins laced the hot chocolate with caffeine," she said calmly, "I'm convinced of it."
"His dislike of heartless cons exceeds even my own. But then, he's known Jane longer."
"Fortunately," Tess said lightly, "Jane relies on her own opinion, not on that of her butler or watchdog, I mean lawyer."
"This watchdog will protect Jane from your machinations with the last breath in his body."
"I expected nothing less," Tess said, scanning the shelves for Pamela.
"Who are you really, Tess Alcott?"
"You got me. I'll let you know when I find out."
"So, you intend to play this amnesia story for all it's worth?"
Rage erupted in Tess and spun her around to face her enemy. "Do you remember your fifth birthday party?" she demanded.
Luke looked surprised at suddenly being under attack. "Sure."
"Do you remember what your childhood bedroom looked like?"
"Of course."
"Do you remember what your favorite food was?"
"Yes."
"Well, I don't!" Tess said bitterly. "You're supposed to be such a hotshot lawyer, Mansfield, but you're batting less than a hundred when it comes to knowing what the truth is about me!"
She spun back to the bookshelves, trying to get her temper and her pain under control. The library was silent for what seemed a very long moment.
"I'm beginning to think you're right," Luke said gently. "But still, even with my lousy batting average, you can't win."
"There's that male arrogance, rearing its ugly head again," Tess said, standing on tiptoe to read the titles on the upper shelves, wanting to relax into Luke's quiet, and not daring to. "But in a way you're right, Mansfield. I can't really win because I don't have anything to lose. I'm looking for my past, remember? If Jane isn't there, it's no skin off my nose. I'll eventually find someone who was there and I'll be able to conduct my own little 'Up Close and Personal' interview. So yap away, Mansfield, you can only give yourself a sore throat."
His chuckle rumbled up and down her spine. Without looking, she knew that Luke had leaned his back against the fireplace mantel and was studying her from head to toe.
"Love your negligee," he said.
Tess forced herself to laugh as she grabbed Pamela and turned to him. The brandy snifter was resting on the mantel. His hands were free. He seemed more dangerous that way. "I think it's best to choose function over form," she said a little breathlessly, tension coiling within her. "In my line of work, it's often necessary to make a quick, and unscheduled, exit and that means no time to grab your clothes if you're sleeping in the nude … as I found out the hard way in my youth."
Luke's grin broadened, lightening his face, eroding the cynical mask. "Now that is something I dearly would have loved to see."
"Six French gendarmes had the dubious pleasure instead," Tess said, walking back across the room. It seemed to stretch on for miles before her. "Fortunately, the shock of seeing a naked girl running across the rooftops of the Left Bank kept them from firing their guns and I was able to make my getaway unscathed. Later, I heard about an American bank robber who pulled all of his jobs in the nude because, I am told on the greatest authority, if you've only seen someone naked, you can't recognize them dressed."
"That wouldn't work where you're concerned," Luke murmured, his gaze forcing her to a stop directly in front of him. "It's a good thing you didn't meet those gendarmes the next day."
A blush flooded Tess's cheeks. "Why, Mr. Mansfield, I do believe you're actually paying me a compliment."
"It has been known to happen," Luke said, sounding a bit surprised himself. "I once made some very nice remarks about a racing skiff I was assigned at Harvard."
"Careful, Mansfield. Such unbridled enthusiasm will have you running amok."
"Running amok sounds wonderful just now," Luke said with a sigh, his hand reaching out and brushing against her cheek, lingering there, stilling her breath.
She had never known a man's touch could be so lovely.
The world tilted crazily beneath Tess's feet as he slowly lowered his head to hers. "Luke," she whispered and had no idea what to say next.
His lips met hers in a gentle joining of warmth against warmth. Hunger broke free within her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to press herself against him, her mouth deepening the kiss of its own accord. With a groan, Luke slid his arms around her, holding her tight, his sensual mouth moving hungrily over hers.
It was good, so good. It was the closest thing to heaven Tess had ever known.
And it ended in the next moment as sanity abruptly returned.
/> She jerked away, her book clutched to her chest, the back of one hand pressed against her mouth. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed.
His breath as ragged as her own, Luke stared down at her. Then anger blazed in his eyes. "The same might be asked of you, Elizabeth," he sneered. "Just how far were you willing to go to win me over to your side?"
Something in Tess, newly born, died in that moment. Oh God, he had been using her, testing her. And she had fallen for it. Her hand ached to strike the superiority from Luke's handsome face. Instead, she gripped her book even harder.
"Don't think you can use your masculine charms to seduce me out of this house," she snapped. "I am neither that stupid nor that desperate!"
She stalked from the room, slamming the library door shut behind her.
* * *
CHAPTER FIVE
« ^ »
Still dripping from his shower, Luke wrapped a towel around his hips and headed for the bedside phone. He punched in a Boston number, gave his name, and was quickly put through to the head of Baldwin Security.
"Leroy? Luke Mansfield," he said. "Any word on Weinstein?"
"Luke," Leroy Baldwin said with an exasperated sigh, "you asked me that same question, four times, yesterday, and five times the day before that. If you would just stay off the phone, I might get some work done."
"You mean you haven't found anything?"
Leroy sighed again. "Give me a break, man. When have I had the time? If you would just stop hassling me—"
"Haven't you found out anything?"
Another, heavier sigh. "Weinstein's story continues to check out, Luke. Degrees, clinical practice, articles in reputable journals, everything. We've traced him back to high school and everything still checks out."
Luke's fist slammed into the wall. "But this guy is a fraud!"
"Hey, I trust your instincts on this. The man may well be a fraud. The problem is that he's a good fraud and that takes a bit more time to prove."
Luke began to pace, his towel slipping dangerously down his hips. "You are supposedly the best in the business, Leroy, but all I've gotten from you so far are excuses!"
"You know, no man is ever this hot and bothered unless there's a woman involved. Who is she?"
"I don't know!" Luke shouted.
"It's Tess Alcott, then. I'd watch my back with that one, Luke. According to my initial report from WEB, she's a tiger with barely sheathed claws. I'd hate to see what you'll look like if she ever goes after you."
"I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, right. That's why you are at this very moment pacing around like a caged lion in heat."
Luke stopped in mid-pace and stared at his phone. "Have you been talking to Jane Cushman lately?"
"Heard that one before, have you?" Leroy said, chuckling. "This Jane sounds like my kind of woman."
"She would eat you for breakfast. What else did your WEB contacts tell you about Tess?"
"Not a whole helluva lot. A very private person, your Ms. Alcott. She doesn't fraternize with her co-workers. In fact, she has to be threatened with vivisection before she'll agree to take on partners for whatever job she's working. She refuses to carry anything resembling a gun on the job, or off the job for that matter. She's brilliant at adapting to any situation that gets thrown at her, and she's a sucker for Joe Versus the Volcano."
"What?"
"A middling flick with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan."
"I know what the movie is. I own the movie," Luke retorted. "How does WEB know she's a sucker for that film?"
"Whenever she watches it at home—and a very nice home it is, too—she turns on her answering machine that has the basic message of 'Hi, I'm watching Joe Versus the Volcano, so buzz off.'"
Luke laughed. "You should see it sometime, Leroy. It does a great job contrasting survival with living your dreams." Luke stopped a moment. Tess believed in survival at any cost. Did she even have a dream she wanted to live? Did he? "But we're getting off track," he said hastily. "Weinstein's story should be the easier one to crack. Why haven't you?"
"Look, Luke, I've never let you down in the past and I'm not going to start now. I've got my best people working on Weinstein. I'll have what you want by the end of the week, I promise. Now relax!"
Sighing, Luke hung up the phone. Relax? Laugh and be merry? Dance with the Giantess … um … Maria Franklin? Put Tess Alcott out of his mind when he could still taste her sweet lips on his mouth? Fat chance.
With an oath, Luke used the towel to dry himself and then began to get dressed.
All right, he was attracted to Tess Alcott. He was feeling alive and excited for the first time in years. Despite her tough exterior, there was a haunted look he had glimpsed occasionally in the darkest depths of her blue eyes that touched a chord in Luke. Tess, like him, seemed to know human deception and betrayal firsthand. The human need to trust had been aborted in her by experience. He had never expected to find that he had anything in common with a thief, let alone that that thief could reignite a flame within him he thought had died long ago.
With any other woman at any other time he would have been amazed that she had so easily scaled his walls, let alone leapt over the moat with the snapping crocodiles. But this was Tess Alcott and her sweet mouth here and now sabotaging his prime objective: protecting Jane … and himself.
Luke was not amazed. He was horrified. He was in so much trouble he didn't know where to begin to dig himself out. How could he have been so stupid, so incredibly asinine as to kiss Tess last night? It wasn't as if she had been dressed for seduction or had done anything, said anything, to provoke him.
Yet she had been so lovely. Her baggy pajamas had only emphasized her femininity. Toughness had warred with sadness in her blue eyes. She had given him a glimpse of the terrified and terrorized child she had been and the sad woman she was today. He had forgotten why she was in this house. He had forgotten in that moment that they were enemies.
He had had to touch her. He had had to touch her and once touching, he had had to kiss her. The need had been greater than sanity, greater than his job, greater than protecting Jane.
That kiss had been, for Luke, a revelation of a self he had forgotten. Fortunately, anger had come to his rescue, returned reason to his brain, brought sanity back into his universe. How he wished Tess had slapped him, as she clearly wanted to do, because then he could have shaken her until her teeth rattled and the truth came out about Elizabeth, and Weinstein, and what the hell an acknowledged con artist and thief was doing at the Cushman estate, and what maddening game she was playing with his brain and his hormones.
"I am losing my mind," Luke said aloud. He sat down hard on the side of his bed. He was feeling—feeling!—things that had his brain tied up in knots. He had been skating the emotional surface for such a long time, that this sudden plunge into the emotional depths had knocked the wind out of him. Emotion superseding reason? It couldn't be. But it was.
Luke took a deep breath. "Get a grip, Mansfield," he ordered himself. This was just his hormones getting in his way, that was all. His hormones were mucking up his brain and he was going to put a stop to it. He would protect Jane Cushman from this charlatan no matter how desirable that charlatan might be. Jane would not be hurt, she would not be duped, and he would return to his sane, uneventful path through life the minute Tess Alcott was booked for fraud.
Luke swore bitterly and barged out of his room—and right into Tess, his hands automatically going around her to steady them both. Her skin was warm and soft, her scent stealing over him. Into him. He jerked himself back from her as if he'd been burned. She swayed a moment before finding her balance.
"I want to talk to you," he said brusquely.
"Really?" Tess said, her voice arctic. "How odd. I can't think of a thing we could say to each other that wouldn't be insulting." She tried to sidestep him, but he blocked her path.
"About last night—"
"Going to apologize?"
"Har
dly," Luke retorted.
"I didn't think so. You didn't say anything last night that you didn't mean. It amazes me that Jane can enjoy the company of such a foul-minded, unscrupulous man."
"You know, I'd be shocked to discover that you've ever been this bitchy with Jane."
Anger flared in Tess's blue eyes. "My conversations with Jane Cushman are none of your business!"
"On the contrary, they are my business, a business that I value."
"Oh yes," Tess scoffed. "The ever-loyal watchdog. Or should I say lapdog?" She succeeded in getting past Luke, but his hand caught her arm and spun her back around.
"I'm going to find out what game you're playing," he growled, "and when I do, you're going to wish you'd never heard of the Cushman millions."
Blue eyes blazed up at him. "Such honor, such integrity! They must impress Jane very much. How impressed do you think she'd be if she knew you tried to prostitute yourself last night in defense of her millions?"
Luke grasped Tess's arms, knowing he was hurting her and in his fury not caring. "If we're going to discuss prostitution, you never answered my question last night. Just how far would you go to win me over to your side? You know, it might be fun to find out. My bed is just in here."
"You bastard!" Tess seethed, wrenching herself free and backing from Luke. "I have never sold my body to any man for any price and I certainly wouldn't begin with some two-bit shyster lawyer dangling from an old woman's purse strings!"
Luke stared after her as she stormed down the stairs.
What had just happened? Had that been him manhandling a woman whose head barely reached his shoulders? Had he really said such vile things?
For the first time in his life, Luke felt dirty, ugly. If Tess was a fraud, she was playing a gentleman's game of it and he had trespassed badly. All she had done was make Jane laugh. All she had done was make him forget who he was, what he was, and where he was going.
Right now, he was going to apologize. There was no other option.
He searched the entire house and half the grounds before he found Tess methodically swimming laps in the outdoor pool, her body slicing neatly through the water, her strokes never varying, her turns crisp and clean.
STOLEN HEARTS Page 6
