A Daring Deception (Harlequin Presents)

by Amanda Browning

  His utter implacability made her shiver, and for once she was glad to see Luther Ames bearing down on them. It brought to an end a conversation which had been heading in unexpected and hopeful directions, but which had then been brought back on track with a vengeance.

  ‘I’m glad to see you two have made it up,’ Ames declared with heavy-handed bonhomie. ‘But I’m going to have to steal Nathan away from you, my dear Rachel. It’s time we got down to the serious business of the day. If you’re ready, Nathan?’

  Nathan nodded. ‘I’m always ready for a good game of poker.’

  ‘Then we will be sure to oblige you,’ Ames replied smoothly.

  Rachel quickly slipped her arm through Nathan’s. ‘Let’s hope I can bring you luck again, darling.’

  ‘I’m afraid that will be impossible. We take the game very seriously here, and non-players are not allowed in the room,’ Ames refused politely.

  She favoured him with a cajoling smile. ‘Oh, but I only want to watch. I won’t be any trouble.’

  ‘I’m sure you won’t, angel, nevertheless you will have to remain here with the other ladies. I’m sure you can find something to talk about to pass the time,’ he said firmly.

  With something approaching a flounce she released Nathan’s arm.

  ‘Looks like you’re on your own this time, darling.’ She pouted, then placed her hands on his shoulders and raised herself on tiptoe. ‘But here’s something for luck,’ she added, taking his lips in a sizzling kiss that raised her own temperature and brought a flash of fire to Nathan’s eyes.

  ‘Something tells me I can’t lose,’ he declared a trifle thickly. ‘Keep it hot for me, darling, and we’ll carry on from where we left off later,’ he commanded, before turning and walking away with Ames.

  As soon as the men left the party, the fizz went out of the evening. The other women were clearly used to being abandoned to their own devices, and quickly found various ways of amusing themselves. None were inclined to engage Rachel in conversation, and she wasn’t altogether sorry. She had nothing in common with them, and besides, she had more important things to do. This was the perfect opportunity to search Ames’s rooms.

  She didn’t leave immediately, though. She spent half an hour glancing through a fashion magazine, then tossed it aside with a sigh of impatience. ‘This is boring,’ she declared to the room at large. ‘How long are they going to be?’

  The brunette glanced up from filing her nails. ‘Hours.’

  ‘It could go on to sun-up,’ a young blonde added long-sufferingly.

  ‘That’s nothing,’ one of the others put in. ‘I’ve known a poker game to last three or four days.’

  Rachel glanced from one to the other in curiosity, for none of them sounded unduly put out. ‘Don’t you get fed up waiting?’ she asked, knowing that she would never stand for it.

  The brunette waggled a hand dripping with diamonds. ‘It has its compensations,’ she declared dryly, and the others laughed with her. ‘You’ll get used to it. You have to if you don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.’

  Rachel grinned, though the avariciousness of the woman horrified her. ‘I see what you mean. Oh, well, in that case I think I’ll go and have a long soak in the tub,’ she announced, climbing to her feet. By the time she reached the door they were all back in their own tiny worlds again.

  Raising her eyebrows in amazement, Rachel left them to it. Outside, she paused to listen, but the house was silent. Climbing the stairs, she ignored the hallway on the right, which led to their room, and headed left. If anyone found her where she wasn’t supposed to be she could always claim to have got lost.

  Retracing the route they had taken earlier in the day, she mounted the tower stairs until she came to the door to Ames’s study. With her hand on the doorknob, she took a deep breath, then turned it. To her relief the door opened soundlessly and she slipped inside, closing it quickly behind her. She took a second to adjust her eyes to the gloom, then made her way to the desk. Moonlight streamed through the windows, giving her more than enough light to see by.

  The desk drawers were unlocked, and it was the work of a moment to shuffle through the contents. The letters weren’t there. Cursing silently, she straightened up and glanced round the room. There were several pictures on the walls and she went to them all in turn, checking for a wall safe. She found it behind the second to last one and stared at it helplessly. Great. She had found the safe, but there was no way of opening it. If the letters were inside, they were stymied.

  Still, whilst she was there she might as well check out Ames’s bedroom. It was on the next floor and she entered it uneasily. Just being there made her feel creepy. There was no light in this room, and she realised heavy drapes had been pulled over the window, which meant she could safely turn on the light. Telling herself not to be so sensitive, she set about systematically searching the room. The man possessed an amazing number of suits, and she felt bound to go through all the pockets. Fruitlessly, as it turned out. The dresser proved negative too, as did the highboy. It was almost as an afterthought that she checked the bedside table, and it was there that she found what she sought when she opened the top drawer. Two small piles of envelopes, with addresses penned in the same forceful hand.

  Rachel could scarcely believe her luck, but there they were. Delighted to have had success so quickly, she picked up one pile, then hesitated with her hand hovering over the other. The only reason they could be in Ames’s drawer was because he was using the letters as bedtime reading. If she took them now, he was sure to miss them. The sensible thing to do would be to leave the letters where they were and retrieve them in the morning before they left. That way they would have at least a day before Ames discovered they were gone.

  Reluctantly she put the letters back again, and closed the drawer. She hated to leave them but there was no other way. Taking a swift glance round to make sure that nothing was out of place, she turned out the light and made her way back downstairs. This time she took the hallway to her room, and only breathed easily again when she was inside it with the door closed.

  All she had to do now was wait for Nathan to return, which apparently could be anything between an hour and four days! The prospect did not delight her, for she hated waiting at the best of times. Now, with success within their grasp, it was even more irritating.

  Declaring her intention of having a long soak in the tub had been a ruse for leaving the group, but as time passed she decided she might as well do it anyway. It didn’t look as if Nathan was going to come to bed any time soon. So she took a long, relaxing bath and washed her hair, slipped on her nightdress, then curled up on top of the bed to wait.

  At first the imminence of Nathan’s return and their having to share the bed, had her nerves dancing in anticipation. She thought up various ways of getting him to drop his guard and make love to her, but as the hours passed the likelihood of it ever happening grew more remote, and eventually the glow of expectancy vanished altogether. Disappointed, she pulled a pillow free and cuddled up to it. The silence deepened and her eyelids dropped. She recalled hearing a clock somewhere in the house striking two a.m., and was unable to keep sleep at bay any longer.

  Nathan found her curled up amongst the pillows when he entered the room somewhere around dawn. Tossing his jacket on a chair, he kicked off his shoes and tugged his tie free, sending it to join his jacket. Crossing the room, for a moment he stood at the side of the bed looking down at her in the soft glow of the bedside lamp, a strange, brooding expression in his eyes.

  ‘Oh, hell,’ he swore, and with a resigned sigh sat on the edge of the bed and reached across to run a finger along the fragile curve of her cheek.

  Rachel sighed and came awake, blinking sleepily up at him. Realising who it was, and with her defences down, her lips curved into a welcoming smile. ‘Hi,’ she greeted in a sleepy voice, pushing her tumbled hair out of her eyes. ‘What time is it?’

  Nathan didn’t bother looking at his watch
. ‘The sun’s coming up,’ he supplied softly, brushing a lock of hair away from her chin and watching it settle like a golden halo on the pillow.

  Still more than half asleep, Rachel frowned. ‘Have you been playing all this time?’ she asked in disapproval, and Nathan smiled.

  ‘You sound like my mother. You don’t look like her, though,’ he added whimsically, allowing his eyes to rove over her relaxed body, not missing the expanse of thigh where her nightie had worked up as she slept.

  Of course at that Rachel’s body lurched back into tingling life, and the dregs of sleep vanished rapidly.

  ‘How do I look?’ she asked, more than a little breathlessly, feeling her blood starting to course thickly through her body.

  ‘Soft, warm and sexy,’ he responded hotly, sending her heart leaping into her throat. The heat in his gaze started a throbbing way down deep inside her.

  ‘You must be tired!’ she exclaimed in amusement.

  ‘Not that tired,’ he countered, and she wondered if he really knew what message he was sending out. He sounded like a man intent on making love, which was a complete about-face.

  She pointed a finger at him. ‘Nathan Wade, this is not like you. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me,’ she reproved mockingly, whilst holding her breath lest he change his mind yet again.

  Reaching out, he took her hand, expression wry. ‘Don’t you want to be seduced?’ he asked, playing with her fingers.

  ‘Has something hit you on the head?’ she countered.

  To her surprise he pulled a face. ‘You could say that. It struck me when I looked at you just now. I wondered what the hell I was fighting this attraction for. I want you; you want me. You were right. We’re not talking about love here. This is sex, pure and simple. The surest way to get you out of my system is to let it run its course.’

  Rachel took a steadying breath and kept her eyes on their joined hands. He made it sound so cold, so clinical, and her heart tightened painfully. Yet this was what she wanted, because it was all there could be.

  ‘How long do you think it will take?’ she asked through a painfully tight throat, and he shrugged.

  ‘To have enough of each other? A week. A month. I’m sure you’ll tell me when you’ve found somebody else,’ he declared with heavy irony, and her eyes lifted to his face.

  ‘What about you? You must tell me when the next woman catches your eye. I wouldn’t want to outstay my welcome,’ she said easily, though the words were like bitter gall on her tongue. She hated the thought of her successor already, and their affair hadn’t even started.

  Blue eyes met green, and was it her imagination or did she see resignation there in the instant before he smiled? ‘You can count on it,’ he declared lazily, bending his head and placing a trail of kisses along her arm. She caught her breath as he found the tender inner skin of her elbow, stroking it with the very tip of his tongue, and all sensible thought left her. There was only Nathan, and the knowledge that, for now, he was hers.

  Her free hand combed its way into his hair, loving the silky thickness of it and the way it clung to her fingers. In one smooth movement he stretched himself out on the bed beside her and took her in his arms. As she curled her own around his neck she promised herself that no matter what happened after tonight she would have no regrets.

  That first time there was no room for finesse. The need they shared, having been contained so long, was too strong for moderation, and from their first kiss passion flared out of control. It was as if a dam had broken, and the floodwaters of desire swept them away. Each kiss was hotter than the last, each caress drew sighs and moans of intense pleasure. Clothes were ripped away by impatient fingers, and when flesh touched flesh it was almost more than they could stand. Free from that final restriction, caressing hands explored silken skin, and lips followed. It was heady and arousing, and Rachel could feel her limbs turning molten, her breasts swelling into aching globes that welcomed the attention of burning male lips. His tongue caressed her relentlessly, until her body arched against his in silent supplication. She could feel his arousal and wanted to have the strength of him inside her. Only that would make her feel complete.

  Her hands moved restlessly over the satin smoothness of his back, finding his flanks and holding him to her as she writhed beneath him. When he parted her legs and slipped between them she groaned, and when he lifted her and thrust into her Nathan’s groan echoed hers. He went still, trying to prolong the moment, but the need was too great and control was a thing of the past. Rachel held on tight as they moved together, welcoming each deepening thrust that raised them to unscaled heights of pleasure. It couldn’t last, and with a cry her head went back and she plunged over the edge, taking Nathan with her mere seconds later.

  Aeons later the world re-imposed itself on their shattered bodies. Pulse rates settled back into a normal rhythm. But for Rachel everything had changed. Nothing could have prepared her for what they had just shared, and she knew that nothing could ever replace it. Nathan was heavy on top of her, but she didn’t mind. She welcomed his weight, for she wanted to remember everything about tonight. Every touch, every sigh.

  Eventually, though, Nathan roused, moving off her. For a split second she felt bereft, then his arms reached out for her, drawing her into his side. Her heart swelled and ached as she wished he could love her but accepted that he wouldn’t. Swallowing a huge ball of emotion, she rested her head over his heart and allowed sleep to take her.

  CHAPTER NINE

  WHEN Rachel awoke the second time she was alone in the bed and sunlight streamed through the window. For one instant she imagined she had dreamt the events of the night, but the protestation of her muscles as she sat up told her it had all been real. Nathan’s clothes were gone, but her nightie was draped across the foot of the bed and she reached for it, slipping it on just as the bathroom door opened and Nathan walked in clad only in a pair of shorts.

  Fresh from the shower, he looked healthy and vibrant, and instantly her mouth went dry. He halted when he saw that she was awake, his eyes running lazily over her love-bruised lips, the only visible sign of their shared passion.

  ‘Good morning,’ he greeted her easily, and she shivered faintly at his lack of emotion. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but his matter-of-factness wasn’t it. How could he be so cool after what they had shared? she wondered. The obvious answer hurt. He could be cool because last night had been nothing special for him.

  She realised then that she had been harbouring the secret hope that, having made love to her, he would suddenly and miraculously love her. As far as Nathan was concerned, though, nothing had changed, and it would be in her own best interests to act as if it was the same for her.

  ‘Good morning. I hope you haven’t used up all the hot water,’ she remarked lightly as she scrambled off the bed.

  That nerve ticked in Nathan’s jaw as he turned to the closet and selected a pair of trousers and a shirt which he proceeded to put on. ‘There’s plenty. Help yourself.’

  Rachel stared at his back, feeling the urge to say something, yet unable to produce a word. If he’d just taken her in his arms for a second she wouldn’t have felt nearly so chilled. But she could hardly expect it, for he had told her himself theirs wasn’t a love affair.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Nathan asked when he turned and discovered her still standing there.

  She jumped nervily and hurried to her own closet, taking clothes at random. ‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she lied, when in actuality everything was. She supposed she would get used to it—in about ten or twenty years. Scuttling like a turtle, she vanished into the sanctuary of the bathroom.

  The stinging shower revived her, returning some sense of calm. She had known how it was going to be, she told herself, so there was no point in getting upset. Turning off the water, she stepped out of the cubicle and reached for a towel. At all costs she must never reveal that he meant any more to her than she obviously did to him. She must be the e
pitome of cool. Drying herself briskly, she dressed in the purely lucky selection of cotton trousers and a vest-style tee-shirt. Taking several deep breaths, she felt more prepared to face him.

  Nathan was standing by the window when she reentered the room, and he turned to her immediately. ‘How are you feeling?’ he surprised her by asking, and she frowned.

  ‘Fine. I feel fine. Why shouldn’t I be?’ she returned with a slightly stilted laugh.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he countered. ‘You just appear to be acting a little oddly.’

  Her nerves jumped, and she told herself she would have to be more careful in future. ‘You’re imagining things. Put it down to hunger, if you must. I’m ravenous. I feel as if I could eat a horse!’ she exclaimed, only belatedly realising the implications of what she had said. Her eyes shot to his and met a look of amusement.

  ‘I’m not surprised. You don’t hold back, do you?’

  Colour made up of part embarrassment, part-annoyance stained her cheeks. ‘Would you rather that I had?’

  ‘Not at all,’ he denied with a shake of the head.

  ‘Good. Because I don’t recall you holding back, either.’

  His lips twitched. ‘In which case we’ll need two horses for breakfast,’ he teased. ‘One for you and one for me.’

  She raised an eyebrow at that. ‘You didn’t give that impression just now,’ she pointed out, recalling how chilled he had made her feel.

  ‘Didn’t I?’ he returned sardonically. ‘Perhaps that was because I was fighting the urge to climb right back into bed with you,’ he added, stealing her breath away with the heat that now positively blazed from his eyes.

  She licked her lips, and at once his eyes dropped to her mouth. ‘Why didn’t you?’ she challenged, sounding huskily seductive to her own ears.

  Nathan dragged a hand through his still damp hair, leaving it rakishly tousled. ‘God, you are pure temptation!’ he exclaimed, sounding not in the least disappointed to know it. ‘Behave yourself, Rachel. We still have the letters to find, remember?’