by Sandra Field
‘Leave my past out of this, Gray!’ she commanded sharply, making him shake his head again.
‘I can see why you would want to. It’s not very flattering.’
No, it wasn’t, but she had worked hard to live it down. A fact he chose to overlook. ‘I’m trying to put all that behind me,’ she insisted, and he gave her a measuring look.
‘Well, now. Let’s hope you live long enough to do it. Which brings us back to why I’m here.’
Before Shelby could say anything more, her father rejoined them.
‘Sorry about that. Now, where were we?’ he asked as he made himself comfortable in his chair once more.
‘I’d just told Shelby that I would be moving into her spare room.’
Oscar shot her a quick glance. ‘How did she take it?’
Gray’s lips twitched. ‘About as well as we expected.’
Shelby rolled her eyes. ‘Will you please stop talking about me as if I’m not here?’ she commanded in exasperation. ‘I have the right to make the important decisions about my life.’
‘That’s good, because you’ve already made the most important one. You agreed with your father’s decision to ask for my help,’ Gray put in swiftly. ‘And, as I told you, I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Red,’ he added in the quietly confident way of his that had the uncanny knack of calming the nerves in her stomach immediately.
She stared at him hard, trying to penetrate those devilish blue eyes. ‘That’s a promise, is it?’
‘Cross my heart,’ he retorted, making the gesture to confirm it.
However much she trusted him when it came to his work, Shelby wasn’t going to appear to be won over too quickly. ‘Do you really have to move in to do it? Couldn’t you…oh, I don’t know…surveille—is that a word?—the house from a plain vehicle or something?’ she suggested rather wildly in a last-ditch attempt to retrieve her privacy.
Not surprisingly, Gray’s brows had risen as she meandered on and by the end he was frowning. ‘You’ve been watching far too many movies. Trust me, I know what’s needed.’
‘And you need to be in my home.’ It was a flat statement rather than a question. Gray answered it anyway.
‘Following your every step like Peter Pan’s shadow.’
That was hardly designed to improve her mood, and she knew it was a deliberate goad. She was going to have to resign herself to his being there for some time, and the worst of it was that she was still convinced the whole thing was a waste of time. However, her father feared the worst, and she wasn’t about to add to his worries. She could do this for him.
‘How long will it take you to get your things together?’ Shelby enquired with a heavy heart.
‘I have everything I need in the boot of my car, so I’ll be ready to leave whenever you are,’ he informed her, and her hope that he would delay his arrival until the next day was dashed.
Her father was all smiles. ‘You’ll be staying to dinner, I hope, now that everything’s decided?’
Gray looked to Shelby, one eyebrow raised questioningly. ‘Unless Shelby wants to go home now?’
Had she been going alone she would have decided to leave, but as that was impossible she decided to drag out the moment as long as she could.
‘Oh, I’ll be having dinner here,’ she responded, making a show of settling herself comfortably for a long stay. ‘I never miss the chance of eating one of Mrs Grundy’s meals.’
Oscar Greer rubbed his hands together. ‘You’re in for a treat, my boy,’ he declared as he stood up yet again. ‘I’ll just go and tell Mrs G to set another place. I won’t be long.’
Silence fell as he left the room, and, as if to balance that out Shelby became intensely aware of Gray’s physical presence. From the corner of her eye she could see his hand resting on his knee, and her heart twisted. It recalled the precise moment when she had fallen in love with him. He had offered her a hand to help her out of a taxi, and the touch had been like magic. Exactly as they said it felt in the movies, only for real. She had known then that Gray was special. What the movies hadn’t said was that it didn’t have to be mutual. From his behaviour, Gray had clearly felt nothing, whilst she had suffered an emotional sea change. She had been eighteen then and, ten years later, her feelings hadn’t changed one iota. He was still that special someone and she was still lonely.
‘So,’ Gray said conversationally, drawing her out of her reverie and making her glance his way. ‘Here we are. Together again.’
Shelby laughed harshly and looked at him askance. ‘I’d hardly call us together. We just happen to be in the same room.’
A reply that had his blue eyes gleaming with devilment. ‘I recall a time when a situation like this was just what you wanted,’ he went on, spreading his hands to take in the fact that there were just the two of them.
As was his wont, he was deliberately trying to embarrass her, but she didn’t embarrass so easily. ‘Well, you were dating every woman within a ten-mile radius. Good Lord, they were falling over themselves to be next in line, so I thought I might as well see what all the fuss was about. I got over it.’
He acknowledged that with a tip of his head, and added, ‘Cold shower helped, did it? I told you it would.’
Shelby ground her teeth together irritably. ‘I just knew you wouldn’t be able to resist saying I told you so.’
Her response drew a laugh. ‘I would have hated to disappoint you. At least now you know I’m every bit as bad as all the nasty things you called me.’
Shelby started to open her mouth to deny doing any such thing, but he gave her such a look that she thought better of it. ‘I hope your ears burned,’ she said instead, and his smile reappeared.
‘Stung for days afterwards.’
‘Good. I’m delighted to hear it. Of course, it was less than you deserved,’ she told him haughtily and he pulled a pained face.
‘Hmm, I wince at the idea of what you would consider just payment,’ Gray declared with a sharp intake of breath, and Shelby laughed this time.
‘You’re right to be afraid. As far as I’m concerned, there is no statute of limitations on your particular crime,’ she informed him with a challenging look.
Gray eyed her thoughtfully, and there was no way she could read what was going on in his fertile mind. ‘Looks like I’m in for an interesting assignment, doesn’t it?’ he said at last, and there was something in the way he said it that sent alarm signals through her system. She couldn’t say why, but all of a sudden there was something…dangerous in the air.
Shelby’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘What are you planning?’
His smile was as innocent as the day was long. ‘Why, just to keep you out of harm’s way. What did you think I would do?’
She didn’t trust him, especially when he looked so innocent. ‘Just remember you’re here on sufferance. If it was left up to me, we wouldn’t be going through this.’
‘Don’t worry, I understand perfectly. You’re putting your father’s mind at rest, and you’re accepting my presence under duress,’ he summarised for her. ‘Correct?’
‘Why is it that the instant you start being reasonable, I start to get nervous?’
He grinned broadly. ‘Maybe it’s something to do with not wanting to be beholden to me for anything. Rest easy, this is for your Dad, not you.’
‘Fine. That’s fine,’ she muttered, silently praying that the whole ridiculous situation would be over soon.
At that fortuitous moment Oscar Greer returned to the room, looking much more cheerful than he had for days. She knew it was Gray’s presence which had brought that about, and it confirmed to her that she was doing the right thing. If it would put her father’s mind at rest, she would bite the bullet. After all, it wouldn’t be for long. She was utterly sure of that.
Why, she was willing to bet that by this time next week Gray Compton would have packed his bags and disappeared from whence he came. Then her life would get back to normal. By that she meant—Gray Fr
ee. Which wasn’t the way she wanted it, but it was how it was doomed to be.
CHAPTER TWO
SHELBY drew her car to a halt at yet another red light, and her eyes automatically trained in on the pair of headlights she could see in the rear view mirror. Gray was following her home, matching every turn she made. It had been tempting to draw out the journey by going out of her way, but it also occurred to her that Gray was just the sort of person who would have checked out her route home beforehand. Any deviation she made would be cause for comment, and therefore making her seem childish in the extreme. So she had taken her usual route, constantly aware of those never wavering headlights.
Sitting there in the dark, fingers tapping out a nervy tattoo on the steering-wheel, she imagined she could feel Gray’s eyes boring into the back of her head. Not for the first time, she wondered what he was thinking. Did he, for instance, ever think back to the events of that long ago evening, when all her hopes and dreams had come crashing down around her ears?
Of course, it would never have happened if she hadn’t been feeling sorry for herself. She had been acting as hostess for one of her father’s dinner parties, and had been let down by the man who she was then dating. By coincidence, Gray had turned up without a partner too, which had somehow made her feel that this was her chance. She had been eating her heart out over him for two years, and had still had hopes that a miracle would happen. Sometimes, though, miracles needed a helping hand, and she had decided to make a bold venture. Late on in the evening, when the party had split into groups, she had seen Gray wander out on to the patio. When a quick glance told her that everyone else was accounted for, she had followed him…
A sharp blast from a car horn made Shelby jump violently, pulling her out of her daydream, and she realised she had been sitting there whilst the lights had changed to green. She ground the gears getting the car into first and grimaced at the thought of the smile Gray would be wearing when he heard it. Something similar to the one he had worn when he had held her away from him after she had attempted to kiss him that night. But she was getting ahead of herself.
When she had joined him in the relative privacy of the patio, he had turned to face her, resting one hip against the low wall of the parapet.
‘Lost your way, Red?’ he asked her lightly and she shrugged, though she was feeling far from relaxed. ‘You don’t usually seek me out these days.’
She shook her head as she slowly walked towards him, trembling hands linked loosely behind her back. ‘Things change.’
His lips twitched and one eyebrow quirked rakishly. ‘In what way?’
‘As we’re the only ones without partners, I thought we could be company for each other,’ she told him, reaching out to brush off a non-existent piece of debris from the front of his dinner jacket.
‘Did you now?’ he responded suavely and, gathering her resolve, Shelby took a small step towards him, closing the gap, placed both hands on his chest and looked up at him seductively.
‘Um-hm. It’s too good an opportunity to miss. Here we are, just you, me and the night. It’s perfect for getting to know one another better,’ she insisted in a sultry voice that carried a tremor of anticipation. She tried to caress his cheek, but he foiled her plan, holding her wrist in a light yet unremitting grip.
‘How much have you had to drink, Shelby?’
She sighed, smiling. ‘Just enough to blunt the edges. Come on, Gray, relax, let yourself go a little,’ she urged him, her eyes locked on the lips she longed to kiss.
She didn’t see his eyes narrow. ‘And do what…seduce you?’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ she agreed, and would have put her arm around his neck only he abruptly pushed her away.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, little girl?’ he demanded mockingly, finally bursting the delicious bubble she had been floating in.
‘Little girl?’ she gasped, cut to the quick. ‘I’m twenty years old. That makes me a woman, not a girl!’
‘You’re playing out of your league, Red. Just because your boyfriend stood you up doesn’t mean you can practice your seduction skills on me.’
That got through like nothing else, and her hopes and dreams dissolved around her. Yet, smarting though she was, she realised he had at least left her the means to save face. Swallowing hard, she covered her retreat with style. ‘I should have known you wouldn’t want me, but you can’t blame a girl for trying!’ she retorted ruefully, stepping away from him.
He shook his head. ‘You’re going to give your father grey hairs before his time. A fact you might want to remember. Seducing the boss’s daughter is a non-starter.’
The remark rubbed salt into the wound, but she battled on bravely. ‘Is that all that stopped you? Listen, we wouldn’t have to tell him.’
‘Sorry, Red, but I’d know. Besides, you’re too young for me. If I was looking to be seduced tonight, it would be by a woman who knows what she’s doing,’ he added for good measure, making her feel worse.
At the same time she was relieved that he was falling for her ploy. He would never know how deep the wounds went, or how much blood he had drawn. ‘For a man who’s known for his charm, that wasn’t very subtle, Gray. But there’s no harm done. I won’t bother you again.’ So saying, she returned to the house.
Rejoining the other guests, she stayed there, not looking up when Gray came back in, although she was aware of him with every nerve in her body. She held it all together until everyone had gone. Then she retreated to her room and sobbed into her pillow.
Only when the tears of despair and mortification had dried up had she been grateful that her feelings for him had remained secret. She had pulled off a feat of acting that was worthy of an award. Amazingly, her love for him hadn’t withered under the blow. It had been too strong for that.
It still was, Shelby conceded as she stopped briefly at a junction, then turned right. The headlights followed her. She hadn’t seen Gray for a while after that. She had braced herself for days for that inevitable first meeting, only to be told by her father that he had gone abroad again. When he had returned, she had had her protective armour in place. She had battled with him just as she always had, and that one small incident had faded into history.
In fact, it was only at moments such as these that she thought of it at all, she mused as she drove through a oneway system. Of course, there had been that second, more devastating meeting between them later, but she tried not to think of that. Bad enough to go through it once, why choose to relive it in glorious Technicolor? Better to concentrate on her driving.
A short while later she turned down the ramp of the underground car park belonging to the modern block of apartments in which she lived. Using her remote control, she opened the security gates and drove through. Parking in her reserved spot, she climbed out and indicated that Gray should park beside her. The spot belonged to a neighbour who was working abroad for the next few months. Shelby collected her bag and set the car alarm.
Gray, meanwhile, had alighted from his four-by-four and was rummaging around in the back. Having retrieved what he wanted, he walked round to join her. ‘Tell me, do you always take the same route home?’
‘From Dad’s? Yes, of course. I’ve found it’s the quickest,’ Shelby confirmed, then frowned when he looked concerned.
‘Forget the quickest. From tomorrow you start varying your routes. Especially places you go to frequently. Nothing will help this creep more than your own habits,’ he informed her bluntly, then looked around him. ‘How do we get in?’
‘The lifts are over here.’ She pointed off to her right and was surprised when Gray slipped a hand under her elbow and urged her along. ‘Hey…’
‘This isn’t personal. I’m not holding you because I want to.’
‘I know that,’ she shot back scornfully. ‘You’re under orders again.’
He shot her a narrow look. ‘We’ll never get beyond that, will we?’
‘Not in this life or the next,’ she confirme
d scathingly and he made a grunting sound in his throat.
‘Let’s hope the next life doesn’t come along sooner than you expect!’ Gray returned dryly.
Shelby looked at him in shock. ‘Surely this nut case wouldn’t try to kill me?’ she asked in some alarm.
To her dismay he didn’t play that down with a laugh. ‘Don’t worry. I’m here to make sure he never gets the chance.’
She frowned as her confidence took a knock. ‘But this is just a scam!’
Gray’s smile was tight. ‘Let’s hope you’re right, but in the meantime I’m taking no chances. I never like to see mistakes repeated.’
‘Mistakes?’ She knew instantly he was referring to that security situation which had gone wrong. ‘What happened?’
‘Let’s just say someone died, and it wasn’t pretty. Now, I’ve imagined seeing you in all sorts of situations, but never lifeless at my feet. I’d prefer to keep it that way,’ Gray returned dryly, not about to be drawn.
Shelby found the remark at once surprising and intriguing. It was rather comforting to know he didn’t want to see her harmed, but what were these other ways he had pictured her? Her mind reeled but could find no answer. By which time they had reached the lift.
‘OK, if you have gates on the garage, can I assume there’s a doorman inside the lobby?’ Gray wanted to know as he jabbed the call button.
She was glad she could confirm that much at least. ‘Twenty-four hour cover, taken in shifts. It was one of the reasons I took this apartment,’ she added pointedly. He might think she wasn’t security conscious, but in this day and age it was silly not to be.
He looked at her, one eyebrow raised quizzically. ‘Glad to hear you’ve got some sense then, Red. I was beginning to wonder.’
Shelby shot him a sideways glare. ‘Did you have to work hard at getting so rude, or did it come naturally?’ she gibed, but could have saved herself the effort for it was like water off a duck’s back.
