Drake savored her sweetness. The time had come, he knew, to tell her everything, and he would do so at first opportunity, perhaps tomorrow. Then he could continue his quest, ultimately putting his life in order…a life he now acknowledged wishing Dani to be a part of.
Cyril Arpel stood in the shadows across the street and stared up at the dark hotel. He could not remember ever being so angry. He was shaking from head to toe, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side, grinding his teeth together so tightly that his jaws were aching.
Enough was enough! Drakar thought he had everything he wanted—the conquest of Dani, and, soon, possession of the painting. Well, Cyril fumed, he’d find out differently. He had tarried long enough. Now was the time to make his move.
He needed sleep, but that could come later…after he finalized his plans for stealing the painting and making it appear as though Drakar were responsible. Dani would, no doubt, be so furious she would turn to him for comfort, and Cyril figured he just might wind up winning both prizes after all.
Such a ploy, Cyril contemplated, would not be difficult. After all, stealing the painting was the easy part. All he had to do was break into Dani’s shop one night and take it. As for implicating Drakar, well, when he disappeared at the same time as the painting, without explanation, it would certainly look suspicious and incriminating enough for him to be blamed. Cyril knew he would have no difficulty arranging for Drakar to receive an urgent message from Russia demanding his presence before the Imperial Court. Thanks to an unscrupulous worker at the telegraph office, who would do anything for a few thousand francs, Cyril could have such a dispatch sent. He had done so on past occasions when it was feasible to have a rival dealer called away just before an important sale or auction was to take place. And, should Drakar try to send a message to Dani, informing her of his sudden departure from France, well, Cyril acknowledged with a satisfied grin, he could take care of that little item, also.
Cyril took one last look upward at the apartment, then turned away. It was, he vowed, as good as done.
Dani awoke with a start. Sunlight was streaming across her face. She blinked furiously against the sudden intrusion, then a dagger of awareness struck. She was naked. She sat up straight to stare about wildly. This was not her bed. Not her room. Where was she?
Then hysteria began to bubble in her dry, tight throat as she realized there was a man lying beside her and recognized Drake at the same instant everything came rushing back to awaken her to harsh reality.
Dear God, it was morning!
She gave Drake a frantic shake as she cried, “Drake, wake up. We fell asleep. Oh, Poppa is going to kill both of us.”
She sprang from the bed, began to search about frantically for her clothes, which were nowhere to be seen. Then she remembered her uninhibited disrobing of the night before and ran into the room where she had carelessly discarded her things.
Drake was instantly awake and groping for his own clothes. He glanced at a clock. “Goddammit, it’s eight o’clock! How could we have slept so late? How could I have been so irresponsible?” He jerked on his shirt, headed for the door. “I’ll have the carriage brought around—”
“No!” Dani almost screamed her protest. “I’ll go alone. If Poppa sees you, it’ll make it that much worse. There’s no telling what he might do.”
“No, I won’t send you home in a carriage by yourself like a woman of the night, Dani, paid for your services and sent to your door. No. We’ll face him together.”
He forced a smile he did not feel and kissed the tip of her nose, and Dani blinked back tears of gratitude. “Drake, you really don’t have to. He’s going to be mad, but I stand a better chance of trying to reason with him than you do. I’ll just tell him we had too much wine and fell asleep. He doesn’t have to know anything else happened…” Her voice trailed off, and she demurely lowered her lashes as memories flooded back of the wonderful lovemaking they had shared. It had been like a dream…a dream she knew she wanted to relive over and over again, and no matter what her father did, that dream could not be taken away.
Drake gripped her shoulders tightly, and with eyes steady, unwavering, he tersely declared, “Dani, I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. I care for you. A great deal. Maybe it’s love. Maybe not. Time will tell. A lot of time. I’m not ready to commit myself to marriage just yet, but if that’s what your father demands, if he wants me to marry you to protect your good name, then I will.”
Dani stiffened ever so slightly, knew he was merely being honest and acknowledged she should be grateful, yet could not help feeling she was being patronized. “Thank you, Drake,” she responded coolly, a defined edge to her voice, “but I want more out of life than a husband who considers marrying me a favor!”
She turned away angrily, but Drake caught her, spun her around. “Dani, you’re taking it the wrong way—”
“Just take me home, if you insist on being so gallant,” she snapped, jerking from his grasp. “I don’t think this is the time for you to propose marriage, do you?
“And besides”—she glared up at him, red dots of rage sparkling in cinnamon eyes—“I want you to remember you don’t owe me anything. Last night happened because we both wanted it to. You didn’t seduce me, or cajole me. It was mutual. It was good, and it was nice, and we enjoyed it, but that’s as far as it goes, because it doesn’t mean that we now share the almighty, grandiose, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love for each other that the poets write about, that leads to marriage, and children, and a lifetime together. We don’t owe each other a damn thing just because we fell asleep afterward and now everyone will know we spent a night together. It does not mean that you are obligated to marry me, and it damn sure doesn’t mean I have to marry you!”
She paused, took a deep breath and let it out with disgust. “Have I made myself clear?”
Drake, by then, was also angry. “Yes, I’d say you’ve made yourself perfectly clear, Dani. Now will you allow me the dignity of being a gentleman and escort you home?”
“Of course.” She turned away to finish dressing.
Drake slammed out of the apartment, swearing beneath his breath. Any other woman would have been screaming for a wedding ring by now, but not Dani. She was being as casual about the whole thing as a man might be, as though it were nothing to be upset about. Had she not been a virgin and instead a sophisticated woman of the world with many lovers in her past, he might have better understood her attitude. As it was, he was completely baffled. Dani was young and inexperienced. They were both in a great deal of trouble because of what had happened. The Coltranes were highly respected people. To have their daughter stay out all night with a man was unthinkable, and they were, understandably, probably crazy with worry by now. The thing to do was face them, deal with whatever awaited, and later hope there would be time to mend things with Dani.
Suddenly, Drake’s world had turned upside down, and he was certain of only one thing for the moment—he did not want to lose Dani because, he mused with a grin despite the tension of the situation, they just might actually share that “almighty, grandiose, once-in-a-lifetime” kind of love she had been talking about.
He was damn well going to find out!
Chapter Nineteen
In the nearly twenty-nine years she had known Travis Coltrane, Kitty had seen him quite angry on occasion. She had seen men quake in their boots and turn and run at just a threatening glare from those steel-gray eyes. She had also seen his rage erupt and propel him to kill. She had witnessed him stomping to death the traitorous Nathan Wright, who had just murdered her father in cold blood, had heard how Travis also coldly killed that fiend Luke Tate, who had caused so much anguish in their lives.
Yes, Kitty acknowledged as she stared quietly at Travis from the doorway of his study, he could be provoked to mayhem, for his temper and spirit were legend.
But, with a tremble of dread, she knew without a doubt she had never seen him this mad.
Travis stood behind his ma
ssive oak desk, staring out the window toward the street in front of the mansion. He had, she speculated, probably been alternating his present vigil with pacing the floor ever since two a.m.—the hour he had gotten out of bed after lying awake since midnight, anxiously waiting for Dani to come home.
The clock above the mantel chimed to announce the time was three-quarters past the hour…almost nine o’clock. Travis glanced up at the clock irritably, then slammed his fist against the windowsill. “Goddammit, where is she?” He whirled around to face Kitty and raged, “Enough of this! I’m either going after that Russian womanizer or you’d better notify the gendarmes to lock him up to keep me from killing him when I do get my hands on him!”
Kitty did not wither before his fury and never had. Calmly she told him, “You’ll do neither, Travis. If you go looking for Dani, she’ll be humiliated and never forgive you. If you notify the police, it will be all over Paris by noon.”
He looked at her incredulously and threw up his arms. “Well, just what do you propose to do, woman? She’s been out all night long, for God’s sake, with a man who’s got a reputation for being a goddamn wolf, and you think we’re supposed to just sit here and wait for her to come strolling in as if nothing has happened?”
“Maybe nothing has.”
Travis yelped at that. “Are you crazy? Do you really believe that?”
Kitty could not help smiling. “Don’t judge every man by yourself, dear. We all know in your wilder days no girl came home pure and innocent after a night with you.”
Travis grunted. “That’s not funny, Kitty, and I’m in no mood for your sarcasm.” He turned back to his vigil at the window. “If she isn’t here by nine, either I go looking for her, or we call the police. And believe me,” he added ominously, “Drakar better pray the gendarmes get to him before I do.”
Kitty sighed, walked to the sideboard, and poured another cup of coffee from the silver service. “Travis, I agree with you that Dani shouldn’t have stayed out all night like this. I’m not defending her, but I do think we have to remember she’s a grown woman, and—”
“And she’s my daughter and lives under my goddamn roof!” Travis yelled, turning to stare at her with eyes bulging, the veins standing out on his forehead and neck. He was starting to shake.
Kitty saw the way he looked so flushed and at once put down her coffee and rushed to his side. “Now you listen to me,” she ordered, placing her hands on his trembling shoulders. Reluctantly, he allowed her to guide him to sit down behind his desk.
“Travis Coltrane,” she scolded, “you’re not a young man anymore, and that temper of yours could bring on a heart attack. You’ve no business letting yourself lose control and get upset this way. Now I’m plenty angry myself, because there’s no excuse for Dani doing something like this and worrying us to death, not to mention what this will do to her reputation if it gets out, but there’s not a thing we can do about it for the moment. If there was a possibility Dani was hurt, I’d have agreed to search for her hours ago, but we both know if anything like that had happened, Drakar would have notified us, and he hasn’t, so we know he’s with her and that she’s all right. We just have to wait.”
“Not much longer, dammit,” Travis warned. He pointed to the liquor cabinet. “I need a brandy.”
Kitty did not argue that it was an early hour for a drink because she felt she could use one herself. She handed him a bottle and two glasses.
Pouring them each a hefty drink, he grumbled, “Hell, we didn’t need this on top of Colt’s thunderbolt last night.”
Kitty once more fought back the tears that had been just below the surface ever since Colt had announced he and Lily were going to get married. “I still can’t believe it,” she whispered brokenly. “I know he’s a grown man, and it’s probably time he married and settled down, but there’s just something about that girl I don’t like. I keep telling myself it’s none of my business. He certainly has the right to live his life the way he wants and to choose who he wants to marry, but I just have this sick feeling that something about it isn’t right.”
Travis downed his drink in one gulp, then gave a disgruntled snort. “He doesn’t know a damn thing about her. Neither do we. That boy ought to know by now that he’s capable of pulling some pretty damn stupid stunts and making some ridiculous decisions. Hell, it’s only been a little over a year that he almost lost his fortune and Dani’s by falling for that disgusting scheme of Gavin Mason’s.
“And what about that Bowden girl back home?” he raved on as bitter memories came rushing back. “Some old busybody finally wrote to you about that little scandal, how that girl came home after spending the night with Colt, and her family was as upset about that as we are right now, only that girl was in such a daze she walked right into the middle of a bank robbery and got herself shot, and then Colt went out and nearly got himself killed tracking down and shooting the bastards responsible.”
Kitty quickly came to Colt’s defense. “That’s not exactly fair, Travis. I talked to Colt about it and heard his side of the story. Charlene showed up at the ranch that night without him knowing she was coming. He tried to get her to leave, but she didn’t, and…” Her voice trailed off momentarily, but then anger took over and she vehemently declared, “It wasn’t fair for Colt to be made to look like a scoundrel just because he didn’t want to marry her after she’d set him up like that. That was her plan—to get him to take her to bed, keep her out all night, so he’d have no choice but to marry her so she wouldn’t be disgraced. He wouldn’t be tricked like that. I’m sorry that poor girl is dead, but it wasn’t Colt’s fault. Any of it.”
Travis had been staring at her thoughtfully as she spoke, and when she had finished, he quietly asked, “Do you think that’s what Dani has done? Arranged to stay out all night with Drakar so he’ll feel obligated to marry her?”
Violet eyes flashed with fire. “Certainly not! And don’t you dare suggest such a thing.”
Travis smiled. Kitty was even more beautiful when she was angry, and if it weren’t for the turmoil of the moment, young man or not, he knew he’d whisk her away upstairs for the love and splendor he could never get enough of in her arms. Instead, he said, “All right. I suppose I agree with that. But what about Colt? What kind of trick do you think Lily has used to get him to agree to marry her? He tried to sound enthusiastic about it, but I know my son, and he was about as happy about the idea of marrying that woman as we are. Maybe she slipped into his bedroom and tried to use the same scheme as Charlene Bowden.”
Kitty shook her head worriedly. “We don’t dare suggest such a thing.”
Travis emitted another grunt. “You might not dare, but I damn well do, and as soon as this mess with Dani is resolved, you can bet I will have a little talk with that young man, and I don’t care how grown up he is…”
His eyes suddenly locked with Kitty’s at the sound of the front door opening.
At once, he was on his feet and starting around the desk, but Kitty moved quickly to block his way. Placing her hands against his heaving chest, she pleaded, “Travis, don’t lose your temper. Please give her a chance to explain.”
Travis did not reply but gently pushed her aside. He rushed across the room and out the door with her following close behind.
Dani and Drake were standing in the foyer. Dani’s eyes were wide with apprehension and also defiance, while Drake stood rigidly by her side, face expressionless but with the defensive demeanor of one who expects the worst to happen at any second.
Travis halted several feet away, felt Kitty’s cautioning hand on his arm and acknowledged silently it was best not to get too close, too soon. He stared from one to the other in condemnation and anger.
Dani, cheeks slightly pale, cleared her throat, lifted her chin with all the dignity she could muster for the moment and began. “Poppa, Kitty. I’m sorry I’ve caused you to worry, I really am, but it was all an accident. We had a nice dinner, but we just ate too much and drank too much, and then fell
asleep.” She forced a helpless little shrug, beseechingly added, “Can you forgive us?”
Travis’s teeth ground together so tightly his jaw ached with the same intensity he was feeling in his fists, which were knotted and held against his side as he struggled to keep from lunging forward and pounding them into Drakar’s insolent face. Struggling to speak around the constricting anger in his throat, he growled, “And just where did you fall asleep, young lady? In the restaurant you said you had to rush to get to because you had reservations?”
Dani’s lips moved wordlessly, nervously. She hated lying this way, but knew she had to for the truth could result in disaster.
“Go ahead!” Travis roared, feeling what self-control he had left slipping away. “Tell me some more lies.”
Kitty stepped forward, fearful of what Travis might do. “Please…” she whispered nervously.
Drake knew he could remain silent no longer, had to at least attempt to bring the matter under control. “Mr. Coltrane, we were at my apartment,” he admitted tonelessly. “I’m sorry Dani lied to you, but she knew if she told you we were going there, you wouldn’t like it. All we wanted was to have a quiet little dinner, the two of us. We didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”
“Then she shouldn’t have gone, should she?” Travis challenged. “If she had to lie, then she knew it was wrong, and she shouldn’t have gone. Now look what’s happened! Her reputation is ruined. You’ve brought shame on this household.”
At that, Dani cried indignantly, “You’ve no right to make judgments like that, Poppa. Just because I stayed out all night doesn’t shame the name of Coltrane. You can believe what you want to about what did or didn’t happen last night. And so can all the others who hear about it and choose to gossip. I don’t care!”
Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 Page 19
