Mystery Man

by Diana Palmer

  “I quit,” she said. “You’re right. Everybody has problems.”

  “So does Mr. Rourke. If you get to know him, you might like him. And there’s a fringe benefit.”

  “There is?”

  “Sure. If you nab him, you can buy him a plastic appliance like the one your favorite alien wears and make him over to suit you!”

  The thought of Canton Rourke sitting still for that doubled her over with laughter. He’d more than likely give her the appliance face first and tell her where she could go with it.

  “I don’t really think that would be a good idea,” she replied. “Think how his board of directors might react!”

  “I suppose so. We should go,” he prompted, nodding toward the clock on the side table.

  She grimaced. “All right. But I don’t want to,” she said firmly.

  “You’ll enjoy yourself,” he promised her. “Nobody knows who you are.”

  She brightened. “I didn’t think of that.”

  “Now you can.”

  He opened the door for her with a flourish and they walked down the beach through the sand to the Rourke’s house. It was ablaze with light and soft music came wafting out the open door of the patio. Several people holding glasses were talking. They all looked exquisitely dressed and Janine already felt self-conscious about her own appearance.

  Kurt, oblivious, darted up the steps to his friend Karie, wearing a cute little dress with a dropped waistline and a short skirt that probably had cost more than Janine’s summer wardrobe put together. As she went up the steps, she paused to shake the sand out of her high heels, holding onto the bannister for support.

  “Need a hand?” a familiar velvety voice asked. A long, lean arm went around her and supported her while she fumbled nervously with her shoe, almost dropping it in the process.

  “Here.” He knelt and emptied the sand out of the shoe before he eased it back onto her small foot with a sensuality that made her heart race.

  He stood up slowly, his eyes meeting hers when they were on the same level, and holding as he rose to his towering height. He didn’t smile. For endless seconds, they simply looked at each other.

  “This was Kurt’s idea,” she blurted breathlessly. “I didn’t even have time to buy a new dress…”

  “What’s wrong with this one?” he asked. His lean hand traced the rounded neckline, barely touching her skin, but she shivered at the contact.

  “You, uh, seem to have quite a crowd,” she faltered, moving a breath away from him.

  “Right now, I wish they were all five hundred miles away,” he said deeply, and with an inflection that made her tingle.

  She laughed nervously. “Is that a line? If it is, it’s probably very effective, but I’m immune. I’ve got a son and I’ve lived in a com…”

  He held up a hand and chuckled. “Give it up,” he advised. “Kurt is twelve and you’re twenty-four. I really doubt that you conceived at the age of eleven. As for the commune bit,” he added, moving close enough to threaten, “not in your wildest dreams, honey.”

  Honey. She recalled dumping a glass of milk on a pushy acquaintance who’d used that term in a demeaning way to her. This man made it sound like a verbal caress. Her toes curled.

  “Please.” Was that her voice, that thin tremulous tone?

  His fingers touched her cheek gently. “I’m a new experience, is that it?”

  She shivered. “You’re a multimillionaire. I’m working for wages.” Not quite the truth, but a good enough comparison, she thought frantically.

  He leaned closer with a smile that was fascinating. “I gave up seducing girls years ago. You’re safe.”

  Her wide eyes met his. “Could I have that in writing, notarized, please?”

  “If you like. But my word is usually considered equally binding,” he replied. His hand fell and caught hers. “As for the multimillionaire bit, that’s past history. I’m just an ordinary guy working his way up the corporate ladder right now. Come in and meet my guests.”

  His fingers were warm and strong and she felt a rush of emotion that burst like tangible joy inside her. What was happening to her? As if he sensed her confusion and uncertainty, his fingers linked into hers and pressed reassuringly. Involuntarily her own returned the pressure.

  As they gained the top of the steps, a vivacious brunette about Janine’s age came up to them with a champagne glass in her hand. She beamed at Canton until she saw him holding hands with the other woman. Her smile became catty.

  “There you are, Canton. I don’t believe I know your friend, do I?” she asked pointedly, glancing at Janine.

  “Probably not. Janine Curtis, this is Missy Elliger. She’s the daughter of one of my oldest friends.”

  “You’re not that old, darling,” she drawled, moving closer to him. She glared at Janine. “Do you live here?”

  “Oh, no,” Janine said pleasantly. “I live in a commune in California with several men.”

  The other woman gaped at her.

  “Behave,” Canton said shortly, increasing the pressure of his fingers. “This is Janine Curtis. She’s here on vacation with her little brother. That’s him, over there with Karie. His name’s Kurt.”

  “Oh.” Missy cleared her throat. “What a very odd thing to say, Miss…Curtsy?”

  “Curtis.” Janine corrected her easily. “Why do you say it’s odd?”

  “Well, living in a commune. Really!”

  Janine shrugged. “Actually it wasn’t so much a commune as it was a sort of, well, labor camp. You know, where they send political prisoners? I voiced unpopular thoughts about the government…”

  “In America?!” Missy burst out.

  “Heavens, no! In one of the Balkan countries. I seem to forget which one. Anyway, there I was, with my trusty rifle, shooting snipers with my platoon when the lights went out…”

  “Platoon?”

  “Not in this life, of course,” Janine went on, unabashed. “I believe it was when I was a private in the Czech army.”

  Missy swallowed her champagne in one gulp. “I must speak to Harvey Winthrop over there. Do excuse me.” She gave Canton a speaking look and escaped.

  Canton was trying not to laugh.

  Janine wiggled her eyebrows at him. “Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment story, huh?”

  “You idiot!”

  She smiled. He wasn’t bad at all. His eyes twinkled even when he didn’t smile back.

  “I’m sorry,” she said belatedly. “She’s really got a case on you, you know.”

  “Yes, I do,” he replied. He brought up their linked hands. “That’s why I’m doing this.”

  All her illusions fell, shattered, at her feet. “Oh.”

  “Surely you didn’t think there was any other reason?” he mused. “After all, we’re almost a generation apart. In fact, you’re only a year older than Missy is.”

  “So I’m a visual aid.”

  He chuckled, pressing her fingers. “In a sense. I didn’t think you’d mind. Enemies do help one another on occasion. I’ll do the same for you, one day.”

  “I’m not that much in demand,” she said, feeling stiff and uncomfortable now that she understood his odd behavior. “But you can have anyone you like. I read it in a magazine article.”

  “Was that the story they ran next to the one about space aliens attending the latest White House dinner?” he asked politely.

  She glowered up at him. “You know what I mean.”

  He shrugged. “I’m off women temporarily. My wife wrote me off as a failure and found someone richer,” he added, with a lack of inflection that was more revealing than the cold emptiness in his eyes.

  “More fool, her,” she said with genuine feeling. “You’ll make it all back and she’ll be sorry.”

  He smiled, surprised. “No, she won’t. The magic left during the second year of our marriage. We stayed together for Karie, but eventually we didn’t even see each other for months at a time. It was a marriage on paper. She’s happier
with her new husband, and I’m happier alone.” He stared out to sea. “The sticking point is Karie. We ended up with joint custody, and that doesn’t suit her. She thinks Karie belongs with her.”

  “How does Karie feel?”

  “Oh, she likes tagging along with me and going on business trips,” he said. “She’s learning things that she wouldn’t in the exclusive girls’ school Marie wants her in. I pulled her out of school and brought her here with me for a couple of weeks, mainly to get her out of reach of Marie. She’s made some veiled threats lately about wanting more alimony or full custody.”

  “Education is important.”

  He glared at her. “And Karie will get the necessary education. She’s only missing a few weeks of school and she’s so intelligent that she’ll catch up in no time. But I want her to have more than a degree and a swelled head when she grows up.”

  She felt insulted. “You don’t like academics?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been put down by too damned many of them, while they tried to copy my software,” he countered. “I like to design it. But in the past, I spent too much time at a computer and too little with my daughter. Even if I hadn’t lost everything, taking a break was long overdue.”

  “You went to Silicon Valley, Karie said.”

  “Yes. Among other reasons, I was looking for guinea pigs.” He glanced down at her with a faint scowl. “Come to think of it, there’s you.”

  “Me?”

  “I need someone to test a new program for me,” he continued surprisingly. “It’s a variation on one of my first word processors, but this one has a new configuration that’s more efficient. It’s still in the development stages, but it’s usable. What do you think?”

  She wasn’t sure. She’d lost whole chapters before to new software and she was working on a deadline.

  “Don’t worry about it right now,” he said. “Think it over and let me know.”

  “Okay. It’s just that…Well, my boss wants this project sent up within a month. I can’t really afford to change software in the middle of it.”

  “No, you can’t. And I didn’t mean I wanted you to download the program within the next ten minutes,” he added dryly.

  “Oh. Well, in that case, yes, I’ll think about it.”

  His hand tightened over hers. “Good.”

  He led her through his guests, making introductions. Surprisingly his friends came from all walks of life and most of them were ordinary people. A few were very wealthy, but they didn’t act superior or out of order at all. However, Missy Elliger watched Janine with narrow, angry eyes and faint contempt.

  “Your guest over there looks as if she’d like to plant that glass she’s holding in the middle of my forehead,” she commented as they were briefly alone.

  “Missy likes a challenge. She’s too young for me.”

  She glanced at him. “So you said.”

  His eyes searched hers. “And I’m not in the market for a second Mrs. Rourke.”

  “Point taken,” she said.

  His eyebrow jerked. “No argument?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “I wasn’t aware that I’d proposed to you,” she replied with a grin. “We’re temporary neighbors and frequent sparring partners. That’s all.”

  “What if I’d like to be more than your neighbor?” he asked with deliberate sensuality.

  Her grin didn’t waver. That was amusement in his face, not real interest. He was mocking her, and he wasn’t going to get away with it. “Quentin might get upset about that.”

  “Quentin? Is there a real husband somewhere in the background?” he probed.

  She hesitated. He hadn’t bought the commune story, so there was no way he was going to buy a secret husband. This man was a little too savvy for her usual ways of dissuading pursuers.

  “A male friend,” she countered with a totally straight face.

  The hand holding hers let go, gently and unobtrusively, but definitely. “You didn’t mention him before.”

  “There wasn’t really an opportunity to,” she countered. She smiled up at him. “He’s a college professor. He teaches medieval history at the University of Indiana on the Chicago campus, where my parents teach anthropology.”

  His stance seemed to change imperceptibly. “Your parents are college professors?”

  “Yes. They’re on a dig in some Mayan ruins in Quintana Roo. Kurt’s been ill with tonsillitis and complications. They took him out of school to get completely well and I’m tutoring him with his lessons until he goes back. We’re near our parents, here in this villa, and I can get some work done and take care of Kurt as well.”

  He was wary, now, and not at all amused. “I suppose you have a degree, too?” he continued.

  She wondered about the way he was looking at her, at the antagonistic set of his head, but she let it go by and took the question at face value. “Well, yes. I have an honors baccalaureate degree in history with a minor in German.”

  He seemed to withdraw without even moving. He set his glass on an empty tray and his lean hands slid into his pockets. His eyes moved restlessly around the room.

  “What sort of degree do you have?” she asked.

  It was the wrong question. He closed up completely. “Let me introduce you to the Moores,” he said, taking her elbow. “They’re interesting people.”

  She felt the new coolness in his manner with a sense of loss. She’d either offended him or alienated him. Perhaps he had some deep-seated prejudices about archaeology, which was the branch of anthropology in which both her parents specialized. She was about to tell him that they were both active in helping to enact legislation to help protect burial sites and insure that human skeletal remains were treated with dignity and respect.

  But he was already making the introductions, to a nice young couple in real estate. A minute later, he excused himself and went pointedly to join his friend Missy Elliger, whom he’d said was too young for him. Judging by the way he latched onto her hand, and held it, he’d already forgotten that she was too young for him. Or, she mused humorously, he’d decided that Missy was less dangerous than Janine. How very flattering!

  But the rest of the evening was a dead loss as far as Janine was concerned. She felt ill at ease and somewhat contagious, because he made a point of keeping out of her way. He was very polite, and courteous, but he might as well have been on another planet. It was such a radical and abrupt shift that it puzzled her.

  Even Karie and Kurt noticed, from their vantage point beside a large potted palm near the patio.

  “They looked pretty good together for a few minutes,” Kurt said.

  “Yes,” she agreed, balancing a plate of cake on her knee. “Then they seemed to explode apart, didn’t they?”

  “Janie doesn’t like men to get too close,” Kurt told her with a grimace. “The only reason her boyfriend, Quentin, has lasted so long is because he forgets her for weeks at a time when he’s translating old manuscripts.”

  “He what?” Karie asked, her fork poised in midair.

  “He forgets her,” he replied patiently. “And since he isn’t pushy and doesn’t try to get her to marry him, they get along just fine. Janine likes her independence,” he added. “She doesn’t want to get married.”

  “I guess my dad feels that way right now, too,” Karie had to admit. “But he and my mom were never together much. Mom hates him now because she couldn’t get exclusive custody of me. She swore she’d get me away from him eventually, but we haven’t heard from her in several weeks. I suppose she’s forgotten. He’s forgetful, too, sometimes, when he’s working on some new program. I guess that’s hard on moms.”

  “He and Janie would make the perfect couple,” Kurt ventured. “They’d both be working on something new all the time.”

  “But it doesn’t look like they’ll be thinking about it now,” Karie said sadly. “See how he’s holding Missy’s hand?”

  “He was holding Janie’s earlier,” Kurt reminded her.

  “Yes, b
ut now they’re all dignified and avoiding each other.” She sighed. “Grown-ups! Why do they have to make everything so complicated?”

  “Beats me. Here. Have some more cake.”

  “Thanks!” She took a big bite. “Maybe they could use a helping hand. You know. About getting comfortable with each other.”

  “I was just thinking that myself,” Kurt said. He grinned at his partner in crime. “Got any ideas?”

  “I’m working on some.”

  Meanwhile, oblivious to the fact that she was soon going to become a guinea pig in quite another way than software testing, Janine sat in a corner with a couple whose passion was deep-sea fishing and spent the next hour being bored out of her mind.

  Chapter Four

  “Never, never get me roped into another party at the Rourkes’,” Janine told her brother the next morning. “I’d rather be shot than go back there.”

  “Karie said she went home with her parents, after the party,” Kurt said cautiously.

  She pretended oblivion. “She, who?”

  “Missy Elliger,” he prompted. “You know, the lady who had Mr. Rourke by the hand all night?”

  “She could have had him by the nose, for all I care,” she said haughtily, and without meaning a word of it.

  He glanced at her, and smiled secretively, but he didn’t say anything.

  “I think I’ll invite Quentin down for the weekend,” she said after a minute.

  His eyebrows were vocal. “Why?”

  She didn’t want to admit why. “Why not?” she countered belligerently.

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  “I know you don’t like him, but he’s really very nice when you get to know him.”

  “He’s okay. I just hate ancient history. We have to study that stuff in school.”

  “What they’re required to teach you usually is boring,” she said. “And notice that I said ‘required to.’ Teachers have to abide by rules and use the textbooks they’re assigned. In college, it’s different. You get to hear about the real people. That includes all the naughty bits.” She grinned. “You’ll love it.”