A Trap So Tender

by Jennifer Lewis

  He frowned. “I did meet the right woman, once.”

  The words hung in the air and bounced off the bare walls. Then he turned and strode for the door.

  Fiona hurried after him, suddenly sure that what had happened with this woman could be the key to James Drummond’s heart. Did she dump him mercilessly? Run off with his best friend? Her heart beat faster as she rushed along the corridor. James was heading deeper into the unused parts of the castle, past more closed doors. “Where are we going?”

  He didn’t answer. Maybe lost in his own thoughts.

  “Who was she?” She didn’t want to miss her chance to ask about his lost love. The right opportunity might never come up again. She already couldn’t believe that he’d mentioned her, when he seemed so guarded about his personal life.

  The long hallway ended in a stone wall, with stone stairs going up to the right and down to the left. James went up. “Her name was Catriona.” He took the stairs two at a time.

  Fiona climbed after him. “Sounds Scottish.”

  “She was.” He reached the top of the flight of stairs and disappeared out of sight.

  “Was? Did she die?” She assumed she was dead to James, not really deceased, so his answer caught her by surprise.

  “She did. Seventeen years ago this weekend.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Emotion slapped her hard. She’d been digging at him, trying to extract information for her own purposes, and she’d hit upon a raw vein of pain.

  “Why? You didn’t kill her.”

  He swung around and his face was dark. “I did.”

  She swallowed. Were there ugly truths about James Drummond that made his fearsome reputation as a businessman seem like child’s play? And she was all alone in the deserted wing of a remote Scottish castle with him. She hadn’t even told her friends she was coming. She was sure they’d think she was crazy and try to talk her out of it, especially if she told them her underhanded purpose in being James’s guest.

  Her gut told her to trust him, though. In fact, it begged her to throw her arms around him and offer some kind of compassion for what was obviously a seventeen-year-old emotional burden he still carried with him. “What happened?” She asked the question softly.

  His brow had smoothed and his composure returned. “It was a car accident.”

  “Oh.” Relief swept through her that it was something so prosaic. “And you were driving?”

  “Yes.” He looked up. “How did you know?”

  “I guessed. You feel guilty.”

  “I am guilty. I should have avoided the accident.”

  “Did it happen near here?” She realized she was hugging herself.

  “Just a few miles outside the village.” He shoved a hand through his hair. She prayed he would tell her more so she didn’t have to ask any more insensitive-sounding questions. “It was late at night and we were driving back from a party. I was taking her to her family’s house in town.”

  A local girl. That surprised her. For some reason she’d assumed James would date only women from more predictably glamorous locales. “Had you known each other long?”

  “Our whole lives.” He looked up and inhaled sharply. “We were both away at boarding school most of the time, of course, but on every holiday we spent as much time together as we could. Her father was—is—the local doctor, and he would drop her off here every morning on the way to begin his rounds so we could spend the day riding or arguing about books.”

  “Sounds like you were best friends.”

  “Oh, we were, and as we grew into our teenage years we were more than that.”

  “She was your first love.”

  “My only love.” He said it quite fast, and she wondered if he was saying it for the first time. She shivered slightly. A few moments ago they’d been kissing and holding each other, but now a gulf as wide as the castle battlements had opened between them. “I did love her.” He was looking out an opening in the stone wall. They stood on a sort of stone landing between floors, and the window looked out onto a blanket of lush green fields, dotted with sheep and ringed by dark, uncultivated hills.

  “And that’s why you’ve never been able to love anyone else?”

  He didn’t answer right away, but she saw him frown. “I never grew that close to anyone else.” He stared out the window. “But maybe I’m finally ready to move on.”

  A cool flush of shock froze her to the spot. Was he telling her that he might be ready to “move on” with her, after seventeen years of pining, even though they’d only just met?

  Guilt stabbed her hard. She wasn’t here to mend his broken heart, but to mend her father’s. She hadn’t given any thought to James’s feelings at all, mostly because she’d assumed he didn’t have any. How could he possibly think she might be “the one” he’d managed to avoid for so long?

  Or maybe she was reading too much into the situation. He could have brought her here just to entertain himself while he prepared his search for the perfect lady of the manor. Probably someone tall and blond, with aristocratic ancestry traceable back to the Bronze Age. Certainly not a petite, Californian business geek with an evil scheme up her sleeve.

  She had no idea what to say. The atmosphere had thickened as if a storm was gathering, but the white sky outside was as mute as the castle ghosts. “That’s great. It’s been a long time.” She cursed herself for sounding so lame. And as if she might expect him to “move on” with her.

  “So they tell me. Sometimes it feels like only yesterday. Especially when I come back here.” He frowned and headed up the flight of stairs. She followed him with relief that she could move and breathe again.

  “That’s why you don’t like to come back here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  So he’d avoided his ancestral home and its stunning natural surroundings not because he thought the place was boring and remote, but because it was haunted by memories and regrets that time hadn’t managed to erase. “I bet she would have wanted you to move on.” She wasn’t even sure why she said it. It seemed the kind of thing an elderly aunt might suggest, not a girl brought here to distract him from his painful past.

  He turned and frowned, then laughed. “How would you know?”

  She felt insulted, as if he’d slapped her, which made her protest quickly. “If she loved you, she’d want you to be happy.” Unless she was selfish and heartless and wanted him to spend the rest of his life pining for her, which was entirely possible, of course.

  He was silent, climbing the stone stairs slowly. What floor were they on? She felt as if they’d climbed enough stairs to be at the top of a skyscraper by now. They reached another landing, and he turned a heavy iron latch and opened an arched wooden door. She gasped as it opened to the outside and light poured into the dim stairwell. James stepped outside and she followed him onto a terrace, high above the surrounding countryside.

  “You’re right, of course.” The wind carried his words away. “She would have been disgusted by my behavior.”

  “Why?”

  “Letting innocent women think that I’m an ordinary man who might make them happy.” He squinted at the bright horizon, brown crumpled peaks against the stark white sky, with a carpet of lush green pasture beneath. “Only to leave them as soon as they showed any sign of emotion.”

  Fiona swallowed. He certainly wasn’t advertising his better qualities to her. Which likely meant that he wasn’t too interested in impressing her or having any kind of relationship beyond a quick kiss and grope. Why did that make her gut twist in such an uncomfortable way? She shouldn’t care at all. She wasn’t looking to fall madly in love with James and have him pledge his undying adoration for her.

  “So how do you feel different now?” She asked the probing question, almost daring him to insult her more. She still didn’t fully understand why he’d asked her here. She didn’t believe he’d brought her to find the cup, as he didn’t seem to care too much about it one way or the other. Besides, she was no seasoned treasu
re hunter—unless the treasure was consumer dollars.

  Instead of softening, his face hardened, cheekbones and proud nose and chin forming an impressive silhouette against the bright sky. “It’s time for me to choose a wife and produce an heir.”

  Her already churning gut tightened. She straightened her shoulders and took in a deep breath. He was obviously playing with her, and it was downright rude to kiss her then tell her he was ready to marry someone else. She lifted a brow. “Do you have anyone in mind?”

  He looked right at her, and she was shocked to see his gray eyes so dark with emotion. “I do.”

  Five

  Fiona stood openmouthed for what felt like a full minute. Had James just intimated that she might be his future wife and the mother of the next Drummond heir? She was the only woman there and, polite to a fault, James Drummond was hardly the type to smooch her then discuss his plans to marry another woman. Maybe he was really impressed with her riding!

  No, she must be imagining things. All this unaccustomed fresh air had fogged her mind. “I hope you do find love.” She had no idea what else to say. She couldn’t ignore such a dramatic pronouncement. “It would be a shame for this place to have no one to inherit it.”

  “I know, it would get bought by American investors and turned into a golf resort.” Mischief gleamed in his eyes and sent another spark of attraction flashing through her.

  “Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad?” she countered, one eyebrow raised.

  “Not if you like golf, I suppose.”

  “This certainly is a million-dollar view.”

  “I’d want a lot more than that for it.” He surveyed the impressive landscape. You could see literally for miles in every direction. The village lay about half a mile from the castle, but if there were other buildings out there they were well hidden and invisible.

  “I don’t blame you. It’s like owning your own country, except without the trouble of citizens.”

  “Or the bother of modern conveniences like shops.”

  “Bah, who needs ’em. I order everything online anyway. I’d be quite happy in my own little kingdom.” Her statement was bold, considering where this conversation had already gone. Rash, even, but it seemed to lighten the serious mood. If he was teasing her with the prospect of marriage, then why not call his bluff?

  “Really?” He turned to face her, leaning against the castle battlements. “You don’t think you’d get bored, or lonely?”

  “Nope.” She lifted her chin. “I’m pretty sure I could keep myself entertained 24/7. And there’s plenty of room for a helipad here if I needed to ensure a quick getaway.”

  He laughed. “There’s one here already. My father had it built in the 1970s. It fell into disuse after his helicopter disappeared at sea.”

  “I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible.”

  “The worst part was that I never really got to know him. He was away a lot when I was little, then I went off to boarding school around the time I was old enough to hold a conversation. I suppose I would have missed him more if we’d been close, but it is frustrating that I never had the chance.”

  I know how you feel. In fact, she felt it literally in her gut. How sad that he should have missed out on getting to know his father as she did, even though it was for different reasons. At least she still had the chance to make things right.

  “Where does your mother live?” she asked with some trepidation, hoping she hadn’t been killed in the same crash.

  “She lives in Zurich. My mother rarely even came here when I was growing up, since she can’t stand the place and hasn’t set foot in it for decades. I suspect she’d believe in the supposed curse. The whole estate gave her the chills. She always said she couldn’t bear to be so far from civilization.”

  Fiona frowned. “I don’t feel that at all. I think it’s peaceful.”

  “It is peaceful in a lonely way, because there’s no one to disturb the peace.”

  “Maybe that’s why you brought me here?”

  “Quite possibly.” A wry smile pulled at his lips again. “And so far it’s working very well.”

  He was about one foot of brisk Scottish air away from her, but she could swear that heat rolled between them. The wind, and their ride, had brought color to his cheeks and a sparkle to his eyes that made them seem far less cold. Excitement prickled inside her. Would they kiss again? Where would this lead?

  She’d never been in such a strange situation before. Maybe this is what happened to people who sold their business and became wealthy overnight. Men certainly didn’t sweep her off to their foreign estates when she was a slightly geeky product designer and wannabe entrepreneur. In fact, she’d gone for long periods without a single date. If she hadn’t done independent research into James’s finances for her own nefarious purposes, she’d be tempted to assume that he wanted to marry her for money to fix up his money pit of an estate. Since she knew better, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what he was up to.

  An electronic tone interrupted her thoughts, and James reached into his pocket. When he pulled out a phone, she realized this was the first time she’d seen him take a call since they’d been together. She didn’t even realize he had one on him.

  She turned away to give him some privacy, though her ears remained pricked. Who was privileged enough to phone James away from the office? He must have someone intercepting his calls somewhere, as a man with his fingers in so many pies must get a lot of phone calls. Who was his assistant? She should really know this stuff by now, but it was hard to find information about James Drummond that wasn’t public knowledge.

  His conversation was a low murmur, but he was definitely talking to a man. She could tell from the gruff, rather formal manner. After a few minutes, he told the caller that he looked forward to seeing him, and then hung up.

  “I didn’t know you carried a phone.”

  “I wish I didn’t, but the world expects you to be available at all hours these days. My assistant screens all my calls. And this was a man I have an interesting project in the works with.”

  “In Singapore?” Her stomach started fluttering. Was this the project that had required him to grab her dad’s business?

  “Yes, among other places.”

  “Let me guess, a chain of hotels?” She wanted to know more without actually asking.

  “Not exactly.” His face was a smooth granite mask, as usual, and she could tell that was all the information she would get. Would James Drummond ever kiss and tell? There was really only one way to find out.

  “I’m afraid I have to go sit in front of a computer for a while. Some figures to go over. Do feel free to explore the place.”

  They walked down the stairs and back toward the inhabited part of the castle. James was obviously preoccupied, and he wasn’t the type to fill the air with noise just to be polite. Her brain was busy, too, wondering exactly what would happen after dinner that night. She no longer had the excuse of being exhausted from their flight, and James had already put some pretty impressive moves on her.

  Not that she’d resisted too hard.

  Back in her room, she phoned her best friend, Crystal, in San Diego.

  “What do you mean you’re in Scotland?”

  “It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to fill you in.”

  “I’ve wanted to go there for years. I can’t believe you went without me.”

  “It wasn’t a planned thing. James invited me and I couldn’t think of a good way to say no.”

  “James? Not James from chem class.”

  She laughed, remembering the short kid with the acne and the calculator in his hip pocket. “Not even close. This one’s a Scottish laird.”

  “Holy guacamole, you’re going to be a duchess.”

  “I think duchesses are English.”

  “Well, whatever they have in Scotland, then. A lairdess.”

  “I am not. I only just met him and there’s absolutely nothing going on between us.” She froz
e when she realized she’d lied to her best friend since third grade. “Okay, so we kissed once. Or twice. But other than that it’s kind of a business thing.”

  “A business thing with kisses? Intriguing. And not your style at all. Didn’t you once refuse to kiss Danny Fibonacci because you thought he wanted to steal your lemonade stand corner?”

  “Since he’s recently been accused of insider trading, I think I was right on the money.”

  Crystal laughed. “What kind of business are you doing?”

  “Looking for an old cup. Or a piece of one.” She frowned. Sometimes it was hard to keep her mind on that part of this whole adventure. She had to remember that was supposedly the real reason she’d come to Scotland with a virtual stranger. “It’s a family heirloom that went missing three hundred years ago.”

  “Sounds like a really lame excuse for him to seduce you into his lair.”

  “Hey! I have my own reasons for being here.”

  “Let me guess, there’s three of them—tall, dark and handsome.”

  She glanced around the room, hoping there wasn’t a hidden camera somewhere, or a bug. “Not in the least. Well, he is. But I’m here because he managed to swindle my father’s factory away from him and I’m trying to figure out a way to get it back.”

  She felt relieved to get her skullduggery off her chest. Crystal did not offer reassuring encouragement, however. In fact, there was a long silence at the other end of the line. “How are things going with your dad?” Her voice sounded…wary.

  “Great. He’s pretty upset about losing his business, but all I have to do is figure out why James wanted it so badly, then I can work out how to get it back.”

  “James, huh? Have you tried buying it back?”

  “He said no when I had a Realtor ask him. But if I get to know him I might find a better strategy.”

  “What if he still says no?”

  She bit her lip. She hadn’t really thought how she might proceed if he downright refused to part with the factory. She suspected a businessman like James would always have his price. “I’ll find a way. I have a lot of money.”