Playing The Odds

by Nora Roberts

  turning back to her daughter. “But if you don’t go up to see your father first, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Abruptly, Serena remembered her mission. Anna watched her daughter’s eyes narrow and, recognizing the sign, lifted her brows. “Oh, I intend to go up and see him, all right.”

  “Anything you’d like to tell me about?”

  “Afterward.” Serena drew a deep breath. “He’s going to require medical attention when I’m through with him.”

  “I see.” Knowing better than to question her daughter, Anna smiled quietly. “I’ll be in the parlor then. We’ll have a nice long talk when you’re finished yelling at your father.”

  “It won’t take long,” Serena muttered, and started up the wide, curved staircase.

  At the first landing she glanced down the corridor to her left. This was where the family slept, with Serena’s childhood room three doors down on the left. The wing was a maze of twists and turns and shadowy corners. She could remember her brother Caine hiding behind a three-foot-high urn, then jumping out and scaring her nearly to death.

  Serena had chased him for nearly thirty minutes until her temper had been defeated by the sheer joy of the chase. He’d let her catch him eventually, on the east lawn, where he had tossed her to the ground to wrestle until she was weak with laughter. How old had she been? Serena wondered. Eight, nine? Caine would have been eleven or twelve. Suddenly, she missed him with a purely physical ache of kinship.

  And Alan, she mused, continuing her climb. He’d always protected her in an offhanded way. Perhaps because he was six years her senior, they had never indulged in the hand-to-hand combat she and Caine had been prone to. As a boy, Alan had been scrupulously honest, where Caine had used the truth to suit himself. Never lying, Serena remembered with a faint smile. Just evading masterfully. Yet, in his own way, Alan had always worked circumstances to his own favor. She decided it was a basic MacGregor trait. Glancing at the narrow stairway that led to the tower room, Serena vowed that there was one MacGregor who’d be sorry for it.

  Daniel leaned back in his chair and listened to the precise, boring voice on the phone. Bankers, he thought maliciously. It was a curse to deal with them. Even owning controlling interest in the bank didn’t protect him from them.

  “Give them a thirty-day extension on the loan,” he ordered finally. “Yes, I’m aware of the figures, you just gave me the figures.” Dunderhead, he added to himself. Impatiently, he drummed his fingers on his desk. Why was it bankers couldn’t see beyond two plus two? “Thirty days,” he repeated. “With the standard penalty rate of interest.” He heard the loud thump at his door and was about to bellow at the intruder when it swung open. Annoyance was immediately flooded by pleasure. “Do it,” he barked into the phone before he slammed it down. “Rena!”

  Before he could heave himself from his chair, she had advanced on him. Planting herself in front of the desk, she slapped her palms down on it and leaned over.

  “You old goat.”

  Settling his bulk back in the chair, Daniel cleared his throat. The fat, he concluded, was in the fire. “You look well, too.”

  “How … dare … you.” She spaced the words slowly and evenly—the next danger signal. “How dare you dangle me in front of Justin Blade like a piece of prime beef?”

  “Beef?” Daniel gave her an incredulous look. Pretty girl, he thought proudly. A true MacGregor. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he went on. “So, you met Justin Blade. Fine boy.”

  She made a sound deep in her throat. “You set me up. Hatching your little plot right here in this room like some mad king with a surplus daughter on his hands. Why didn’t you just draw up a contract?” Serena demanded as her voice rose. “It’s no less than I expect from you. Daniel Duncan MacGregor hereby trades his only daughter to Justin Blade for a case of twelve-year-old Scotch.” She smacked her hand on the redwood. “You could even have put in provisions about the number of progeny you expected me to provide to carry on the family name. I’m surprised you didn’t offer him a dowry!”

  “Now, listen here, little girl—”

  “Don’t you little-girl me.” She stalked around his desk and swung his chair around to face her. “It was despicable. I’ve never been so humiliated in all my life!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I persuaded a friend to take a relaxing cruise.”

  “Don’t you try to weasel out of it.” She poked a slim finger into his massive chest. “You sent him on my ship hoping we’d trip over each other enough times so your investment would pay off.”

  “You might never have met him at all!” he thundered. “It’s a big boat.”

  “Ship!” she thundered back. “It’s a big ship and a small casino. You knew damn well the odds were in your favor.”

  “Well, what’s the harm in that?” he wanted to know at the top of his lungs. “You met a young friend of mine. You’ve met hundreds of friends of mine.”

  The sound came from her throat again. This time Serena whirled away. There was a huge bookshelf along the east wall. Stomping to it, Serena pulled out a volume entitled Constitutional Convention. She flipped it open, revealing the hollow where six cigars were secreted. Watching her father, she scooped them out and then broke them in half.

  “Rena!” he said in quiet horror.

  “It’s the next best thing to poisoning you,” she told him, dusting off her fingers.

  Holding a hand to his heart, Daniel rose. His broad-featured face was wreathed in gloom. “It’s a dark day when a daughter betrays her own father.”

  “Betrays!” she shouted, advancing on him again. “You have the nerve, the utter gall, to talk to me of betrayal?” Sticking her hands on her hips, she glared up at him. “I don’t know how Justin feels about it, but I can tell you, I’m insulted by your little scheme.”

  He bristled, but noted her use of Justin’s first name. Perhaps things were not as bad as they seemed. “That’s the thanks I get for caring for my daughter’s happiness. There’s nothing sharper than the tongue of an ungrateful child.”

  “The butcher knife I was considering is.”

  “You said poison,” he reminded her.

  “I’m flexible.” Then she smiled slowly. “Well, just so you won’t think your money went for nothing, I suppose I should tell you what I’ve decided about Justin.”

  “Well, then …” Daniel went back to his desk, thinking she would be more reasonable now that she’d shouted and raged a bit. A pity about the cigars though. “He’s a fine boy, good brains, integrity, pride.” He folded his hands over his stomach, prepared to be magnanimous and forgiving.

  “Oh, yes, I quite agree,” she said in dulcet tones. “He’s also very, very attractive.”

  Daniel smiled, pleased. “I knew you were a sensible girl, Rena. I’ve had a strong feeling about you and Justin for some time.”

  “Then you’ll be happy to know I’ve decided to become his mistress.”

  “I can’t—” Daniel broke off, confused, then stunned, then outraged. “The hell you are! The day my daughter takes herself off to be—to be kept is the day I take a strap to her for the first time in her life! Aye, a strap, Serena MacGregor, grown woman or no.”

  “Ah, so I’m a grown woman now, am I?” While he blustered, she gave him a long, hard look. “Remember this, a grown woman decides whom she’ll marry, when she’ll marry, and if she’ll marry. A grown woman doesn’t need her father arranging outrageously complicated blind dates. Just think about how this whole business could have blown up in your face before you stick your nose in next time.”

  Frowning, he studied her face. “You’re not thinking of becoming his mistress, then?”

  Serena gave him a haughty look. “If I choose a lover, I’ll choose one, but I won’t be any man’s mistress.”

  He felt a flash of pride along with a twinge of discomfort. It only took an instant for him to concentrate on the pride. Daniel pushed at a gold pen and pencil set on hi
s desk. “Did you remember my Scotch?”

  She tried to glare again, but the twinkle in his eyes undermined her. “What Scotch?”

  “Aw, Rena.”

  Walking to him, Serena curled her arms around his neck. “I’m not forgiving you,” she murmured. “I’m only pretending to forgive you. And I want you to know I never missed you at all.” She pressed her lips to his cheek.

  “Always were a disrespectful brat,” he stated, hugging her fiercely.

  When Serena went down to the parlor, she found her mother sitting in her favorite rose-patterned armchair, working on her latest needlepoint project. On the rosewood tea tray beside her sat a dainty porcelain tea service dotted with tiny violets. Glancing at the scene, Serena marveled again that a woman who could be so happily domesticated on one level could be such a dedicated and brilliant surgeon. The hands that created the fragile pattern with needle and yarn would wield a scalpel on Monday.

  “Oh, good.” Anna glanced up as Serena entered. “I thought I had it timed well when I ordered the tea. Toss another log on the fire, dear, then come tell me about it.”

  As Serena moved to obey, Anna set her needlework on the piecrust table beside her. The fire was already crackling in the stone fireplace but roared at the addition of fresh wood. Serena watched the oak catch, then breathed deeply. Until that moment she hadn’t realized how much she had missed the scent of burning wood.

  “And a tub bath,” she said aloud. Smiling, she turned to her mother. “Isn’t it strange that just now I realize what an utter luxury it would be to soak in a bath for as long as I wanted? After twelve months of standing in a bucket that passed for a shower stall!”

  “And you loved every minute of it.”

  Laughing, Serena sat on the hassock at Anna’s feet.

  “You know me so well. It was hard work and great fun. But I’m glad to be home.” She accepted the cup and saucer Anna passed to her. “Mom, I know I’d never have met so many people, so many different kinds of people in my life if I hadn’t done it.”

  “Your letters were always full of them. You should read them over yourself one day to bring it all back.” Anna curled her legs under her and chuckled. “You’ll never know how hard it was to talk your father out of taking an ocean cruise.”

  “When will he stop worrying?” Serena demanded.

  “Never. It’s part of the way he shows his love.”

  “I know.” With a sigh Serena sipped her tea. “If he’d just relax and let me take care of my life my own way …”

  “Why don’t you tell me what you thought of Justin?” When Serena glanced up sharply, Anna only smiled. “No, I hadn’t the faintest idea what your father was up to. He knew better than to tell me. Your … ah, discussion with him was quite penetrating.”

  “Can you believe it?!” Incensed all over again, Serena rose with the cup in her hand. “He actually duped Justin into that trip, hoping that I’d come home with stars in my eyes and orange blossoms in my brain. I’ve never been so furious, so embarrassed.”

  “How did Justin take it?”

  Serena gave her mother a disdainful look. “I think he found the whole thing very amusing after his initial shock. He had no idea who I was until we were arguing on the beach one day and I said my full name.”

  Arguing on the beach, Anna mused. To conceal a smile, she sipped her tea. “I see. Your father thinks very highly of him, Rena. So do I. I suppose Daniel just couldn’t resist the temptation.”

  “He’s infuriating.”

  “Who?”

  “Justin—both of them,” she amended, setting down her cup with a snap. “He didn’t tell me until the cruise was nearly over, and then in the most careless of ways. Why, I was actually beginning to …” Trailing off, she turned away to stare at the fire.

  “Beginning to?” Anna prompted gently.

  “He’s very attractive,” Serena muttered. “I suppose it has something to do with his unapologetic ruthlessness and that damned charm that sneaks up on you.” Wisely, Anna remained silent, speculating. “Even when he made me furious, he stirred things up inside me that would have been more comfortable left alone. I’ve never felt that kind of passion before. I’m not certain I ever wanted to.” Turning back, she found her mother watching her calmly. “We spent the last day together in St. Thomas. I would have gone to bed with him that night—until he told me about Dad’s little scheme.”

  “How do you feel now?”

  Serena looked down at her hands, then let out a long breath. “I still want him. I don’t know if it’s any more than that. How could it be when we knew each other less than two weeks?”

  “Rena, do you really trust your instincts so little?” Her brow creased, Serena looked back up at her mother. “Why should emotions require a certain time pattern? They’re as individual as the people they belong to. When I met your father, I thought he was a conceited, loudmouthed ox.” At Serena’s appreciative chuckle, Anna grinned girlishly. “Of course he was. I fell for him anyway. Two months later we were living together, and within a year we were married.” She made a wry smile at the obvious shock on her daughter’s face. “Passion and premarital sex aren’t the exclusive property of your generation, my love. Daniel wanted to get married; I was determined to finish medical school first. The only thing we both agreed on was that we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, live without each other.”

  Serena considered her mother’s words while the fire snapped violently behind her. “How did you know it was love and not just desire?”

  “Of all my children, you’ve always asked the most difficult questions.” Leaning forward, Anna took her daughter’s hands. “I’m not certain you can separate the two when it concerns a man and a woman. You can feel one without the other, but not when it’s real love, not when it’s real desire. Passion that comes quickly and then fades with time is only an echo. No substance, simply a result. Do you think you’ve fallen in love with Justin, or are you afraid you have?”

  Serena opened her mouth, closed it, then tried again. “Both.”

  Anna gave Serena’s hands a squeeze. “Don’t tell your father; he’d be entirely too pleased with himself.” This drew another reluctant laugh from Serena before Anna sat back again. “What do you intend to do about it?”

  “I haven’t thought about it. Rather, I’ve refused to think about it.” She brought up her knees to rest her chin on them. “I suppose I’ve known all along that I’d have to see him again. He offered me a job.”

  “Oh?”

  Serena moved her shoulders restlessly as ideas began to shift and sort in her mind. “Managing a casino in Atlantic City. It’s a coincidence, because I’d decided to consult Dad about the possibility of opening my own gambling hotel.”

  “If Justin offered you a position like that, he must have a great deal of faith in your skill.”

  “I developed a knack for handling people,” Serena mused as a thought focused.

  “You developed it when you were two,” her mother informed her.

  “I’ve got a feel for the business,” she went on with a hint of a smile on her lips. “I learned more than dealing cards this past year. In essence, the Celebration is one of the best-run hotels I’ve ever seen, and though the casino’s small-scale, all the basics are there. There wasn’t any part of it I didn’t learn from the inside out.” She grew silent again as her smile widened. Anna recognized the look.

  “What are you hatching, Rena?”

  “I’m thinking of raising the bet,” she answered. “Win, lose, or draw.”

  * * *

  After tipping the bellboy, Justin stripped and headed for the shower. The maid could deal with the unpacking in the morning, and the casino could run another night without his attention. For now, he would have dinner in his suite while he made all the necessary phone calls to his other properties. With luck there would be no problems that couldn’t be handled long distance. He had other things on his mind.

  He adjusted the shower dial so that the water ca
me out in pulsing jets. Serena would be home by this time, he reflected. And, if he knew her, Daniel would already be paying the price. Justin’s grin came quickly, naturally. He’d have given a lot to have been within earshot during the reunion. It would almost make up for those last two long, boring, frustrating days aboard the Celebration.

  Keeping his end of the bargain had been more difficult than Justin had imagined. To know she was within reach—dealing cards in the sophisticated tux, sleeping in that narrow bunk wearing only a flimsy handful of silk—had nearly driven him mad. But he’d stayed away because a deal was a deal—and because he had recognized that beneath her anger was a keen embarrassment that only time would lessen. The two weeks he’d given her should make her easier to negotiate with.

  Even if she refused his offer, as he expected her to do initially, Justin didn’t plan to leave it at that. He calculated he could taunt her to Atlantic City if necessary, and after she was there, he’d have house advantage. Flipping off the shower, he reached for a towel.

  He needed a sharp manager downstairs. He needed a woman on the top floor. Serena was the only one who could fill both requirements. With the towel hooked around his waist, Justin walked into the bedroom.

  Like the rest of the owner’s suite, the room was spacious and sophisticated. The carpet beneath his bare feet was a thick, soft pewter. Long vertical blinds covered the glass doors to the balcony, and the touch of a button would swing them open, revealing a view of the Atlantic. He glanced at the wide bed covered in deep blue silk. How many women had slept in it? Justin neither knew nor cared. A night’s mutual pleasure, they’d meant nothing more, nothing less.

  From the closet he drew out a robe, letting the towel fall as he slipped into it. There had been years when he had lived in places smaller than this one single bedroom. He’d still had women. If he wanted one tonight, he had only to choose a number from his book and dial the phone. His body ached for one. Yet he knew that for the first time in his life just any woman wouldn’t do.

  Frustrated and restless, he roamed through the suite. He’d had good reason to base himself in the East. The Atlantic City operation was his newest, and the newest always required the most attention. It had never mattered to Justin where he lived. Over the years he’d grown used to the convenience of a hotel where his slightest wish would be seen to by the push of the right button. Now he found himself thinking about a home—something permanent, with grass to be tended and air that wasn’t being shared with hundreds of other people.

  Running a hand through his hair, Justin wondered why he should feel this vague dissatisfaction when he had everything he’d ever wanted. But his plans had never included wanting one woman. Was it because of her that he’d felt the lack of warmth when he’d entered his rooms again? If she were here, the echoing emptiness wouldn’t be. She would fill it with temper and laughter. With passion.

  Why had he given her two weeks? Justin asked himself angrily, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robe. Why hadn’t he badgered her into coming back with him, dragged her back so that he wouldn’t be alone now, aching for her? He needed some contact with her—her voice over the phone. No, Justin thought more calmly, not her voice. That would only make matters more complicated. Going to the phone, he dialed Daniel MacGregor’s private number.

  “MacGregor.”

  “You old bastard,” Justin said mildly.

  “Ah, Justin.” Daniel cast his eyes up at the ceiling, knowing he was in for his second tongue-lashing of the day. “How was your trip?”

  “Educational. I take it Serena’s already spoken to you?”

  “Thrilled to be home,” Daniel stated, glancing wistfully at the broken cigars on his desk. “Speaks very highly of you.”

  “I’ll bet she does.” With a grim smile Justin sat on the plump sofa. “Wouldn’t it have been simpler to have told me Serena worked on the ship?”

  “Would you have taken the trip?”

  “No.”

  “There, then,” Daniel stated reasonably. “And I’m sure it did you a world of good. You’ve been tense, boy, restless.” He contemplated trying to light one of the mutilated cigars. “And don’t worry, I’ll talk to Rena for you, calm her down a bit.”

  “No, you won’t. I’m holding a case of Scotch hostage, Daniel, until I’m certain you’ll stay out of it.”

  “Now, now, there’s no need to do that. It’s just parental concern for both of you.” These two certainly knew where to stick the needle, he mused glumly. “Why don’t you extend your vacation a few more days, Justin, pay us a visit here.”

  “Serena’s going to come to me,” he answered flatly.

  “Come to you?” The wide forehead creased. “What do you mean by that?”

  “What I said.”

  “All right, boy.” His chest expanded. “You’d better tell me what your intentions are.”

  “No.” Some of the tension eased from Justin’s muscles. Enjoying himself, he leaned back.

  “What do you mean ‘no’?” Daniel roared. “I’m her father.”

  “You’re not mine. You dealt me this hand, Daniel, and I’m playing it out.”

  “Now, listen here—”

  “No,” Justin said again, just as calmly. “I’m telling you to fold, Daniel. Serena and I are going double or nothing.”

  “You hurt that girl, and I’ll skin you alive.”

  Justin laughed. “If ever there was a woman who could take care of herself, it’s Serena MacGregor.”

  “Aye.” Pride swelled his heart and distracted him. “The girl’s a pistol.”

  “Of course, if you think she’s going to make a fool out of herself …”

  “No child of mine makes a fool of herself!” Daniel snapped, making Justin grin.

  “Fine, then you’ll keep out of it.”