Moonlight Masquerade

by Jude Deveraux

  “And he couldn’t lie,” Mike said, with barely concealed merriment. “I haven’t seen the preacher, but Roan saw it all, and he’s over there. He’s the Viking. Sara had to order the horns for his helmet from Texas. I’m sure Roan would love to tell you about the man who almost committed a hit-and-run. And, Sophie, if you find the man and want to press charges, let me know. I can arrange it for you. Reede, you don’t look so good. Maybe you better lay off the booze tonight. Ames is calling me, I gotta go.”

  Sophie smiled at Mike’s back as he walked away. “He’s a nice man.”

  “He has a mean streak in him wider than the Shenandoahs,” Reede said as he took her hand to lead her to the dance floor.

  “Why would you say that?” Sophie asked. “He seems—”

  “Let’s go talk to that man in the Hobbit costume.”

  “I’d rather talk to Rowan.”

  “Roan,” Reede said as he led her to the other side of the room. “Roan is a bore and he’ll make a pass at you.”

  Sophie didn’t like the proprietary way Reede was treating her and she jerked her hand from his. “And that’s okay because I’m not in a committed relationship,” she said.

  Reede halted. “If you think that, then you don’t understand small towns. My mother has already booked the church for you and me.”

  His answer was so absurd that she couldn’t help but blink at him. “Do I get to choose my dress?”

  Reede’s face was serious. “Yes. And your china pattern, but that’s it. Edilean does the rest.”

  “And who chooses the mask you’ll wear?”

  At that Reede laughed. “Who would want to see me when I’m beside such beauty as yours?”

  She couldn’t top that. “Okay, so no Roan the Viking to be competition. Lead me to the Hobbit. But I warn you that if there are any more gladiators here I’m getting back on the horse.”

  “Any more Vikings or gladiators and I’m going to throw you across the horse and ride away. Damned relatives!”

  Behind him, Sophie was smiling.

  Another hour went by and she was tired and wanted to leave the party. Half the guests had gone home, few of them aware of what had been going on. Since it was after ten and there’d been no explosion, the thief knew his plan wasn’t going to work.

  “He must be gone by now,” Sophie said to Reede. They were standing to one side, watching the few couples who were left.

  “Mike says they’ve been questioning the two guys they caught and they don’t know where this guy Pete works in Edilean—or even what his real name is. To catch him, they’re going to have to have a lineup that includes every man in town, and even then they probably won’t identify him. They’re saying . . . ” He trailed off.

  “Saying what?”

  “That they know nothing about a planted bomb and that whoever heard them talking is a liar. Sorry.”

  Sophie didn’t want to look at Reede. Once it was found out that she’d stolen the Treeborne cookbook, her credibility would be gone. No identification she made would stand up in court. “I think I’ll go to the restroom,” she said and made her way to the back.

  When she got inside, she had to resist the urge to start crying. Since she’d arrived in Edilean it had almost been magic. The outside world was full of men like Carter and the man who’d nearly run over her. But as soon as she’d crossed the town line, it had all changed. She’d entered the enchanted town of Brigadoon, a.k.a. Edilean, where everyone was nice and so honest and open. There’d been the welcome from Dr. Reede’s three employees. The kindness of the other women—they’d almost begged to go to the grocery for Sophie and to run out to buy pillows—had been so welcoming to her, a Newcomer.

  And as for Reede, she didn’t know where to begin. He was the sweetest, kindest, most . . . well, heroic man she’d ever met. She’d never believed that there were men like him in the world. No deviousness, no lies, no ulterior motives, just honor and . . . and kisses.

  What made Sophie nearly cry was that she didn’t have that same honor. She was a liar and a thief. She’d stolen a book that was the backbone, no, the entire skeletal system, of a major company. Nearly everyone in her hometown worked for Treeborne Foods. Would what Sophie had done put them out of work?

  She put her hands on the counter by the sink and her head down as she fought back tears. When the door opened she quickly stood upright and grabbed a paper towel. The woman she’d seen before, dressed as Martha Washington, came in, barely glanced at Sophie, then went into a stall and closed the door.

  Sophie opened the little bag hanging from her wrist and started to repair her makeup. As she put on lipstick, she looked in the mirror toward the stall the woman had just taken. Had she heard Sophie’s sniffling? To her surprise, she saw that the woman’s buckled shoes were on backward. It took her a moment to understand. She was standing up in the stall.

  Sophie did her best to remain calm. Slowly, she put her lipstick back and waited, but the woman—the man—didn’t leave the stall. Sophie left the restroom, then stood outside the door, rummaging inside her bag, as though looking for something. After a few minutes the person came out and again looked at Sophie, but this time his eyes showed his appreciation of her cleavage. Under the heavy makeup, she could see what looked to be the beginning of dark whiskers.

  She followed him down the short hall, and when they entered the ballroom, Sophie looked around for a familiar face. Mike wasn’t far away. She caught his eye and pointed at the back of Martha Washington.

  After that, everything happened at once. Reede appeared out of nowhere, his strong arm going around her waist and leading her out of the building. Her job was done and he wanted her out of there.

  Eleven

  Reede refilled Sophie’s champagne glass. “You should feel good,” he said. “If it had been up to me I would have left before Osmond showed up.”

  They were in Kim’s house and Reede’s phone hadn’t stopped buzzing as Mike kept him informed of what was going on.

  “He was an actuary?” Sophie asked as she sipped her second glass.

  “Yes, which meant he knew a lot about the finances of people in town. My parents used him for their retirement plan.”

  She was looking across the kitchen island at Reede. He was still wearing that damned mask and she’d had enough of it. “Off!” she said.

  “What?”

  “The mask. It’s time for the great reveal.” When he started to speak, she put up her hand. “No excuses. I don’t care if you’re covered in scars or if you’re the ugliest man alive. I want to see you.”

  Reede put down his champagne flute, then slowly, oh so very, very slowly put his hands to the back of his head to untie the mask. He fumbled with it.

  “You want some help?”

  “Sure,” he said and there was such despair in his voice that Sophie’s heart went out to him. Was his face that disfigured?

  She walked around the counter to him. He was sitting on a stool, so his face was level with hers, and she worked at the knot of the strings. “Who tied it like this?”

  “Me,” Reede said and his voice sounded like a man standing before a firing squad. “I was afraid it would come off so I double knotted it.”

  “Triple, quadruple,” she murmured. “I think I saw some scissors in a drawer and—”

  Reede took her hands in his. “Sophie, I think I should tell you that—”

  He broke off because suddenly all the lights went out and they were standing in darkness.

  Neither of them moved and Reede kept hold of Sophie’s hand.

  “Do you know where the breakers are?” Sophie asked.

  “In Kim’s workroom. You stay here and I’ll check.” As Reede made his way across the living room, his phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket. It was from Colin Frazier, the sheriff. YOU OWE ALL OF US the text message read and it took Reede a full minute to understand.

  “Is everything all right?” Sophie asked.

  “I’m not sure but I think th
e power is out for the entire neighborhood.”

  Sophie made her way to the front door and opened it. Sure enough, there wasn’t a light on in any house that she could see. “It’s all dark,” she said. “All the lights—”

  She didn’t finish because Reede had crossed the room in a few long strides and his arms were around her.

  “You were wonderful today,” he said as he put his hands on her shoulders. “You walked across that beam as though you were auditioning for the Cirque du Soleil.”

  “I was scared to death,” she answered as she put her hands up to his face. “It’s off,” she said and for the first time felt his skin without the intrusion of a mask. She ran her hands over his upper cheeks, across his nose, then to his eyes. He closed them as she ran her fingertips over his eyelids, and up to his brows. “I thought maybe they’d been burned off, that maybe you’d had an accident.”

  “No,” he said softly. “A couple of times I came close to being killed, but I wasn’t. Sophie . . . ” he whispered.

  She knew what he meant. There was a bond between them that she’d never felt before. She’d thought she’d been in love with Carter, but in all their months of dating they’d never shared anything like what she and Reede had been through. She and Reede hadn’t known each other for long, but in life experience they’d been through years.

  She put her face up to him to kiss. His lips came down on hers. She was smiling, happy in anticipation.

  But when his lips touched hers it was as though a bolt of electricity shot through her. She drew back to look at him, but it was so dark she couldn’t even see an outline of his face. “Oh!” was all she managed to say.

  “Holy crap!” Reede mumbled. “So this is what they meant.”

  “Who and what?” she murmured.

  “Troubadours. All those dippy songs. My cousins who bore me with their stories of having found True Love.”

  Sophie well knew what he was talking about because she’d felt it too.

  For a moment they hesitated, standing there motionless, sightlessly staring into the dark, then all at once they reacted. They were without thought, without even human consciousness as the tore each other’s clothes off.

  Sophie’s low-cut dress easily slid off her shoulders, and Reede groaned when he felt her breasts. It was a primal sound that came from deep within him.

  At her urging, the coat fell from his body and his shirt easily came off. The only thing in her mind was that she had to touch him, had to put her skin next to his.

  Her mouth followed his every garment as she kissed as much of him as she could reach. When the shirt was gone she at last was able to run her hands over his chest, that beautiful sculpted chest she’d seen outlined when she saw him on the horse. Pecs, abs, all of it beautifully cut. As a sculptor, she saw him as a work of art.

  “Okay?” he whispered, his lips on her ear.

  “I want to make you in clay.”

  “Fine with me. Clay, in the swimming pool, on top of the kitchen cabinets. Anywhere. Sophie, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  His lips went to hers and she gasped when he picked her naked body up and placed her on the sofa. When he stretched out on top of her she arched her head back in pure pleasure.

  Protection, she thought. She and Carter had always used protection, but now . . . With this man . . . It was the last thought she had as he began to enter her. She put her legs around his waist so he came closer to her.

  Reede took his time. His strokes were slow and deep, and she could tell that he was having difficulty restraining himself. That he so much wanted to give her pleasure made her feel even better.

  As the crescendo began, all thoughts left Sophie until she was a mass of feeling. There was only this man and this moment.

  “I can’t hold back any longer,” he said.

  “Please don’t,” Sophie said and wrapped her body around his with all the strength she had.

  His long, hard, deep strokes took her to new heights of pleasure. She’d never before felt such desire, never felt such a need of another human being. Images seemed to flash through her mind. Reede on a horse. Reede on the ladder, his arms up, beckoning her to fall into them. Reede laughing; Reede kissing.

  They came together in each other’s arms, bodies entwined, united in the most ancient of ways, lips touching skin, feeling breath and heartbeats.

  “Sophie, I think I may be . . . ” He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.

  They both knew that it was too early for words of emotions and feelings.

  A minute later she was in his arms and he was carrying her into the bedroom. “Don’t tell my sister what I used her bedroom for,” he said.

  “And what do you plan to do in the bed?” Sophie asked as he put her down and lay beside her.

  “Anything I can think of,” he said as he rolled to his side and kissed her neck. “First, I plan to give you the most thorough physical exam anyone has ever had. I want to know every inch of your body.”

  “And what about you?” she asked as she turned toward him and her hand ran down his side. Her fingertips teased along the ridges of muscle.

  “Examine all of me you want. I’m yours for the taking.” He kissed her again, his hands running over her body, touching, caressing—and driving Sophie to new heights of desire.

  It was three hours later when they stopped. Exhausted, fatigued beyond imagining, they snuggled together, sweaty and sated, and drifted in and out of sleep.

  “Find us a house,” Reede murmured into her ear.

  “I’ll look for one for you,” she said, her eyes closed. She’d never felt so good in her life. This man whose face she’d never seen made her feel as though she could conquer the earth, as though anything was possible. She wanted to stay in his arms forever.

  “For us. You and me together.”

  “Mmmm,” was all Sophie could say. Her bottom was snuggled against the bare maleness of him. She wasn’t a virgin, but in this she was. She’d never spent a whole night with a man. There’d always been other people waiting for her or she’d had responsibilities elsewhere.

  Reede kissed her neck and pulled her even closer. “Roommates if you want.”

  She was finally beginning to understand what he was saying. “I would like to get out of Kim’s house. I feel that I’m encroaching. But us together? No, it’s too soon.”

  “I know it’s too soon, but I also know my own mind. When something is right, I know it. There’s been a lot of . . . Well, more than my share of women, but I’ve always held something back.”

  He didn’t have to give his reason, but she knew it. One time he’d given his all to a woman and she’d thrown it back in his face. It wasn’t easy to recover from rejection like that—as she well knew from her own life experience.

  “Sophie, you bring out the best in me. You make me want to . . . to be nice to people.”

  She couldn’t help laughing at what he’d said. “But you are nice.”

  “Not really, but that’s not the point. I want you to get to know me better. The real me.”

  “This isn’t the real you?” Her voice was teasing as she ran her hand over his bare chest.

  “No,” he said, and he was serious. “You’re going to find out things about me that you don’t like.”

  “I stole a cookbook,” Sophie blurted, then put her hand over her mouth.

  Reede chuckled. “I don’t think shoplifting is a cause—”

  “No!” She turned in his arms to face him. It was too dark to see his face but she could feel him looking at her. “Earl’s real name is Lewis Carter Treeborne the Third. He’s heir to the Treeborne fortune and I stole their cookbook.”

  It took Reede a moment to understand. “You mean the Treeborne cookbook that the ads say is the basis for all their foods?”

  “Yes,” Sophie said. Her body had gone rigid and it suddenly seemed too intimate to be so close together. But when she tried to pull away, Reede wouldn’t let her. She didn’t kn
ow why she’d told him and now he probably thought she was a horrible person.

  “I guess this was the package you wanted sent back?”

  Sophie nodded.

  To her disbelief, Reede began to laugh.

  “It’s not funny!” she said. “I’m a thief!”

  He tried to get himself under control as he snuggled her down against him. “You told me he said you were . . . What was it?”

  “A summer romance.”

  “I guess that means he had someone else all along.”

  “Oh yeah. A girl named Traci, and her father and Mr. Treeborne are friends.”

  Reede lost his humor as he began to see exactly what had been done to Sophie. She’d been used by some rich kid, then discarded when it was time for more serious matters. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That shouldn’t have happened to you. To anyone, for that matter. Did you make a copy of the cookbook?”

  “Of course not!” she said, sounding indignant, then lowered her voice. “Besides, it’s written in code.”

  “Code?”

  “That’s what it looks like or maybe it’s some obscure language I’ve never seen before.”

  “Wasn’t the woman who wrote it Italian?”

  “That’s what Treeborne Foods says, but who knows?”

  Reede was quiet for a moment as he stroked Sophie’s hair. The spread was over them, and it was warm in the room. “Do you think this guy Carter will come after you?”

  “If he knew where I was he might. I don’t really know him. I thought I did, but I don’t.”

  “I think you know him rather well,” Reede said. “He lies without conscience. He’s ruled by his domineering father, and he’s greedy. In order to get his share of the company he’ll court and probably marry whomever will further the business. Does that sound about right?”

  “It sounds exactly right,” she said.

  “So where is it?”

  “Hidden in plain sight,” she said. “Middle drawer of Kim’s desk. I’ll be glad when it’s gone.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  She smiled in the darkness and his words comforted her so much that sleep began to take over her. Reede was so warm and he made her feel so safe that she soon dozed off.