Devil take the man, Keri thought in exasperation. Just what do I answer to that? If I say yes, he just might take me at my word. If I say no, I give him the perfect opening. She thought frantically and then temporized. "I would say that's up to you, sir," and reached down beside the lounger for her sunglasses, intending to put them on and hide behind their reflective blankness.
"Oh no you don't, Keri," he said as his hand snaked out to encircle her wrist. "I've developed a distinct aversion to seeing you in glasses of any sort!" With his free hand he plucked the offending glasses from her fingers and placed them in the grass beneath the end of the lounge chair, safe but inaccessible to her.
Then, so suddenly that she started in amazement, his whole manner changed. He smiled at her with great charm and said quietly, "Shall we start over, Keri? I'll apologize for last night if you'll apologize for sneaking out after the reception. I could happily have wrung your neck, you know." Then he admitted casually, "You were probably very smart not to open the door or answer your phone until I had time to calm down."
Keri didn't answer his question directly at first. "How did you know I was with Charles and Mary for the weekend?" she asked bluntly.
"I called and asked to speak to you. Charles said you were dozing out by the pool, but that he'd go and get you. I told him not to wake you, that I'd contact you later, and so I have." He grinned at her.
It was hard not to answer his grin with her own, but she persevered. "But why did you think I might be here in the first place? I mean, I could just as easily have still been incommunicado at my apartment."
"I went by there," he said simply. "Your car was gone from its parking place and besides, you're not the type to stay holed up between four walls on a day like this. As to why the Lawsons... just luck. I knew of your relationship and took the chance that you might have come to them. Your mistake was in not telling them that you were hiding out from your boss."
"I wasn't hiding out!" she said indignantly.
He laughed at the absurdity of that assertion and Keri could no longer hold out against the deliberately exerted charm. "And anyway, they don't know you're my boss yet. I hadn't told them that ..."
"That I've pirated you away from Simonds?" he finished the sentence smoothly.
"Well, I was going to say transferred, but if you feel pirated fits better, I'll let you choose your own words." She smiled slightly at him in demure mischief, her green eyes glinting like bright glass from between the thick lashes.
"Pax, Keri?"
"Well, truce, Mr. Randolph," Keri assented cautiously. She still didn't trust him, but they had to establish some sort of ease between them if she were to continue at RanCo. She didn't deceive herself that he'd let her go back to work for Mr. Simonds. It was Dain Randolph or nothing. His manner made that clear.
"We're not in the office now, Keri. My name is Dain." He smiled when he said it, but it didn't lessen the authority behind the order.
Keri sighed. The truce was going to be of short duration. "Do your other secretaries call you Dain outside of the office?" She questioned him, avoiding using either Dain or Mr. Randolph.
"I don't see my other secretaries except in a business situation, Keri."
"Not even Miss Barth?" Keri couldn't resist.
"Especially not Miss Barth," he responded dryly. "Give me credit for a sense of self-preservation. I don't mix business with pleasure."
"Ah-ha!" Keri was triumphant. "Neither do I, Mr. Randolph."
"Very neat," he admitted, "but may I remind you that there are exceptions to the rule?"
"I know," Keri said bitterly, thinking of Schyler. "It's the exceptions that make me determined to stick to the rule from now on, Mr. Randolph."
"Which means that you won't let me take you out to dinner tonight." He said it as a statement, but there was a smile in his voice, as though something amused him. When she shook her head, he took her refusal calmly, merely saying, "What a shame. I had a particular craving for lobster tonight and there's an excellent seafood restaurant quite near here."
She looked up at him suspiciously, for he had risen as he spoke, but his face showed only polite regret. She started to rise as well, but he lightly touched her shoulder for a moment, arresting her motion. He broke the contact so that there was not the slightest presumption of intimacy, but she could feel that warm hand imprinted on her flesh long after he had gone.
"Don't get up, Keri. I'll manage to find my own way out. Enjoy your weekend."
He walked back to the house and she stared after him until he disappeared. She could have sworn he was laughing to himself.
She dived back into the pool and began to swim laps. A most disturbing episode. He was subtler than Schyler, but she didn't make the mistake of thinking him any the less determined. Unfortunately for her peace of mind, she also found Dain infinitely more attractive than she did Schyler!
She flipped over and floated on her back, considering the situation soberly. Superficially Dain and Schyler had much in common. Both were rich, experienced, and attractive. Inwardly she sensed a depth and strength of character in Dain that Schyler would never have. Both men might thus far have avoided lasting commitment to one woman, but in Dain there existed a capacity for deep, enduring emotion, even though it might never be utilized. Schyler had no such depths.
Keri's peril, as she saw it, would be the temptation to believe that she was the woman who could plumb those depths she sensed in Dain's character. As she turned over to finish the last lap and pulled herself up onto the edge of the pool she admitted too that she might come to believe it because she wanted to so badly. In spite of her common sense, in spite of Mrs, Covey's explicit details about Dain's previous women ... she, Keri Dalton, idiot par excellence, would like very much to be that one woman. From the moment she had met those green eyes the first time in his office, something unexpected within herself had been unfolding and growing, and she was just now having to recognize and admit its existence. She wouldn't put a name to it yet, but neither could she deny its presence.
She wasn't ready to proffer explanations, so she avoided both Charles and Mary by going to her room to shower and shampoo the chlorine out of her hair. She dallied until the afternoon was well advanced and then, able to put it off no longer, went in search of her hosts. There were voices coming from the living room and she heard delighted laughter from Mary. She tracked the sound.
When she walked into the living room she knew why Dain had been laughing as he walked away from her. He sat at ease on the white couch, a long cool drink in his left hand, gesturing to illustrate a point with his right, while i Mary sat beaming benignly at him from her favorite chair. Charles stood in his usual pose, back to the empty fireplace, arm cocked on the broad stone mantel, sipping occasionally from his own drink.
Dain rose as she entered the room and the look he shot her was as mischievous as any small boy's. "Charles and Mary like lobster too, Keri," he said significantly and couldn't have looked more pleased with himself if he'd turned into a pillar of smug.
Keri looked interrogatively at Mary, who smiled guilelessly back at her and said happily, "Dain says he knows of a good restaurant near here that specializes in fresh lobster and he's invited us all to have dinner with him. Isn't that nice of him, dear? You know how I enjoy lobster, and it's quite Charles's favorite food."
Keri looked over at Dain. His eyes danced with unholy glee and invited her to laugh with him at the ease with which he had circumvented her. A reckless streak surfaced (it had gotten her into trouble before) and she succumbed to temptation. She laughed. It was the husky chuckle of a clear brook over water-smooth rocks, innocent and sparkling, bubbling with joy. Something flamed deeply in Dain's eyes before he drooped his lids to shield what could be read there.
Mary regarded Keri with some confusion and Charles questioned dryly, "Is this a private joke or may anyone join in?" It had been far too long since he had heard Keri laugh with all her old zest and he was most curious to discover just what trig
gered that enchanting gurgle of mirth.
"I've been neatly outmaneuvered, Charles," Keri admitted, laughter still lilting in her voice. "Meet my boss, Dain Randolph. He pirated"—she grinned with an urchin's cheeky impudence at Dain,—"me away from my cozy Mr. Simonds and pried me out of my depressive disguise. Now he's managed to vanquish my resolutions about not mixing my business life with pleasure, for tonight, at least."
"Hostilities to recommence on Monday, Keri?" Dain drawled in amusement.
"What's wrong with Sunday?" she shot back, eyes sparkling.
"Sunday is a day of rest," he intoned pontifically, sending Keri off into another gust of mirth. Dain grinned back and suddenly there was a flashing sense of conspiracy, as though the two of them shared a joke no one else could understand. Days later Keri was to realize that the joke, if one could call it that, was on her, but by then it was far, far too late.
Dain exerted himself to please, and he did it well, Keri had to admit grudgingly. He didn't display the practiced charm of Schyler, which had always rung slightly forced and shopworn to her critical ear. Dain simply set his guests at ease, smoothing away the tension and wary regard that emanated from the guest who sat beside him in the booth, facing Charles and Mary.
He kept a proper distance from her, not taking advantage of the fact that she was captive between him and the wall, but even while talking to the opposite couple she was all too conscious of his proximity. By turning her head fractionally she could observe the hard outline of his profile and the determined thrust of his jaw. He was a man accustomed to decision-making, who would be ruthless if he saw the need. She judged he could be a good friend and a very bad enemy, but she doubted that he had any women who were merely friends. Platonic relationships, from what Mrs. Covey had told her and what she deduced herself from his experienced eyes and sensually firm mouth, would have little interest for him.
He was fascinating and dangerous. She'd be a fool to think she could escape unscathed from any relationship with him save the most cursory and formal and he'd already made it clear that their future relationship wasn't going to be either cursory or formal. She'd be safer picking up a live high-voltage wire in her bare hands than she would be picking up the challenge Dain had thrown her. Keri glanced sideways at Dain only to have her gaze collide and lock with his as his eyes lifted from an unhurried study of her profile.
Without a trace. Keri let a slow, almost feline smile curve her lips, green eyes tilting at the corners as a perceptible watched Dain suck in an involuntary gasp as she bathed him with the full force of her smile and gaze. Just because she had heretofore avoided using feminine wiles didn't mean she didn't know how to use them when it suited her! Perhaps attack might turn out to be the best defense after
The remainder of the evening was brilliant with rapid fire repartee. Charles and Mary swiveled like spectators at a tennis match when Keri threw away all remnants of her protective quietude and flamed with an almost febrile gaiety. If her previous tactics of avoidance had piqued Dain's interest, perhaps a complete reversal of strategy was called for.
Secure in the knowledge that Dain couldn't possibly do anything to her in Charles and Mary's protective presence, she sidled closer to him in the booth and proceeded to give a consummate imitation of a moth being drawn helplessly toward an engulfing flame. Charles, who knew his goddaughter very well, enjoyed the performance tremendously.
While they waited for their lobster to be served, Keri allowed her bare arm to brush against Dain's as she reached for her water glass. She sipped slowly and replaced the glass in the same place. Somehow Dain's arm had moved imperceptibly closer and the contact was firmer the second time. Keri grinned inwardly. There were no lost opportunities allowed around Dain!
She turned a gravely worshipful face up to his and fired a broadside. "It was so thoughtful of you to take us out for dinner tonight, Dain." She delicately laid only the faintest, breathy emphasis on the Dain. "It's rare for a girl to find such a considerate employer, but it really wasn't necessary, you know." She lectured gently. "The duties expected from an executive's secretary are quite a bit more comprehensive than those required from a typist in the typing pool, and acting as hostess for a business function certainly falls well within the scope of secretarial responsibilities! I'm perfectly willing to perform all my secretarial duties without additional reward." She fluttered her eyelashes at him outrageously.
Without hesitating a beat she turned to face Charles and Mary, and continued confidingly. "Dain has just finished an exhausting round of negotiations and last night RanCo held a party for the participants to celebrate the successful conclusion and signing of contracts. I was so happy to be able to help out when Dain asked me to act as his hostess. These contracts were quite a coup for RanCo."
The wide-eyed ingenuity of her look and dulcet demure- ness in her voice caused Charles and Dain to choke slightly as they took simultaneous sips of their drinks, but Mary beamed proudly at her goddaughter.
"I know Dain realizes just how fortunate he is to have you as his secretary, Keri, dear. Too many young girls nowadays don't realize that loyalty to an employer requires more than a strict nine-to-five workday at times. When I think of some of the secretaries Charles has had to contend with . . . well, really. Some of them couldn't even take down a telephone message correctly." Mary essayed a small joke, "You can take them down in six languages."
Keri chuckled. She glanced mischievously at Dain and added an outrageous postscript. "I'm sure Dain realizes exactly what kind of secretary he has working for him."
Fortunately for Keri the lobsters arrived at the table, because the glint in Dain's eyes was assuming rapier-sharp intensity. As she lifted a butter-dripping bite of lobster to her lips, Keri caught Charles's glance and he shook his head slightly in amused admonition. She returned the look he had seen all too often on her face when she was accepting some reckless dare from her older brothers, designed to prove she could do whatever it was just as well as they could! The proving had every so often cost her some bruises and once a broken bone, but it had never quenched her zest for a challenge. Headstrong as she was, but generally not reckless to a fault, he hoped Keri wasn't getting herself into a situation where she risked more being broken than a bone.
To say that having the tables turned on him was a novel experience for Dain was to understate the situation. Instead of running away from him, Keri now seemed to be running full tilt directly at him, on a collision course, in fact. Her glances were arch and her words provocative and the drift of her perfume in his nostrils was as teasing as the occasional warm brush of her arm and thigh. After those first lightly barbed thrusts, Keri settled down to conduct a serious flirtation.
With innate skill, learned at numerous embassy functions, she drew him out, had him doing all the talking before he realized what was happening. He was bemused by enormous green eyes and softly pouting lips. A slow smile made an elusive dimple flick in and out of her cheek and a soft touch of her hand and an admiring look increased his eloquence whenever it seemed to falter. Keri was careful to draw Charles and Mary into the admiring circle, a task made easy because Dain was genuinely interesting.
In normal circumstances Dain was habitually reserved, a past master at encouraging others to talk while he listened. His business caution reinforced a natural reticence, and though he could be an amusing raconteur, he gave little away of his personal feelings. He was a very private man, but Keri skillfully unlocked the guarded areas of his personal opinions, illuminating the real Dain Randolph to a degree his business associates would have found astounding.
When Dain was released from the enchantment, after he had dropped Keri, Charles, and Mary at their home, he realized with a shock just how deftly he had been interrogated. Keri had asked him nothing damaging, but he wasn't at all sure that he wouldn't have spilled out secrets with the fluidity of a waterfall if she had formed the questions with those enticing lips and snared him with those silky soft eyelashes.
She had pro
mised all evening, but she made him forget to ask her to deliver, and he had meekly escorted her to her godparents' front door with all the respectful rectitude of a Victorian suitor. She had hidden more than physical beauty beneath that prim, deceptive exterior, and when he had released that glorious hair from the confinement of its beauty-destroying bun, it seemed that he had also unfettered a devious and mischievous mind. In short, she had taken him for an unexpected ride and he was just starting to realize how far off course she'd steered him.
As for Keri, when she finally lay in bed that night in Charles and Mary's guest room, she wondered how she'd dared. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, and Dain's reaction to her fledgling, trial run at being a femme fatale had been supremely satisfying, but what was she going to do for an encore? She certainly wasn't going to pay off on all those promises she'd made him from the security of Charles and Mary's chaperonage. He now probably figured she was the hottest thing since jalapenos were invented. He certainly hadn't run fast and furiously in the other direction from a pursuing female, to wit, herself, and she was dreadfully afraid that instead of finding his thrills by pursuing an unwilling female, Dain was looking forward to enjoying her pursuit of him! That was all wrong, and certainly not according to her plan. What would she do with him if she caught him?
She had a naturally optimistic nature, so her sleep was deep and refreshing, but her subconscious must have slept well too because it didn't present her with a tidy solution to Dain when she woke up the next morning. Keri lay in bed stretching and considering. All in all, Monday was going to be an uncomfortable day, caught as she would be between Miss Barth's jealous incredulity and Dain's expectations. She briefly considered what would happen if she remained the old Miss Dalton in defiance of Dain's orders, but decided that she could cope better with Miss Barth than she could with an infuriated Dain. He was going to be angry about being led down the garden path as it was. Not smart to add insult to insult.
Deceptive Love Page 7