by Brenda Joyce
Kait nodded uneasily. Should she trust this man or not? Was he now trying to help her when a few hours ago he had promised to bring her down? How she wished that he really was on her side, that he was really going to find out who had done this.
“If you remember anything, give a holler,” Rafe said. “Anything at all.”
Trev took her arm. “Let’s get you home,” he said.
Kait hesitated. Rafe hadn’t moved. “Rafe—thanks. Thanks a lot,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m only doing my job,” he said. But he was staring at her. Then, “This doesn’t change a damn thing.”
Kait walked into the kitchen, aware of Trev following her into the dining room but then veering aside. Lights had been left on. She sat down at the center island on a stool, untying and removing her boots. Fear claimed her and she began to tremble.
There was very little doubt in her mind now that she was a killer’s target. Someone who was after Lana was out there, and believing her to be her sister, he was now after her. Kait couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as Lana returned, she had to know everything and they had to go to the police for protection and help. For what if the would-be killer decided to target Marni next? And was the killer a thug, involved in whatever shady business Lana was into, or was it someone who hated Lana with a personal vengeance? And would Rafe Coleman honestly protect her when he was determined to “bring her down”? Kait couldn’t be sure.
Trev appeared, two glasses of scotch in hand. Not speaking, his eyes on hers, he offered her a glass.
Kait stood. “No thanks.” She walked grimly over to the freezer and withdrew a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie, grabbed a teaspoon, popped the lid, and sat back down. Aware of his eyes upon her, she looked up almost defiantly—and very close to tears. She dug in.
Chocolate ice cream was her favorite version of chocolate, period. In general, it was heaven on earth. Then she assessed Trev as he silently sipped his scotch, while regarding her over its rim. No, Trev Coleman was heaven on earth, in just about every way, but Chocolate Fudge Brownie ran a distinct second. Tonight, however, it was not doing its job.
“Damn it.” Kait had taken one bite and now she set the pint aside. Tears finally filled her eyes. She cradled her head in her hands.
“What is it?” Trev sat down on the other side of the island, facing her.
“Chocolate always calms me down. Makes me happy. You know. Best drug around. Tonight, I can’t even taste it.” She didn’t look up.
He was thoughtful. “I never realized you were into chocolate of any kind, or Milanos, or pizza.”
She slowly shifted so that their gazes met and held. Did she have to stay in character even now? It was simply too much. “I’m on a binge. Every woman has her day.”
He set his scotch down and took her hand. Kait looked at their clasped palms in real surprise. Then she looked up into a pair of mesmerizing green eyes. “It was a drunk. I feel pretty certain, Lana.”
“Someone’s trying to kill me,” she whispered. “I know it, Trev.”
Trev hesitated. “There are a lot of people in this county who don’t particularly like you. But to try to kill you? I can’t grasp it.”
“That’s because you’re sane,” Kait whispered unsteadily. She looked up into his eyes. “I’m scared.” She thought about the terrible lie she was engaged in. “I can’t take it anymore.”
Trev stood. And suddenly he was angry. “Why do you keep doing this? One minute, I look at you and I feel like you’re the woman I should take into my arms. The next minute, I look at you and remember all the lies and all the other men.”
She trembled—she felt ready to cry. “But I am scared. If someone rammed you from behind and drove you off the road, wrecking your car, you’d be scared too.” She felt her chin tilt up. “And I’m sorry there are moments when you actually like me!”
He didn’t move.
Determined not to cry, Kait reached for the ice cream and dug in. It tasted like sand. “We should record this moment,” she muttered. “We can rename my favorite flavor Chocolate Cardboard.”
Trev didn’t answer. She felt a tear trickle down her cheek. She swiped at it and stood, not looking at him. She shoved the pint in the freezer. “Sorry to be a burden,” she said. She finally looked at him and managed a bright, brittle smile. “Must be the monsters in the night. Tomorrow will be a whole new day. Yippee.”
He was staring very grimly at her.
Kait was as tired of his internal battles as she was of everything else. She walked out.
Upstairs, she picked up the phone and dialed her own cell phone. When she got the voice mail, she said tersely, “I’m at the end of my rope. Someone tried to run me off the road tonight—I’m pretty sure someone is trying to kill me. We have to go to the police. If you can come back sooner than Monday, please, Lana, please do.” She hesitated, but she was angry as well as fed up and didn’t know what else to say. She hung up.
And she did not feel better. There was no relief. Because nothing had really changed—she remained in her charade, and Marni and Lana remained in danger, as she did, too.
In either case, her charade was almost over. Tomorrow was Saturday. She had two more days to get through.
And then on Monday Trev Coleman was about to be devastated. Would he hate her forever?
Kait thought so. But at least the temptation of never telling him the truth was finally gone. This was one lie she simply couldn’t wait to get rid of. It had become an impossible burden.
She turned away from the phone, about to collapse into the bed. Trev stood in the doorway.
She froze. How much had he heard? Had she left the door wide open while calling her sister or had he opened it? She hadn’t heard a thing. She stared, trying to read his expression. But it was impassive and she had not a clue as to what he was thinking—or if he had heard her phone call at all.
But even if he had, surely he hadn’t understood—and she hadn’t used Lana’s name, had she?
“May I come in?” he asked quietly.
She realized he was holding a bowl of her chocolate ice cream in his hand. “Sure. It’s your room.” She tried to smile and failed. In fact, her heart was starting to beat a bit too fast.
He came in and handed her the bowl. “Try this.”
She looked down and saw that a dark liquid had been dribbled heavily over the ice cream. She smiled. “Kahlúa?” How could she not love Trev Coleman?
Then her smile vanished. She was not allowed to let her thoughts go in that direction!
He smiled a bit in return. “One better. Godiva Chocolate Liqueur.” Her heart flipped, and not because of the alcohol-laced sundae he was handing her. But because of the thought behind it, because of his smile, because of the sincere way he was regarding her with his green bedroom eyes. “Why?” she asked helplessly, and that emotion she had tried to fight began to blow up inside her chest, powerful and potent, heady and exciting, and she felt herself sliding headlong past the crevice of infatuation and into the abyss of love.
“Because I can be a prick at times,” he said. He dipped the spoon into the ice cream and then posed it before her lips.
Kait met his eyes as her insides tightened and her breath completely stopped.
His eyes changed, becoming emerald green. She opened her lips and let him insert the spoon. The ice cream had flavor again—fantastically sweet, thickly chocolate, and spicy hot from the Godiva liqueur. Trev withdrew the silver spoon.
And she saw the heat in his eyes just before his thick black lashes lowered, shielding his gaze from hers. Kait didn’t move. For one moment she could not, because her lower body had begun to throb in the most wild and insistent and primitive way.
She took the sterling spoon from his long, graceful fingers.
He glanced up.
She smiled a little and dug up some ice cream. “Your turn,” she breathed.
“Is it good?” His tone had turned rough.
She
nodded. “Very good.”
His mouth quirked. He had the most beautiful, mobile mouth, and Kait wanted to run her tongue all over it. Instead, she lifted the spoon of ice cream and prodded his lips with it.
He slowly opened. She glimpsed his tongue as the ice cream disappeared. Their eyes met.
Locked.
He took the bowl from her hands. “I can think of a really good place for that ice cream.”
She thought she might die. “So can I.”
His lips lifted in a bare smile as they stared at each other.
Then he took her arms. Kait found herself on her back, beneath him, on the bed. His mouth took hers, and his chocolate-coated tongue thrust into her mouth. Kait slid her hands beneath his cashmere sweater, over the silken slabs of muscle that formed his back. He lifted her blouse, grasped both her breasts, kissing her almost desperately.
Kait managed to get his sweater off while their lips were locked. She dove for his belt, his fly. His mouth claimed one nipple. As he sucked, she freed him, grasped his fullness in her palm, and sighed.
“We’re going too fast,” he said, coming up for air. He tugged off her cotton pullover, unhooked and pulled off her bra.
“The door’s open,” Kait agreed.
Trev moaned and jumped from the bed, dropping trousers and briefs. As he slammed the door closed, Kait shimmied out of her own jeans and panties in record time. He dove onto the bed before she could remove her socks, and he was smiling as he pinned her flat on her back. “This notion,” he murmured, flicking his thumb along her jaw, “has been torturing me all day.”
“Bad, bad choice of words,” Kait whispered, aware of his having spread her thighs impossibly wide—and of his manhood straining against her sex. “Because now you can torture me all night.”
“That,” he said, reaching over her body, “is a very agreeable prospect.” He palmed her.
Kait gasped, as his hand was covered with cold gooey ice cream. He grinned at her. “Oh,” was all she could say.
Still grinning, he lowered his head.
“Damn,” she managed, completely incoherent.
He added more ice cream.
Kait was dressing with extreme care for Parker’s black-tie party. As she surveyed herself in the mirror, she thought that she had got it just right. She had opted for a knee-length dress and sexy silver sandals, but as the dress was by Ungaro, it meant that that ultrafeminine lace-edged floral chiffon floated over her body with breathtaking sensuality. The sheath had an uneven hem that was slit high up on one thigh, lace cascading down one leg, and both shoulder straps were for mere decoration, as they hung down over her shoulders uselessly. Kait had added one of Lana’s necklaces, a pearl choker with a platinum heart clasp, studded with diamonds. She had turned the clasp in front.
She had kept her makeup minimal—a dab of lavender shimmer on her eyes, pink gloss on her lips. She stared at her reflection. She had never looked prettier—she was radiant—and she knew why.
They had made love all night. And Trev might dare to claim today that it had only been sex, but no man could touch and hold a woman with such tenderness and affection and not truly care. Of course, he had claimed no such thing. Trev had spent most of the day at the barn or in his study, and he’d had a lunch meeting in Three Falls. But the few times she had seen him in passing, he had smiled at her—with his eyes.
He no longer hated her.
Kait knew it. She knew it the way she knew that she had to inhale to breathe. She continued to stare at herself. For the first time in her life, she was as beautiful as her sister, as alluring, as seductive, but there was also no mistaking the worry in her eyes. She was in dangerous waters now. Trev had started to care about her, Kait, yet he thought she was Lana.
And she had fallen in love with him. She could no longer deny it.
Kait shivered, even though it was warm in the bathroom. She wanted a future with this man. She couldn’t imagine not being a part of his life, a part of Fox Hollow. And after the past five days, she couldn’t imagine not being his wife.
How much time did she have left?
It was Saturday night. Lana was due back on Monday. But Kait had left that damn message on her cell phone, begging her to return earlier. Now, Kait prayed that Lana had never gotten it, or that if she had she would ignore it.
Kait knew she was in over her head. Every free moment that she had was spent fantasizing. She would imagine herself explaining to Trev the reason for the switch. She would explain to him who she really was, how different she was from Lana. She would beg him to understand why she had done what she had done—how she had only wanted to protect her sister and have her sister back. That she had fallen in love with Marni at first sight, and from that moment only wanted to keep the child safe and sound. In her mind’s eye and her mind’s ear, every single explanation she made up, every excuse, failed to rationalize all that she had done, sounded absurd and hollow.
She didn’t even bother hoping that Trev might accept her explanation and forgive her for her lies. He would throw her out of Fox Hollow. He would be more than furious. He would hate her more than he had ever hated Lana—Kait was certain of it.
The mere concept of a future without him and Marni and Sam hurt so much.
Kait heard the telephone ring.
She actually jumped.
Her heart raced.
Even though she knew that Lana would not call her at the house, that was how nervous she had become. It stopped ringing—meaning someone had picked it up.
Kait had chosen a velvet patchwork evening bag with long leather fringe for the affair, and with trembling hands she put her gloss and perfume inside. Ill, she reached for her cell phone and took out the battery, then put the dissembled unit in a vanity drawer as if that might delay the inevitable.
Kait worked on her breathing as she went downstairs. Somehow, she had to let go of her anxiety and fear, because these last few hours and days with Trev and his daughters were so precious to her.
Marni was with her father in his study. Already in her grinning panda pj’s, she was earnestly studying a horse magazine. Trev was on the phone, clad in his tuxedo, his profile to Kait. She looked at him and lost her ability to breathe. She lost her ability to move, to think. She could only feel.
He married the wrong twin.
Lana’s words echoed now. God, she was right. Trev had married the wrong sister.
How was she going to live the rest of her life without him?
“Mommy! You’re so pretty!” Marni cried, jumping up and galloping toward her, her long, curly hair still damp from the shower.
Trev had half turned to smile at her. The look in his green eyes made her heart stop. And Kait recalled the fact that she hadn’t yet checked her own calendar to satisfy her curiosity about when she had last seen her sister in New York City and if, just possibly, she had been working on the charity event that she had hoped to hold at Fox Hollow at that time. Now the idea seemed far-fetched, coincidental.
Kait couldn’t quite smile back at him and she bent and hugged Marni. “I’m not half as pretty as you,” she said huskily, wishing that Marni were her own daughter. The moment the terrible thought appeared, she tensed and straightened. Marni was not her daughter. She would never be her daughter. She was Lana’s daughter, and after the divorce, Trev would have full custody. Kait no longer objected to that; in fact, he was right. As painful as the idea was, Lana had failed as a mother, and Marni would be better off living with her father.
Besides, if the cops were after her, then Lana had involved herself in something illegal.
The phone clicked as the receiver was laid down. Kait felt her cheeks heat and slowly she turned.
Trev was studying her, a gleam in his eyes.
She warmed beneath his regard. “I’m sorry if I’m running a bit late.”
“We’ll be fashionably late,” he said with a smile and a shrug. His eyes slid over her from head to toe. “That’s some dress. I haven’t seen it before.�
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Kait felt herself flush, but now, with pleasure. “I was hoping you would like it,” she said softly. She had raced that afternoon to Neiman Marcus, where she had bought it. For once, she wanted to wear something that didn’t scream Lana. She had wanted to wear something that expressed her personality, that belonged to her, not her sister.
His green gaze locked with hers. And in that moment, she knew exactly what was on his mind, and she wondered why they didn’t simply skip the party. “I’d like to take it right off,” he said in a sexy murmur.
Kait heated, about to suggest they go upstairs, when she realized that Marni was standing right there beside her.
“But Daddy, the dress is soo pretty! Don’t take it off,” Marni cried in some alarm. “Mommy looks like a fairy princess!”
Trev flushed. “You’re right, darling. Mommy looks exactly like a fairy princess. Daddy’s mistake. Men can be such fools.” He smiled at his daughter—but then he sent Kait such a potent look that her knees almost buckled.
How was she going to do this? How was she going to leave him and his daughters?
If only Lana wouldn’t come back!
He swooped down on his daughter, lifting her into his arms, hugging and kissing her. “I’ll come up to say good night when I get home, but I won’t wake you up. We may be late.”
Marni frowned, tugging at the wisp of sunstreaked hair that fell over one cheekbone. “Don’t be late, Daddy.”
“Why not?” He chuckled. “You won’t know the difference, honey, you’ll be sleeping.”
“Because Mommy will sleep too late,” Marni pouted. “And she promised to make me special waffles for breakfast tomorrow. If you ask, I know she’d make them for you, too, Daddy.”
Kait laid her hand on her heart. It felt as if it were breaking. And she must never have that terrible thought again! Lana would return, only God knew what would happen when she did. She, Kait, was moving to Three Falls, but that was the only thing she was certain of.
“Honey? I won’t sleep late,” she said, and to her horror her tone was choked.
Trev looked at her. “What’s wrong?” His tone was mild, his regard was not.