Fiancee By Mistake

by Walker Kate

She tried to follow his lead, but there was an unevenness in her words that betrayed the effort she was making, and when he handed her the cup her face looked pale and tense in the flickering firelight.

  'What do you want to know?" she added as he seated himself again.

  'A bit more about what you do would be a good place to start.' Years of training and acting experience kept his voice smoothly controlled. 'After all, you have the advantage of me there.'

  'Doesn't it bother you to have your life such public property?'

  The question escaped her with a spontaneity that changed her appearance dramatically. The restraint that had held her shapely body taut and her face frozen eased suddenly, making her look younger, warmer, disturbingly vulnerable. 'I mean, I'd hate it if every detail of what I did was a subject of gossip and comment for everyone and anyone.' She actually shuddered at the thought.

  'It comes with the job; I knew that when I started out. You learn to live with it. But I have to admit that sometimes I just want to tell everyone to go to hell and leave me alone.'

  'Like now, when you're convalescing from an accident? I can see why you'd want to be here, in this cottage, instead of somewhere much more public. It's quiet and private, and you can stay here until you're ready to face the world again. Is that why you hadn't met your brother's fiancée—because you wanted to keep your identity private?'

  'Precisely.'

  So she was smart as well as beautiful. It was a potentially dangerous combination. An intriguing one too, making him want to know much more about her.

  'But we were talking about you. I want to know all about your high-flying career in the travel industry.' He didn't trouble to hide the genuine interest in his voice, and knew from her face that she had noted it too, and been surprised by it.

  'It's hardly high-flying. I work in a branch of a major national travel agent's. I started as a trainee straight from school and worked my way up. I was made manageress just three months ago.'

  'Pretty good going for someone of—what—twenty-two?'

  A tiny smile flickered over her lips. 'Twenty-five, actually. And if you're trying to flatter me...'

  'Flattery didn't come into it. I was simply trying to guess how old you are. Not that accurate a guess, I admit, but then I'm better with foot sizes than I am with ages.'

  'You weren't that far—Foot sizes?'

  The look she turned on him over her coffee cup was full of amused disbelief, her eyes lighting with a new warmth.

  'That's right.' Sean found himself smiling in response to her confusion. 'I have vast experience of women's feet.'

  Curiosity getting the better of her, she slipped her foot out of her shoe and lifted it towards him, wriggling her toes almost flirtatiously.

  'Five and a half,' Sean declared confidently, and knew he was right by the way her head went back, her eyes widening in amazement

  'But how...?'

  Laughing aloud, he decided to put her out of her misery.

  'I wasn't always a household name. I've done my share of "resting" between acting jobs, sometimes for far longer than I care to recall. On those occasions I took any job that was offered, which is how I came to spend almost a year working in a shoe shop.'

  'You!' Her delighted splutter of laughter told him how incongruous she found the idea. I'll bet you were a dynamite salesman. All you'd have to do is to turn on that famous charm of yours and any woman would buy anything you offered her.'

  'Now who's using flattery?'

  This was better; she'd relaxed a lot. That smile had wiped some of the pinched look from her face, though she was still pale.

  'So tell me about work in the travel agency. Do you get to visit the places you offer to people for holidays?'

  'Sometimes. It's one of the perks of the job. And it helps to be able to talk about resorts if we've actually been there.'

  'And where would you go on holiday? What country really attracts you? Or is that like asking a chef what food he eats? When you're working with it all the time, do you lose interest?'

  'Oh, no! I love to travel. For a while I considered being a courier rather than work at the agency, but I decided I'd rather see places on a holiday than work there. Where do I like best? That's difficult.'

  Her brows came together into a thoughtful frown as she considered.

  'I love Spain—especially Almería in the south—and Granada's quite wonderful. And I'd like to see more of Canada; I've only been to Toronto. But the place I love best in the whole world—so far—has to be Madeira.'

  Her face was alight with enthusiasm now, and she had kicked off the other shoe, curling her legs up under her in the chair.

  She looked like a small child, Sean thought, his heart thudding suddenly as her smile sparked off thoughts that were definitely not appropriate to the age she appeared to be. He had to drag his gaze from her glowing eyes, the smiling mouth, refusing to allow himself to remember how it had felt to have it soften under his own.

  'I have this thing about islands,' Leah continued, oblivious to his sudden silence. 'And Madeira has to be one of the loveliest I've ever visited. The flowers are amazing, even at the sides of the roads. And they have this system of irrigation channels—levadas—high in the hills that you can walk along.'

  'Where the air is scented with eucalyptus leaves,' Sean inserted, purely in order to distract his thoughts, then wishing that he hadn't as his comment drew those violet eyes to his face.

  'You've been there?'

  Slowly he nodded. 'A couple of years ago, with Pete. Like every tourist, we did the levada walks.'

  And of course you had afternoon tea on the terrace at Reids Hotel?'

  'Of course!'

  What had put that flush of colour in her cheeks? Was it simply the coffee, or the effect of the fire? It looked too hectic for that, making him watch her more closely as her smile faded and she rubbed at her temple, her eyes half closed.

  'Are you all right?'

  'Mmm.' It was vague, distracted. 'It's just that I can't seem to get warm.'

  'But it's almost too hot in here now.'

  'Is it?' She sounded surprised. 'I don't think I've really got over being caught in the snow. Perhaps I should have put a thicker jumper on.'

  With an obvious effort she focused her gaze on him again.

  'Is Pete your only brother, or are there any more of you?'

  'Just Pete, and he's very much my kid brother, being so much younger. I've always looked after him, right from our schooldays.'

  'And you're still doing it now. Isn't it time you let him handle his own problems?'

  'Yeah, well...'

  Getting to his feet, Sean moved to pour himself more coffee. When he waved the pot in her direction, one eyebrow lifting enquiringly, Leah shook her head and laid her hand over the top of her cup. But her movement wasn't quick enough to hide the fact that it was still almost full, the drink barely touched.

  'He did his share of taking care of me. Is there something wrong with the coffee?'

  'Oh, no..'

  She stared down at her cup as if only just becoming aware of it.

  'It's just that I'm not very thirsty.'

  'Like you weren't very hungry.'

  'Well, I wasn't! I expect you mean when you had your accident—that was when your brother took care of you?"

  Sean recognised a deliberate change of subject when he heard one, but he decided to go along with her for now. As he returned to his chair he studied her face more closely, noting uneasily that her eyes looked over-bright and her hands were tightly clenched together in her lap.

  'Yes, Pete was my support after the accident. He dropped everything, left his business in the hands of his deputy, and came to stay with me for as long as he was needed. He'd still be here now if I'd let him, but I decided he'd done enough and his fiancée needed him more than I did.'

  When the memory of his brother's frantic phone call today came into his mind he gave a snort of cynical laughter.

  'Perhaps I'd have
done better to keep him with me. If he'd never gone back to her then she wouldn't have been able to hurt him as she has done.'

  'I doubt if Pete would see it that way,' Leah put in quietly. 'From what you told me, he obviously still loves Annie and wants her back.'

  'More fool him.' The cynicism was deeper now, harsh and dark as pitch. 'If you ask me, love's an overrated emotion. It causes more trouble than it's worth.'

  'Oh, but you can't mean that!'

  'Can't I?'

  .In his thoughts, the echoes of Marnie's voice saying 'But, Sean, I love you!' gave an added edge to the sardonic question.

  'In my experience, that's exactly how it is.'

  'But surely your parents...'

  'My father didn't stay around long enough to get to know that he'd sired a second son. That's why Pete and I are so close. I was the only male role model in his life.'

  'But you were only a child yourself!'

  Her obvious concern, the shadows in her eyes, made him suddenly uncomfortable enough with the intimacy of the firelit room to get out of his chair and move to snap on the lights.

  'I was old enough to realise that "I love you" rarely means for ever.'

  Blinking in the sudden brightness, Leah looked paler than ever, her face drawn as she put her cup down on the tiled hearth, obviously abandoning her half-hearted attempt to drink the coffee.

  She didn't look well. Sean frowned in concern. Was it shock, or something more?

  'I don't agree...'

  'But of course—I don't expect that you would. You couldn't, or you would never have agreed to marry what's-his-name.'

  'Andy.' Her voice was low and slightly shaken, and she lifted a hand to her eyes as if to hide their expression from him.

  'Yeah—Andy.' He repeated the name savagely. The rush of bitterness was so strong that he could almost taste it, burning in his mouth.

  For all too short a time he had actually forgotten. Forgotten about this Andy.

  He had been so relieved that she wasn't engaged to his brother that he'd forgotten that she still had a fiancé in the wings somewhere. In the space of those few brief minutes he had found himself lulled into a false sense of ease. Dammit, he had even come close to liking her!

  'Do you want to know about Andy?'

  She had taken her hands down now, and had turned to face him. Her eyes were disturbing dark pools over the pallor of her cheeks. But he wouldn't let himself consider his earlier concern. It would make him too vulnerable to her, something that was dangerously threatening to his self-control.

  'Shall I tell you...?'

  'No! I don't want to know anything about him!'

  He didn't want to learn any details. Didn't want to see her face change as she talked of the man she was to marry. Her eyes would glow, her mouth soften, curling into a smile as she said the name of the man she loved.

  Hell, no! Not loved! How could she claim to love this Andy and then act as she had done? How could she promise to marry one man, forsaking all others, in the words of the wedding service, and then be so wild and wantonly willing in his arms?

  'But you should know—'

  The sentence was never completed. What she had been about to say was abruptly cut off, her tongue freezing at the shrill sound that echoed throughout the cottage, only slightly muffled by the barrier of a couple of closed doors. Seeing the change in her face, Sean could only swear savagely.

  'A telephone!' Shock and bewilderment showed in her eyes, shaded her voice. 'You have a telephone! But you said...'

  'I know,' he began, his words falling into the sudden silence as, the damage done, his answering-machine responded to the call. 'I...'

  But Leah ignored his attempt to explain, getting to her feet in a rush.

  'You deceived me!' The violet eyes flashed in fury, but there was something darker, disturbingly raw in their amethyst depths. 'You let me believe I couldn't contact anyone and all the time you were lying!'

  'I thought you were Pete's fiancée. I didn't want you contacting the other man he said she'd left him for.'

  Her anger was easier to face than the distress of just seconds before. That reproachful look had twisted in his guts so sharply that he still felt the discomfort.

  'But you've known I wasn't Annie for well over an hour now, and yet you still—'

  The violent gesture she made proved her undoing, seeming to throw her off balance, so that she swayed on her feet, one hand going out to grasp at the back of her chair for support.

  'Sean...'

  Almost in spite of herself, it seemed, she cried his name, turning a look full of fearful appeal on him, one that wrenched at his emotions again.

  'What is it?'

  Instinct pushing him into action before he was even capable of thought, he moved forward swiftly, his hands closing over her arms.

  Oh, God, no, this was not what he wanted. Or, rather, yes, it was exactly what he wanted—but what he had resolved to deny himself. The warmth of her body, the softness of her skin, the sound of her breathing through her partially opened lips all assailed him like a physical blow so that his head reeled with the impact.

  The perfume she had worn earlier had been washed away in the shower, to be replaced by a sweet, clean, delicate scent that was hers alone. Just to inhale it twisted nerves deep inside him, making his body respond instantaneously. He had to struggle against the urge to rest his head against hers, feel the soft silkiness of the glossy dark hair against his face.

  'Sean...'

  She said his name again, this time with an edge of desperation to the word, and he saw the frown that drew her dark brows together.

  'Leah? Are you OK?'

  His heart kicked painfully in his chest as she slid her arms upwards, linking them around his neck. The movement brought her even closer, the soft swell of her breasts crushed against the wall of his ribcage. Dear God, she must know—must feel what she was doing to him!

  But then she made a small sound in her throat, like a young child nestling close to a loved parent, and she lifted her face to his, resting the satin of her cheek against his jaw.

  Abruptly his mood changed as a slow, creeping sense of unease slid into his mind. It was followed speedily by an unexpected feeling of concern, the conviction that all was not right. And with that came the need to help, to protect, to care for her.

  'What is it?' he asked gently.

  Dear God, something was very wrong! Her skin was so hot; she was burning up! He touched her face lightly, wincing at what he felt there.

  'Leah! What is it?'

  His hand under her chin lifted her face, and a dark frown drew his brows together as he saw the faraway, glazed look in her eyes.

  She opened her mouth, tried to form the words, but failed. Shaking her head in weak disgust at herself, she tried again, but with no more success, her eyes filling with tears of frustration. Then suddenly, with a small, choking cry, she simply crumpled in his arms and collapsed like a delicate autumn leaf, falling softly to the ground.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A TELEPHONE!

  The shocked thought was the first thing to go through Leah's mind when she finally struggled up from deep oceans of sleep.

  He had a telephone, and all this time he had lied to her, pretending that it didn't exist!

  The final, furious realisation jerked her fully awake. Her eyes opened with a snap and she stared up at the cream-painted ceiling above her.

  Cream-painted ceiling?

  There was something wrong here. Slowly, carefully, she tried to collect her muddled thoughts, striving to focus on just why she felt so uneasy. Her frowning gaze travelled across the ceiling to the top of the window then down over the green curtains and on to the toning carpet of the bedroom Sean had assigned to her.

  Bedroom! That was it.

  The realisation had her jerking upright, then swiftly lowering her head back onto the pillows as it swam sickeningly, making the room seem to swing round her.

  Think!

  Sh
e hadn't been in the bedroom, but downstairs. Her head had hurt, the ache growing into an unyielding, gnawing pain, and then that terrible feeling of sickness had made things impossible to bear. She had got to her feet and then...

  Then it had seemed as if a huge dark wave had swept over her, knocking her off her feet and engulfing her completely.

  'Oh, God!'

  The words escaped in a weak whisper as she stirred restlessly. Her mood sharpened into a lurching panic as the movement and the brush of the fine sheets against her skin brought home to her the disturbing fact that both her jeans and her jumper had gone. A further frantic exploration with her fingertips left no room for doubt. Under the covers she was completely naked.

  'So you're awake.'

  The voice sounded from behind her, reaction jerking her round to stare straight into Sean's vivid blue eyes. 'That's progress at least,' he continued. 'I was beginning to think...'

  But Leah wasn't listening.

  'What have you done to me?' she flung at him, hearing the weak quiver in her voice that betrayed her inner turmoil.

  '"Done"?' The dark straight brows drew together in a frown. 'I've done nothing...'

  'Nothing!' It was a high-pitched shriek escaping a throat that seemed dry and tight with fear. 'I haven't a stitch on! You took my clothes.'

  He didn't even look abashed, just shrugged his shoulders in a gesture that was casually dismissive of her outrage.

  'Yeah, well, that was rather necessary." His eyes met her indignant violet ones without a trace of embarrassment 'You wouldn't have been comfortable if I'd left you fully clothed.'

  'Comfortable!' Leah almost choked on the word as she struggled to get a grip on thoughts that seemed to slip and slide inside her head like slivers of soap in a bowl of water.

  He hadn't been wearing those clothes before, she registered uneasily. The dark green sweatshirt and black cords were unfamiliar from the meal they had shared. So when had he changed?

  And—Oh, God!—another realisation made her heart clench in fear. It was not the darkness of the night that showed between a crack in the curtains but the full light of day. Immediately a thousand new worries surfaced in her mind, beating at her thoughts like a multitude of trapped butterfly wings.