Gift of Gold

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “What if I hadn’t been the kind of woman you thought you could use to manipulate Kincaid?” Verity demanded.

  “I would have had to find another way to throw Kincaid into battle with Jonas,” Caitlin said quietly. “I was willing to wait until I had the perfect scenario.”

  “Since you did have me,” Verity persisted grimly, “how did you plan to use me?”

  Caitlin explained patiently. “It was only necessary that Jonas find you and Kincaid in a compromising position sometime during the evening. That was easy to plan. The bedroom you’re in, the one in which I was tortured and raped, has a door that connects to the room Kincaid was assigned. He would remember that, of course. And I knew that he would not be able to resist trying the lock, knowing you were on the other side. He would have found it unlocked. It was alarmed so that I would know the instant it had been opened. Tavi would then have fetched Jonas and told him she was worried about you.”

  “And I was just going to lie there in bed and blithely invite Kincaid into my room?” Verity asked with asperity.

  “I’m afraid,” Caitlin said uneasily, “that you would have been extremely sleepy and unaware of what was going on by then. You probably would have thought it was Jonas coming into the room. Kincaid would have assumed you were groggy from too much alcohol. He would have been delighted with the opportunity your condition would have offered him. The idea of taking you while you were too dazed to protest or even remember much about it would have appealed to his perverse nature. He would have known you could hardly complain in the morning. What excuse could you have offered for your condition? That you were too drunk to fight him off? No, you would have kept silent. Rape victims usually do.”

  “But I wouldn’t have gotten that drunk,” Verity exclaimed, shocked.

  “Don’t you understand, Verity?” Jonas asked harshly. “Your good friend Caitlin was going to poison you. A real Renaissance touch, that.”

  “No,” Tavi protested earnestly. “She was only going to be given a strong sedative, that’s all. Just enough to make her woozy. We never wanted to hurt her.”

  “I ought to kill you both,” Jonas said quietly, too quietly.

  “Me, perhaps,” Caitlin agreed wearily. “But not Tavi. Tavi tried to stop me all along. I can only assure you that I never meant to put Verity into any real danger. It was all arranged for you to show up in the nick of time, Quarrel. The right rapier would be at hand and you would have been predisposed to use it. The setting was perfect.”

  “Not quite,” Jonas said dryly. “You made one major miscalculation. Verity was going to sleep with me tonight. She wasn’t going to be alone in that damned bedroom. If Kincaid hadn’t taken matters into his own hands, there would have been no confrontation between the two of us.”

  Caitlin lifted startled eyes to his. “But I had assigned that room to Verity and she knew that there were a half-dozen guests in the house. She wouldn’t have risked the embarrassment of being seen sneaking down the hall to your room. Nor would she have allowed you to sneak into hers. You forget how much I’ve learned about her. She has a strong sense of the proprieties. For God’s sake, she wasn’t even comfortable bathing nude in a women-only spa!”

  “Why is it so hard for everyone to understand that I’m not pure as the newdriven snow?” Verity demanded between set teeth. “Nor am I a prude. Not anymore, at any rate. Jonas is right, Caitlin. I had planned to spend the night in his room. Your whole plan would have gone awry if Kincaid hadn’t taken the initiative tonight.”

  Caitlin stared at her for a very long time. “Then perhaps the whole thing was fate, after all,” she finally whispered.

  “The whole thing,” Jonas announced grimly, “was a disaster. You put Verity’s life in danger and you nearly got me killed. All to satisfy your need for vengeance. I’ve got no objection to vengeance, Caitlin, but you had no right to involve Verity or me. The only reason you and Tavi are still walking around in a healthy condition is because I know Verity would be furious with me if I took a little vengeance of my own. I give you fair warning, however. Don’t come near her again, either of you, or I’ll take matters into my own hands. Clear?”

  “Yes,” Caitlin said in a dreary, defeated voice. “Perfectly clear. Verity, I want you to know that the true casualty tonight is our friendship. I will regret losing it for the rest of my life. I had no idea when I first met you how important your friendship would become to me.”

  Jonas saw the spasm of sympathy that crossed Verity’s face before she narrowed her eyes and asked coldly, “Tell me one thing, Caitlin. Did you know Kincaid was a fencing expert?”

  “I knew. There is very little I didn’t know about Damon Kincaid.”

  “Then you knew just how dangerous the whole thing was going to be for Jonas.” Verity concluded tightly.

  “There were risks involved. I realized that,” Caitlin agreed. “But I didn’t expect Kincaid to be armed.”

  “Your original plan wouldn’t have worked,” Jonas announced before Verity could lose her temper. His own anger was barely under control. “I wouldn’t have let Verity out of my sight long enough for her to get into that kind of trouble.”

  Caitlin switched her gaze to his. “You let her out of your sight long enough for her to nearly get killed tonight. If my plan had prevailed she would never have been in any real danger.”

  Jonas’s stomach tightened into a block of ice as he silently acknowledged the truth of that statement. He used his grip in Verity’s hair to give her head a slight, exasperated shake. “Remind me to beat you later, Verity, for walking out of that party this evening. I gave you orders not to leave the crowd, remember?”

  “I had to follow Kincaid when I saw him leave shortly after you did,” she explained. “I thought he was after you.”

  “No, you did not have to follow him. You deliberately disobeyed instructions. But we’ll get into that later.” He glared at Caitlin. “So that’s it? The whole story?”

  “There’s nothing more to tell,” Tavi said aggressively. “It’s over. Be done with it.”

  Jonas got to his feet, using his good arm to pull Verity up beside him. “Not a bad idea,” he said to Tavi. “We’re done with it, all right. Congratulations, Caitlin. Tonight’s little drama had everything a Renaissance scheme needed—lies, deception, the betrayal of a friend, a desire for revenge, and the intent to kill. You would have done very well four hundred years ago. But Verity doesn’t belong in that world. We’re getting out of here. Go upstairs and pack, Verity.”

  “Jonas, it’s nearly two in the morning.”

  “We’ll find a motel somewhere along the way.”

  “But, Jonas…”

  “If we don’t find one we can drive on home. It’s not that far.”

  “But, Jonas…”

  He looked at her. “We’re leaving, Verity,” he said quietly. She threw up her hands and surrendered. Without a word, she stalked out of the room.

  No one said a word as they waited for Verity to return. When she came back downstairs with two suitcases and the peacock-blue costume, Jonas silently took her arm and led her outside to the car. He put her into the passenger seat. His arm hurt but he figured he could drive.

  It was still raining as they drove away from the ugly house on the cliffs.

  Half an hour later they found a motel that was still open. Verity fell asleep almost immediately, entangled in the reassuring warmth of Jonas’s hard body. Jonas was not far behind her. The exhaustion that claimed them both went deep.

  Verity awakened first, her eyes opening slowly to a room full of watery sunlight. The storm had passed. She yawned and stretched and decided she was almost back to normal. She felt Jonas stir beside her and she propped herself on one elbow to look down at him.

  “How’s the arm?” she asked first.

  “Hurts. But I’ll live.” He smiled sleepily, one hand straying under the c
overs to find her bare thigh. “Providing I get enough cosseting and devoted attention, that is.”

  Verity ignored that. She had other things on her mind. “Jonas,” she said very seriously, “Kincaid was a real expert with that rapier, wasn’t he?”

  “He was good.”

  “When you selected the metallic-colored ribbon from the bunch of tendrils around me in that corridor, you were deliberately picking up the one that would allow you to tap in to the skills of the guy who had originally owned the rapier, weren’t you?”

  “I was desperate. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to dodge Kincaid much longer and I’m no fencer, Verity. Help didn’t seem to be arriving very quickly.”

  “And I couldn’t get at the gun,” she concluded unhappily. “So you did the only thing you could think of in that moment. You took a terrible risk, Jonas.”

  “I had you there to help me,” he pointed out gently. “I’m a lot stronger with you around. You know that, don’t you? I didn’t get swamped with that other man’s emotions when I touched the ribbon. I was still aware of who I was and what I was doing. I knew damn well I was dealing with Kincaid, not some four-hundred-year-old ghost.”

  “Maybe the need to survive is stronger than any other force, past or present. You were fighting for your life, Jonas. That’s a very powerful incentive to stay alert to present circumstances.” Verity shook her head in rueful wonder. “Thank heavens the original owner of that rapier was a better fencer than Kincaid.”

  Jonas considered that. “‘Better isn’t quite the word for it. In terms of actual skill, he and Kincaid were probably on about the same level. But there were two major differences that gave me the advantage.”

  “Which were?”

  “The first difference is that the style of fencing has changed through the years. The guy who used that rapier four hundred years ago had been trained in a different technique than the one Kincaid used. Still, that might not have mattered too much in the long run. The handicap was mutual, so to speak. Kincaid couldn’t predict what I was going to do and I couldn’t predict his movements.”

  “So what was the second difference?” Verity persisted.

  Jonas looked at her for a long moment before he said calmly, “The second difference was that Kincaid’s fencing was of the modem variety in another crucial aspect. He had never been in a real duel. People don’t fight real rapier duels in this day and age. I think he has very probably killed a couple of people, but he didn’t do it while trying to dodge an untipped rapier. Facing a naked blade makes a big difference, believe me. You don’t take the kind of chances you would take in a regular fencing match. At least a modern man wouldn’t.”

  Verity swallowed as she realized what he was saying. “And the man who had used your blade had fought for real?”

  Jonas sighed and leaned back on the pillows, his hands clasped behind his head. “Yeah. He knew what it was like to fight for his life with an untipped rapier. He knew how to take chances. I guess you could say I had the ultimate advantage.”

  Verity shuddered. “Whenever I think about it, I’m going to get chills.”

  “Then don’t think about it,” Jonas suggested pragmatically. “You know, I’ve been doing some thinking, myself.”

  “About what?” Her heart lifted. Had he been thinking about their relationship? she wondered.

  “About the fact that I definitely am stronger around you. Your presence is changing things, Verity.” Excitement laced his words now. “Do you realize I was able to use that ribbon of skill tonight without losing myself in the process? I’ve never been able to do that before. I stayed alert to my real time situation while I tapped in to something that was four hundred years old. I’ve never had that kind of freedom with my talent. The last time I tried it, I was swamped with another man’s emotions and awareness. When I nearly killed that lab tech five years ago, I actually thought I was some character named Giovanni and I thought the tech was a Renaissance era assassin. But tonight I knew who I was and I knew who Kincaid was. It was an incredible feeling, using that ribbon without losing my sense of self-awareness. I wonder if..”

  “Don’t even think about conducting any more tests such as that one,” Verity said with a shudder. “Jonas, we don’t know what we’re playing with. Your talent is extremely dangerous. I know something awful would have happened if you’d used that blade to kill Kincaid tonight. I was certain the violence of Kincaid’s death would have allowed everything that I was trying to control in that psychic corridor to break free and flood you. We don’t know what would have happened then.”

  Jonas contemplated that for a time and then nodded soberly. “You’re right. As usual.” He stretched out his unbandaged arm and pulled her down onto his chest. His lashes lifted and he looked deeply into her eyes. For a moment the gold in his gaze was so hot it could have melted steel. Then Jonas grinned slowly and wickedly. “You saved my ass, sweetheart. I wouldn’t have made it without you. I owe you.”

  “You don’t owe me. Your ass needed saving because you were busy saving mine at the time.”

  His grin broadened and he gave her derriere a proprietary pat. “Having saved two such valuable portions of our respective anatomies, we should probably celebrate in an appropriate fashion.”

  “Your arm...”

  “It was not my arm I was proposing to employ in the endeavor.”

  She felt his manhood stirring against her thigh. “Not yet, Jonas. We have some more talking to do.”

  “About what?” He ran a finger along the upper curve of her breast.

  “About what might have happened if the forces in that corridor had overwhelmed you, for one thing!”

  “They didn’t, so let’s not talk about it.”

  “We can’t ignore that kind of power, Jonas,” she said fretfully.

  “I’ve been living with the threat a long time. I’ve survived so far. And now I’ve got you. I’m in better shape than ever.”

  “Do you think you’re the only person on the face of the earth who’s faced with dealing with whatever comes through that corridor?”

  “I don’t know. There were other people being tested at Vincent College. Maybe one of them had some talent. Right now I don’t know and I don’t particularly care. All I want to do at this moment is make love to you.”

  “Does this mean you’ve decided not to beat me after all for leaving the party to follow Kincaid?”

  Jonas squeezed her bare buttock. “Let’s just say I’m feeling indulgent and will probably let you go unscathed this time. Also, with one arm in bandages, it would be hard to administer the kind of spanking you need. Too much like work. Maybe later.”

  “Don’t hold your breath.” Reluctantly Verity let herself be drawn into his sexy, teasing mood. There were still a lot of questions she wanted to ask, but she sensed that he would only stonewall her if she tried to get answers now. Jonas was making it clear that he did not want to discuss his frightening talent or the future. And this morning she was too glad to have him alive to want to push him.

  “I’m not planning on holding my breath. I much prefer holding you. But in view of my somewhat incapacitated position, you’re going to have to do all the work,” Jonas told her.

  Verity smiled with a feeling of sudden triumph. “I get to do the work? You’ve finally decided I’m not such an innocent after all?”

  “Lady,” he announced in grave tones, “this is your chance to prove to me that you have the makings of a siren, a scarlet woman, and a seducer of men. Show me what a heartless temptress you can be.”

  “You’re on,” she agreed and yanked the sheet down past his hips. For an instant she stared at the aroused, aggressive fullness she found there. “No, I take that back. You’re up.”

  “You could say that.”

  She reached out to touch him intimately, loving the contrast between the rock-hardness of his shaft and t
he velvety skin that covered it. Some of the teasing light left Jonas’s eyes and was replaced by a familiar male hunger.

  “Oh, yes, sweetheart,” he breathed, “that’s it. Your hands always feel so good. So damn good.”

  Verity slipped her fingers down to cup the swelling mounds at the base of his shaft. She leaned forward and dropped a tiny kiss on one male nipple. Jonas’s groan of pleasure came from deep in his chest. His legs shifted under the sheet and his fingers tangled in her hair.

  Verity gave herself up to the joy of making love to him. She moved over him with growing delight, tasting him with the tip of her tongue, exploring him with fingers that were sensitive to every reaction they elicited.

  She slid down the length of him, dropping warm, damp kisses in her wake until she reached the rough, curly hair that framed his manhood. Her own red hair spilled across his flat stomach as she boldly brushed her mouth against the pulsing hardness of him. Jonas’s whole body seemed to clench in reaction. His hips lifted, silently pleading for more of the erotic attention.

  Verity obliged willingly, thrilled by his response. It was unbelievably exciting to be able to excite this man. It gave her a heady feeling of feminine power that was unlike anything she had known.

  “Jonas?” she whispered softly.

  He grunted and used his palm against the back of her head to hold her where he wanted her. She took him into her mouth and Jonas sucked in his breath.

  “That’s it, babe,” he gasped. “That’s it.”

  He tasted hot and male and musky. Verity sampled him carefully and then bravely experimented with her teeth.

  “Verity!”

  She freed him and scrambled up to sit astride his thighs. Her fingers splayed across his chest as she gripped him firmly with her legs. “How am I doing?” she asked throatily as she eased herself down until he was at the entrance of her small passage.

  Jonas opened his eyes, his expression taut with desire. “Don’t worry,” he muttered, “you have my vote for the Most Wicked Woman of the Year award. Stop tormenting me and get on with the job.”