She stamped off to the shower, muttering as she stripped off. Then she turned the shower on as hard as it would go and a lot colder than her skin was prepared for.
‘Ow,’ yelled Izzy, forgetting her gentle melancholy in a rush of pure adrenaline.
She emerged, with skin tingling, to hear voices in the corridor. Her heart leaped. Could Jemima have made a break for it from her nice safe clinic?
She knotted the bath towel and rushed out, still swirling her damp hair up in another towel.
‘What’s wrong?’
She stopped dead.
It was not Jemima. It was a tall, rangy figure whose pants she kept fantasising about removing. Whom she had promised herself she would not see again.
Her hands fell. Followed by the overloaded hand towel and a mop of red hair soaked to blackness. In a move that was pure instinct, she grabbed for the knot between her breasts and clung to her bath towel like a life jacket.
In the circumstances, it really did not need the warning note in Pepper’s voice as she said, ‘Izzy, this man says he’s a friend of Jay Jay’s. Dominic Templeton-Burke.’
‘Oh, shoot,’ said Izzy, from the heart.
Bullseye!
Dom could have punched the air. Shouted in triumph. Laughed like a maniac.
And it was all the sweeter for coming out of the blue. Not even in his most extreme scenario of this meeting had he dreamed that she would be here. He felt as if he had suddenly been given every missing birthday and Christmas present of his life.
He had really, really not wanted to come and break the news to Jemima’s family. He’d practised all sorts of ways of saying it—I’m sure Jemima won’t be harmed. No, I don’t know where she is, but I’m sure she’s safe. Her stand-in felt like the sort of woman you could trust.
He’d even said it aloud. And it hadn’t sounded any better than it had in his head. He’d ended up snorting with self-mockery.
Jemima’s family would think he was soft in the head. At best. The worst was they would think he was in the plot, too. But—he could not think of anything else to do.
It had occurred to him that they might know Jemima’s co-conspirator. Another model from the agency, maybe. Or an old schoolfriend. It had never occurred to him that she would be wrapped in a precarious bath towel with Jemima’s cousin covering for her.
Yet here she was. Plain as a bear with a sore head—and twice as angry. No mistaking her. He would know those freckles anywhere.
Also the challenging eyes, that could go dreamy when you least expected it; the creamy skin; the tender mouth that didn’t know its own sensuality—yet.
Ah, but it would. If he had anything to say on the matter, that mouth would learn all there was to know about her sensuality…and more…
With an effort, Dom brought his errant thoughts back under control.
‘Hi.’ He thrust out a hand like a sword: a knight saluting his opponent. ‘Nice to meet you. Er—Lizzy?’
‘Isabel,’ said his tender-mouthed opponent, melting eyes snapping like a piranha. ‘Isabel Dare. I’m Jemima’s sister.’
Her sister! Well, that explained a lot. Not just the resemblance, either. He searched his memory for what he had been told about Jemima Dare’s family and came up with a vague feeling that she and her sister were said to be best friends. So his instinct to trust her with Jemima’s safety had to have been right, after all. That was a relief—and not entirely from Jemima’s point of view.
He gave her a warm, lazy smile. ‘Hi, Izzy. Have we met before?’
She sent a quick look at her cousin. ‘No,’ she said forcefully.
‘Really?’ Dom was beginning to enjoy himself. ‘Are you sure? I could have sworn…’
She compressed those voluptuous lips until they almost disappeared. ‘I’m sure.’ There was more than a hint of gritted teeth about it.
He suppressed a grin. Oh, boy, she was beautiful when she was in a temper. Maybe he wouldn’t mention it just at the moment, though.
‘Well, if you say so. Though I’m usually good with faces.’
‘Not this time,’ she said curtly. It was very nearly an insult.
The cousin looked startled.
He saw Izzy register it. She pulled herself together with a visible effort.
‘Sorry. That sounded rude. Put it down to tiredness and an interrupted shower.’ She even managed a smile. It didn’t hit her eyes but it showed that she was trying.
‘Trying day?’ asked Dom innocently.
She snorted. ‘You could put it like that,’ she said with feeling.
Then caught herself. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. He withstood the hard stare with a smile so bland he was sure she must realise that he knew her secret.
But in the end she gave a sharp sigh and said, ‘What can I do for you, Mr Templeton-Burke?’
‘Dominic, please. I was expecting to catch up with Jemima. We have a date for this evening.’
‘That’s a lie—’ she said, before she could stop herself. And had to cover it with a lot of coughing.
The cousin looked even more bewildered. Izzy stopped the theatrical coughing and sent him a look of such burning outrage that he nearly laughed aloud.
‘I mean—I’m sure you must be mistaken. Jemima would have said.’
‘Oh? Maybe you haven’t seen her since she put it in the diary,’ he suggested dulcetly. ‘We only met again this morning.’
Izzy sent him a look like a flame-thrower.
Pepper said hastily, ‘Oh, well, there’s your reason, Izzy. Neither of us has seen Jemima for a week or more.’ She met her cousin’s eyes and said firmly, ‘Have we, hon?’
So Pepper Calhoun was in on this conspiracy, too, thought Dominic. What was going on? Not that it mattered to him. Jemima was clearly safe with these two looking out for her. As an officer and a gentleman he had fulfilled the demands of chivalry. He could perfectly well say that he would catch her some other time and back out now.
Only—he didn’t want to. This was too much fun.
‘I suppose not,’ muttered Izzy, not very graciously.
He decided to push his luck. ‘We’re going away for the weekend,’ he said outrageously.
She gasped, and her eyes flamed him. He could almost feel her shaking with the need to yell at him that he was lying in his teeth. But as long as she kept up this pretence, she couldn’t.
‘Oh, really?’ she said at last in a strangled voice.
He nodded. ‘Yes. We’re old—friends.’ He let his voice go smoky when he spoke, so it sounded as if a lot more than friendship was involved. He was rather proud of that. He had never thought of himself as an actor before.
‘Really?’ said Izzy, her teeth snapping shut on the word.
‘Yup. Only our careers took us in different directions for a while. We’ve both been travelling. But when we met again today we realised the old magic was still there. We just had to be together. Couldn’t wait a moment longer.’
And he met her eyes with limpid innocence.
‘Did you indeed?’ said Izzy wrathfully.
He nodded enthusiastically. ‘So, is she ready?’
Izzy’s gaze sought urgent help from her cousin. ‘Er—Jemima’s not back—I don’t think—’
Pepper said firmly, ‘We never know when to expect her. She has a full social diary, you know.’ Then, as if struck by sudden inspiration, ‘Why don’t you leave a message? We’ll have her call you the moment she gets in.’
He shook his head. ‘That’s okay. I can wait.’
And pretended not to see the look of alarm that ran between them.
Impasse, he thought. This had to be the point where they gave in and told him the truth. He was surprised by how much he wanted Izzy to trust him enough to tell him the truth, now he came to think of it.
But he had reckoned without female inventiveness.
‘I’m sorry,’ Izzy told him with totally spurious regret, ‘but I’m afraid you can’t. Pepper and I have a business meeting h
ere this evening. A confidential business meeting. So I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you to go.’
Pepper barely missed a beat. She looked at her watch. ‘In fact, they’ll be here any minute.’
It was like a double act. Izzy looked at her cousin’s watch. ‘Is that the time? They’re late, then.’
Pepper began to herd him towards the door, saying over her shoulder. ‘And so are you. For heaven’s sake go and finish getting ready, Izzy. Goodbye, Dominic. It was real nice to meet you.’
Outgunned and outmanoeuvred. Dominic could hardly believe it!
He had only one shot left in his armoury. ‘But you will tell Jemima?’ he said anxiously.
‘Promise,’ said Pepper, driving him inexorably out of the door.
‘Tell her I’ll pick her up tomorrow morning.’
‘Sure—I mean, what?’
Behind her, he saw Izzy’s jaw drop. She put out a hand to stop her cousin. But it was too late. Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, thought Dom, quietly pleased with himself.
‘Ten o’clock,’ he said, retreating to the top of the stairs. ‘Nothing grand, tell her. Just country clothes. And something smart for the dance in the evening. Ten sharp.’
And, waving a cheery hand, he clattered loudly down the stairs without looking back. Though the rolling wave of consternation he left behind him thundered down the stairs after him like a tsunami.
He managed to keep a straight face until he got into the Jeep. And then he sat back in the seat and laughed until the tears ran down his face.
Oh, she was certainly a chess player, his lady in red. But she shouldn’t have taken him on. She was going to lose.
And they were both going to enjoy every minute of it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LEFT alone, Izzy and Pepper stared at each other in total dismay.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Pepper at last. ‘How can Jemima have said she’d go away with him? I never heard her mention his name.’
Izzy was shaking with fury. ‘You weren’t listening, Pepper. He fixed up that date today.’
Pepper’s jaw dropped. ‘But—’
Izzy nodded. ‘But the Dare sister he saw today was me,’ she agreed grimly. ‘Quite. And I sure as hell didn’t promise to go away with him. So he’s a liar. And I can’t say so without giving myself away. Charming, isn’t it?’
Pepper closed the door slowly. ‘What are you going to do?
Izzy thrust her hands into her damp mop, frowning horribly. She couldn’t think straight. ‘I don’t—begin to know.’
Pepper was startled. ‘You’re not seriously thinking of going away with him?’
Izzy flushed. Her heart leaped at the thought. ‘Of course not.’
‘I mean, you’ve had a lucky streak so far. But how long before you give yourself away? I mean, if the man is Jemima’s—er…’ she lowered her voice and managed a very good imitation of Dominic’s sexy growl ‘…friend?’
Izzy tried to laugh but it was not a great success. ‘He didn’t notice the difference this morning,’ she said defiantly.
Pepper was unimpressed. ‘And has he ever jumped off a crane with Jemima before?’
Izzy bit her lip. ‘I suppose not.’
‘No. And he hasn’t seen her for a few months, he said. It’s not going to be so easy when you’re sitting side by side in a car for hours at a time.’
Izzy sniffed. ‘I can talk like Jemima.’
‘For hours?’ said Pepper sceptically. ‘And what about when you’re holding hands under the stars, or whatever the British do when they go away for the weekend?’
Izzy gave an abrupt choke of laughter. ‘More likely a twelve-mile hike and then back for tea and a rub down.’
‘Right,’ said Pepper triumphantly. ‘If he’s rubbed her down before, you are in deep trouble.’ She paused, momentarily sidetracked. ‘Do you think he has?’
‘I don’t know.’ Izzy didn’t like to think about that for some reason. She nearly said so. Except then Pepper would ask why and Izzy didn’t want to think about that either. ‘I did ask her. But she wouldn’t give me a straight answer.’
‘Sounds suspicious.’ Pepper sucked her teeth, weighing the balance of probabilities and listing Dominic Templeton-Burke’s attributes on her fingers. ‘He’s cool. He’s sexy. He’s a hunk.’
Izzy could not deny it. She shrugged, looking away.
‘Okay, not Jemima’s usual type, maybe,’ pursued Pepper. ‘But it would be a sin to turn down a man like that, don’t you think?’
Izzy bridled. ‘Are you saying my sister’s promiscuous?’
Pepper looked mildly astonished. ‘I’m saying she’s human. And he’s gorgeous. What’s wrong with that?’
Izzy subsided. ‘Nothing,’ she muttered at last.
‘Don’t you just love guys who laugh with their eyes like that?’
‘Nope. I’m not attracted to compulsive liars.’
Though the very thought of the glint of laughter in Dominic’s grey-green eyes was enough to make Izzy go warm.
‘That’s just as well.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Well, if you’re going to go on pretending you’re Jemima, that’s the end of any chance of an affair with Dominic.’
‘I don’t see that,’ said Izzy captiously.
‘Aha,’ crowed Pepper. ‘So you do fancy him!’
‘No,’ said Izzy on a rising note. ‘I just don’t like being told what I can and can’t do. Explain it to me.’
‘Because people recognise each other in bed,’ said Pepper crisply.
Izzy blinked. Her cousin was no swinger. She pointed this out.
‘If he has been to bed with her,’ said Pepper, ever the clear-sighted businesswoman, ‘he’ll know you’re not her the moment you kiss him the wrong way. If he hasn’t—he’ll wonder why she’s suddenly changed her mind. Either way, he’s going to know the difference. And you’re dead in the water.’
Izzy, who had already worked that out for herself, muttered curses on her sister’s ill-documented love-life.
‘In fact,’ said Pepper, ‘if I were you I’d get a slow boat to China right now. Because if you stick around you’re going to get found out every which way. He doesn’t look the kind of guy to give up easily.’
Izzy set her teeth. ‘Neither am I. And Jemima’s counting on me. I’m not letting Dominic Templeton-Burke get in the way of that.’
‘Wow.’ Pepper was impressed. She patted her cousin on the shoulder. ‘You’re a brave woman.’
Izzy marched back to her bedroom with her head high. She didn’t feel brave. She felt stupid. And out of control.
Well, she’d been in tighter spots than this, and she was good at keeping a clear head, she told herself. The first thing to do was assess the risk. What she needed to know now—and in detail—was exactly what sort of friends Jemima and Dominic had been. No more evasions. No more games. Jemima was going to have to come clean.
She called Jemima’s clinic. And walked into a brick wall.
Ms Dare was under sedation. Ms Dare needed to rest. No calls to be put through—doctor’s orders.
‘But this is an emergency.’ Izzy’s voice rose in near panic.
The nurse had clearly heard it all before. She was quite kind and utterly immovable. She suggested Izzy call her sister’s doctor and explain the nature of the emergency. She even furnished her with a mobile number.
Izzy put the phone down slowly. She thought about it.
Yes, she could call the doctor and explain— ‘I’m going away for the weekend with a man who might have been my sister’s lover and I need to know what they do in bed.’ She shook her head. She couldn’t imagine it, somehow.
Okay, what about, I may be falling in love. Only my sister saw him first. I have to know how she feels about him. Did that sound like enough of an emergency? Would that get her through to Jemima?
May be falling in love?
Ouch! Izzy jumped up. Where had that come from? Of course
she wasn’t falling in love. She hadn’t fallen in love with Simon or Adam or all the other nice men she had dated over the last two years. Why on earth would she fall in love with a man who thought she was someone else?
‘Sex,’ she said aloud. ‘Blame it on the salsa.’
She paced her room, really disturbed.
She hesitated at her mirror. ‘It will pass,’ she assured her reflection worriedly.
Only just for the moment it did not feel as if it would pass. And she could not see a way out. Particularly as long as Jemima stayed incommunicado.
So Izzy was feeling even more out of control next morning. She raided her sister’s wardrobe to dress as Jemima Mark II and supply adequate luggage. Then she plonked the suitcases in the hall and sat down on one of them. Her shoulders dropped. She was trying hard to tell herself that she was a successful model but it was an uphill struggle. And her cousin did not help.
‘You’re crazy,’ Pepper told her roundly.
‘I know.’
‘You do not need to do this thing. Just go downstairs and tell him you didn’t agree to a date. He knows it as well as you do.’
Izzy swallowed. ‘But then I’ll still have it hanging over me.’ She did not specify what exactly. Not even to herself.
‘You’ll get found out.’
‘Maybe by then I’ll have dazzled him into keeping the secret,’ said Izzy, trying for her natural optimism.
Pepper gave her one long, incredulous look and shook her head.
‘Well, when it all blows up in your face, you’d better call me. I’ll be in Oxford with Steven. But we’ll ride to the rescue if we have to. And now I think about it—have you got your running away money?’
It was an old family joke. Pepper was a new relative but she had adopted it with aplomb. For the first time since Dominic had lobbed his hand grenade between them the night before Izzy grinned. ‘Yes, Mummy, I’ve got my running away money.’
‘Then good luck and stay safe,’ said Pepper, hugging her.
The doorbell rang. They both jumped.
Izzy put a steadying hand to her middle. ‘Whoops. Here we go.’
Pepper picked up the intercom release. An imperious voice spoke.
‘Yes, Jemima is here. She’s on her way down.’
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