He eyed her quizzically. ‘Don’t get your nose out of joint. I meant you’d fit in because of your talent for being all things to all men. You should be able to play a dumb blonde with your eyes shut.’
‘Thanks, that makes it even worse!’ she returned dryly. ‘Do me a favour and don’t pay me any more compliments like those.’ All things to all men! He made her sound as if she spent her life on her back. Lord, but he was hateful. If it was the last thing she ever did, she would show him just how wrong he was about Rachel Shaw!
She became aware that Nathan was looking her over with a jaundiced eye. ‘You’re going to have to ditch the glasses,’ he declared flatly, and she nodded, for that was the least of her problems.
‘I only wear glasses when I’m working, anyway.’
‘I suppose you think they promote a different type of image, like the suits,’ he observed dryly, and Rachel took umbrage.
‘I take my work very seriously and I do my best to appear professional at all times. There’s nothing wrong in that,’ she pointed out acidly.
Nathan’s expression spoke volumes. ‘Rachel, are you under the impression that by playing down your looks you’ve lost the ability to turn men’s heads? Take it from me, it ain’t so,’ he informed her mockingly, and every nerve in her body jumped. ‘When it comes to sex appeal, sweetheart, you’d be oozing it if your hair looked like a bird’s nest and you wore nothing but a sack tied up with a piece of string. You might not flaunt it by day, but it’s still there. You’re a sexy woman, and no amount of glasses and power suits is going to change that.’
Considering she was not the person he believed her to be, his description of her as sexy, indeed, oozing sex appeal, came as quite a surprise. It meant he had noticed her after all—not that that did her the least bit of good when the woman he thought he saw wasn’t the woman he was looking at. The knowledge hurt, and she responded accordingly.
‘I’m more than just a body and a pretty face!’
‘Maybe, but right now those are the only two of your plentiful attributes we’re interested in. They’re certainly all Luther Ames will see. Speaking of which, the more he sees, the quicker he’ll take the bait, so remember to pack your sexiest clothes,’ Nathan ordered.
Rachel knew that if she possessed any blatantly sexy clothes it was by accident, not design. She tended to wear more trendily casual clothes, not the designer dresses and evening wear he clearly expected. She would have to do some hasty shopping, though it would go very much against the grain. She didn’t much care for the idea of dressing solely to invite men to ogle her, and was beginning to see where her anger had taken her. However, she was committed, and never let it be said that Rachel Shaw ran away from anything!
‘I should be able to find something suitable,’ she confirmed.
‘We can always go shopping in Tahoe,’ Nathan offered, and her nerves jolted.
‘No!’ she refused quickly. ‘That won’t be necessary.’ The last thing she wanted was for him to buy her clothes. That would be going altogether too far.
Nathan shot her a mocking look. ‘I’d pay. You don’t have to worry about any of the bills,’ he said dryly, and the embers of her wrath flared up again.
Her smile was a gem of fake sincerity. ‘Oh, I wasn’t, but, since you’re offering, I’ll supply the clothes, you provide the diamonds.’
As she had hoped, his amusement died instantly. ‘Diamonds?’
This time her smile was entirely natural as she realised he didn’t like the implication. ‘You’re a wealthy man, and if I’m your lover you surely must have given me jewellery. I always think a woman looks naked without diamonds. Oh, but you don’t have to worry, I promise to give them back afterwards. I wouldn’t want to appear greedy.’
Blue eyes narrowed to icy chips. ‘Very generous of you. Is there anything else I should provide?’
Enjoying his irritation, Rachel’s shrug was casual. ‘I’ll let you know if I think of anything.’
A muscle ticked at the corner of his tantalising mouth. ‘I’m sure you will,’ he said frostily, and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Perhaps this whole situation would have its amusing side after all.
‘Nothing cheap, mind. I have expensive tastes.’ A calm smile tilted her lips as the lie was uttered. ‘Oh, and I really don’t care for rubies.’
A steely glint flickered in his eyes. ‘No rubies. You have no objection to emeralds or sapphires?’
‘None at all,’ she retorted brightly.
‘I’m glad to hear it. Now, if that’s the end of the shopping list, we’d better get on,’ Nathan urged, turning his attention back to Linus’s list of travel plans and thereby missing her grin of delight at having soured his mood. ‘Our flight leaves at midday tomorrow. I’ll swing by your place about ten to pick you up.’
The suggestion had instant alarm shooting through her. She couldn’t have him turning up at the apartment. If he saw Emma he was bound to recognise her, and that would never do. She wanted her pound of flesh before she hit him with the truth.
‘That won’t be necessary,’ she refused politely. ‘My…cousin will drive me,’ she explained, hoping her hesitation would make him assume her ‘cousin’ was male, and no relative at all. It worked like a charm and had his lip curling cynically.
‘OK, we’ll meet at the airport. Just make sure your “cousin” lets you get some sleep tonight,’ Nathan responded. Tucking the envelope into his jacket pocket, he took a quick glance at his wristwatch. ‘I have to leave. This business will make a mess of my calendar, and I’ll have some important meetings to rearrange. Heaven alone knows how long this is going to take.’
‘Surely a weekend should be long enough?’ Rachel put forward hopefully. She had no wish to prolong the affair either.
Nathan smiled wryly. ‘If I were Ames, I wouldn’t leave those letters anywhere they could be found too easily. We may have to search the whole damned house. You’d better just hope and pray he doesn’t have some state-of-the-art security system, or we’ll be screwed before we start. We could both end up in jail yet,’ he declared by way of a parting shot, and Rachel was left staring at the empty doorway.
She knew he wasn’t joking. Getting caught in the act was a distinct possibility, and it was a sobering thought. They were going to have to be very, very careful. Yet no matter the possibility of dire consequences, the thought of backing out never entered her head. She was going to see this through to the end for the sheer pleasure of throwing the truth back in Nathan Wade’s face.
CHAPTER THREE
SEVERAL hours later Rachel turned the key in the lock of her flat and stepped inside. Her cousin came through from the kitchen as she used her back to close the door again. Emma was as tall as Rachel, but dark where she was fair. Judging by her damp hair, she was not long out of the shower. There was a puzzled look on her face which turned to curiosity when she saw the large number of packages Rachel was carrying.
‘What are you doing here? It’s barely the middle of the afternoon. Is something wrong?’ she asked as she came forward to relieve her cousin of some of the bags. When Rachel was helping her grandfather, she generally stayed till well into the evening.
‘You could say that,’ Rachel confirmed with a grimace, tossing her handbag and the other parcels onto the nearest chair with a stifled groan. Reaching up, she deftly removed the pins from her hair. It fell in a swathe of liquid gold about her shoulders, and she combed her fingers through it with a sigh of relief. ‘Mmm, that’s better. Been jogging?’ Shrugging out of her jacket, she tossed it onto the chair too.
‘Twice round the park, as usual,’ Emma confirmed, setting the bags she held down with the others and curling herself up in a corner of the couch.
‘How did the lunch go?’ Rachel queried, referring to the catering job they’d had booked for that day, and which Emma had had to manage alone.
‘Fine,’ Emma confirmed. ‘In fact, they were so pleased they’ve booked us for another two lunches, so things ar
e looking up.’
‘That’s great. If we can get a good foothold in the lunchtime market that would be ideal.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Emma agreed, with a broad smile. ‘Well?’ she asked pointedly, watching Rachel take the other corner and kick off her shoes, wriggling her toes in pleasure. ‘What’s with this sudden desire to go shopping in the middle of the afternoon?’
By now the transformation was complete. No longer was she the Rachel Shaw who part-owned and ran a catering company. She stretched sinuously, showing off a figure few guessed lay hidden behind her professional clothes. Her glasses had already been consigned to their case on the journey home. This was the woman nobody got to see during working hours. The woman Nathan Wade had decided was a danger to all men.
‘Would you believe I ran out of clothes?’ she quipped, knowing that what she had to say would create a localised earthquake and wanting to put the moment off as long as possible. She had had time to calm down and calculate Emma’s reaction. The prospects were grim.
‘No,’ Emma returned, as expected, and Rachel sighed, accepting the inevitable.
‘OK, the truth is I had to go shopping because I’m flying out to America tomorrow—to Lake Tahoe, to be specific—and I needed some new clothes,’ she acknowledged, feeling her way carefully into a full confession.
‘America?’ Emma ejaculated in surprise, as well she might. ‘Whatever for?’
‘Because Grandfather asked me to,’ Rachel expanded cautiously.
Emma immediately relaxed a little. ‘Oh, it’s work, then. What is it this time? Some research he needs done?’
‘Not exactly,’ Rachel amended wryly. ‘You haven’t asked me who I’m going with.’
Emma’s perfectly arched brows rose. ‘I assumed with your grandfather, but obviously I was wrong. Who, then?’
Rachel took a deep breath and plunged in. ‘Nathan Wade,’ she revealed, and held her breath.
‘What?’ her cousin exploded, sitting up like a jack-in-the-box. ‘Have you gone out of your mind?’
‘Very possibly,’ Rachel returned dryly, sitting up too, and folding her arms around her knees, resting her chin on top of them. ‘You don’t know the rest of it.’
‘There’s more? Oh, Lord, Rachel, what have you done now?’ Emma charged uneasily, well aware of her cousin’s propensity for rushing in where angels feared to tread.
Her reaction had Rachel laughing. ‘I’m glad to see you’ve not lost the habit of expecting the worst of me!’ she teased.
‘I know you too well.’
‘Then you’ll know I’m not going away with him for a week of sin.’
Emma groaned. ‘I’d almost rather hear that you were.’
‘You won’t when you hear what I have to say,’ Rachel countered with a grimace. ‘Nathan thinks I eat men for breakfast. Not to mention lunch and supper!’ she added ironically, but her cousin failed to laugh.
‘Don’t be facetious. How on earth did he come to believe that? Explain, please.’
Sighing heavily, Rachel looked meaningfully at her cousin. ‘I’ll give you three guesses where he was three years ago.’
Emma was quick on the uptake, and her chin dropped. ‘You’re not serious?’
‘I’ve never been more so. He saw it all, Em. What’s more, he believed everything he saw,’ Rachel added, with an upsurge of anger as she recalled the moment he had told her. ‘That’s why he dislikes me so much.’
‘But surely he’s seen you’re not really like that?’ Emma pursued reasonably, and Rachel uttered a scoffing laugh.
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But Nathan is a law unto himself. He believes there are two Rachels, and nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.’
‘You tried, then?’ Emma challenged suspiciously, and her cousin scowled.
‘Of course I tried! He wouldn’t have it. Besides, he needs Rachel the man-eater to do his dirty work for him!’
‘Oh, Lord, I don’t like the sound of this. You’d better tell me everything, Rachel, right from the beginning,’ Emma ordered, and listened with a growing unease at the tale that unfolded.
‘So you see,’ Rachel insisted when she came to the end of it, ‘once he had said all that, I couldn’t possibly refuse.’
Emma shook her head. ‘You could, but, being you, you wouldn’t. He made you mad, so it’s a case of damn the torpedoes, you’re going to prove him wrong.’
‘You’re darn right I am! What have I got to lose anyway? The man couldn’t think worse of me.’
‘No,’ Emma agreed softly. ‘But will he think better of you when you make a fool out of him?’
Rachel sat back with a grumpy sigh, not wanting to admit the truth of that. ‘Probably not, but I’ll feel better.’ Remembering, her green eyes flashed angrily. ‘He has no right to judge me like that.’
Emma, as usual, tried to pour oil on troubled waters. ‘I know you’re angry, and you have a right to be,’ she added hastily, when Rachel made to interrupt. ‘But do consider the consequences. You could be playing with fire.’
‘Hah!’ Rachel snorted. ‘What can he possibly do?’
‘Almost anything, I should imagine,’ Emma murmured worriedly. ‘What if he decides to get his own back and turns those big baby blues on you? Have you thought of that?’
She hadn’t until then. The possibility sent shivers down her spine, and fear had very little to do with it. ‘I can take care of myself,’ she insisted.
‘Come on, Rachel, you’re in love with the man. You have been since the first time you met him. Like it or not, you’re vulnerable, and that scares me. I don’t want to see you get hurt, but I can’t see any other outcome.’
Rachel’s jaw took on a stubborn tilt. ‘I can’t back out now, Emma. There’s more to it than just spitting in Nathan’s eye. We’re doing something for Grandfather, and no matter what happens I’ve still got to go to America with Nathan tomorrow.’
Faced with that, Emma sighed helplessly. ‘Just be careful, OK? Make sure you keep a good distance from our Lothario. There’s no need to hand yourself to him on a plate.’
‘I promise I’ll be careful,’ Rachel replied, deciding it was advisable not to tell her cousin that her role was to be that of Nathan’s latest lover. The argument that would produce would probably last all night, and end up with Emma not speaking to her.
‘Famous last words,’ Emma harrumphed with a shake of her head.
Rachel pulled a face, but there was nothing she could say to ease her cousin’s fears. Only returning unscathed would do, and she was determined that that was how it would be.
‘I’m sorry to have sprung this on you, but it was a surprise to me, too. With any luck we can get this thing sorted out over the weekend. Will you be able to manage till then?’
Emma couldn’t stay mad for long, and nodded confidently. ‘Sure. No problem. I’ll have Annie with me, and Katrina said I could call on her any time, so don’t worry about the business. Just get yourself back here in one piece.’
‘You can count on it,’ Rachel promised soberly, relieved that that hadn’t gone too badly. Clambering to her feet, she held a hand out to Emma. ‘Come and see what I’ve bought, and help me decide what else to take. Do you think I should wear that little black number I bought last year, or the green silk?’
Emma allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. ‘Oh, the green. Most definitely the green,’ she agreed with a wicked grin, and with a laugh Rachel led the way to her bedroom.
Emma insisted on driving Rachel to the airport the following day, despite the traffic. They had talked well into the night, and although Emma was far from happy she had eventually got into the mood and helped Rachel pack, even offering up some items of her own.
‘Have you got everything?’ Emma checked now, watching the porter remove the set of matching luggage from the boot of the car and stack it on a trolley.
‘If I’ve forgotten anything it’s too late now,’ Rachel responded with a jaunty grin. She was looking fo
rward to seeing Nathan’s face when she waltzed in, as she had said to Emma more than once. The idea had struck her around midnight or so, and had proved irresistible. A dumb blonde he wanted, so a dumb blonde he was getting.
Emma shook her head as she surveyed her cousin’s appearance. ‘He’ll have a fit when he sees you,’ she declared dryly, and Rachel burst into giggles.
‘Oh, I do hope so!’ she prayed.
She had her hair brushed out in a lush halo that bounced when she walked and felt decidedly odd, and her make-up was a tad less than subtle. Not garish, just…noticeable. As for her clothes… She wore one of those stretch skirts, which had shrunk in the wash and showed a heart-stopping length of thigh, and a vest top of Emma’s which clung to her own slightly fuller figure.
‘Well, will I do?’ she asked, slipping on a pair of dark glasses and attempting to tug her skirt an inch or two lower. ‘You don’t think it’s too OTT?’
Emma rolled her eyes. ‘I can hear the wolf whistles already!’ she commented wryly, then waved her hands in a shooing motion. ‘Off you go. Best not keep him waiting. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he sees you.’
‘I promise to tell you all about it when I get back,’ Rachel responded with another grin. ‘Well, here goes!’
Slipping the strap of her bag onto her shoulder, Rachel claimed her vanity case from the trolley and took a deep breath. ‘I’ll ring you as soon as I can,’ she promised, then quickly turned and led the way into the concourse.
Nathan had told her where he would meet her when he had telephoned before breakfast to check that she hadn’t changed her mind, and, sure enough, there he was. Her heart did its usual little flip-flop. Lord, he was the best-looking man in the crowded hall, and the trousers and casual jacket he was wearing were so sexy she shivered in visceral response. She had been concentrating so hard on her own clothes, she had given no thought to what he would be wearing, and the possible effect it would have on her. The word ‘lethal’ sprang to mind, and she hastily bade her quaking heart be still.
A Daring Deception (Harlequin Presents) Page 4