by Susan Fox
In his mind, you didn’t offer bribes for any amount, much less automatically choose to bribe someone with the kind of money Doris had set aside. There were cheaper, more ethical ways to get rid of an opportunist. And if the truth was on your side, you sought protection from the courts.
Mitch was a blunt, straightforward man, so he didn’t approve of the things Doris was insisting on. What seemed particularly odd was the dating scheme, though truth to tell, spending time with Lorna wasn’t exactly a hardship.
And the nagging notion that Lorna might truly be Doris’s daughter troubled him. He couldn’t imagine rejecting an opportunity to know his own child, and would have found irresistible even a belated chance to do so.
Since adoption records were difficult if not impossible to get, perhaps Lorna was mistaken. Being mistaken about something didn’t make her dishonest. Maybe he could get her to explain her certainty about Doris.
By the time he turned off onto Lorna’s street, he stopped himself from speculating further. He’d indulge Doris’s wishes for now and wait for the results from the blood test.
Perhaps it was the tightrope he was walking that heightened his anticipation of seeing Lorna again. The forbidden was always a lure, but the truth was he would have been powerfully attracted to Lorna whatever the circumstances.
He liked the qualities he saw in her, and he liked her. Lorna was quick-witted and bright. She also had grit and spunk, and the way she’d primly stood up to him made her unique. He was surprised by how much he enjoyed her.
The fact that he had to do a believable job of pretending an attraction to her tonight for Kendra’s benefit—without giving into the blood-heating lust he felt—would be both the highlight and the challenge of the evening.
Lorna had finally managed to calm down and once her anger was under control, practicality and common sense reasserted themselves.
She’d known for months that she was courting disaster by allowing Kendra to get close to her when she knew Doris would vehemently object. She’d initially been resigned to the idea that she deserved a consequence for that, but when Mitch had shown up with a check she’d been so outraged that her willingness to suffer a consequence had come to an abrupt end. But everything had gone a little crazy since then, and things promised to get worse if she didn’t do something decisive to put a stop to it.
In view of the fact that Kendra would be marrying John Owen, it was probably inevitable that she’d have to quit her job, though she’d lived through enough financial hardships in her life to know she needed to wait for the right one to open up.
Until then, there was still the problem of Kendra. Though Lorna was appalled by Doris’s date-and-dump plan, she now saw it as the only way to forestall whatever else Doris might send her way. And, as painful as it was to contemplate, what Mitch had said was true: it was better for Lorna to suffer Kendra’s rejection than the other way around.
Kendra was sweet and open and she had a charming innocence life hadn’t allowed Lorna. Though these past months she’d been a little frustrated by her sister’s sunny naiveté, her driving instinct was to protect Kendra and shield her from hurt.
The blood test would prove who she was to everyone else, but it wouldn’t compel Doris to have anything to do with her or to approve a relationship with Kendra. She’d accepted that long ago, but it was entirely possible that Doris’s next legal move would be to claim harassment if Lorna didn’t remove herself from Kendra’s orbit. A biological mother could claim that she was being harassed by a child she’d given up and wanted nothing to do with. It had happened before.
God knew how messy something like that could become. Because of the Ellery name, a harassment lawsuit could end up in the newspapers, and the only sure outcome of that would not only be the damage to Lorna’s reputation, but it could taint her prospects for the future family she so highly prized. How many decent men would choose to marry a woman who’d been charged with harassment, and have her bear and raise their children?
Nevertheless, the thought of losing Kendra’s regard hurt. If there could ever be a realistic chance that she and Kendra might get to know each other as sisters, Lorna would never consider going through with things tonight. But because Doris would never accept her, she couldn’t put Kendra in the middle or risk that Kendra’s close relationship with their mother would be damaged.
Mother-daughter relationships were sacred to Lorna. After she’d been put into a series of foster homes after her adoptive parents’ deaths when she was eight, she’d been forced to accept the fact that she’d never know a true mother-child relationship again until she had children of her own. When that miracle happened, she’d be devastated if an outsider came between her and her child.
Since she was the outsider this time and needed to take measures for the sake of her sister, Lorna finally gave in and selected a dress from her closet for the date with Mitch.
It was a stylish black one that was as low-cut as her sense of propriety allowed and was also short enough to show her legs to advantage. She wasn’t certain it was precisely as low-cut or short or sexy as Mitch Ellery had decreed, but it was certainly tasteful and flattering enough to suit her personal standard or she’d wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.
She didn’t get many invitations to go dancing, so the opportunity was some consolation. Lots of men seemed allergic to dancing. She’d assumed the high-testosterone ones like Mitch might be more so, but perhaps he was more secure in his machismo than the average male.
Her attraction to Mitch complicated her feelings about everything else. Why on earth was she so wildly excited by the thought of being with him? She’d had plenty of dates, though they all seemed dull and weak compared to Mitch. She’d never been intimate with any of them, and hadn’t wanted to be.
But Mitch was something else entirely, and despite his conceit and his colossal nerve, she suddenly wished with all her heart that she’d met him under different circumstances. He was unique in her experience and certainly out of her league sexually, so perhaps it was the sensual peril he represented that accounted for her excitement. Where was her common sense?
When she realized she was taking extra pains with her appearance, she scolded herself for it, then continued anyway.
The moment Lorna opened her door to him and he caught sight of her in the low-cut black dress that was the stuff of classier male fantasies, Mitch was instantly suspicious.
He’d half expected her to defiantly meet him at the door in the white blouse and jeans she’d had on that afternoon, but the sexy dress and the glamorous way she’d swept her dark hair up and left a few sleek strands to dangle in saucy squiggles made him wonder if she’d decided to have a try at his wallet.
But if she was a gold digger, he couldn’t see it in the somber blue of her eyes as she let him in. And she gripped the check he’d left there the night before in nervous fingers. She didn’t waste time getting to the point and held it out to him.
“I won’t keep this,” she said stiffly, and when he made no move to take the check, she pushed it closer. “Please. Either take it back and keep it, or I’ll run it down the garbage disposal. I don’t want Ellery money of any amount, so if there’s something to pay for tonight, I’ll pay for my own.”
He took the check, folded it and slid it into his jacket pocket. “Nice speech.”
She gripped her hands together in front of her and he could tell she was working up to something. “I have another speech.”
He reached for her arm. “Give it to me in the car.”
Lorna eased back to prevent him from rushing her out. “I’ve decided to find another job as soon as possible,” she said quietly. “I only ask that you give me a reasonable length of time to find something comparable to what I have now. The moment I do, I’ll put in my two-week notice.”
He gave her a narrow look. “Good choice, but you’re talking a month, maybe longer.”
“I know, and that can’t be helped. It looks better to a prospective em
ployer when there’s no employment gap.”
“You should have done this months ago.”
Now he saw the spark of resentment in her eyes, but she gave him a restrained, “Perhaps. However, in view of my promise to you now to find another job, we don’t need to go through with this charade. I won’t take a job away from San Antonio, but with any employer other than John Owen, I’m sure Kendra won’t feel free to ask for my time during working hours.”
“What about after working hours?”
Lorna shook her head. “That’s never been a problem, and it won’t be after I switch jobs because I won’t allow it. Shallow friendships come and go. It will be a drift-away sort of thing.”
“The dating idea has a shorter shelf life,” he pointed out, “so we’ll go ahead with a convincing performance, then see how it plays.” He started to reach for her arm again to hurry her along, but she again stepped back.
“I don’t think it’s wise to go through with this.”
“Wise or not, Kendra’s expecting us.”
Now his formidable frown eased a fraction and she saw his stern mouth curve slightly. The cagey look in his dark eyes hinted at a devilment that caught her off balance.
“But maybe you’re right. We could cancel tonight and it could still be effective. She could get the idea tomorrow morning that things got so out of hand before we could leave your apartment that I spent the night.”
Her cheeks instantly turned a deep red that spread up to her hairline and sent a flush downward to the soft skin between the deep V of her dress. Her blue eyes went stormy. “There’s no way on earth she’d ever think that of me.”
“A picture’s worth a thousand words,” he drawled. “Especially if I show up at breakfast in the suit I left the ranch in tonight, unshaven, with my tie in my jacket pocket. It’s been known to happen.”
Lorna felt her face go hotter as his outrageous words impacted her. “You’d do that to me?”
Mitch’s smile eased to a serious line. “After seeing you in that dress, I half hope it’d be the truth.”
Things felt intimate between them suddenly. Lorna’s anger with him was not nearly as strong as it should have been because the peculiar shiver that went through the deepest parts of her made her legs feel a little weak, and that confused her. How could she respond with anything but outrage to what he’d said?
The glittering heat in his eyes stroked her insides and his deep voice went rough. “You look so…beautiful. I don’t like the reason we’re together tonight, but I’m not sorry to be here.”
The blunt compliment was a new shock and sapped a little more of her anger. His candor did something odd to her, and she was suddenly afraid she might actually start to like him more than was prudent. There was no good future for her in any of this, and she needed to remember that.
“Please, Mr. Ellery—”
“Mitch. It’s too late to be formal, Lorna.”
“Please, Mitch. Don’t do this.”
He glanced away from her briefly and she took hope in the hint of discomfort. When his dark gaze came back to her, it was somehow softer.
“I won’t drag you to the nightclub, but I think Doris will be more reassured if you do.”
Lorna thought instantly of a potential harassment charge and what it could mean to her. Like it or not, she was trapped. Worse, she’d trapped herself and now felt pressured by her mother’s aversion to her. If she’d quit her job months ago or contacted Mitch and explained her dilemma, perhaps they wouldn’t be here tonight and she wouldn’t be in this fix, flirting with disaster.
Because it would be flirting with disaster to pretend to be romantically interested in Mitch. If she hadn’t been attracted to him at all, the pretense Doris wanted wouldn’t be so perilous.
But she was attracted to Mitch, deeply attracted. Though he was tough and intimidating, she couldn’t forget the tender side he’d demonstrated last night. And though she wouldn’t have believed it of him, beneath his harsh exterior he was showing a surprising sense of humor that was almost playful. She liked that so much.
He was also one of the few men who seemed neither intimidated by her reserve nor put off by her aloofness. The fact that he seemed to enjoy the small verbal battles they’d had so far and was intelligent enough to catch her by surprise with some of them, was enormously appealing to a woman who’d often been disappointed in other, more predictable men.
But if she hadn’t also sensed the integrity beneath Mitch’s tough exterior, she wouldn’t consider having a thing to do with him tonight. In spite of his outrageous threat about showing up at breakfast like a sexual conqueror, she’d also sensed he was too honorable to ever do it unless it was the truth. And even then, if he had any respect for the woman he’d been with, he wouldn’t flaunt it. Only weak or immature men needed to do that.
She’d got another glimpse of the character behind his rugged face when he’d told her he wouldn’t drag her to the nightclub. The soft regret in his dark eyes had made her instantly trust him.
“All right,” she said quietly. “But I think this is a mistake.”
“Maybe so.”
Mitch reached out and touched her cheek. It was just a tiny brush of the back of his finger, but it sent a lightning bolt of energy through her that shot to her toes. One side of his stern mouth quirked.
“Smile at me, lady,” he said gruffly, “and enjoy yourself tonight. You might as well.”
Lorna stared up at him, very nearly mesmerized. Why did it have to be Mitch Ellery whose touch affected her so strongly? Why did she look into those dark, dark eyes and sense that this man could have been much more to her than an adversary?
Nothing could come of this, however much she suddenly hoped it would, so why was she letting him get to her like this? Somehow she had to get hold of her emotions because Mitch Ellery was even more off limits for her than Kendra.
She pulled her gaze away, silently picked up her tiny beaded handbag, then walked out the door when he opened it for her. The possessive hand he placed at the back of her waist was a huge distraction from her dismal feelings.
Mentally she was comparing him to every other date she’d ever had. They hadn’t even reached his car yet, and he’d already made the others seem clumsy and vaguely repellent. She told herself it was Mitch’s age, since he was older than the other men she’d dated. He was probably over thirty, though his ruggedness made it difficult to guess precisely what his age was.
He did cowboy work, which was often dangerous and always demanding, and his maturity and confidence made him a standout compared to her other dates. And despite the rough outdoor work he did and his earthy masculinity, his every move seemed suave and sophisticated and just as natural for him.
When they reached his car, he tripped the power locks on the door, then opened it to smoothly see her seated. She couldn’t help staring as he walked around the front of the car, waited a beat for a break in traffic, then came to the driver’s door and got in. He quickly started the engine, buckled up, then eased the big car into the street.
The silence between them was peaceful, but she sensed the thread of delicate tension between them that seemed firmly attached to her insides. She was aware of every move he made, so she glanced his way to see his big hand move with easy competence on the wheel before her gaze dropped to stare at the one that rested casually on his thigh. She had to make a determined effort to stop ogling him and face the windshield.
Mitch’s low voice brought her attention back.
“Given the fact that your adoption records were sealed, what makes you think you’re Doris’s daughter?”
Lorna heard the genuine curiosity in his mild tone, but the question put her squarely on the spot. It was not a story he should hear from her, and it wasn’t a story she thought she could repeat to him without becoming emotional.
Besides, it wasn’t right to injure Doris’s relationship with her stepson. From what Lorna now sensed about Mitch Ellery, telling him the whole story might
gain her an ally, but it might also diminish Doris in his eyes and strain their relationship. And something like that would affect Kendra, who would surely be able to sense something amiss between her mother and stepbrother.
Lorna would soon be out of their lives. It wasn’t fair to any of the Ellerys for her to expose something they’d all have to live with after she was gone.
Even if she told Mitch a tiny part of it to satisfy his curiosity, instinct told her it wouldn’t stop there. Mitch had money and if he was the kind of man she sensed he was, he’d already hired someone to look into her background. He could make hay with the tidbit she might give him and he’d find out too much.
Better not to reveal anything of that horrifying time when she’d been eight years old. Better to keep that door closed, for Doris and Kendra, and for her. And now that she’d agreed to quit her job and go through with this dating sham, there was no longer a reason to bother with the blood test.
“We’ve passed the point for that question,” she said quietly, careful to keep her voice even and businesslike. “I’ve promised that I will exit Kendra’s life. I’ve not only agreed to quit my job, but I’m cooperating with this bizarre plan to date you then break your heart.” She gave a small shrug that made him momentarily glance her way.
She met his stern gaze. “So even a blood test has become unnecessary. Since I’m not a very public person and we don’t move in the same social circles, I doubt any of the Ellerys will hear from me again.”
His dark gaze drilled into hers longer than was prudent, considering he was driving, but then he faced forward. His profile was harsh and his rough voice was terse as he concluded, “Then you don’t know for a fact.”
“No comment.”
He glanced at her so suddenly that he caught her off guard. She jerked her gaze from his but not before she saw the glitter in his dark eyes that showed both anger and perception.