Still, he was fun to be with, and he really did want her to play Suzie Forrester. All she had to do was convince Brandon Carmichael into agreeing to it. All? Hah!
'Hotel and country club' Anne had described The Forest, and although there wasn't much sign of the country club at the moment the hotel looked to be very comfortable. Anne and Suzie had come from a wealthy family, and this had obviously once been the family home.
The service could use a little improving, though, the front door remaining firmly closed, no one outside to open her car door for her or to take in the luggage either, as there would have been at a London hotel. Well, she didn't mind opening her own door—she had done it enough already today for one more time not to count! —but someone would have to take in the large suitcase and vanity case she had in the boot of the car; she refused to get soaked again while she grappled with them.
She pressed on the car horn, looking expectantly at the huge oak doors at the side of her. The doors remained closed. Obviously they weren't expecting any guests in this downpour, but even so—! She hooted again, keeping her hand pressed down on it. It was an act guaranteed to make her unpopular, but she was feeling too cold and miserable to care.
Her hand faltered slightly as one of the doors swung open. She heard the crash as it hit the wall with force even with the doors and windows to her car closed and the sound of the rain falling. She had long since ceased pressing on the horn.
Her eyes widened with apprehension as a giant of a man filled the doorway, and she had the fleeting impression of immense power—and anger—before he strode out into the rain as if it were no more than a light drizzle falling. Merlyn caught only a glimpse of overlong black hair, an equally unkempt black beard, and the fiercest silver eyes she had ever seen, before he disappeared behind her car. She turned anxiously in her seat to see where he had gone, almost falling out on to the driveway as her door was suddenly wrenched open.
'Have you ever heard of just ringing the doorbell like other people do?' the man exploded. 'I happened to be on the telephone when you arrived. What do you—?'
Merlyn barely registered what he was saying, let alone the fact that he had broken off the tirade so suddenly. Their gazes were locked, green merging into silver, and where once there had been a damp chill to her body there was now a quivering heat that she had never known before. She couldn't even see the man's face properly beneath the beard and the overlong hair being whipped about his features by the fierce wind. She had always preferred slender elegance in a man to the muscles she could see beneath the thick black sweater and fitted cords he wore, and yet as she gazed—drowned!—in those silvery depths, she knew this man could have carried her into the house and up to his bedroom without a word of protest from her.
As she gazed into his eyes, Merlyn knew that she wanted him. Now!
The man seemed to shake off the spell that had been weaving about them, anger darkening his eyes. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' he rasped harshly.
She still wanted him. Unless she was becoming feverish already from the numerous soakings she had received today! His next words seemed to say she had to be.
'If you prefer to just sit there looking like a drowned cat than answer me then you can damn well do so!' He slammed the car door back in her face.
'No—please!' He had reached the front door by the time Merlyn had managed to open her door and scramble out of the car to talk to him. He stood on the step looking back at her, oblivious of the rain streaming on his hair, over his face and body. Maybe if you lived with this weather long enough it did that to you! 'I—Could you take my luggage inside—please?' she added hopefully, feeling as if she had walked on to the set of Fawlty Towers and encountered John Cleese in his classic role as Basil Fawlty!
A dark scowl settled over those curiously light-coloured eyes. 'Do I look like a porter?' he scorned.
Merlyn chewed on her bottom lip. He was like no other porter she had ever met, possessed too much arrogance and authority for the—Oh no, this wasn't Anne's husband, James, was it? If it was she had committed a double gaffe, that of assuming he was one of his own porters, and of finding herself attracted to a married man, her own hostess's husband.
'Well?' He arched mockingly arrogant brows at her lack of response to his question.
Merlyn moistened her lips. 'Er—I'm sorry if I made a mistake about your position here. I—'
'I would say that's the second mistake you've made in the last few minutes,' he derided, his teeth gleaming very white against the darkness of his beard as he grinned at her discomfort.
Merlyn was so bemused by the unexpectedness of that grin that for a moment she was too mesmerised by the change it made in his appearance—his eyes a warm grey, deep grooves etched into the leanness of his cheeks—to realise exactly what he had said. But once she did realise, her gaze became wary. Had she shown so clearly the impact he had had on her? If she had she would never be able to look Anne Benton in the eye when they were introduced.
'Oh?' she queried with a casualness she was far from feeling.
'You're looking for The Forest hotel, right?' he drawled, arms folded confidently across the power of his chest, his stance challenging.
She frowned. 'Yes…'
'Well, you didn't find it,' he seemed to take great pleasure in informing her.
'Oh, but—' The sky seemed to open up at that moment, blinding Merlyn in its deluge so that she gave a start of surprise as lean fingers closed about her arm.
'For God's sake,' the man at her side exclaimed, 'let's get inside where it's at least dry!'
It was 'at least' the most beautifully furnished house Merlyn had ever seen, the whole of the downstairs area that was visible from the entrance hall decorated in subtle greens, greys, and off-white. Huge cut-glass chandeliers adorned the high ceilings and the delicately ornate staircase in front of her was like something out of a fairy-story—or a film-set, Hollywood-style, that is; things weren't done as grandly in England. What was clearly apparent was that it wasn't a hotel but a family home!
Her dismay was obvious as her gaze returned to her reluctant host. 'I'm sorry, I seem to have —Atishoo!' The force of the sneeze made her shake uncontrollably, her eyes starting to water.
'You seem to have caught pneumonia,' her host remarked wryly. 'Come on.' He took her arm and pulled her towards the staircase.
'Where are we going?' Merlyn voiced her alarm. After all, what did she know about this man? She had no way of telling if he had any more right to be here than she did; he could just be taking refuge from the storm too. He certainly didn't look wealthy enough to actually own this house! Unless he was the caretaker? That was quite possible. If she had a house like this she wouldn't want to leave it unattended. But the man facing her didn't look the type she would entrust her lovely home to either! Well, maybe she would. After all, she suspected she could entrust her heart to him without too much encouragement.
'Upstairs,' he murmured softly. 'Scared?'
The recipient of a lot of teasing from a much older brother, Merlyn had never liked to be mocked, her eyes sparkling challengingly. 'Of you?' she taunted in a derisive voice.
His mouth quirked. 'Why not? As soon as I get you upstairs I'm going to rip all your clothes off,' he stated calmly.
Merlyn stiffened, drawing herself up to all of her five feet five inches in height, aware even as she did so that the man seemed to tower over her by nearly a foot, and that he weighed at least a hundred and eighty pounds. As she had driven up she hadn't seen another house anywhere near this one, and she was well aware that she would stand little or no chance against his weight and size if he should decide to take advantage of her vulnerability.
Nevertheless, she stood her ground. 'I might have something to say about that,' she murmured.
Dark brows rose. 'Judo expert, are you?' he mocked.
'I could be,' she evaded determinedly.
'Do you usually make this much fuss about taking your clothes off for a shower?' he
taunted.
'Shower?' she blinked. 'You—'
'Yes?' he teased softly.
There were two red spots of anger in her otherwise pale cheeks, her indignation apparent by the scathing look she was sending him, the whole effect ruined by the ignominious sneeze she suddenly gave.
'No more arguments,' he declared, pulling her up the stairs with little regard for her stumbling, pushing her into a bedroom and stripping her coat off her before she had time to stop him. She did manage to pull back as he began to unbutton her blouse. 'What is it?' He frowned at her modesty. 'I have seen the unclothed female body before,' he told her impatiently.
She didn't doubt it. There was a raw masculinity about him that bespoke an intimate knowledge with women and his power over them. But he hadn't seen her body before, and that was the one she was worried about. Her hands placed over his halted his movements. 'I don't even know your name,' said Merlyn in exasperation.
His brow cleared, the mockery back. 'You mean that if we had been formally introduced you would have let me take your clothes off without protest?' he drawled.
This time the twin spots of colour in her cheeks were from embarrassment. 'No, I—'
'You can call me Rand.' He sighed his impatience with her indignant anger. 'And if you won't let me undress you then at least have the good sense to do so yourself, and then get into a hot shower. I'll be downstairs making us some coffee.' He walked forcefully from the room.
Merlyn was left with the impression that she had just survived a whirlwind. She sank slowly down on to the bed behind her, until she realised her sodden clothes would be dampening the silky peach coverlet. She stood up to undress, her thoughts with the puzzling man downstairs.
Rand. It had a nice sound to it. Her glance fell to the bed beside her. How would it feel to be in that bed beside him, her body entwined with his, crying out his name as he possessed her? Because that man would possess, not merely make love. That warm tingling she had known when she first looked at him returned to her body as she envisaged his dark head next to her fiery one on the pillows. He—
'Here you are.' Rand walked back into the room without warning, carrying her suitcase and vanity now, his eyes narrowing on the nakedness of her flesh beneath the dark blue of her unfastened blouse. Merlyn didn't need to look down to know that her flesh looked like pale ivory against the dark material.
Again that feeling of time standing still possessed her, and she made no effort to conceal the rounded curve of her breasts from his gaze. Instead, she made a rather provocative movement which brought the barely concealed nipples into thrusting prominence against the silky caress of the material.
Rand turned away abruptly. 'I thought you might like a change of clothes,' he bit out. 'Come downstairs when you're ready. I'll be in the lounge.'
As the breath slowly released from her lungs, Merlyn became aware that she hadn't drawn a breath since the moment Rand had burst in with her cases. No man had ever had this effect on her, and she found the feeling very disquietening. She didn't go around thrusting her body at men she had just met either. But then, she had never wanted a man like this before! Something was definitely making her act out of character, because she came from a family that masked their emotions, that didn't make any overt shows of feeling. Thrusting herself at Rand had been positively blatant!
The hot shower she took soothed the chill from her bones, it also stopped her teeth from chattering, what it didn't do was dampen that inner heat she had known from the moment she set eyes on Rand, as if her body knew and recognised him.
It was so ridiculous, had to be part of some sort of fever. For the first time in her life she wished flu on herself—she certainly couldn't actually want to make love with a complete stranger.
Pointedly keeping her gaze averted from the bed that had given her such erotic thoughts a few minutes ago, she gratefully pulled on dry denims and a warm jumper, although in the centrally-heated house the latter would probably be too hot once she was thoroughly rid of the chill that still racked her body. Her hair was already part-way dry, and she brushed it loosely down her back, ruefully accepting that it would become a mass of thick curls without the use of her hair-dryer to style it. In a profession where appearances often counted for everything, she had forgotten the last time her hair had been allowed to dry in this wild way. Oh well, what was the point in worrying about that now, when there wasn't a thing she could do about it? And she couldn't possibly look any worse than she had when she arrived!
The door to the bedroom opposite hers stood open now and, her curiosity piqued, Merlyn couldn't resist a glance inside. Like the rest of the house it was a splendidly furnished room, very masculine, and obviously belonged to her reluctant host, the huge bed easily able to accommodate his large frame, the peach and brown decor warm but lacking any femininity. It was a man's room, and—
Merlyn felt as if the breath had been knocked from her body as she stared at the photograph on the table beside the bed. It was of a beautiful, dark-haired woman with laughing blue eyes, love glowing in those eyes for the person on the other side of the camera.
Merlyn was drawn like a magnet to the inscription in the bottom right-hand corner of the photograph. 'Darling, I love you'. It didn't say who darling was, but because it was Rand's bedroom it had to be him, there was no signature to the declaration, but there didn't need to be one; no one who had lived in England the last ten years could help but know the woman who had dominated both British screen and theatre for that time. Suzie Forrester…
He had said his name was Rand, but— Brandon? Was that man downstairs Brandon Carmichael, Suzie's husband?
It wasn't surprising Merlyn hadn't recognised him, the only photographs she had seen of him had him dressed like the millionaire businessman that he was; the man downstairs wore faded and old clothes, and he didn't look as if he had shaved or had his hair cut for years. Years? Two years? Since the death of his wife…
Suzie Forrester's illness and then tragic death had been a blow to everyone who had ever seen her act, but to her husband of eight years it had been a loss from which he was reported never to have recovered.
He was never going to believe that Merlyn's arrival here had been accidental. He was going to think the whole thing had been staged so that she could meet him!
CHAPTER TWO
She looked at her host with new eyes when she joined him in the lounge, able to see some remnants of styling left in the overlong dark hair, also able to see the grey among the black on closer inspection. She knew Brandon Carmichael, or Rand Carmichael as he seemed to prefer to be known by those he chose to admit into the intimacy of his friendship—and after the way she had blundered in here she doubted she would ever be admitted into that small circle—was thirty-nine years old and, despite the youthfully overlong hair and the lean muscularity of his body, he looked it!
He was watching her in return, those silver eyes narrowed speculatively as she eyed him nervously. 'You'll want to telephone the hotel,' he spoke with sudden impatience.
'Will I?' She blinked cat-like eyes, wondering where all her confidence had gone when she needed it so desperately. 'I mean, I will. Of course I will,' she dismissed, irritated with herself for acting like a bumbling idiot. 'Anne will be worried about me.'
Those silver eyes glinted warily now. 'You're a friend of hers?'
She wouldn't recognise the other woman if there were only the two of them in the same room together! But she didn't stand a chance of persuading this man into letting her play the part of his wife now, had ruined any chance of that the moment she struggled to open those iron gates and drove inside. She should have known a hotel wouldn't shut its gates in that way, and she probably would have done if she hadn't felt so wet and cold by that time that she just wanted to take shelter somewhere, anywhere. Christopher was going to be far from amused when she told him what she had done, she didn't find it all that amusing herself!
'Sort of,' she answered Rand evasively, avoiding going into the details
of that acquaintance as she frowned up at him. 'Is the hotel far from here?'
He shrugged. 'A couple of miles. It's at the other end of the estate.'
Merlyn knew from her research on Suzie Forrester that the Forrester sisters had been the only children of wealthy land-owner John Forrester, and that his estate had been left jointly to his daughters on his death. As she had initially guessed, this was the main house, so Anne must have built her hotel on her half.
'Don't worry,' Rand mocked, positioned to the left of the fireplace, a cheery fire burning there in the chill of this mid-summer day. 'You're far from the first person to make this mistake, this house is called The Forresters, the hotel, The Forest.' He shrugged. 'They're too similar. Although usually the wall and gates keep people out of here,' he added dryly, seeming to imply as he did so that there was nothing 'usual' about her!
She was blushing more today than she had the last eight years, and she felt incredibly stupid. 'I'm sorry,' she grimaced. 'I've driven up from Manchester, taken so many wrong turns that I must have added twenty miles on to my journey; I was just desperate to reach the hotel by the time I spotted your gates.'
He nodded. 'I'll pour the coffee while you call Anne. You aren't going to be able to make it there tonight, I'm afraid.'
'What?' she gasped, her horror reflected in her eyes. 'But you said it's only a couple of miles away.' She shook her head. 'I can leave straight after I've had my coffee.'
'Unfortunately not,' he drawled, pouring the coffee.
'Why not?' she attacked. She had driven up here, she could drive back out again!
Merlyn's Magic Page 2