‘Forget that bastard!’ he grated. ‘What did Gilbraith say?’ His eyes were narrowed.
Laurel shrugged evasively. ‘He isn’t—wasn’t, a very sensual man,’ she dismissed.
‘I am,’ Reece told her softly. ‘Very sensual. And I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you, in every way there is and ever has been.’
‘When you first saw me I was slumped over the steering-wheel of my car covered in blood,’ she scorned the claim.
His steady gaze held hers. ‘And I wanted you.’
‘That sort of want is just a bodily function. And I’m not into the Kama Sutra,’ she scorned.
‘I said in every way there is,’ he insisted intently. ‘Not every position. It isn’t just sex I want from you. Laurel, I—’
‘Would you please go now?’ She turned away, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her. ‘It’s been a traumatic evening; I’d like to be alone now.’
‘Laurel—’
‘Please go, Reece,’ she sighed wearily.
‘Okay,’ he rasped. ‘I will. It’s too soon for you, I realise that, but you didn’t love Gilbraith, Laurel. It’s only your pride that has been injured, and once you get over that I—’
‘Our engagement will be broken and we can get on with our respective lives,’ she interrupted curtly. ‘I’m grateful for your help, and a few moments ago I may even have felt a little sexual curiosity concerning you, but that’s all it was.’
‘Was it?’ His eyes were narrowed.
‘Yes, it was,’ she answered calmly.
He looked at her silently for several seconds, and then he slowly nodded. ‘I’ll be there about six-thirty tomorrow.’
‘Yes.’ She accompanied him towards the door.
‘I don’t… Good God, what do you have all these locks for?’ He eyed the four locks on the inside of her door disbelievingly. ‘This isn’t New York, you know!’
Laurel shrugged. ‘There have been several burglaries in the building the last few months; these locks are just a precaution.’
Reece frowned darkly. ‘Burglaries? I don’t like the sound—’
‘No one asked you to like or dislike it,’ she snapped irritably. ‘I’ve taken care of myself since I was sixteen years old, I certainly don’t need some strong arrogant man trying to throw his undoubtable weight about in my life now!’
‘I hope you weren’t implying that I’m fat,’ he said indignantly.
He was a big man, about two hundred pounds, possibly a little less, but he was in no way fat, just pure muscle and sinew and deep copper-tone flesh. ‘Maybe a little,’ she mocked. ‘Maybe you don’t get enough exercise.’
His eyes widened, gold flames in the dark brown depths. ‘I’m hoping to improve that in the near future.’
Laurel couldn’t prevent the blush coming to her cheeks at the intended innuendo. ‘Reece,’ she began warningly, disconcerted by the sudden grin he gave, deep grooves etched beside his mouth and eyes, an endearing dimple appearing in one cheek. ‘What is it?’ she demanded suspiciously.
‘Am I really strong and arrogant?’
She frowned. ‘It’s nothing to feel proud of, arrogance isn’t a virtue.’
‘It is when it’s combined with strength,’ he said with satisfaction.
Laurel was about to argue with him, and then thought better of it; she wanted him to leave tonight, not get into an argument about his virtues—or lack of them. ‘If you say so,’ she conceded abruptly.
He raised dark brows, grimacing. ‘You want me to leave, right?’
‘That is the general idea.’ She stood her ground firmly as she waited at the door.
‘Don’t forget to fasten the lock—all of them!—after I leave.’ His hand gently cupped one side of her face. ‘I don’t like to think of you alone here when someone is known to be burglarising the place.’
‘It’s a wicked world we live in,’ she taunted drily.
His mouth quirked. ‘Just tell me if I’m being too over-protective,’ he mocked.
She knew he was teasing, but she gave him a serious answer. ‘I don’t want, or need, anyone to protect me.’
‘You were going to marry Gilbraith,’ he pointed out reasoningly.
‘It would have been a partnership, not the usual male-dominated marriage,’ she dismissed.
It was to have been much more than just a marriage partnership, she and Giles had been going to be business partners, too; had already started to do so after Giles had questioned her trust in him to help her. A couple of months ago, since they had begun arranging their engagement party, she had agreed to let him handle some of the bills, had even made arrangements at the bank so that he could sign the cheques for those bills. Two days ago she had received another reminder for one of those bills. She hadn’t been concerned at the time, had put the confusion down to the Christmas post. Now she wasn’t so sure.
CHAPTER THREE
SHE didn’t know how she could have fallen for such a trick. She had grown up around the users her mother seemed to constantly be involved with, had always been amazed when her mother didn’t see through them, most of them staying around for a couple of months, taking what they could, before moving on to another lovely woman in need of friendship and a little love.
She had been in need of companionship herself if not love, but she had approached her relationship with Giles with the cool practicality she did everything else. And she had been fooled by Giles easy-going nature, his unassuming manner, she knew it now as she looked into his calculating blue eyes.
They had met six months ago when he came in to order a computer book she didn’t have in stock, tentatively asking her out when he came back to collect the book. Of course, she had refused; she knew nothing about him except his name, and that he was very handsome with his blond, blue-eyed good looks.
During the summer she sat outside on a bench to eat her lunch, the square where the shop was having several placed among the bushes and flowers. Giles had begun to join her on the bench for lunch, and as she did know him as a customer it would have been churlish to ignore him when he made conversation with her. She had found that she liked talking to him, that they both had a deep interest in books. She enjoyed her lunch-breaks with him, had accepted the next time he asked her out and, over the next few months, had found him to be undemanding and comfortable to be with. Maybe undemanding and comfortable weren’t qualities most women looked for in a relationship, but they had suited her. And she could see now that Giles had realised that and played his part.
He was still playing that part, but Laurel was no longer fooled by it.
‘I do love you, Laurel,’ he told her pleadingly. ‘I just—the idea of marriage frightens me.’
‘And when did you make that startling discovery?’ she derided, the two of them facing each other across her office, Giles having arrived at six o’clock, as she had known he would.
‘Don’t be hard, Laurel,’ he chided in his soft Scottish brogue. ‘I don’t like it when you’re hard.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said with sarcasm. ‘I’m usually this way when the man I intended marrying doesn’t show up at our engagement party!’
‘I’m trying to explain—’
‘Explain!’ Her eyes glowed angrily. ‘You could have explained last night instead of sending me this note!’ She threw it across the room at him. ‘If it hadn’t been for Reece—’
‘You didn’t tell me your stepbrother was Reece Harrington,’ he accused.
‘I didn’t know it would interest you—then,’ she added pointedly.
He flushed resentfully. ‘What do you mean?
‘Campbells wrote to me on Wednesday,’ she bit out. ‘They haven’t received the cheque for next year’s rent money. And yet it’s been debited from the account; I checked this morning.’ Her eyes narrowed on him. ‘I also made sure you can’t cash any more cheques from that account,’ she told him hardly.
‘Laurel—’
‘What did you do with the mo
ney, Giles?’ she asked coldly. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope you haven’t spent it?’ she scorned her own stupidity in even asking such a question; of course he had spent it!
‘If you’re really Robert Harrington’s stepdaughter what are you doing trying to eke out a living in this dead-end shop?’
Her mouth twisted. ‘Last week this dead-end shop was a “little gold-mine”,’ she reminded derisively, seated behind her desk as she eyed him scathingly. It had been another long day at the end of another long week; she just wanted her money back and to forget she had ever known Giles Gilbraith!
‘You don’t have to work at all now that your mother has married into that family!’
Laurel looked at him as if he were a stranger—as she had a feeling he was! ‘I told you, my mother and I don’t get on.’
He gave a scornful laugh. ‘I’d get on with the devil himself for that sort of money!’
Thank God he hadn’t known about the Harringtons; he may actually have gone through with marrying her if he had known of her connection to them! ‘You’ll probably have to one day—get on with the devil, I mean,’ she said coldly. ‘Now what have you done with my money?’
‘I haven’t done anything—’
‘Don’t even try to lie any more, Giles,’ she told him tiredly. ‘You took the money, we both know that.’
His façade dropped completely as he confidently faced her across the room. ‘I didn’t take the money, you authorised it for me to sign that cheque. No one is going to believe you were made to do that under duress,’ he sneered. ‘I had bills to pay, so I paid them.’
‘Thousands of pounds worth?’ she scorned. ‘Ten thousand pounds?’
‘Yes,’ he rasped. ‘After all, I have a very extravagant wife to support,’ he added tauntingly.
Laurel could feel the colour drain from her cheeks. ‘You—you’re married?’
‘Very,’ he grimaced. ‘Pamela needs a lot of supporting. And then there’s Kevin.’
She swallowed hard. ‘Your son?’ she guessed raggedly.
‘Yes,’ Giles rasped. ‘Our son.’
It had never occurred to her that Giles could already have a wife. He had always seemed to have plenty of evenings free for the two of them to meet.
‘Pamela thinks I’m working,’ Giles read her thoughts ‘To keep her and Kevin in the manner to which they’re accustomed,’ he derided.
Laurel swallowed down the nausea. ‘Do you love her?’ It didn’t sound as if he could!
‘Obsessively,’ he bit out grimly. ‘Why else do you think I whore myself for her?’
She stiffened. ‘We didn’t make love!’
‘Because I couldn’t,’ he rasped.
‘I wasn’t aware that I had ever given you the impression that I wanted you to!’ she snapped. ‘I want my money back, Giles,’ she told him icily.
He shrugged. ‘I told you, I don’t have it any more.’
‘Then you had better find it—and quickly,’ she warned softly.
An unpleasant smile curved his lips. ‘Or?’ he challenged.
‘Or find yourself charged with theft,’ she bit out tightly.
“And what would the Harringtons think of that? The stepdaughter duped out of a measly few thousand pounds!’
‘It wasn’t measly to me,’ she rasped. ‘And I want it back.’
‘I can’t give you what I don’t have.’ He shrugged again, dismissively this time.
She didn’t have the money to replace what she had foolishly let Giles take from her, and if she didn’t pay the money due on her lease she could lose the shop. ‘You can’t have spent it all, Giles, you must have some of it left,’ she encouraged desperately.
‘I spent the last of it on a fur coat for Pamela for Christmas.’ He shook his head. ‘By the way, the ring is hers too, so I’d like it back.’ He looked at her expectantly.
His audacity left her speechless. He had made a fool of her, stolen from her, actually given her a ring that belonged to his wife as their engagement ring, and now he had the nerve to ask for it back!
‘Your wife’s taste in jewellery seems to be as bad as her taste in men!’ she bit out harshly.
Fury glittered in pale blue eyes. ‘You seemed quite happy with both until today!’
‘I thought you were something you weren’t—’
‘A pet you could order about and stroke when you felt like it!’ he scoffed.
‘No!’ Her eyes widened angrily.
‘A damned eunuch who was occasionally allowed the privilege of kissing those puritan lips.’ He looked at her with dislike. ‘Your engagement to Harrington is as phoney as you are!’
‘I—’
‘I want that ring back, Laurel.’ His voice was dangerously soft. ‘I would have had it yesterday if you hadn’t got to the jewellers first!’
She drew in an angry breath. ‘I’ll return the ring when I get my money back and not before,’ she announced challengingly.
‘Now!’ he grated.
She slowly shook her head. ‘Not until I have my money. And just out of interest, where does your wife think the ring is?’
‘At the jewellers being made smaller, of course,’ he derided hardly.
‘Of course,’ she smiled humourlessly. ‘Then you’re going to find it a little awkward explaining it’s non-appearance to her, aren’t you?’ she mocked.
‘I want the ring, Laurel,’ he ground out threateningly.
‘And you can have it,’ she paused. ‘As soon as I get my money.’
‘Why you—’ He broke off, looking round as there was a loud knocking on the shop door. ‘Can’t he read the “Closed” sign?’ Giles scowled as the knocking continued.
Laurel stood up. ‘It’s Reece,’ she told him abruptly. ‘I doubt you would want him to hear this conversation any more than I would,’ she spoke softly. ‘So we’ll accept that we’re at stalemate for the moment, agreed? I said, agreed, Giles?’ she repeated hardly as he made no reply.
‘I’m not giving up, Laurel,’ he told her between gritted teeth.
‘Don’t worry,’ she gave a harsh laugh. ‘Neither am I!’
She moved to unlock the door, could see Reece scowling at Giles even as she opened the door to him
‘Am I late or is he early?’ he demanded without preamble as Laurel relocked the door behind him.
He had brought the cold in with him, although he looked nice and warm in snug-fitting denims, a thick green sweater and black body-warmer. Laurel had rarely seen him in anything but a business or evening suit, and his informal clothing today somehow lent truth to their engagement. She hoped so, because she didn’t think she could take any more humiliation today.
‘He’s early,’ she told him softly, watching as the two men faced each other across the room, disliking each other on sight. Could Reece see what she hadn’t, that Giles was weak and mercenary, that he had pretended to love her, to plan their engagement so that he could steal her money from her? Did Reece pity her even more now that he had seen the man she had contemplated marrying? If he did he gave no sign of it as he put his arm about her shoulders and held her against his side.
‘No hard feelings, I hope, Gilbraith?’ He watched the other man with narrowed eyes. ‘I took advantage of your attack of commitment jitters and claimed Laurel for my own.’
He made it sound as if Giles were the one who had been let down, and Laurel waited to see how Giles was going to react to that. She was depending on the fact that Giles would no more want Reece to know he had tricked her out of thousands of pounds than she did, and at the moment Giles seemed to be fighting an inner battle between calling Reece a damned liar and taking the easy way out and accepting what the other man said at face value. She hoped he opted for the latter!
‘As long as Laurel is happy with the decision,’ he finally rasped.
‘Oh, she is,’ Reece nodded confidently. ‘And I’ll make sure she stays that way.’
Laurel wondered if she had imagined the threat behind those innocen
t words, but one glance at Giles’s face told her she hadn’t; anger was darkening his eyes.
‘I’m sure I will.’ She made a show of snuggling into the side of Reece’s body. ‘With you.’
His arms tightened about her. ‘If you’ve got what you came for, Gilbraith?’ he challenged the other man.
For a moment Laurel thought Giles was going to dispute that, and she stiffened warily.
Then he gave a barely perceptive shrug. ‘For the moment,’ he gave a cold smile.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Reece demanded softly. ‘I think I should warn you that I won’t take kindly to anyone trying to take something I consider mine.’ This time there was no mistaking the threat.
‘I know the feeling.’ Giles widened deceptively innocent blue eyes as Laurel gasped. ‘I wish you both long life and happiness,’ he added lightly. ‘I’ll be seeing you,’ he spoke directly to Laurel before letting himself out with a slam of the shop door.
A hushed silence followed his departure, and finally Laurel glanced up tentatively at Reece. He looked very dark and forbidding today—until his eyes turned to meet hers. They glowed gold with desire!
‘How about cuddling up to me like that again?’ he invited gruffly. ‘Now that we’re alone and I can do something about it.’
‘Don’t you ever think of anything else?’ She turned and walked back into her office.
Reece followed her, as she had known he would, his strides long and relaxed. ‘Around you? No,’ he drawled.
Laurel sat down behind the desk once more. ‘How have you managed to keep your hands off me this last year?’ she derided.
‘It hasn’t been easy,’ he answered seriously.
She looked up at him sharply. ‘But somehow you managed to resist, right?’ she scorned disbelievingly.
‘Somehow,’ he acknowledged with a soft sigh. ‘It wasn’t because I wanted to.’
‘Then what was it?’ she taunted.
‘The disillusionment in deep blue eyes.’ He held her gaze steadily.
The colour came and went in her already pale cheeks. ‘And now I’m even more disillusioned,’ she rasped. ‘Broken engagements tend to do that to you.’ Pride wouldn’t let her admit her other foolishness concerning Giles.
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