Fugitive Wife

by Miranda Lee

  'I...I'll try not to,' she said, though she could not help feasting her eyes on his face and body. Slightly thinner than Gerard he might be, but he was still extremely attractive to her.

  'That's good, because I'd like to speak to you further at some later date. I have to admit to being more than curious about you and my brother. For now, however, perhaps you'd better get back to doing your job before your boss loses his cool.'

  All of a sudden the man himself popped his head through the cabin door, his long blond hair swinging around his bare shoulders. 'You two sorted everything out?'

  'Perfectly,' Gareth answered for them both, in the same decisive way Gerard had when dealing with people.

  Leah groaned silently. She supposed there were going to be a lot of disturbing similarities about the two brothers. She was as curious about Gareth as he was about her, but the thought of spending more time with him sent her into a spin.

  'In that case, shake a leg with the food and drinks, Leah,' Alan advised brusquely. 'Perhaps Gareth can help you.'

  'Yes, I'd like that,' he agreed, before Leah could say a word. 'As long as my newly found sister-in-law doesn't mind,' he added, a sudden smile quite blowing Leah away. Smiling, he was as devastatingly handsome and charming as Gerard had been.

  'She won't, if she knows what's good for her' Alan grated out before abruptly disappearing.

  'You don't mind, do you?' Gareth asked, his eyes searching hers.

  'No. Not really. It's just that...'

  'That what?'

  That I can't look at you without wanting to touch you again, came the awful secret admission. Without wanting you...

  Leah tried to keep the shock from showing on her face.

  It was only natural, she reasoned in desperation. He looked so much like Gerard. Smelt like him. Spoke like him. It was perfectly but perversely natural that her body, long starved of sexual satisfaction, would crave it from this man who so resembled the man she loved.

  But, dear God, it was difficult to cope with.

  'I...I get upset when I look at you,' she said quite truthfully.

  His blue eyes clouded. 'You hate Gerard that much?'

  'Yes,' she said. It was the truth too. She loved him and hated him.

  'I see,' he said thoughtfully. 'I'm sorry. The last thing I want is to upset you. But, other than my jumping overboard, I'm afraid you're condemned to look at me occasionally. Under those circumstances, it's better I help you serve, don't you think? That way I'll be standing beside you and not in front of you.'

  She shook her head, a small wry smile playing on her lips. 'I see you and your brother are more alike than in looks alone. You both have the gift of the gab. Gerard could talk his way out of the gallows, if needs be.'

  Gareth's smile was equally wry. 'They don't hang people in Australia these days, though I suppose if they did, you wouldn't object to Gerard meeting his maker that way.'

  'Hanging's too good for him,' Leah said bitterly. 'But let's not talk about Gerard. We have work to do. This way.' She whirled and walked over to the two narrow wooden steps which led down to the galley.

  'Watch your head!' she threw over her shoulder as an afterthought, just as Gareth's forehead made contact with the overhead beam.

  The sympathetic female in Leah responded to the sickening clunk, and before she could think better of it she'd swung round to offer succour and comfort, her soft hands finding the hard wall of his chest

  'Are...are you all right?' she asked shakily, her eyes lifting to his.

  'I guess I'll survive.' He stopped rubbing the reddening lump to look down, first at where she was touching him, then deep into her eyes.

  She should have stepped back straight away. She realised that afterwards. But she didn't. She stayed right where she was, her palms flat against his solid warmth, her wide-eyed gaze wallowing in his.

  How many moments passed with their standing there like that? Leah had no idea. In hindsight, it felt like an eternity, but it was probably only a couple of seconds before he took hold of her trespassing hands and lifted them away from his flesh.

  'Some ice might be a good idea,' he said.

  His disposing of her hands plus his crushingly matter-of-fact tone shot her back to reality in a rush.

  'Yes, yes, of course,' she said, embarrassment making her clumsy as she whirled away from him and knocked into the nearest bench, rattling the tray of clean but empty glasses which lay in waiting to be filled. Her muttered swear-word was less than ladylike. Her hands shot out to clasp the edge of the darned thing in an attempt to steady the glasses, and her own stupidly racing heart.

  'Forget the ice,' Gareth said sharply from where he was standing just behind her. 'I'm fine. Truly. Look, I think I'd better go up on deck with the others and leave you to do this alone. I can see my presence upsets you. I'll tell Alan I was getting in your way and that you'll be making an appearance shortly.'

  She spun round to protest, but he was already on his way, ducking his head as he took the steps two at a time and disappeared from sight.

  It was just as well, she realised after her initial dismay. He did upset her, though not perhaps as he imagined he did. He could never understand what just looking at him did to her, let alone touching him. When her hands had lain against his beating heart she'd been overwhelmed with a deep inner yearning to lay her head there, as she had done with Gerard a thousand times.

  Oh, how safe she'd once felt in her husband's arms. And how loved. She would have given anything to feel that again, had been impelled, for one mad glorious moment, to recapture the experience with Gareth, by closing her eyes and pretending he was Gerard.

  It would have been so easy.

  Or would it?

  Gareth had given no indication he would have tolerated her doing any such thing. Just the opposite, in fact.

  Not by look or action did he show any attraction towards her. Just because she was unconsciously attracted to his husband's twin it didn't mean the reverse held true, although she had read somewhere that identical twins tended to be drawn to the same physical types. There had been cases of such twins, separated at birth, who, when they were reunited as adults, found they had chosen similar professions, hobbies and wives.

  Gareth, however, showed no such inclination. Leah knew when a man fancied her. It was in their eyes, and their actions. She'd had plenty of experience in the last six months, recognising the signs and warding off a lot of unwanted passes.

  Her marriage to Gerard had changed her somehow when it came to her ability to attract the opposite sex. Where before she'd had the occasional admirer, men now went after her in droves. She wasn't sure why. She didn't think she looked any different. And she certainly made no attempts to attract their attention' with her appearance. No make-up was the order of the day. Her hair was worn long and straight. Her clothing mostly consisted of jeans or shorts, and loose tops. Yet still she had to tolerate male ogling and constant come-ons.

  It seemed her brother-in-law, however, was not going to represent a problem in that department.

  Which was a relief to Leah, now that she was over that one mad impulse. God, yes! Imagine what might have happened if Gareth had fancied her. She would have been put in a terrible position, trying to resist what she realised could only be an illusion.

  For it wasn't Gareth she was actually responding to, was it? It was Gerard. His memory. His influence. His power, which was more far-reaching than even Leah could ever have imagined, coming to her clear across the country in the guise of another man.

  Yes, it was to be thanked that Gareth didn't fancy her. For heaven alone knew what might happen if he did!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ALAN charged a few more dollars per person than the other sunset cruises available, but supplied champagne, orange juice and soft drink, whereas the other operators asked people to bring their own drinks. Not a good idea when they had to carry them.

  Taking a deep breath, Leah picked up the tray of drinks and carried it carefully out
on deck. She turned automatically towards the back of the boat where everyone usually grouped, possibly because there was more room, but mostly because that was where Alan stood at the wheel, answering their questions and generally entertaining all and sundry with tales of the old pearling days.

  'Yep,' he was saying as she approached, 'thousands of young Japanese divers died from the bends back then. But that didn't stop more from coming, seeking quick riches. Ah, here's Leah with some bubbly. I'll bet back in the old days the crew of The Zephyr would have liked to be served by such a pretty maid at the end of the day, don't you think, Gareth?'

  Gareth, who'd been sitting a little aside from the others and staring out at the horizon, glanced around. 'Assuredly. You're a lucky man, Alan, to be surrounded by such beauty on a daily basis,' he said, and while his hand waved out to where the sun was sinking low in the sky and casting its golden glow over the water his eyes were looking straight at Leah.

  Leah was taken aback, then quite flustered, worried now that she might have been mistaken in her earlier assessment about Gareth not finding her attractive. Yet it wasn't anything like lust she saw in his eyes. It was something else. But what? Concern? Curiosity? Surely not caring. How could he care about her when he'd only just met her?

  She tried not to colour under his regard, thankful for the sea breeze which was helping cool her suddenly hot skin.

  'You won't find sunsets anywhere in Australia to match these,' Alan was saying. 'Darwin tries to lay claim to better, but they don't compare in my opinion. No sunset here is the same, I've found. It changes every night with the various cloud covers. I never get tired of them.'

  Leah finally managed to break away from Gareth's strangely hypnotic gaze and offer the tray around. By the time she got to Gareth she imagined she was totally under control again, only to have that illusion shattered the moment he spoke.

  'When can we meet privately?' he said, his eyes meeting hers. Damn, but she wished he didn't have Gerard's eyes, even if they did hold a much softer expression.

  'Well I...I don't know exactly...'

  'Tonight, after the cruise?' he suggested while she waffled.

  The imminency and potential intimacy of such a meeting brought panic. 'No, no I can't make it tonight,' she said swiftly, though of course she could.

  'Why not?' he asked as he took one of the glasses of soft drink.

  Gerard would have taken the champagne, came Leah's automatic thought. He liked champagne. He liked all things expensive. He liked to work hard, drink hard, play hard. There were no soft options for Gareth's brother. No soft anything. , His brother, she conceded, was a different style of man entirely. More relaxed. Less driven. Yet for all that still very, very attractive to her.

  For the first time she wondered what Gerard would do if he found out she'd met up with his estranged twin brother. Just thinking about such a possibility turned her stomach. Gerard had been very possessive of her. And quite jealous at times. He'd hated other men admiring her, or looking at her too much. She just knew he would hate her having anything to do with Gareth.

  'I'm busy tonight,' she said briskly. 'How about lunchtime tomorrow? I could meet you in Broome somewhere.' Lunch was much better. And much safer. Daylight, as opposed to night time.

  Leah feared meeting Gareth at night. Night time was for lovers...

  'Very well. Name the time and the place.'

  'Where are you staying?'

  'The Roebuck Bay apartments.'

  Not far from her place, actually. She could walk there, no trouble.

  'I know where they are,' she said. 'I'll meet you outside Reception at noon. We can walk down town from there.'

  'I have a hire car.'

  'Whatever. Now I must go get the food, or Alan'll give me the sack.'

  'I doubt it,' she heard Gareth mutter as she walked away.

  Leah frowned over the dry remark as she made her way back to the galley. Did Gareth think she and Alan were some kind of item? It wouldn't be the first time, she supposed. Several people already presumed they were sleeping together, especially when she didn't go home to her rented room after the cruise, but stayed aboard the lugger for the night.

  Little did those people know they were the nights Alan picked up some wealthy widow who didn't fancy a night rolling around in Alan's cramped cabin. Invariably such women invited him back to their own more luxurious tourist accommodation, usually at the nearby Cable Beach Resort. On those occasions Alan would offer Leah a bonus to stay aboard and mind the ship, which she quite happily did. It was lovely to lie out on the deck under the moonlight, sipping the left over champagne and watching the stars twinkle against the black canvas of a clear night sky.

  When the three girls she shared a house with in Broome made pointed remarks about herself and Alan, Leah didn't bother to deny it. It suited her to let them think she had a boyfriend of sorts. It gave her some sort of protection from all the men which trailed through the place ad infinitum. Her housemates were good-time girls—working in Broome for the tourist season—arid the old house they shared rocked to wild parties every weekend.

  It bothered Leah momentarily that Gareth might think she and Alan were lovers. Till she quickly reasoned that such a situation might be all for the best as well. The last thing she needed was to complicate things with Gerard's twin brother. Hadn't she made enough of a mess of her life so far? She would meet Gareth for one simple lunch, answer his questions, ask a few of her own, then have nothing more to do with him!

  Exhaling a deep, shuddering breath, Leah took the food out of the fridge and placed it on the bench before peeling off the plastic wraps. She picked up the first plate and balanced it on her left hand. It was wide and round and held a selection of crackers covered with various seafood delicacies. She then picked up the second server, which catered for people with simpler tastes. Carrot and celery sticks, a dip, cheese and salami.

  The sun was near to setting when she emerged back on deck, its golden hue having deepened to that wonderfully rich orange. It would deepen even further shortly, sometimes going blood-red before sinking down behind the horizon. Alan was right. You never tired of watching the sunsets over Cable Beach.

  The two inseparable couples had gravitated towards the western side of the boat to get the best view, she noted. Sandra, however, clung to Alan's side, gushing and gammering. Sunsets had no interest for women like her.

  Gareth had wandered right up to the front of the boat and was leaning against the railing, looking remote and mysterious. Which he was, in a way. Where had he come from? Leah wondered. What did he do for a living? Why was he here, in this far corner of Australia?

  Fate had indeed been fickle to bring Gerard's identical twin to the small spot his ex-wife had chosen as sanctuary. If Leah was honest, there was a lingering doubt in her mind over this last strange coincidence. Okay, she finally believed he wasn't Gerard, but there was still something about all this that bothered her greatly, aside from the unfortunate fact he reminded her so much of her husband.

  Leah plied everyone down at the back of the boat with food before making her way reluctantly forward, by which time she was awfully tense.

  Gareth didn't seem to notice her approach. He'd stopped looking at the sunset and was leaning right over the railing and peering intently down to where the bow of the boat was cleaving through the water. There was quite a breeze up and the old lugger was really moving along, not like the previous evening, when they had been so becalmed Alan had had to start the engine.

  Leah frowned as her gaze moved almost hungrily over his body, down his back to his buttocks, trim and taut beneath his hip-hugging shorts. She knew exactly how his buttocks would look naked. How they would feel.

  Her fingers tightened around the plates as she thought of the many times her nails had dug into Gerard's buttocks as she'd climaxed beneath him.

  'Something to eat, Gareth?' she managed to ask through suddenly dry lips.

  'Dolphins,' he said by way of an answer, and continued to s
tare downwards, clearly entranced by the sight of several of the beautiful creatures skimming sleekly through the water.

  She rather admired his obvious and almost childlike pleasure. Watching dolphins was the kind of simple activity Gerard would have scorned as a waste of time.

  'They often follow the boat,' she said. 'Especially when we get some speed up. It's a game, I think, keeping up and even leaping across the bow with inches to spare.'

  'A bit like a car racing a train,' he said, and glanced up, his face quite flushed with excitement. Or perhaps it was the light of the sunset on his olive skin.

  Whatever, it looked wonderful on him.

  She had to look away, afraid again of the feelings coursing through her. How could she want him like this? It felt like a betrayal of her love for his brother.

  Once she had herself under control again, her eyes moved slowly back to face him, a plastic smile on her mouth. 'Are you a seafood man, or a cheese and dip man?' she asked as she held both trays out for his perusal.

  'Don't you know?' he smiled.

  She just stared at him.

  'My brother and I have similar tastes,' he elaborated as he selected one of the crab-topped crackers.

  'In just about everything actually,' he added, then popped the cracker into his mouth.

  Leah's eyes flew to his till she realised he wasn't coming on to her, simply stating a fact. If he'd been referring to his taste in women—specifically her— then it certainly didn't show in his face, which remained totally devoid of anything smacking of desire.

  Leah's relief wasn't total, however. She seemed to have enough desire for both of them. How her heart had leapt in that second when she'd thought he fancied her. It was clear she'd be in deep, deep trouble if Gareth ever made a pass at her. How could she resist him? She'd never been able to resist his brother. And he was his brother's mirror image.

  She just stood there for a moment, her head and stomach whirling.

  'Is something wrong, Leah?' Gareth asked gently.

  'No, no, not at all,' she denied, finding a breezy smile from somewhere. 'I was just thinking. But I'd better get back to the others. Here. Take another cracker before I go.'