“When I was about ten, they sent me away to private school, first in England, then in Switzerland. I did all my traveling when I visited my parents on holidays, but I don’t remember much about that.” She laughed ruefully. “Poor little rich girl, you’re thinking. Only we weren’t all that rich.”
Ben wasn’t sure what to say. “I guess it was a lonely time for you,” he managed, aware of a whole new side of Kate, one that surprised and touched him.
“Sometimes. When I got to junior high, my parents were on home leave. They let me finish high school in the States. I had good friends who often invited me home. And there was Carol. I mean, Coral.”
“The woman who owns the spa? The one you’re looking for?”
“Yes. She was the dance teacher at Edgemont School in Virginia. I think she knew how much I needed an adult’s approval, and she was very sweet and kind to me.”
“I bet you were a good dancer.”
She laughed. “That’s how much you know. I was awful. Scarcely knew my left foot from my right and had no sense of rhythm. But Carol was really encouraging. She used to take groups of us into Richmond to the ballet, and her classes made me feel special, even graceful—which I certainly wasn’t. That’s why I was excited about her being in Denver. Only now I can’t find her.”
“She’s on a cruise. Cruises end.”
“The whole vacation thing doesn’t sound like Coral. I have a bad feeling about it and the spa—”
“Yet you want to go back.”
When she nodded enthusiastically, Ben laughed. “You’re amazing, Kate. You want something, you go after it. I’ve never known anyone so tenacious.”
“I guess I had to be—to survive.”
As she ran her fingers distractedly through her shiny clean hair, he noticed how it glittered and gleamed in the firelight. He had a sudden urge to gather the bright red tresses in his hands, bury his face in their fragrant brilliance. Instead, he took a deep breath, got to his feet and walked over to the fireplace.
“Okay,” she said, her voice lightened up. “I’ve bared my soul. What about you?”
“Big family, lots of sibs. You know all that.”
“No, I don’t, not really,” she countered. “Tell me. I want specifics.”
“Okay. Here’re the stats—three younger sisters, two of them married, one in college in Idaho. My baby brother’s in film school in L.A.”
“Your parents?”
“My mother died two years ago.” He paused for a brief instant. “Dad died when I was thirteen.”
“You were the man in the family,” Kate said softly. “No wonder you know so much about children. I bet you reared your brother and sisters.”
“My mom worked so I spent most of my young life going to school and baby-sitting. You might say I became an unwilling expert.”
“An expert, just the same, especially compared to me. Like most only children I know nothing about children! Look at how inept I am with Amanda.” Kate sighed. “It’s obvious that I’m not a good parent. I wonder if I ever will be?”
“Just takes practice,” he reminded her.
“Like changing diapers? I’ve practiced a hundred times and still can’t get it right.” She shook her head helplessly. “And I haven’t given her much in the way of family life.”
“There hasn’t been time for that, Kate. Once you get your life straightened out, everything will be different.”
“If that ever happens.”
“We’ve still got plenty of clues to check out. There’s lawyer Hedrick, Brownley and the elusive Paige Norcross, the mystery of your friend Coral….”
“The puzzle gets more and more complex—and dangerous,” Kate said. “I’d think you would be tired of it by now.”
“I told you, Kate—I love a good hunt.”
His words triggered an image in her imagination. “Do you ever wear buckskins?”
“Buckskins? You mean as in cowboy-and-Indian movies?” Ben laughed. “You’re a little off base, Kate. My Native American upbringing was on a reservation. The word conjures up tepees and buffalo to some people when it should bring to mind pickup trucks and convenience stores. Nope,” he assured her, “I’ve never worn buckskins.”
Embarrassed by what she was afraid he considered her stupid question, Kate tried to explain. “I was thinking about you hunting, with a bow and arrow, tracking wild animals….” She couldn’t prevent a fantasy from flashing in her mind, Ben in buckskin, his chest bare. At the image, she felt her cheeks grow warm. “I know it’s ridiculous—”
“Not altogether,” he told her. “I actually have hunted with a bow and arrow.”
“Really?” She felt vindicated.
“My Cheyenne grandfather used to take me up into the mountains. He was an expert tracker. He could read the trail of any animal—deer, wolf, bear—and birds like quail and pheasant. He showed me how to fit the pieces together—the broken twig, scratches on the bark of a tree, a half-faded track. It was his influence that led me into computers.”
“How? That seems a funny connection.”
“Using a computer is little more than tracking information, solving puzzles, following trails. It all seems very natural to me.”
“You love your job, don’t you?”
“I love my life, Kate,” he said fervently. “Now that all the members of my family are on their own, taking care of themselves, I’m only responsible for me. I can do whatever I want to, all the things I missed along the way. I may sound self-indulgent, but I’ve earned everything I have and don’t intend to ever give it up.” He stretched his arms high over his head, flexing his shoulders. “It’s a great life.”
Kate suddenly felt very sad. Clearly, Ben had staked out his territory. He knew exactly where his life was going. And of course, if she had any indication that it was going her way, his statement convinced her otherwise. As for Kate’s life, she didn’t know what was happening.
She got up from the sofa. “I guess I should turn in, get rested up for whatever lies ahead tomorrow. And who knows what that will be,” she added.
He held out a reassuring hand. “It’ll be all right, Kate. Somehow, all of this will sort itself out.”
His touch was warm; no, more than warm. It was electrifying. She started to pull away from his grasp, but then she stopped herself. She didn’t want to lose the contact with him. She held on and wrapped her fingers around the hardness of his palm.
He rubbed his thumb comfortingly across the back of her hand. The sensation traveled along her nerve endings and lodged somewhere deep inside her. The firelight turned his skin to bronze and his eyes to dark pools of night. She couldn’t stop looking at him.
With his other hand, he touched her face, tracing the line from her cheekbone to her chin. “I’m glad we talked tonight,” he said. “I think I understand you more now.”
She still couldn’t take her eyes off his face. It mesmerized her and caused her heart to pound, her mouth to become dry. She wet her lips and tried to catch her breath. Then he slipped his hand into her hair and all of her determination faded away with the touch. She closed her eyes and emitted a soft moan.
“I love your hair,” he said softly. “It reminds me of fire.” He pulled her close. “I want to kiss you again, Kate. This time a real kiss, for us alone.”
“Yes,” she murmured in a voice that was strangled, husky. She raised her lips to his. Never had she wanted a kiss so much.
And never had a kiss so completely lived up to expectations! His mouth was warm and enveloping, his taste a faint mixture of coffee and brandy. Her reaction was spontaneous. She slipped her arms around his neck and pressed close, her breasts crushed against his broad chest, her hips fitting into his.
He wrapped his hands in her hair and cupped her head in his broad grasp. She felt him enveloping her completely as he pulled her close and their bodies meshed. She melted inside, her body turning liquid under his touch. As she parted her lips, she felt his tongue mate with hers, and a shiver ran
along her skin.
Ben felt the tremor and responded to it. Her hair was molten silk beneath his fingers, her mouth a hot flame against his, and her body yielded to him, pressed against him. He almost lost himself in her curves and softness. Something inside told him that he should stop kissing her. But he didn’t.
She was exciting and sensual as she trembled in his arms, open and vulnerable. He could feel the erratic pounding of her heart against his chest, the touch of her tongue on his. He slid his hand to her waist and then up, under her shirt. Her skin was soft and satiny. As he felt the curve of her breast, desire surged through him, hot and heavy. One more touch, he decided, one more kiss.
But then he stopped himself. He’d gone too far. Things had gotten too complicated; the situation was out of control. How had that happened? He’d brought Kate and Mandy into his home for one purpose only-to help them out.
But as he touched her, held her, kissed her, he knew he was about to get involved, really involved, and that wasn’t what he’d intended.
Ben pulled his lips away from hers, still holding her in his arms. Her eyes were deep and questioning, her mouth soft and vulnerable. He took a long breath and tried to clear his head. “Quite a good-night kiss.” He forced a lightness into his voice that he didn’t feel and smiled down at her, trying to appear casual.
Her voice trembled an answer. “I didn’t mean to…”
“I guess the tension got to both of us,” he said, dropping his arms and turning away to stare into the fire’s flickering depths.
“I think I’ll go to bed now,” she said in a quiet voice.
He stood unmoving. “Yeah, we both need a good night’s rest.”
Only as she started toward the stairs did he turn and look at her. The sight was compelling, her slim body that he’d so recently held in his arms, moving away from him. He wanted to ask her to come back, but he stopped himself.
She climbed the stairs, and then he called to her, but not to bring her back, just to give her comfort and reassurance. “Sleep well, Kate.”
“I will,” she replied. “I’m exhausted.” She hurried up the stairs.
BUT SLEEP wouldn’t come. Her mind was racing with the remembrance of Ben’s touch on her skin and his mouth on hers. Her body ached with unfulfilled longings and needs. She turned on her side and clutched her pillow close, wishing it were Ben and knowing how foolish her fantasy was. But that didn’t prevent it from invading her mind again. She hadn’t wanted him to stop. She’d wanted the kiss to go on. Foolish, she told herself. And dangerous.
Kate groaned and covered her head with the pillow. What in the world was going on? She was acting like a woman in…what? In love! She cringed at the thought that those feelings might have been apparent to Ben. God, she hoped not, because she knew how he felt about her.
Hadn’t he made it clear when they talked that he wanted no commitments? He’d raised one family; he didn’t want another. Especially, she imagined, a woman with her life out of control.
Involvement with Ben would mean a quick affair. Nothing more. She couldn’t fall in love with him. It would be foolish. Dangerous.
BEN WAS HAVING trouble falling asleep. The futon had become increasingly uncomfortable as the night wore on. At some point he’d moved to the sofa, and there he stared into the dying embers of the fire, thinking. He was supposed to take care of Kate, to give her temporary refuge until her life straightened out. That had been the deal. That had been all.
He sat up and ran his hands through his long hair. He hadn’t expected there would be more to it. But from the very first day he’d been intrigued by her mixture of vulnerability and toughness.
He got out of bed, stumbled to the liquor cabinet where he poured a dram of brandy into a glass. He warmed it in his hands, thinking of that kiss that he’d broken off. He’d wanted her then, but he had known better than to go that final step.
That hadn’t stopped the wanting. Right now he longed to feel her body next to his, to make love to her, to give her pleasure and delight.
And that was crazy. She had a business to run and a kid to take care of which didn’t add up to his kind of woman! What was the matter with him? He downed the brandy. “Get a grip, Blackeagle,” he muttered. “When was the last time you lost sleep over a woman?”
He couldn’t remember. When he was fifteen, maybe? But here it was, two in the morning, and he couldn’t sleep! There was no doubt that she was getting to him. In subtle ways she wasn’t even aware of. The conversation about her family. The look of pain in her green eyes. The way her hair fell around her face and gleamed in the firelight. How her body felt against his.
He remembered that body—and how he’d pulled away from her. For a moment there, he’d almost taken her to bed. It had been difficult not to, but the complexity of their situation had stopped him. Trying not to be sorry that things had ended that way, he put down the glass with a thud.
There was one way to solve the problem of Kate McNair. It was simple. Once he found out who was stalking her, she and Amanda would go home, and he would put the sweetness of her mouth and the warmth of her body out of his mind.
Having made that decision, he climbed back onto the sofa. But it was a long time before he fell asleep.
Chapter Seven
“I hope this isn’t a wild-goose chase,” Kate commented. Fighting early-morning traffic, they were on their way to the ESS office to meet Tina. “Maybe we should be after the surreptitious lovers, Paige Norcross and Brownley. They’re the villains.”
“We’re not after anyone. We’re trying to track down clues and see where they lead us. That means all clues, and Hedrick is our only Denver link to Amanda, and we happen to be in Denver, so—”
“And what about the spa? I should go there. Maybe get into their records…”
Ben was laughing now. “Ms. Sherlock Holmes! How do you intend to ‘get into their records’?”
“I don’t know, I…”
“Then let’s go on with the plan. We’ll visit Hedrick as prospective parents,” Ben said. “If he seems clean, then we can take the next step. But since we’ve already set this up—”
“Why not, huh? Okay. You’re right.” Ben’s theory was as valid as any other. Besides, so far neither one of them had the first shred of evidence for any of their theories.
They drove the rest of the way in silence, a continuation of the silence that had set their morning mood. Ben had been as quiet as Kate as they’d rushed around in his mountain house, drinking coffee and getting dressed. Kate had felt groggy and out of sorts, and Amanda, who’d awakened cheerfully, soon picked up on Kate’s mood. Breakfast had been a series of “no’s,” spilled food and jangled nerves.
Through it all Ben was cool and calm, evincing nothing of what had passed between them the night before.
What really had gone on? Kate couldn’t be sure. Maybe the sensuous closeness, the heat had been in her mind. For a moment, she’d thought he shared her feelings; now she wasn’t sure. In fact, his silence in the morning and his present joking mood were an indication that he’d forgotten—or wanted to forget—what had happened.
They pulled into a no-parking zone in front of Kate’s office building. “We’ll only be inside a minute,” Ben said, as he unloaded Amanda’s stroller. With Ben bringing the baby equipment and Kate carrying the baby, they stepped off the elevator to be met by a distraught Tina.
“I’ve been calling and calling you—”
“Don’t you have my car phone number?” Ben asked.
“No, but I’ll be sure to have it from now on!”
“What’s the matter?” Kate asked.
“This.” Tina pointed dramatically at the door to the office. “Someone tried to break in. Look at the lock. See how the wood around it is gouged out?”
“Did they get in?” Kate asked. “Was anything taken?”
“No, either someone scared the would-be burglar away or he realized the lock was too strong to jimmy.”
“Did you c
all the police?” Ben asked.
“They just left. Took all the information, but had no advice except to put an alarm system on the door and windows. They said it looked like an amateur job.”
Ben and Kate glanced at each other. Kate swallowed hard, thinking about the threatening message on her answering machine. And now this. “Why would someone break into my office? There’re nothing but ESS files inside.”
“Maybe just another warning,” Ben said grimly. “Tina and Amanda can’t stay here,” he added.
“You’re right about that,” her assistant responded. “No way. I want to go home. I’ll baby-sit Amanda there.” Then for the first time she seemed to notice Kate’s appearance. “Blond hair? And a new suit? What’s going on?”
“We’ll explain at your place. Come on,” Ben urged. “I want all three of you ladies out of here fast.”
SHE WELCOMED THEM into her tiny apartment, which was as bright and airy as Tina herself, with piles of magazines on a low coffee table and pictures of her family scattered on top of the desk and bookcases. The walls were crammed with artwork; the sofa was piled with colorful pillows. This was a real home, Kate thought, comparing it to her own apartment, a place she’d barely settled into.
Amanda’s eyes were drawn to a cluster of animal prints on the wall. She waved her arms and kicked, begging to get at them. To distract her, Kate settled the baby among the bright comfortable sofa pillows.
“God, I need an aspirin and a glass of wine—” Tina shot a glance at Kate. “Okay, no wine until you two get back. Now tell me more about this scheme of yours.”
“There’s a chance that these attacks on Kate might somehow be connected to Amanda, and if so the only link we have is the lawyer, Daniel Hedrick, who handles adoptions,” Ben explained.
“So you two are playing an adoptive couple?”
“I know it’s a long shot,” Kate said, “but it is one way to get to the man and feel him out.”
“You think he’s running some sort of black-market baby scam?” Tina grinned. “I’ve seen this plot on TV a million times.”
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