A Daring Deception

At that, Nathan went quite still. ‘And you need my advice as to how to go about it?’ he charged, in a strangely toneless voice which had Rachel glancing at him sharply.

Linus looked him squarely in the eyes. ‘No. I need you to steal the letters for me.’

For a moment Nathan simply stared at him in stunned silence. ‘You cannot be serious.’

Immediately Linus raised a calming hand. ‘Oh, not steal, exactly. Retrieve would be a better word.’

Nathan uttered a bark of laughter. ‘Steal or retrieve; there’s very little difference between the two. Whichever way you put it, it’s breaking the law.’

Linus’s gaze narrowed. ‘I never expected you to be so nice,’ he said sharply.

‘Nice? I think I’m entitled to be a little alarmed when you ask me to break into Ames’s house and do some thievery of my own,’ Nathan protested reasonably.

Linus tutted irritably. ‘Don’t be a fool, boy. I don’t expect you to break in at dead of night. I expect you to be invited in,’ he declared. ‘Once inside, you’ll have every opportunity of searching the house.’

‘You have it all figured out, don’t you?’ Nathan observed in mingled amusement and incredulity.

‘I don’t like to leave things to chance,’ Linus concurred.

‘Then perhaps you can tell me how I am to get invited into Ames’s house? Just walk up to the front door and ask if it’s OK if I stay for the weekend? Oh, and by the way, whilst I’m here do you mind if I search the place for some letters you stole?’ Nathan said facetiously, causing Linus to glower at him.

‘You don’t have to do anything. All you will need is Jasmine to run interference.’

Both Rachel and Nathan blinked. ‘Who?’ they chanted in unison.

‘You know,’ Linus snapped tetchily. ‘That blonde woman you’re going out with. What’s her name…? Jasmine, or something equally ridiculous.’

Rachel hastily stifled a giggle and received a quelling look for her pains. ‘Her name is Jade, and for your information we are no longer an item,’ Nathan replied tightly.

‘Then take someone else. Who are you dating at the moment?’ Linus ordered.

‘At the moment I’m not dating anyone,’ Nathan said through gritted teeth.

‘What do you mean, you’re not dating? You always have a woman around somewhere! Can’t keep your hands off them!’ Linus exclaimed irritably.

Much to Rachel’s amusement, faint colour stole up Nathan’s neck. ‘Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have one. I had no idea it would be required.’

Linus’s fingers tapped out a staccato sound of annoyance on the desktop. ‘Then you’d better go out and get one! Damned quickly too!’

A muscle ticked in Nathan’s jaw, and Rachel watched it in fascination. ‘Does she have to be blonde, or will any colour do?’

‘Of course she has to be blonde. Ames has a thing for blondes. He likes them decorating up his house, apparently. Curse your fickle heart, Nathan. You’re putting the whole plan in jeopardy. There are three real passions in Ames life: blondes, antiques and gambling, and you and your girlfriend were to supply two of them. A double entrée into his house. But you need to catch his eye. I understand Ames is going to be in his American home at Lake Tahoe this weekend, and I had everything planned for then. He’s bound to keep the letters close to him, and who knows when we’ll get another opportunity like this? You’d better go out and pick up the first blonde you meet.’

The outrageous suggestion appeared to echo round the room, and Rachel thought Nathan was in imminent danger of exploding, he was so furious. However, with a monumental effort of will, he forced himself to relax. ‘For your information, I do not pick up women off the streets.’

The two men stared each other out for what seemed like ages, then Linus grunted. ‘You don’t, eh?’

Nathan crossed his arms and shook his head emphatically. ‘No.’

Linus sank back in his seat with a heavy sigh. ‘Then Lord knows what’s to be done.’ he declared morosely, upon which Nathan closed his eyes for a second.

Rachel leaned over and placed her hand over her grandfather’s. ‘We’ll think of something, Grandfather,’ she murmured consolingly, and felt rather than saw Nathan’s head turn towards her.

‘I must be mad to suggest it, but this whole situation has a ring of insanity about it. If you can spare her, I’ll take Rachel.’

Rachel very nearly fell off her chair in shock. She gasped, fish-like, for a moment before a word passed her lips. ‘What?’ she squawked incredulously. He couldn’t have said what she thought he had.

Linus was as surprised as she, and his response was to look her over critically. ‘Of course I can spare her, but…Rachel hardly fits the bill,’ he concluded doubtfully, bringing colour to her cheeks and a flash of fire to her eyes.

‘What does that mean, exactly?’ she demanded in outrage, her feminine pride tweaked by the implied criticism.

The old man’s expression was regretful. ‘Forgive me, Rachel, but I only have to look at you to see the problem. You’re blonde, certainly, but far too intelligent. I’m glad to say not Ames’s type at all,’ he replied gently, and she did a rapid mental review of herself.

She could see what he meant. She wore suits because they were comfortable to work in. Her long blonde hair she kept tied back in a knot at the nape of her neck because she hated it falling over her face whilst she worked. Last, but not least, she wore glasses for all the close work she did on the computer. All in all, Rachel was not the blowsy blonde type that Luther Ames apparently went for in a big way. Which was just as well, really, because he didn’t sound like a man she would want to get to know.

‘I agree she doesn’t look the type now, but she could be made to be,’ Nathan put in quietly, sending a shock wave through her system. What on earth did he mean by that?

Linus frowned. ‘I admit the potential is there, and Rachel is a quick study, but she’s no actress, Nathan.’

Nathan was watching Rachel, a calculating look in his eye. ‘Oh, I don’t believe it would take long to make her convincing.’

‘You think not?’

‘Trust me. It can be done with very little time or effort.’ Nathan declared confidently, bringing her eyes to his face.

There was a certain something in his expression which made her frown and go still. She tried to read his thoughts, but it was as if a wall had gone up. Confused, and vaguely unsettled, she finally found her voice. ‘Just a second. Will you please stop talking about me as if I weren’t here? Time is irrelevant. I have no intention of going anywhere.’

‘But I’m counting on you, Rachel!’ Linus exclaimed in disappointment. ‘There’s no time to find somebody else.’

Whilst she hated the thought of letting her grandfather down, this was way beyond her agreement to help him in his time of need. ‘I’m sorry, Grandfather, but I simply can’t do what you’re asking. Even if I could just drop everything and fly to America, leaving my business to sink or swim—which I can’t—you were quite right. What you need is a femme fatale, and that just isn’t me.’ Not that she didn’t know how to be, but that was another story.

‘On the contrary,’ Nathan cut in softly. ‘With a little make-up and the right clothes I can see you holding your own with the best of them in the playgrounds of the rich. Places like Tahoe or…Cap d’Antibes, for instance.’

The pause was infinitesimal, but it registered on Rachel, who blinked in yet more confusion. Why had he mentioned Cap d’Antibes in that strange tone of voice? And just what was that jibe about the playgrounds of the rich? What on earth was he suggesting? Yes, she had been there, but only once, and the circumstances had been extraordinary. She looked at him sharply, but before she could demand an explanation, Linus spoke.

‘Thank goodness that’s one problem solved. You’ll take Rachel with you. If the whole mess can be sorted just as easily, we’ll be laughing. Now, I’ve booked two seats on the midday flight to Tahoe tomorrow, and a suite at the Tahoe Caesar Hotel. The rest will be up to you.’

Rachel could feel control of the situation slipping out of her hands. ‘Just a minute,’ she protested. ‘I haven’t agreed to go.’

‘Of course you’ll go, my dear. Nathan needs you.’

If he thought that would persuade her, he was mistaken. She stood up quickly, the better to enforce her stance. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s quite out of the question.’

Nathan rose too, reaching out to take her arm in a deceptively firm grip. ‘Don’t worry, Linus, it’s just stage fright. She’ll go,’ he declared unilaterally, and looked down at her with a clear message in his eyes for her not to argue. ‘Let’s talk it over, shall we?’ he suggested mildly, but she knew it for the order it was, and bridled.

Yet, however fuming she might be, she was unwilling to cause a scene in front of her grandfather, and set her jaw firmly. ‘Very well,’ she agreed frostily, determined to stick to her guns. ‘We’ll talk, but I’m telling you now, you’re wasting your time.’

‘That remains to be seen, sweetheart,’ Nathan murmured softly as he gently but firmly ushered her from the room.

CHAPTER TWO

NATHAN strode down the passage to the lounge, with scant care that she virtually had to jog to keep up with him, and urged her inside. The second the door closed behind them Rachel jerked herself free from his hold and turned on him.

‘Let me make myself quite clear. We have nothing to talk about. I’m not going with you, and you’ll have to explain that to my grandfather,’ she insisted, half turning back to the door. Nathan promptly stepped into her path, preventing her intended departure. ‘Get out of my way,’ she ordered curtly, but he shook his head.

‘I wouldn’t be so hasty if I were you, sweetheart. Sit down. We might as well be comfortable whilst we talk,’ he suggested, following his own advice by taking a seat on the couch.

Rachel stood her ground. She wasn’t going to sit as she had no intention of staying. ‘How many times do I have to tell you there’s nothing to talk about? I have a business to run, and I can’t just walk away from it at the drop of a hat. There’s nothing you can say that will make me change my mind.’

‘Not even Cap d’Antibes?’ he challenged sardonically, and the way in which he said it had her breath catching in her throat even as she stared at him blankly.

‘You mentioned the resort before,’ she said, confused, spreading her hands to underline her incomprehension. ‘I don’t—’

‘Don’t what…? Remember?’ Nathan supplied before she could finish, steepling his fingers and watching her over the top of them. ‘Strange, I thought you had an excellent memory. It’s one of the reasons your grandfather thinks so highly of you.’

Totally confused now, because he sounded so certain, Rachel placed a steadying hand on the back of the nearest chair. She had no idea what was going on here, but the undercurrent swirling about her made her want to shiver in purely primitive reaction.

‘I was going to say I don’t understand,’ she ground out pointedly. ‘All I know is you’re talking in riddles and I simply don’t follow you. Why don’t you just say whatever it is you intend to?’ she advised without preamble, but for all the notice he took of it, she might have saved herself the effort. Nathan wasn’t about to be rushed.

‘I can see how you might want to forget. Allow me to refresh your memory of the long hot summer you spent in the South of France three years ago.’

Surprise must have been writ large on her face as a glimmer of light appeared. It was three years ago that she had been in Antibes, but it hadn’t been for the whole summer, and neither had it been a holiday. Far from it. The real surprise was what he appeared to be suggesting.

‘You were there?’ She sought confirmation. He nodded solemnly. ‘I never saw you.’

That made him laugh, and it was a far from pleasant sound. ‘Let’s face it, sweetheart, you only had eyes for one man. The rest of us were invisible, including his fiancée. As an interested onlooker, I admired the way you went after him with such single-minded determination. Your inventiveness knew no bounds. What a performance. You wanted him and you made sure you got him, no matter what. Then, in the blink of an eye, you were gone. Nobody could figure out what had happened. As a matter of interest, what did make you leave in such a hurry?’

Her eyes widened as the realisation of precisely what he had seen came home to her. Her acting tour de force that summer had had a purpose beyond the obvious, but seen from the outside there was only one perspective anyone would have seen. Suddenly his attitude towards her became abundantly clear. He thought she was a… There wasn’t a nice way of describing what he thought her. Of all the nerve! Not to mention hypocrisy. There were shades here of the pot calling the kettle black. OK, so he didn’t know her side of things, and to give him his due it was easy to jump to the obvious and nasty conclusion. But he hadn’t had to cling to it all this time! Clearly he didn’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

A cauldron of intense rage began to simmer inside her. She should put him straight right now, but the memory of all the things he had said to her, all the insinuations, kept her lips tight shut. She was damned if she would. She would tell him only when she was good and ready.

The truth was she had gone to Antibes that summer with the express purpose of saving her cousin Emma from an ill-advised relationship. Word had reached the family that the man Emma had become engaged to whilst staying with a friend in the South of France was a fortune-hunter. The Shaw family, and its various branches, were extremely wealthy, and Rachel and Emma had sizeable trust funds in their names, though both had chosen to work for their living. With their business still at the fledgling stage, Rachel had decided to stay at home, so it had been the first holiday they hadn’t spent together in years.

Which was how Emma had come to fall foul of Anton, because Rachel hadn’t been there to advise her. Of course, when her parents had tried to intervene, Emma hadn’t believed them, hence the family had turned to Rachel, who had gone in fighting as usual. She had flown over with the express purpose of making Emma see reason. An unenviable task, yet she had gone because she loved her cousin dearly and hadn’t wanted to see her hurt.

Naturally, knowing Rachel’s negative attitude towards love having lived through her parents’ rollercoaster marriage and messy divorce, Emma hadn’t believed her either. No amount of talking—and they had talked long into the night—had put a chink in Emma’s rose-coloured glasses. In the end Rachel had been forced to take strong measures. If Emma was so certain that Anton was for real, then she, Rachel, wouldn’t possibly be able to steal him away. Emma, just as stubborn as Rachel, had dared her to do her worst. So she had, and that was what Nathan Wade had seen.

Playing a man-eater had been relatively easy, for Rachel had always had a natural aptitude for acting. Basing her character on a girl she had known in college, Rachel had thrown herself into the part of a wild and wilful seductress who used her beauty and her fortune to get whatever man she wanted. She had pursued Emma’s fiancé, and, being without scruple, he had dropped Emma like a stone.

To cut a long story short, after several days of watching her fiancé dance attendance on her cousin there had been a showdown between Emma and Anton. It had been an unpleasant scene, especially when Rachel had revealed exactly who she was. Anton had vanished after saying some very nasty things, and once Emma had had a cleansing bout of tears the two cousins had packed up and flown home. The rest, as they say, was history. What neither of them had known, so wrapped up had they been in their personal drama, was that Nathan Wade had witnessed the juicier moments and taken his cue from that.

Emma and Rachel still ran a growing catering business, and shared a flat in London. That brief interlude in France was long forgotten—except by Nathan. Had he been a different man, Rachel wouldn’t have hesitated to clear the matter up forthwith, but she was too incensed.

Instead of doing the sensible thing and making a case for herself, she merely shrugged in her most offhand way. ‘How does urgent family business sound?’ she quipped lightly, and knew from the narrowing of his eyes it hadn’t gone down well. Not that she cared in that instant. His opinion could hardly get any worse when it was at rock bottom already.

‘Anton and his fiancée departed about the same time, too,’ Nathan went on. ‘I suppose they also had “urgent family business”?’

Rachel couldn’t speak for Anton, but Emma certainly hadn’t been able to get back to her family quickly enough. ‘I imagine so. They didn’t say,’ she agreed blithely.

‘Anyway, having seen you in action, you can imagine my consternation when I took over the running of the bank and found you were Linus’s granddaughter.’

Rachel sank down onto the arm of the chair. She had no difficulty imagining that at all. Having caught her act and believed the worst, she understood why he had disliked her on sight. But why had he remained silent all this time?

‘Why didn’t you say something before?’

‘I admit my first instinct was to confront you, but then I became intrigued. You looked so different from what I remembered. You acted differently, too. I began to wonder what you were up to. I waited to see what sort of game you were playing,’ Nathan explained smoothly.

Her brows lifted in an arc of surprise. ‘I wasn’t playing a game,’ she pointed out, and he half smiled.

‘On the contrary; you play it all the time. You have that look of innocence down pat. No wonder Linus thinks the sun rises and sets in you. Does he know anything at all about the men in your life?’

Her eyes narrowed at that. ‘He knows I date,’ she conceded cautiously.

Nathan laughed. ‘That’s a quaint way of putting it, but it keeps him happy, and that’s the way you want it. The game you play, sweetheart, is to keep him believing you’re still made out of sugar and spice and all things nice, when in reality your private life wouldn’t bear scrutiny.’

She frowned darkly, thinking she understood him all too clearly, but seeking clarity before she hit the roof. ‘My…private life?’ she probed in a tight voice.

‘You know, the things you get up to after hours. I don’t care what man you’ve set your sights on now, or how you go about getting him. It’s none of my business. What I do need, however, is for you to use that talent on Luther Ames. Use it to keep him occupied whilst I search for the letters.’

She was stunned by what he was suggesting. Now she understood his continued disdain. He had never seen her differently. All this time he had believed there were two Rachels. The one he saw during the day, who did her job and caused her family no harm, and the one who came out at night to prey vampirically on unsuspecting males. Dear God. It was almost too incredible for words.

Unable to sit still in the face of this, Rachel sprung to her feet, striding over to the window, battling to keep her temper in check. All this time, whilst she had been mooning like a lovesick idiot, he had believed her to be spending her nights having a good time with countless men whose names she doubtless couldn’t remember! Ooh! Never mind that she had, in fact, been a model of rectitude. In his mind she was branded a man-eater, and so she remained to this very day. The injustice of his blindness made her see red, but she fought with her own personal devil. She had promised her family she would do her best to curb her instinct to respond blindly in anger, but never had she needed to use more self-restraint. Turning back to face him, she folded her arms to hide the way her hands were balled into angry fists.

‘That’s quite an opinion you have of me. Tell me, Nathan, did it never occur to you that you could be wrong about me? Did you ever give thought to the possibility that I’m not the person you think I am?’ she asked in a seriously controlled voice.

Nathan’s lips curved mockingly. ‘No, but you couldn’t seriously expect me to. I’m one of the few people who know from experience that there’s more to you than meets the eye.’

She laughed out of sheer disbelief. ‘You truly believe you know me that well?’

‘Like I say, I’ve seen both sides of you. One I can respect; the other… Well, we both know what you’re capable of. We both know you can do what Linus is asking of you. Why bother to waste time denying your alter ego?’

She shook her head helplessly. Every word he said was pushing her towards an outcome her family knew only too well. When the devil got in her, there was no stopping her, but she was prepared to give it one more try. ‘You’re wrong, you know. There is no other me.’

His brows rose sceptically. ‘Are you asking me to believe that you’re a reformed character? Sorry, darling, but as felines go, you’re as sleek as they come. A prime example. And, as the saying goes, a leopard cannot change her spots.’

‘I don’t need to change,’ she argued through gritted teeth. ‘Think about it. There hasn’t been one breath of scandal linked to my name in all the time you’ve known me, has there?’

‘I’ll agree you’re certainly more discreet than you used to be. I haven’t heard any recent gossip about you,’ he conceded dryly, and it was the way he said it which put her back up and had her teetering disastrously on the brink.

‘Even with that you won’t accept that you heard nothing because there was nothing to hear. Damn it, why do you find it impossible to accept that you’re wrong about me? That there might be an innocent explanation for what you think you saw in Antibes?’

His expression became remote. ‘Because I’ve known women like you before. I’ve seen all the tricks they use to blind a man to their true character, but what they all forget is that in the end nature will out. They always give themselves away.’

The scales began to tip dangerously. What he didn’t say was that he considered her to have given herself away already. His arrogance was beyond belief. ‘How can you make such a sweeping statement? Nothing is so cut and dried. Surely it’s possible for at least one to have a change of heart?’

‘Am I supposed to believe that’s what happened to you? You saw the error of your ways and reinvented yourself?’ he challenged incredulously, and she wanted to shake him till his teeth rattled.

She wasn’t saying that at all, as he would know if he really knew her as well as he thought he did. Well, he was about to learn a great deal more. She went over the edge, waving caution goodbye. As far as she could see, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t, so to hell with it. ‘Oh, believe what you like! You will, anyway,’ she snapped, with a defiant lift of her chin.

Nathan stared at her through eyes dancing with amusement. ‘Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’re now as pure as the driven snow. But frankly, sweetheart, that doesn’t interest me right now. What does is that you know what to do and how to do it to get the best result,’ he added trenchantly.

His patent disbelief fanned the flames of her anger. ‘Perhaps I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m prepared to help you.’

‘You think not?’ he murmured softly. ‘Don’t be too sure. Everybody has their price, Rachel. What’s yours, I wonder?’

Rachel laughed hollowly. ‘Don’t try to blackmail me, Nathan. It won’t work,’ she pointed out as coolly as she was able.

‘What if I were to put it this way? What would you do for my continued silence?’

The soft words seemed to ring around the room, and Rachel froze. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she asked in total disbelief.

He smiled mockingly. ‘I thought that would get your attention. I’ll give you my ultimatum. Do what Linus wants, and he’ll never hear about your private life from me.’

Rachel stared at him, wondering if she had somehow crossed a time warp into another life. He couldn’t be serious. How could he have rubbed shoulders with her for so long and not know that there was nothing to tell? Linus knew all about Emma, had been the one to send her out to sort the matter three years ago. He knew, too, about her inability to trust men after the way her father had behaved to her mother. He didn’t know she had fallen for this blinkered man he admired so much, though.