A Daring Deception

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‘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.

God, Nathan was so certain he knew her. So certain he was right. He deserved to have some of that arrogance knocked out of him, and, the way she felt now, she was just the person to do it.

Her heart began to race as she dealt with the temptation. What pleasure it would give her to throw the truth in his face! Her eyes narrowed in a way that should have sent a wise man running for cover. Nathan unwisely stayed right where he was. ‘You’d say nothing, ever?’ she checked, and his eyes glittered with amusement.

‘You’re getting more like yourself by the minute,’ he observed mockingly. ‘Do what Linus asks of you and my lips will remain sealed. You can get any man you want, any way you want, and yet you’ll remain as innocent as the day is long in Linus’s eyes.’

With a mental grinding of her teeth, Rachel rose to her feet once more. ‘Well, now, that does make a difference,’ she mused thoughtfully, crossing to the mirror and making a show of smoothing her hair back. Tucking in a stray lock, her eyes darted to his reflection and caught the curl of his lip. It hurt to finally realise what his opinion of her was, but she was a fighter, not a quitter. He would get the person he thought her to be, in spades. Starting now.

‘After all, I have nothing but Grandfather’s best interests at heart,’ she reasoned, and Nathan’s smile broadened.

‘Of course you do. Which is why you couldn’t stand by and refuse to help him now, could you?’ he enlarged simply.

Rachel smiled too as she swung round. ‘It isn’t that I didn’t want to help him,’ she explained with a shrug, getting into character.

Nathan appeared only too happy to follow her lead, which did nothing for her mood. ‘Of course not. It’s just that a girl needs to know where she stands.’

The rat. Her smile widened. ‘Absolutely.’

‘OK, now that we understand each other so much better, why don’t you come and sit down and we’ll make some plans,’ he drawled sardonically, making her palms itch. He would never understand her. Never.

She didn’t want to sit, but standing made her look tense when she needed to appear at ease. She chose the chair opposite. ‘What sort of plans are you referring to?’ she asked, determined to sound businesslike at the very least.

‘Getting our stories straight, for one thing. We’re supposed to be lovers. I’m the high roller and you’re my lucky mascot. Think you can play the part?’ he asked her with a decided glint in his eye.

Rachel shot him an equally mocking look. ‘So long as you don’t expect me to bring you luck.’ What she wished for him right now was quite the opposite.

As she was fast coming to expect, Nathan laughed. ‘Just remember we’re on the same side, lover.’

Lover. The word shivered across her skin like the faintest breath of hot desert air. She didn’t feel in the least lover-like. Murderous, yes. The trouble was, loathe him as she might for his blindness, she was still strongly attracted to him. The last thing she needed was for him to discover the fact, but how to prevent it when the pretence of their relationship would entail certain behaviour which would put her in close proximity with the man? Danger signals flashed. It would be as well for her to set the parameters of this fictional relationship right now.

‘I’ll remember we’re on the same side, and you remember that we aren’t lovers,’ she told him bluntly.

He looked over at her with a faint curl of his lip. ‘A fact for which I am extremely grateful. Rest assured I don’t want you, and never will. Try any of your games on me and you’ll regret it.’

He couldn’t have said anything more guaranteed to get her dander up. She forgot in that moment that she didn’t want him to want her and acted purely on feminine instinct.

‘Oh, really?’ she murmured with sweet viciousness. ‘I’ve heard it said that people who protest too much generally have something to hide.’

He had no trouble following her drift. ‘Some men might, but I’m not one of them. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s concentrate on the real problem,’ Nathan responded evenly, and it annoyed her no end that she couldn’t rattle him. She wanted to knock the wind clean out of him, and upset his complacency once and for all. She’d do it, too. Somehow. Before this was over. It was a promise she made to herself right there and then. She would find his weakness and use it against him. Everyone had their Achilles’ heel—even men like Nathan Wade.

She eyed his bent head as he opened the envelope Linus had given him. ‘You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?’

He looked up, blue eyes glittering sardonically. ‘Very sure. Remember that, if you’re ever tempted to take me on.’

Oh, she was tempted all right, and when the time was right she would act. ‘I’ll be sure and make a memo in my diary,’ she drawled, and his teeth flashed whitely as he smiled in acknowledgement.

‘So you don’t know anything about Luther Ames?’

She shook her head. ‘I only know what Linus said, that he prefers blondes.’

‘Exactly. Just remember, although he prefers them, he’s no gentleman.’

His warning surprised her, given his opinion. ‘Don’t tell me you’re concerned about me, Nathan?’ she charged with patent disbelief.

He sent her a reproving look. ‘Don’t take it personally. I’d worry about anyone who got tangled up in Ames’s sticky web of corruption. A man who would stoop to blackmailing his own aunt doesn’t have an ethical bone in his body. We don’t know what else he gets up to. Keep your wits about you, but don’t let him see you have any. His women aren’t required to think, just look decorative. Add all their vital statistics together, and they still wouldn’t reach your IQ. You should fit right in.’

Rachel came as close as she ever had been to smacking another human being. ‘Are you trying to be deliberately offensive?’

He eyed her quizzically. ‘Don’t get your nose out of joint. I meant you’d fit in because of your talent for being all things to all men. You should be able to play a dumb blonde with your eyes shut.’

‘Thanks, that makes it even worse!’ she returned dryly. ‘Do me a favour and don’t pay me any more compliments like those.’ All things to all men! He made her sound as if she spent her life on her back. Lord, but he was hateful. If it was the last thing she ever did, she would show him just how wrong he was about Rachel Shaw!

She became aware that Nathan was looking her over with a jaundiced eye. ‘You’re going to have to ditch the glasses,’ he declared flatly, and she nodded, for that was the least of her problems.

‘I only wear glasses when I’m working, anyway.’

‘I suppose you think they promote a different type of image, like the suits,’ he observed dryly, and Rachel took umbrage.

‘I take my work very seriously and I do my best to appear professional at all times. There’s nothing wrong in that,’ she pointed out acidly.

Nathan’s expression spoke volumes. ‘Rachel, are you under the impression that by playing down your looks you’ve lost the ability to turn men’s heads? Take it from me, it ain’t so,’ he informed her mockingly, and every nerve in her body jumped. ‘When it comes to sex appeal, sweetheart, you’d be oozing it if your hair looked like a bird’s nest and you wore nothing but a sack tied up with a piece of string. You might not flaunt it by day, but it’s still there. You’re a sexy woman, and no amount of glasses and power suits is going to change that.’

Considering she was not the person he believed her to be, his description of her as sexy, indeed, oozing sex appeal, came as quite a surprise. It meant he had noticed her after all—not that that did her the least bit of good when the woman he thought he saw wasn’t the woman he was looking at. The knowledge hurt, and she responded accordingly.

‘I’m more than just a body and a pretty face!’

‘Maybe, but right now those are the only two of your plentiful attributes we’re interested in. They’re certainly all Luther Ames will see. Speaking of which, the more he sees, the quicker he’ll take the bait, so remember to pack your sexiest clothes,’ Nathan ordered.

Rachel knew that if she possessed any blatantly sexy clothes it was by accident, not design. She tended to wear more trendily casual clothes, not the designer dresses and evening wear he clearly expected. She would have to do some hasty shopping, though it would go very much against the grain. She didn’t much care for the idea of dressing solely to invite men to ogle her, and was beginning to see where her anger had taken her. However, she was committed, and never let it be said that Rachel Shaw ran away from anything!

‘I should be able to find something suitable,’ she confirmed.

‘We can always go shopping in Tahoe,’ Nathan offered, and her nerves jolted.

‘No!’ she refused quickly. ‘That won’t be necessary.’ The last thing she wanted was for him to buy her clothes. That would be going altogether too far.

Nathan shot her a mocking look. ‘I’d pay. You don’t have to worry about any of the bills,’ he said dryly, and the embers of her wrath flared up again.

Her smile was a gem of fake sincerity. ‘Oh, I wasn’t, but, since you’re offering, I’ll supply the clothes, you provide the diamonds.’

As she had hoped, his amusement died instantly. ‘Diamonds?’

This time her smile was entirely natural as she realised he didn’t like the implication. ‘You’re a wealthy man, and if I’m your lover you surely must have given me jewellery. I always think a woman looks naked without diamonds. Oh, but you don’t have to worry, I promise to give them back afterwards. I wouldn’t want to appear greedy.’

Blue eyes narrowed to icy chips. ‘Very generous of you. Is there anything else I should provide?’

Enjoying his irritation, Rachel’s shrug was casual. ‘I’ll let you know if I think of anything.’

A muscle ticked at the corner of his tantalising mouth. ‘I’m sure you will,’ he said frostily, and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Perhaps this whole situation would have its amusing side after all.

‘Nothing cheap, mind. I have expensive tastes.’ A calm smile tilted her lips as the lie was uttered. ‘Oh, and I really don’t care for rubies.’

A steely glint flickered in his eyes. ‘No rubies. You have no objection to emeralds or sapphires?’

‘None at all,’ she retorted brightly.

‘I’m glad to hear it. Now, if that’s the end of the shopping list, we’d better get on,’ Nathan urged, turning his attention back to Linus’s list of travel plans and thereby missing her grin of delight at having soured his mood. ‘Our flight leaves at midday tomorrow. I’ll swing by your place about ten to pick you up.’

The suggestion had instant alarm shooting through her. She couldn’t have him turning up at the apartment. If he saw Emma he was bound to recognise her, and that would never do. She wanted her pound of flesh before she hit him with the truth.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ she refused politely. ‘My…cousin will drive me,’ she explained, hoping her hesitation would make him assume her ‘cousin’ was male, and no relative at all. It worked like a charm and had his lip curling cynically.

‘OK, we’ll meet at the airport. Just make sure your “cousin” lets you get some sleep tonight,’ Nathan responded. Tucking the envelope into his jacket pocket, he took a quick glance at his wristwatch. ‘I have to leave. This business will make a mess of my calendar, and I’ll have some important meetings to rearrange. Heaven alone knows how long this is going to take.’

‘Surely a weekend should be long enough?’ Rachel put forward hopefully. She had no wish to prolong the affair either.

Nathan smiled wryly. ‘If I were Ames, I wouldn’t leave those letters anywhere they could be found too easily. We may have to search the whole damned house. You’d better just hope and pray he doesn’t have some state-of-the-art security system, or we’ll be screwed before we start. We could both end up in jail yet,’ he declared by way of a parting shot, and Rachel was left staring at the empty doorway.

She knew he wasn’t joking. Getting caught in the act was a distinct possibility, and it was a sobering thought. They were going to have to be very, very careful. Yet no matter the possibility of dire consequences, the thought of backing out never entered her head. She was going to see this through to the end for the sheer pleasure of throwing the truth back in Nathan Wade’s face.