скачать книгу бесплатно
He nodded earnestly. “Well, I do. Then we’d strip you down to your undoubtedly gorgeous birthday suit and I’d give you a long, slow massage. On the house, of course.”
At the mention of the words long and slow, Rainey felt a serious blush coming on. But hey, there was no way she was going to fall under the spell of this frivolous creature. No, sir. And what exactly did he mean by “on the house?”
She peeked at her watch again. It was almost time for the fun to end. “Need I ask what we would do after that?”
In a voice more seductive, more nakedly intimate than any voice she had ever heard, he leaned forward and murmured, “That’s easy. I’d make you forget every man you’ve ever known.”
Rainey blinked. For one fleeting moment, Mr. Insincerity had sounded almost, well, sincere. As if he couldn’t think of anything in the world he would rather do, or anyone he would rather do it with.
Whoa! Wait a minute. There you had it. There was the power of the hunter to entice his prey just before snaring, and then devouring, it. That she had been enticed, even for a millisecond, left Rainey feeling foolish. She wasn’t about to be devoured—not again. She grabbed her purse and stood to leave. There was no check to pay, of course. The owner of the Honeymoon Haven dined for free.
“Look,” she said curtly, “I have to run. It’s been fun chatting with you. Best of luck on the hunt.”
Jumping to his feet, Romeo seemed genuinely disappointed. “Hey, not so fast! I didn’t get your name. Let’s get to know one another.”
Rainey laughed derisively. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not exchange names. I’m going to file this little encounter away under the heading ‘Anonymous.’ Or maybe ‘Meaningless.”’
He feigned devastation. “Meaningless? Now there you go again, hurting my feelings. I thought we had something here. I thought we really, you know, connected.”
Right, thought Rainey, I know what kind of connection you’re looking for! Shaking her head, she tried to ease past the flake without brushing up against him, but it proved impossible. The tables were placed too close together, and the huge potted plants between them didn’t help. She made a mental note to lose the greenery and reconfigure the room.
Romeo stood fast and she had no choice but to clutch one of his muscular arms, to steady herself as she made her way around him. It was either that or fall into the plant. “Well, you thought wrong,” she snapped.
He finally stepped aside and let her pass, but not before taking one last shot. “Hey, look, I meant what I said about wanting to get to know you. You give as good as you get. I like that in a woman.”
There it was again, that well-rehearsed sincerity. Rainey wasn’t buying it, but she was charmed nonetheless. She offered him a small, conciliatory smile. “Uh-huh, and I suppose you’re going to tell me now that I have beautiful eyes, and that I remind you of somebody you used to know.”
Thrilled to have captivated her a few seconds longer, he leaned forward and gushed, “You do have beautiful eyes. What are they? Green? Hazel?”
“Green,” Rainey called over her shoulder as she marched out of the dining room and into the wide corridor leading to the lobby. Why was she still talking to this jerk? And why was he following her? He’d given up on the blonde pretty quickly. Of course, she hadn’t cut him one inch of slack. Rainey should have known better than to flirt with a flirt.
Close on her heels, he declared, “And, for your information, you don’t remind me of anyone. You’re an original.”
Rainey abruptly stopped and turned around, and Romeo crashed into her. “Whoa there!” He grasped her forearms. When she didn’t fall, he released her, but not before lightly caressing the bare skin below her short sleeves. His touch felt strangely soothing.
“Look, buster,” Rainey muttered, sounding to herself like the exasperated blonde, “I’m tired and I have a very important meeting in less than two hours. It’s time for you to run along now.”
He lit up like a neon sign. “Hey, what an interesting coincidence! I, too, have an important meeting this afternoon. See, we already have something in common.”
As she turned smartly on her heel and headed for the lobby, Rainey muttered, “Oh, I doubt very much that we have anything in common.” When she reached the wide staircase leading to Lilly’s private apartment and the second-floor suites, Romeo was still on her tail, trying to persuade her that dinner at the Steak Pit, say, around seven, was definitely her best bet for tonight.
At her wit’s end, she confronted him one last time. “Surely you’re not going to follow me upstairs!”
“Aha! So you’re staying here at the inn. I may not know your name, but at least I know where to find you.” He grinned as if that were a major coup.
“Get lost!”
“Okay, okay!” Backing away, he raised both hands to signal defeat. “I know when I’m not wanted.” He tilted his leonine head sideways and wagged a finger at her. “But sooner or later you’ll be seeing me again. And I promise you won’t be able to resist me next time.”
“Oh, yes, I will,” Rainey said to herself as she climbed the creaky stairs. “You can count on it.”
STILL SHAKING HER HEAD, Rainey let herself into Lilly’s apartment—her apartment now—and locked the door behind her. She wouldn’t put it past Romeo to have followed her up the stairs. For all she knew, he might be the town nutcase. Then again, he might just be a harmless hustler. That was more likely.
Whew, but he was a hunk! Delicious was actually the word that came to mind. Too bad he was such a pest. She made a silent vow to avoid him at all costs. It probably wouldn’t be easy in a town of only five hundred people.
Strolling through the stuffy, eerily silent apartment toward the bedroom, she took her first good look at the place. The decor was floral and fussy, with an abundance of over-stuffed colonial furniture crammed together, and knick-knacks crowding every dusty ledge and tabletop. There were dozens of family photos in gilt frames, and worn cushions in every shade of pastel, and doilies and candles and incense and…Rainey did a double take. Candles? Incense? Seconds later, she spotted a Ouija board resting on a TV tray. Why on earth would Lilly have had a Ouija board?
Realizing she would have to redecorate, Rainey felt a sharp stab of guilt. How could she do that? This had been her beloved aunt Lilly’s home for nearly fifty years. Moving even a single picture would be sacrilegious. But what choice did she have? This just wasn’t her taste.
She went into the bedroom and kicked off her shoes. Lord, she was tired. There was so much to think about, so much to do. After her meeting this afternoon she would take a leisurely tour of the Haven. Frankly, the place seemed rundown. The paint in the lobby was scuffed and worn, and the carpet was threadbare in spots. She had already scheduled a meeting for first thing tomorrow with Hollis Harriman, the bookkeeper. In a brief exchange this morning, he had seemed anxious to show her the books as soon as possible.
Rainey suddenly realized just how demanding her new job was going to be. Everyone would be looking to her to make decisions and solve problems and provide inspiration. Her last position at the Royal York Hotel had been that of reservations supervisor. The job had required tact and patience, but it couldn’t compare with being general manager. With only thirty-two suites, the Haven was small stuff when compared to the Royal York, but, even so, the prospect of managing the entire operation, all by herself, was more daunting than she cared to admit.
A new feeling crept up on her now—loneliness. She was in a new town and she had no friends here, no family to provide support. Nobody to joke with, play with, confide in. She was truly alone.
She was also too tired to think about much of anything right now. After puzzling over it for a few minutes, she set Lilly’s old manual alarm clock for two-fifteen and fell across the bed, fully clothed.
She dreamed about a giant set of lips over dazzling white teeth, bearing down on her from above, ready to devour her one bite at a time.
2
“SURELY THERE MUST be some mistake! Could you…could you check again?”
Heart pounding, palms sweating, Rainey leaned forward in her chair and looked frantically at the file lying open on the polished rosewood desk. Several documents lay atop the open folder, stapled together with little blue paper corners. They looked awfully official.
Nate Frome of the firm of Wilson, Hutchinson, Frome sat on the other side of the desk. He was a tall, slender man with dark hair, the bland good looks of a television news anchor, and the brisk manner of a busy lawyer. Rainey guessed he was a few years older than she.
He nodded sympathetically. “I’m afraid there’s no mistake, Rainey. Your great aunt amended her will just six weeks ago. She was physically ill, but she wasn’t mentally incapacitated. The will is valid.”
Rainey slumped back in her chair, stunned beyond words. Half the Haven? How could Lilly have done that? How could she have left only half the inn to Rainey and the other half to some guy named Beckett Mahoney? Why, she hadn’t even left Rainey a controlling interest in the place. Instead she had doomed her to equal partnership with a total stranger. It wasn’t fair! Rainey had kept her part of their deal, but Lilly had reneged on hers. Why?
Fighting tears, she asked, “Who, pray tell, is Beckett Mahoney?”
From the look of mild disdain on his face, Rainey instantly got the impression that Nate knew this—this Mahoney person, and that he didn’t much care for him. And, furthermore, that there was a pretty good chance Rainey wasn’t going to care for him, either. A feeling of doom descended on her.
“Actually, he’s an old friend of mine, Rainey. We grew up together. Ah, well, maybe friend is too strong a word for…” Nate paused and cleared his throat. “He was a close friend of Lilly’s. He helped out around the Haven quite a bit, with repairs and that sort of thing. I think they played poker together once in a while. She was very fond of him.”
Rainey furrowed her brows. “Repairs? Is he some sort of handyman?” She envisioned an aging Mr. Fix-It, a stooped and arthritic grandfatherly type, shuffling around after Lilly with a tool kit in his hand. Terrific. Just what she needed.
“Ah, well, you might say that.” Nate chuckled. “Beck is certainly known to be, ah, quite handy.” Seeing the bewildered look on Rainey’s face, he adopted a more serious tone. “To be fair, Beck is actually a very accomplished man, Rainey. He’s licensed to fly small aircraft and gives lessons at the Springbank Airport near Calgary. He also gives ski lessons and volunteers for the Banff ski patrol. He’s a trained mountain guide and a pretty fair climber, too.”
A climber? “How old is Mr. Mahoney?”
“I believe Beck is thirty-two.”
Thirty-two. Well, that wasn’t so bad, really. At least he was only four years older than Rainey. Even so. An equal partner. She just plain didn’t want one. Arghhh! If sweet, funny, eccentric, Great-Aunt Lilly were alive, Rainey would kill her.
Nate gave her a warning look. “Rainey, you probably should know that Beck has a bit of a reputation with the ladies.”
Terrific, thought Rainey. We’ve swung all the way from handyman to ladies’ man. “What sort of reputation?”
“Ah, well, some of it is exaggerated, I’m sure, but let’s just say that Beck is well-known in these parts.”
Rainey leaned forward on her seat. “Define ‘parts.”’
“Calgary, Bragg Creek, Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, some parts of British Columbia, maybe even Washington State…”
She slumped back again. “Okay, I get the picture.”
While Rainey battled wildly mixed emotions—on the one hand she felt cheated; on the other hand she felt relieved—Nate casually added, “Oh, I forgot to mention, he’s also a licensed masseuse. Actually, he has a salon at the Haven.”
A masseuse? Wait a minute. Hadn’t the hustler in the dining room offered to give Rainey a massage? On the house? Surely…oh, no…surely Romeo wasn’t Beck Mahoney. Then again, he must be. He was about the right age. And how many masseuses could there be in a town the size of Bragg Creek?
“Nate,” Rainey asked with mounting dread, “is Beck Mahoney tall and blond?”
“He sure is. I take it you’ve met Beck?” His expression suggested that if Rainey had met the man, she would definitely remember him.
“I may have. I’m not sure.”
“Well, you’ll be meeting him shortly.” Nate glanced at his watch. “I asked him to join us at three-thirty. Your aunt said you would probably be a little upset, and that I should speak with you first.”
A little upset? While an astonished Nate looked on, Rainey threw back her head and laughed hysterically. Romeo as a business partner! It was too rich. She had just managed to get one hustler out of her life, and now she was going into business with another. Could things get any worse?
“MAN, OH MAN, what’s with this traffic,” Beck grumbled to himself as he cruised well below the speed limit along the Trans-Canada Highway between Bragg Creek and Banff. “Don’t these people know I’m late for an important date?”
Every summer, it was the same. Tourists and more tourists, clogging up the roadways of the Bow Valley Corridor, the steadily rising stretch of land that paralleled the Bow River west from Calgary, past Bragg Creek and Canmore, to the Rockies. But it was mid-September and most of them should have packed up and gone home by now. Obviously these road hogs didn’t know when to clear out.
Beck always looked forward to the lull between the summer tourists—the hikers and climbers and fishermen—and the droves of skiers who showed up in November when the region’s numerous ski hills opened for business. It gave him a welcome break from being nice to strangers from Winnipeg and Montreal and Denver and Dallas.
Normally he used the time to do a little fishing of his own, or to help Lilly with one of her pet projects. Last year he had lovingly restored the aqua-blue 1967 Ford Fairlane she had been smart enough to keep. He chuckled, recalling how his only reward for doing the work had been the privilege of chauffeuring her and her cackling, whiskey-addled cronies from one crazy appointment to another. Facials, makeovers, color charting sessions—they couldn’t get enough. Once, he had even taken them to see a psychic in Calgary. Imagine a bunch of eighty-year-olds consulting with a psychic. Now that was optimism.
With Lilly gone—gee, he was going to miss the darn girl!—he had no particular project in mind for this autumn break. Unless, of course…Speeding up to pass a sluggish camper van with Montana plates, his mind drifted to a pair of mesmerizing green eyes framed by a pert, pretty face and a crown of dark, silky hair. The mystery woman in the restaurant. What a babe.
Beck couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman worth taking a second look at. Sure he could have his pick of women anywhere in the corridor. But he’d never met one who looked quite like her, or sounded like her—ooh, that throaty, sexy voice—or who could dish it out and take it. She was in his head now, and he sensed it was going to be hard to get her out.
Who was she? There weren’t many single women hanging around the Haven. Maybe she was somebody’s mistress. Lots of secret lovers, some quite famous, appreciated Lilly’s legendary discretion.
Nah, somehow he didn’t think so. Not in this case. She was too fine to settle for second spot.
Maybe she was a new resident in town. Nah, that was even less likely. Tourist attractions aside, Bragg Creek was mostly a bedroom community for the families who preferred its Nordic beauty and small-town friendliness to the concrete hustle and bustle of Calgary. It didn’t attract too many singles—especially gorgeous single women.
And hey, what did it matter anyway? After that scene in the restaurant, he’d be lucky if Gorgeous Green Eyes didn’t cross the road to avoid him. Talk about making a bad first impression! Maybe he should do a little damage control—go back to the Haven later today and track her down. It was crazy, and probably pointless, but he was itching to tell her: Look, don’t take me too seriously, okay? It’s just that I need something to do until…
Yeah well, why bother? Once she found out about the money, she’d be no different than the others—salivating all over him every chance she got. He’d manage to keep it under wraps for a while, but sooner or later somebody would clue her in.
Dammit, he needed to fall in love with somebody for real and get married as soon as possible. The sooner he got married, the sooner he’d be able to get his hands on the second half of his trust fund. Then he could get a law degree and give his aching knees a rest. A man couldn’t give skiing lessons forever.
Three more years before they would cut the check. It seemed like an eternity.
Too bad about the babe with the shining eyes and the voluptuous curves. He had no trouble picturing himself married to her. He’d come home every night from his thriving practice in environmental law to find her wrapped in a white silk kimono, stoking the fire in his cottage, a snifter of brandy already poured for him. It made a nice picture.
What the hell, she probably knew about the money already. After all, she’d been in town for more than ten minutes.
As the corridor’s rolling foothills gradually gave way to the steely peaks of the Rockies, Beck marveled once again at the fact that Lilly had named him in her will. Man, what a shock. It hadn’t occurred to him for one second that she would leave him something. Oh, sure, he’d done some minor repair work around the Haven, and he’d given her more than a few foot massages over the years. But that didn’t amount to much. She had treated him like a son, and he’d been happy to help out an old lady with no kids of her own.
He’d also given her a lot of his hard-earned cash. What a poker player old Lilly had been! He had called her Poker Face Miller and she had nicknamed him Beck and Call.
What could she possibly have left him? He sure hoped it was the Fairlane.
“ANGELA, you sweet thing, you’re looking mighty fine today. Mighty fine indeed.”
Calmer now but still shaky, Rainey groaned and turned halfway around in her chair. The buttery voice behind her was unmistakable. Beck Mahoney, alias Romeo, alias Superstud, alias Mr. Insincerity, had burst into the reception area adjacent to Nate’s office and managed to get all of three steps into the room before finding a woman to charm.
Through the frosted glass between the two rooms, Rainey saw the blurred image of the flustered, middle-aged receptionist waving a hand in Beck’s direction. “Oh, get away with you, Beck Mahoney!” she admonished him with a girlish giggle. Beck grasped her hand in midair and planted a kiss on the back of it. “Angela, if I were twenty years older…”
Suddenly a group of boisterous young clerks appeared out of nowhere and began to ooh and ah over a preening Beck. “All hands on Beck!” a girlish voice shrieked, and they gathered around him like a pack of starstruck groupies.
“Beck, honey,” one cried with petulance, “you said you would call me and you didn’t!”
“You told me the same thing!” someone else whined.
“Girls, girls,” Beck drawled. “Patience. There’s plenty of me to go around. Speaking of which, who wants to climb the Galatea Trail and have a picnic at Mirror Lake on Sunday?”
“I do!” they all cried.
Gently pulling free from their clutches, he said, “Okay, well, I’ll definitely be taking one of you. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, so I won’t say who it’s going to be right now. If it’s you, you’ll know soon enough.”
Groaning good-naturedly, the young women dispersed. Beck burst into Nate’s office. “Nate, old boy,” he bellowed, “I see you’ve still got a license to practise. How can that—” spotting Rainey, he stopped dead in his tracks “—possibly be?” His gorgeous mouth fell open and his face turned beet red.
Rising to her feet, Rainey managed a tight smile. “Hello, Romeo. How’s the hunt going?”
“I…” His blush actually deepened another shade. Dripping sarcasm, she quipped, “Ooh, he blushes all the time. I like that in a man.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked with wide-eyed astonishment. “For that matter, who are you?”
Nate gestured between them. “Beck Mahoney, meet Rainey Miller. Though it seems you’ve already had the pleasure.”
The look of total bewilderment on Beck’s scarlet face gradually gave way to a sheepish grin. “Well, I’ll be. Gorgeous Green Eyes is Lilly Miller’s favorite niece. I was right. This is my lucky day.”
“In more ways than one,” Rainey said dryly. “As it turns out, you’re my new business partner.”
“Your new what?” His amber eyes darted from Rainey to Nate and back again. He waved a hand in the air. “Okay, you’ve lost me now.”
Nate motioned for them to sit down and then told a bugeyed Beck what he had just told Rainey—that he was half owner of the Honeymoon Haven, effective immediately. Beck looked like he didn’t know whether to jump for joy or jump out the second-floor window onto busy Banff Avenue.
Breaking a thick silence, he murmured to himself, “Half the Haven? Man, I would have been thrilled if she’d just left me her car.”
Nate rifled through the papers on his desk. “I believe she did leave you the Fairlane.”
