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But that was only the first part of his plan.
Four days after the charity ball, Riane hadn’t stopped thinking about Joel Logan. Even sitting across from Stuart at their usual table at the Casa, where they dined every Wednesday night, she couldn’t help but think about the other man.
It was because of Joel that she’d decided to shake up her relationship with Stuart a little. Maybe Stuart wasn’t passionate with her, she reasoned, because she didn’t inspire him to passion. So she’d bypassed the dark blue Chanel suit in favor of a scarlet silk A-line dress she’d bought several months earlier but hadn’t yet found the courage to wear. The dress had a plunging neckline and a back slit that cut more than halfway up her thighs. It was bold, vibrant, daring. Everything she wasn’t. Everything she wanted to be.
Stuart hadn’t even commented on the dress except to say, as he always did, “You look lovely, Riane.”
Not stunning.
Not sexy.
Lovely.
Several hours later, as Stuart pulled through the gates of the Quinlan estate, Riane found herself exhausted and frustrated. Dinner had been delicious, the service impeccable, their conversation monotonous.
It was all she could do not to scream.
When they arrived at the house, Stuart parked his Mercedes in front and came around to open her door. Always the gentleman, she thought, with an unfamiliar hint of resentment.
He walked with her up to the front porch, then touched his lips to hers. She willed herself to feel something, anything, in response to his kiss. But there was no tingle, no warmth, no desire. Nothing.
And then it was over.
“Good night, Riane.”
“Good night, Stuart.” She held back the sigh until he was in his car again and driving away.
Sophie was waiting for Riane when she stepped into the marble-tiled foyer.
“Good evening, Miss Quinlan.”
The housekeeper’s presence, as much as the formality she’d used, surprised Riane. “I told you not to wait up, Sophie.”
“You have company, miss.”
“Company?” Riane frowned.
“A gentleman.” Sophie’s eyes twinkled mischievously.
Riane’s frown deepened.
“He’s waiting in the den,” Sophie told her.
Riane didn’t want to deal with anyone else tonight. Her dinner with Stuart had been an exercise in monotony; his good-night kiss at the front door had left her uninspired. And she mentally damned Joel Logan for showing up at her charity ball and making her feel as though she was missing something.
All she wanted now was to slip into her favorite pair of satin pajamas and climb into bed. But she was a Quinlan, and the responsibilities she bore as such were equal to the rights and privileges. She squared her tired shoulders and turned toward the den.
The unnamed visitor was standing in front of the window, his back to the door. He didn’t turn around; he didn’t need to. Riane recognized him immediately. She wasn’t sure if it was the breadth of his shoulders, the tension in his posture, or maybe just his aura. But she knew it was Joel, and her breath caught in her throat, her heart thudded heavily against her ribs.
She chided herself for the instinctive reaction. She was twenty-four years old, not a law school freshman enamored of the editor of the Law Review. But the feelings he stirred in her weren’t so different from those she’d felt the first time she’d set eyes on Cameron Davis. And the first time he’d smiled at her, she’d been halfway in love.
The mental comparison terrified Riane. She didn’t want to have these feelings again. She didn’t want her emotions to be out of control. She didn’t want to be vulnerable.
That niggling fear bolstered her lagging resolve. She wasn’t twenty years old anymore—she was a woman. A strong, independent woman, and she could handle this man and her unexpected and inexplicable attraction to him.
“Mr. Logan,” she said, in what she hoped was a casually disinterested tone.
He turned slowly, and she realized then that he’d been standing at the window watching for her. That he’d seen her arrive. That, in all likelihood, he’d seen Stuart kiss her good-night.
“Good evening, Ms. Quinlan.”
She didn’t insist that he call her Riane this time. She’d already decided it would be best to keep this man at a distance—as far a distance as possible. He was too potentially dangerous to her peace of mind to allow him to encroach on her carefully ordered life.
“How did you get in here?” she demanded.
“Your housekeeper, Sophie, let me in.”
“I didn’t mean into the house—I meant through the security gates.”
“Sophie again,” he told her.
Riane frowned. “She’s not in the habit of opening the gates to strangers.”
“But I’m not exactly a stranger, am I?”
“You are to Sophie.”
“I told her that we’d met at the charity ball, and that I had something that belongs to you.”
“And do you?”
He gestured to the wrap draped carelessly over the back of her father’s chair. The velvet wrap that she’d belatedly realized she’d left in the ballroom.
“I didn’t realize you worked in lost and found.”
One side of his mouth kicked up in a half smile. “Apparently I do.”
“Well, thank you for returning it.”
“You’re welcome.”
But instead of moving toward the door, as she expected him to do, he leaned back against the corner of a bookcase and folded his arms over his chest. His pose was deliberately casual, his gaze leisurely as it skimmed over her. His self-confidence bordered on arrogance, the boldness of his stare almost insolent. It unnerved her, and aroused her.
“You look…” Joel paused, his deep blue eyes filled with heat as he sought the appropriate word to complete his thought, “…stunning.”
Stunning.
Riane felt her cheeks flush with guilty pleasure. Why did it matter what Joel Logan thought? Why did his reluctant compliment mean so much to her when Stuart’s words had only annoyed her?
The answer came quickly, unbidden. Because Joel Logan made her feel like a woman—feminine, attractive, desirable. With Stuart she only ever felt like an accessory—a suitable companion for any press conference or primary.
Uncomfortable with the comparison, with the feelings he stirred inside her, Riane refused to acknowledge the comment. “Was there something else you wanted, Mr. Logan?”
“I expected at least a few minutes of small talk, maybe the offer of a drink.”
Riane bit back another sigh, resenting that the manners so carefully ingrained since childhood demanded that she participate in such formalities. But she’d managed to convince herself that Joel Logan had gone back to wherever he’d come from, and his unexpected appearance here—in her home—disconcerted her.
“Forgive my lack of manners, Mr. Logan. It’s been a very long day and I wasn’t expecting company.” She didn’t care that her apology sounded more like an accusation. She would go through the motions, but that was all. “Would you care for a drink?”
He inclined his head slightly, watching her intently. She stood firm, unflinching beneath his steady gaze.
“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” he said at last.
She crossed over to the sideboard, removed the crystal stopper from the Waterford decanter and poured a generous amount of scotch into two highball glasses.
She passed one to him, careful that their fingers not brush in the transfer. She was determined to avoid any and all physical contact with him. She’d let him have his drink, find out what he wanted and send him on his way.
But Joel obviously had other plans, because he set his glass down on the shelf and brushed his fingers over her bare shoulder, down her arm, linking them loosely around her wrist. She felt the jolt of awareness reverberate through her system, sending tingles from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and all the erogenous zones in between. Still, she refused to let him see how he affected her, refused to let him know that her whole system went into overload when he touched her.
She looked at his hand on hers, raised a brow. Most of the men she knew would have taken the not-so-subtle hint and terminated the unwanted contact, but Joel either didn’t understand her signal or simply refused to comply with it. She suspected it was the latter.
“How long have you been engaged?” he asked.
The abruptness of the question, as much as the hint of annoyance in his tone, startled her. “The engagement isn’t official yet,” she told him, silently wondering if it ever would be.
“No wedding date set?”
“No.” She tugged out of his grasp and stepped away. She tipped her own glass to her lips and drank deeply, the scotch burning a fiery path down her throat that didn’t compare to the heat on her arm where he’d touched her.
He picked up his glass again and sipped. “Nice scotch.”
Riane downed the last of her drink, set the glass down with a snap. “Did you come her to discuss my wedding plans, my father’s scotch, or was there something else you wanted?”
“Have I said or done something to upset you, Ms. Quinlan?”
Yes, damn it. She wanted to scream the words at him, to let her anger and frustration spill over. She’d been perfectly happy until Joel Logan had come into her life. Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. But she’d been content, for the most part, because she hadn’t known what she was missing.
She still didn’t know, but every time he looked at her, every time he touched her, he made her wonder.
“You’re here,” she said simply.
“I was thinking if either one of us had a right to be annoyed,” he said casually, “it would be me.”
“Why?”
“Because a woman who’s engaged to be married shouldn’t look at another man the way you were looking at me Saturday night.”
She dropped her gaze and moved to refill her glass. “I’ll apologize for the fact that you obviously misunderstood my intentions.”
“I didn’t misunderstand anything,” Joel said coolly.
Riane lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug, raised the glass. Joel was at her side before it touched her lips, his fingers wrapped around the wrist that held her drink.
Her first thought was that he moved fast.
Her second, he was dangerous.
Her next, she wanted him.
It was irrational, it was insane, but in that instant, she knew it was true. It wasn’t the subtle tug of desire she’d felt when she’d danced with him at the ball. There was nothing subtle about this at all. It hit her with the force of a runaway freight train, uncontrollable, unstoppable, undeniable.
Chapter 3
Joel could read the emotions reflected in her eyes.
Surprise. Awareness. Desire.
She wanted him; he wanted her. The attraction between them was simple. Unfortunately, everything else about the situation was not.
Her lips curved slightly and he tightened his grip. He prided himself on having a great deal of control but right now, he was very close to losing it. That sexy little smile almost put him over the top.
Almost.
He dropped Riane’s wrist abruptly, unaccountably angry with her for the desire her mere presence stoked inside him. Angrier with himself for not being strong enough to resist. He knew he should back away. Better yet, he should leave—this house, this state. But he stayed where he was, mesmerized by her presence.
Her lips curved again. They were glossy and red, the same tempting shade as her figure-hugging dress and those killer shoes. At the charity ball she’d looked the part of a senator’s daughter. Elegant, sophisticated, untouchable. Tonight she didn’t look like anybody’s daughter. She was all hot, steamy sex appeal in a beckoning package. And if she’d been his unofficial fiancеe—not that that would ever happen—there was no way in hell he’d have said good-night at the door. But the proper Stuart Etherington III had, and his kiss hadn’t even smudged Riane’s lipstick.
“It’s late, Mr. Logan, and I’m too tired for games. So why don’t you cut to the chase and tell me why you’re here?”
It was a valid question, but he’d forgotten all the reasons he’d contrived for his visit the minute he’d seen her get out of the car. Something about getting answers, he recalled vaguely. He’d decided that the senator’s absence didn’t have to be a complete roadblock to his investigation, it only required a slight detour. And spending some time with Riane might prove to be a very pleasurable side trip.
But face-to-face with her now, he felt a little uneasy about his agenda. He didn’t want to be with Riane under false pretenses; he genuinely wanted to be with her. He wanted to know the woman behind the facade. He wanted to take his time and explore the attraction between them.
But his wants and desires were irrelevant here. His sole purpose for being in West Virginia was to finish the job he’d been hired to do. It was best to remember that, and to remember that a woman like Riane Quinlan was out of his league.
“It looks like I’m going to be in town a while,” he said, “and I thought we could spend some time together while I’m here.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t really know anyone else.”
Her soft, smoky laugh went straight to his loins, making him again question the wisdom of the course he’d decided to pursue.
“That’s the most unique, if not the most appealing, invitation I’ve ever received,” she told him.
“Is that a yes?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
