Alana (22 page)

Today he had spent the afternoon with James Allison and the lawyer. The men had hinted of their plans and power they would one day wield.

Rafe had sensed that Allison had already judged him and approved him. All that remained was for him to meet and gain acceptance by the three other important men in the consortium. Rafe had learned that Caruthers and Murdock were junior members and would not be present at any meetings.

When Rafe was twenty feet inside the lobby, he caught sight of a woman whose long raven hair reminded him of Alana’s. But when she suddenly turned toward him, he paused in midstep. In the half second he’d had to look at her face, his heart had almost stopped.

Impossible! he told himself. Yet he continued to look at Alana’s unforgettable profile.

He started forward, but then stopped. Why is she here? he asked himself. Was it really Alana? Then he saw the tall, lanky black man who followed close behind her. He noticed the way the man’s eyes watched everything. The moment Rafe had started toward her; the black man’s face had gone tight. When he’d stopped, the man relaxed.

Before he could take action, he spotted a man across the lobby whom he’d met the other day. This man knew him not as Rafe Montgomery, but as Richard Sutcliff of San Francisco. If the woman was Alana and she called him by name, it might prove fatal.

Instead of following her, Rafe went to the front desk and asked the clerk if there was a Mrs. Landow registered at the hotel.

“Why, yes, Mr. Sutcliff,” the clerk replied cheerfully, “she’s been staying with us for several days now.”

Thinking quickly, Rafe nodded his head. “I’ve done a lot of business with her husband. I must pay my respects immediately. What room is she in?”

“Suite three seventeen,” the clerk stated.

“Thank you.” Rafe left the desk and went to the stairs, his mind reeling with the knowledge that Alana was here. Even though his blood pulsed through his body in the madding way he had not felt since that long-ago morning when Alana had left his bedroom, he wondered why she was here.
And Jason
? he asked himself.

~~~~

Alana had not yet started to undress. Chaco was in his room, eating the meal that had been waiting for him when they’d returned a few moments before.

Alana poured a glass of water from a leaded crystal pitcher. She stared at the water, and as she did, she thought about the strange feeling she’d had when she’d seen the man in the lobby.

She realized that he had resembled Rafe. He was as tall as Rafe, and the silver in his dark hair had sparkled in the same way. His resemblance to Rafe was tantalizing.

“Oh, Rafe,” she whispered. Abruptly, she cut off her thoughts. Raising the glass to her lips, Alana started to take a sip. Before she could, there was a knock at her door.

Putting the glass down, she went to the door. “Yes?”

“Mrs. Landow?” came the muffled voice.

“Yes?”

“I must speak with you.”

Alana opened the door, and when she did, she found herself looking into the same bearded face she’d seen downstairs. Again, that familiar tickle teased her mind.

“Yes?” she repeated as the tall man stepped into the room without being invited.

“Hello, my love,” he said in a low voice.

Her breath caught. When she looked into his eyes and saw her own feelings reflected within their brilliant green depths, she knew it really was Rafe.

Then he reached into his collar and withdrew a gold chain. Alana’s eyes widened further, when she saw her mother’s thin golden wedding band hanging from it.

The world spun frighteningly around her. Her legs turned to rubber; her eyes blinked at the sight before her. She reached out to him, her fingers going to his face. She ignored the short hair on his cheeks as she traced his features.

“Rafe,” she whispered. “Oh my God, Rafe, it is you.…”

Rafe reached out. His arms went around her, bringing her to him, holding her tightly as his mouth met hers. Then their lips touched for the first time in almost two years.

But even as they kissed deeply, Rafe saw from the comer of his eye a dark blur charge toward him. Before he could release Alana and turn, a hand caught his hair and jerked his head back. The tip of a knife rested on his jugular vein.

“No! Chaco!” Alana shouted. “He is a friend.”

Chaco slowly withdrew the knife from Rafe’s throat and released his hair. Turning, Rafe gazed into the ebony eyes of the man that had been following Alana in the lobby.

The men stared silently at each other until Alana, her breasts rising and falling with a combination of fear and love, spoke to Chaco.

“This is Rafe Montgomery, Chaco. He is–” Alana paused then and squared her shoulders. “He is much, much more than a friend.” Using her hands, she gave Chaco a private message.

To Rafe’s surprise, Alana made several motions with her hands. The tension flowed out of the lanky black man’s body, and Chaco favored Rafe with a nod of his head.

A quick flash of memory struck Rafe. He remembered how proud his sister had been when she’d learned the signing language and had started to teach children who could not speak with words. he thrust that thought aside as he watched Chaco leave the room.

“Just who is he?” Rafe asked after the door closed behind Chaco.

“Chaco is my bodyguard,” she said, using the term for the first time.

“I see,” Rafe replied doubtfully. “What did you tell him?” he asked while his eyes feasted on Alana’s beauty.

“That you are the man I love. Oh, Rafe, did you never receive my letter?”

Rafe’s features tightened. He stepped closer to Alana. Looking deeply into her eyes, he lifted one hand and stroked the silkiness of her cheek.

“When I returned home, I found…everything had changed. My business and my home were gone. My sister, Elizabeth, had died. There was no place for your letter to be delivered. In fact, only few people know I’m alive.”

Alana
closed her eyes to this news. “I’m so sorry,” she began, but Rafe cut her off, unwilling to go into that now.

“What happened to you, Alana? Where is Jason?”

“He died last summer,” she replied. Before he could ask any more questions, she pressed his hand tighter against her cheek.

“Later, Rafe,” she whispered. “Oh, my love, we’ll have time to talk later.”

The boldness of her words and the hunger in her eyes spoke a thousand words to him, and Rafe knew her desire was reflected by his.

Alana rose upward on tiptoe. Their lips met, and fire blazed from their kiss. The kiss lasted a long, long time, and the endless months of separation were put aside as their love, too long denied, burst forth in a passionate rebirth that left them both too shaken to speak when their mouths reluctantly parted.

With her heart pounding and her stomach deliciously tight, Alana grasped Rafe’s hand in hers. She took him through the sitting room and into the bedroom. Then, strangely, Alana became self-conscious. It had been so long since she’d seen him, since they had loved.

Rafe sensed Alana’s hesitation, yet the desire and love that were so suddenly reborn would not let him hold back. He drew her to him, his arms going around her as he looked deeply into her eyes.

“We’ve been apart too long, Alana.”

Alana closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she slowly nodded her head. “Love me, Rafe. I need you to love me.”

With their eyes feasting upon each other, they stepped apart and slowly undressed.

When she stood naked before him, her long hair spilling over one shoulder and reaching below one perfectly formed breast, she spoke. “How I have missed you, Rafael, with all my heart and soul.”

“And I missed you no less,” Rafe whispered gently, catching her to him. His lips were demanding; his hands held her willing prisoner against his bare flesh. Their breathing grew ragged, and when Rafe drew back, Alana’s closed eyes snapped open.

A moment later, she was in his strong arms and floating four feet above the floor. Her long raven hair trailed toward the carpet as he carried her to the bed and placed her in its center. Rafe joined her there, his lips devouring her mouth, her neck, luxuriating in the fullness of her breasts.

His lips were burning embers that scorched a pathway along her breasts. Her hands gripped his hair and pressed his face more tightly to her when he took a desire-stiffened nipple into the heated embrace of his mouth.

Her ecstasy was so intense that her low, throaty cries grew louder in the room. When she could take no more of his mouth on her breasts and nipples, she drew his head up to hers and met his mouth avidly.

Their tongues danced, and their skin glowed hotly upon each other. When the passion and love that filled them could not be held back any longer, they joined together and became one.

With Rafe above her, holding her, filling her with himself, their eyes remained open and locked together. Alana’s eyes misted and Rafe’s handsome face became a ghostly vision of shimmering beauty above her as tears of happiness spilled from her eyes. Yet even then, Alana would not close her eyes, for fear Rafe might be gone when she opened them again and she would find herself in nothing but a dream.

But he didn’t disappear; rather, he guided her along their journey to that very special place in the universe that they had created for themselves almost two years before. Once there, the very fabric of the world shattered with the exploding climax of their love.

Later, after their breathing returned to normal and they lay quietly, still under the influence of the magic that they had created, Alana gazed at him, her finger tracing the full curve of his lips. At last she spoke.

“I have dreamed of you so often, but I was afraid that my dreams would never come true,” she said truthfully, not at all embarrassed by her admission to the man she loved so deeply.

“Never has a day passed when I did not think of you. I had hoped that you would find happiness, even as I hoped that one day we would be together again.”

“And now we shall stay together!” Alana declared vehemently. “I will never, never lose you again.”

“Yes,” Rafe replied, his voice as determined as Alana’s. Then he shifted and sat up, drawing Alana with him, his arm around her, her head resting on his chest.

He bent, pressing his lips to the top of her head and breathing in the special fragrance of her hair. When he took his mouth from her silky raven strands, he exhaled slowly. “Alana, talk to me. Tell me why you’re here.”

Alana closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw the silhouetted shadows of their bodies flickering on the wall across from the bed, projected by the low cast of the brass oil lamps.

As she luxuriated within the heady scent that clung to Rafe’s skin, she took a deep, preparatory breath. Without lifting her head from the comforting feel of his chest, she spoke.

She told Rafe everything that had happened between Jason and herself, sparing nothing. When she finished the first part of her story, she listened to the steady beat of Rafe’s heart. Then she went on, detailing the troubles with the shipping company and the losses she’d suffered at Ledoque’s hands. Finally, she told him about her new partnership with the notorious madam, Crystal Revanche, and outlined everything at Riverbend. She did not explain all of Crystal’s background, but simply noted that Crystal, too, suffered at Charles Ledoque’s hands, and wished to see him ruined.

After she had finished, she paused for a moment in thought. When she spoke again, her voice was low, her words distinct. “She saved my life, Rafe, and even if she is a whore, she’s the only person who helped me. Does it bother you that I am in business with a–a prostitute?”

Only after she fell silent did she look up at Rafe. She saw the lines of tension around his eyes, but a moment later, she felt the reassuring pressure of his hand on her arm.

“Yes, for a moment,” Rafe admitted truthfully. “But I was thousands of miles away and of no help to you. You did what was necessary. Moreover, you kept your integrity at a time when it would have been easier to give in. No, Alana, what you did was necessary, I’m bothered only because I could not help. Besides,” he said with a full smile, “this Crystal Revanche seems more angel than whore, at least from the way you describe her.”

“At times she is,” Alana agreed, her mind calmer now. Then Alana explained the reason she was in New York.

When she had completed her tale, she lowered her head and ran her mouth across Rafe’s chest, enjoying the way his hair tickled her nose and the feel of his skin against her lips. Lifting her head again, she fixed him with an open and frank stare. “And now, my love, it is your turn.”

Rafe spoke for almost an hour–dispassionately, as if it were someone else describing his life since he had left Alana. In unemotional words, Rafe detailed what he was doing in New York and how he planned to expose the man he was seeking. When he finished, the tight line of his lips softened and he smiled down at Alana.

“And so I am now Richard Sutcliff.”

Alana, her eyes moist with emotion, reached up to him. “I’m sorry, Rafe, for what happened to you and your family. I can’t help but wonder, my darling, why both of us have had so much sorrow and suffering.”

Rafe shook his head slowly. “But it will soon be over.”

“And then?” Alana asked.

“And then, Alana, I promise we shall never be apart again.”

Alana blinked back her tears and lifted her head. “I won’t let you break that promise, Rafael Montgomery, even if I must chase you around the world itself.”

“I left you once,” he told her, his green eyes sparkling intensely. “It won’t happen again. I’m not going anywhere without you, Alana,” he stated as his mouth closed on hers and he showed her the truth of his feelings without the use of words.

~~~~~

“How will this turn of events affect us?” Ledoque asked when James Allison finished speaking.

Before answering, Allison looked at the dark-paneled walls and at the paintings that accented the elegance of the private room within the Wellington Club. Allison considered both the room and the club to be his own personal domain.

“It could be a minor bother if Montgomery tries to bring charges, but he has no proof. But,” Allison said, his eyes narrowing into small slits, “before it comes to that, I hope that our people will find him and convince him of the error of his ways.”

“Or silence him forever. How did he escape from the trap we’d prepared during the war?”

“I’ve no idea.” Allison shifted irritably in his chair.

“And what of your problem?” he asked, thinking of the delay in the delivery of the most important piece of mining equipment consigned to South Africa. “Will the delay alter your plans for the Landow woman?”

Although Allison didn’t smile, his words carried a mocking tone. James Allison was no stranger to lust, but for him lust took the form of a thirst for power and control. The passion of a man for a woman was no stranger to him, but he had never met a woman whom he desired more than he desired power.

Ledoque’s smile matched the sarcastic tone that Allison had used. “A few days will make no difference.”

“I still think you’re wasting your time on the woman–and your energy.”

Lifting a large crystal snifter, Ledoque took a deep drink. “What of this new man who wants to join the consortium?” he asked, changing the subject deftly.

“Very rich. Very ambitious. He has a great deal of money, and I think his West Coast mining contacts will be useful. I have a meeting set in three days. You will meet Sutcliff then.” Ledoque nodded his head thoughtfully. Although Allison was the largest investor in the consortium and thereby controlled it, Ledoque’s investment was not much less than Allison’s. While Ledoque didn’t believe they needed anyone else, he did agree that entry into diversified areas was important if they were to gain complete control over the country’s economy. Before Ledoque could pass judgment on this man’s usefulness, he needed to meet him.

~~~~~

Rafe left Alana’s room just as dawn lightened the sky over New York. After changing out of his wrinkled clothing, shaving, and dressing again, he returned to her room to escort her to the dining room.

They had a leisurely breakfast, and when it was over, Rafe walked Alana to the door and handed her up into the carriage that would start her on her daily rounds. Today was the first day of loading the cargo into the Harmony’s hold.

When Chaco stepped onto the carriage’s rear foot ledge and the carriage started down the avenue, Rafe went back inside the hotel and arranged to have his baggage transferred to the suite next to Alana’s. With that accomplished, he left the hotel to keep an appointment with a man who had been another victim of Allison’s avarice. Rafe wanted to have every possible bit of information available to him when he walked into Allison’s office in two days to meet the other members of the consortium.

When Alana arrived at the dock, she found Captain Sanders waiting for her in the agent’s office, his face set in angry lines.

“What’s wrong?” Alana asked immediately.

Sanders turned pointedly to the agent, who said, “There has been a delay on the delivery of one piece of equipment.”

“How long a delay?” Alana asked, alarmed at this unexpected problem.

“A few days. A week at the most. The foundry notified us that they discovered a crack in the casting. This item is the single most important part of your cargo. Your ship cannot leave without it.”

“But our contract calls for a specified departure date,” Alana argued.

“And my crew cannot sit idly by for a week,” Sanders added. “I’ll damned well lose half of them!”

“I have already received the authority from the Marquette Company to change the dates specified on the contract and to reimburse you for any extra costs because of the delay,” the agent told Alana. “As for your crew, Captain Sanders, I shall personally see to it that any man who deserts will be replaced. Does that satisfy you?”

The lines on Sanders’s face eased as he accepted the agent’s guarantee.

“Then I suggest you begin loading the other cargo today so you will be ready to leave the moment the last piece arrives.”

Sanders glanced at Alana. She nodded imperceptibly.

After speaking with the agent for a few more minutes, Alana left the office and went to the Harmony’s dock.

She spent the morning on board talking with Sanders and watching the crew load the cargo, but no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the work, all she could think of was Rafe and the coming of night.

Just before noon, Alana left the docks to go to her attorney’s home, where she was expected for lunch.

After lunch, Mrs. Bennet would take Alana shopping for furniture for her new home. A small townhouse she’d chosen yesterday, sandwiched between two much larger houses on upper Fifth Avenue. Mrs.Bennet would introduce her to the shopkeepers with whom she would be dealing.

Then, Alana thought, she would have dinner with Rafe and spend another wonderful night safe within his arms.

~~~~~

“Mr. Denton is here,” the valet informed Ledoque. Ledoque motioned for the man to show Denton in, just as the clock struck midnight.