Double Dealing (2013) (16 page)

He looked down at the sprig he’d been lazily twirling between his fingers … and instantly dropped it. “Dammit! Poison oak!”

“Really?” Rae bent down to examine it. “I thought it was poison ivy.”

“Good thing you knew it was poison something,” he said, silently cursing the fact that there was no soap and water handy. “Let’s just hope it’s too late in the season for us to be affected by it.”

“Us?” she drawled, as she straightened and arched an eyebrow.

“Us,” he said firmly. “Because there’s no way I’m moving back to that damn trophy room.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” she muttered,
rubbing her hand against his possibly affected one. “Might as well get it now, and get it over with.”

Jed shook his head. “My way would have been more fun.”

She grinned. “I’m sure we’ll find a new use for calamine lotion.”

He burst into laughter.

Later that evening, Jed stared out the kitchen window at the park. He had made his phone calls, and one had turned up a piece of good news. His assistants hadn’t done more than a cursory check of the park, since the company had expected to acquire the estate. What the other phone calls would turn up was a huge guess. He crossed his fingers that his would be the correct one.

“That’s the fourth time you’ve stared out that window,” Rae commented, as she dished up ice cream for them. “What’s so interesting out there?”

“Just enjoying the view,” he said with a grin.

On Friday night, Rae admitted defeat.

As she paced her bedroom, she muttered curses under her breath. All of them were directed at Jed.

Over the past three days, he had done everything
but
work on the new site. Oh sure, there had been telephone calls for him, she told herself, but that was the extent of it. He’d spent the mornings in the library with her, asking questions about her work. She appreciated his interest. Really she did. He had helped Burrows polish silver on Wednesday afternoon, and rearranged the drawing room on Thursday. He’d also “tsked-tsked” the
condition of the grounds with the butler until the two of them were happy as clams. And when he wasn’t busy with other things, he’d succeeded in enticing her into bed. She conceded she hadn’t put up much resistance about those “work breaks.”

It was time to face the truth, she thought. He was no longer looking for a new site. But why? Every time she’d hinted he ought to be working, he would just reply that it was “under control.” It was almost as if he’d been avoiding it.…

Her eyes widened, and she halted her pacing. He’d been hard at it Monday, but after that he’d made no effort on the project. Something must have happened between those two days, and she had a pretty good idea what it was. Morrison’s phone call. Maybe Jed had been told to stop work on a new site, and maybe Morrison had been the one to tell him.

“Stop it!” she hissed to herself, while covering her face with her hands.

She wasn’t being fair again, and she knew it. She also knew she couldn’t continue on the way she was. She had to corner Jed and get the answers she so badly needed. It was what she should have done in the first place.

She lowered her hands when she heard footsteps in the hallway.

“All locked up,” Jed said, as he entered the bedroom. The dogs rushed past him into the room. He frowned at them and pointed to the door. “Out! You guys are supposed to be roaming the halls in case of burglars.”

Rae watched in amazement, as both dogs reluctantly
left the room. She could understand Samson obeying him, but not Delilah. “Since when did you make friends with Delilah?”

Shutting the door, he chuckled. “I’m as surprised as you are that she listened. I think I’m growing on her.”

As he strode across the room, she braced herself to confront him, but before she could say a word, his mouth settled firmly on hers.

She was startled for a moment, then her insides melted as he pressed her against his hard body. Her arms crept up around his neck. When he finally lifted his head, she gave a long sigh.

He kissed her lightly on the nose and whispered, “You know how to make a man feel good.”

“You know how to make a woman feel good,” she murmured back, resting her head on his chest. She knew she ought to ask him about the site, but decided a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

“You never did settle on my ransom,” he murmured, caressing her back with his strong hands.

“I’m thinking of keeping you,” she said softly. “Jed—”

He hushed her with another kiss. “I’d love to stay forever, but I have to take a leave of absence on Monday.”

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“There are some people I need to see, Rae,” he said, taking her arms from around his neck and stepping out of the embrace. Still holding her right hand, he began to walk toward the bed. “Let’s sit down and—”

She refused to budge, and he stopped to gaze at
her with puzzled eyes. “No. Let’s stand up. Why are you leaving?”

He frowned. “I told you. I have to see some people on Monday, and I should go in to the office. I’ve been ignoring my other work for the new site—”

“I see.” She pulled her hand from his. Her whole body felt ice cold at the announcement of his unexpected departure. Maybe it wasn’t so unexpected, she thought numbly. Maybe she had been forcing herself to ignore the truth. Henry Morrison had given her fair warning. “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, should I, Jed? I should have known Morrison was right.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

She drew in an uninterrupted breath. “I’m talking about how convenient it is to suddenly have people you need to talk to, and other work to do. What happened to the work on the new site?”

“Nothing—”

“That’s what I thought,” she broke in. “Your boss made it very clear to me on Monday that he wants the estate. He also made it very clear that you always get him what he wants.”

“What?” he exclaimed, staring at her in puzzlement. “Henry talked to you?”

“Oh, yes.” She smiled grimly. “And he had quite a lot to say.”

“Why,” he gritted between clenched teeth, “didn’t you tell me he talked to you?”

“Because it was a very interesting conversation, Jed.” Her smile felt frozen now. Maybe he hadn’t known about the conversation, but he still worked
for Morrison. She had forgotten that all too often lately. His leaving now, and with such a flimsy excuse, proved that. She went on. “I think the thing that stood out the most was that your real job has been to talk me into selling to Atlantic—in any way possible.”

“You believed him?”

“Yes, at first,” she admitted, folding her arms across her chest. “Then I decided I wasn’t being fair not to trust you. So I gave you a chance to prove my trust wasn’t misplaced. You’ve certainly done that this past week.”

“What chance, Rae?” he asked angrily. “You give me a lousy deadline that I don’t even know about to prove something in your damn mind because of a stupid phone call you don’t tell me about, and you call that trusting me?”

“I thought that actions would speak louder than words.” Her voice cracked for an instant. She inhaled, then added, “I was wrong.”

He glared at her. The fury in his hazel eyes was easy to read. “Dammit, Rae! The man says something totally stupid and out of line, and you believe him rather than me.”

“What was I supposed to believe?” she snapped, feeling the tears push against her eyelids. “That you’ve been actively looking for another site? You never meant to find one, did you? You were just stringing me along until I was pliable, weren’t you? You’ve been playing on my … emotions, and now this ‘leave of absence’ is just your way of easing out gracefully while I still trust you. I’ve known all along what you’ve been up to, Jed, and your boss only confirmed it!”

He brushed past her and strode toward the door. After opening it, he turned around. “Don’t be so self-righteous, Rae. You hopped into my bed fast enough. What were you after? Sex with the gardener’s boy?”

He couldn’t have hurt her more if he had slapped her in the face. She stared at him, then lifted her chin and lied.

“Yes.”

He slammed the door behind him.

Tuesday morning, Jed walked very calmly into Henry Morrison’s office and dropped a pile of papers on the desk.

“Here’s your damn site,” he said coldly. “Cheaper and better than the Barkeley estate ever would have been. By the way, I quit.”

“Jed!”

He turned around and strode out the door.

“If I may say so, miss, you have surpassed Mr. Merriman for foolish stubbornness.”

“Burrows, please,” Rae murmured, continuing to gaze at the stock market quotes on her computer screen.

“Going to your house in New York for nearly two weeks,” he continued, ignoring her, “and never a word …”

She let his voice drone on, rather than bother
telling him she’d already lectured herself sick. Besides, it would take more energy than she possessed to try and dissuade him. The only good thing about her time in the city was that she had regained enough control to function like a robot.

Almost from the moment Jed had stormed out of her house, she had known she was wrong. She had hurt him terribly. At the thought of his “leave of absence,” she turned all her fears into accusations, and he retaliated with one of his own.

Feeling her throat begin to tighten, she swallowed in an attempt to quell the feeling.

Just as she had been unjustified, so had he. Her pride and her pain had been riding her like twin devils by the time she realized that. Foolish stubbornness, Burrows had called it, and he was right. With one little word, she
had
been very foolish and very stubborn. If she had only answered him differently when he accused her of just having sex with him, he never would have walked out the door. But she hadn’t, and he had.…

The telephone rang, cutting off her thoughts and Burrows’s words.

Grateful for the interruption, Rae grabbed for the receiver before the butler could. Hoping against hope that it would be Jed, she picked it up.

“Hello?” she said, giving Burrows a tiny smile of false apology.

“Rachel? Is that you?”

The voice was very faint, but all too familiar. In shock, she exclaimed, “Uncle Merry! Where … Are you still in Nepal?”

“Where else would I be, dear child?”

“I mean … I thought there wasn’t a phone at the monastery,” she sputtered, astonished to hear his voice.

“There isn’t. But it would seem things do change in fifty years. The government finally installed a line to the village headman’s house last year. I just thought I would call to let you know that I arrived safe and sound.”

“Do you know all the trouble you’ve caused?” she nearly shouted, as she realized that she could finally vent her anger on the proper person. “That business with Atlantic Developers—”

“Calm down, dear child. It was just a little mix-up.”

“Hardly!”

“Really? The lawyers should have had it straightened out by now. I can’t see any reason for a hullabaloo. Surely with Jed handling the transaction for his company …”

To Rae’s surprise, she suddenly felt fat tears rolling down her cheeks. She tried unsuccessfully to gulp them back and muttered, “Dammit, Merry.”

“I beg pardon, but did you say something? There’s some static on the line.”

A sudden crackling reached her ears. She sniffled and raised her voice. “I said, ‘dammit’!”

“Are you crying, child?”

“Yes, I’m crying.”

Burrows thrust a handkerchief under her nose. She took it and wiped her eyes. “First, you made a mess, then I made a mess. Jed—”

“How is the lad?” Merriman asked, breaking in.

She caught back a sob. “I don’t know.”

“What the hell do you mean you don’t know?”
he demanded from halfway across the world. “Haven’t you seen him? Talked to him?”

“I’m trying to tell you about it!”

“Oh.”

Taking a deep breath, Rae informed her uncle of everything that had happened since he’d left for his retirement. She didn’t spare herself. As a last note, she added, “I was a fool, Uncle Merry. A complete and total fool. Much as I would love to blame you for starting it all, I was the one who lost Jed.”

“I don’t under … Where was Burrows during all this—”

“What does Burrows have to do with it?” she asked, glancing in confusion at the stone-faced butler. “Believe me, I didn’t need any help messing up my life.”

“Well, of course. I just meant that Burrows is usually a wealth of information on matters of the heart. He’s a pain in the rear end, but I do have to admit that he does have a romantic nature.” Rae stared at the subject in question, trying to find a Joan Wilder under the butler’s stoic exterior. “If you had gone to him, he might have given you the benefit of his insight.”

“He did try,” Rae admitted, remembering Burrows’s observations. “But I had my own stupid ideas.”

“I’m sure all is not lost, Rachel.” Merriman chuckled. “What you need to do is to regain some of your Barkeley backbone. Just go after Jed and beg his forgiveness. It’s easy.”

“But I said the most horrible things to him—”

“In the heat of the moment, dear child. You
can’t be held responsible for your actions. I’m sure he’ll forgive you.”

She didn’t bother to tell her uncle how many times she had picked up the phone to apologize to Jed, and how each time she’d hung up before dialing. She knew no apology would outweigh her accusations.

“It’s not that easy,” she began, while wiping away fresh tears. Lord, she thought, she’d never felt so emotionally drained.

“You’ll work it all out, dear child,” her uncle said optimistically. “The temple bell is ringing to call the monks in to prayer, so I must go. If Burrows is handy, might I speak with him for a moment?”

“Of course.”

She handed the receiver to Burrows, and needing to be alone, she got up from her chair and left the room. She wandered across the hall and into the drawing room. Even though the furniture had been rearranged, memories of the night she and Jed had made love for the first time flooded her mind.

Spinning on her heel, she tried to think of a room that wouldn’t haunt her with some image of Jed, and realized there was none. It had been a mistake to come back to the estate, she thought. Since she’d arrived yesterday, she had been constantly reminded of Jed. There wasn’t a place she could go without feeling pain and guilt stabbing at her.