Fyre & Revenge (20 page)

He smiled to
himself, standing and looking around for Rae. She seemed to be
buying his act so far, all bar the sticky moment last night when
he’d thought she’d been about to come clean. He couldn’t let her do
that, not yet. This game wasn’t finished yet. Not now that he’d had
a taste of her. It would take a lot more nights like last night
before he had her out of his system.

She was a
little way ahead of him, her eyes on the skyline out to sea. He
trotted over, slid his arms around her waist from behind. “I have
something for you.” He planted a kiss on the side of her neck. God,
she smelled so good.

“Oh? It had
better not be slimy seaweed mister!” she warned and arched her neck
in unconscious invitation. Logan chuckled, dropping another kiss on
the soft skin and reached around her to reveal his find.

“Nope, not
seaweed. It’s pretty, just like you.”

Her intake of
breath was answer enough as she reached out with delicate fingers
to pick the shell out of his palm. “That’s beautiful. I’ve never
seen one shaped like a heart before.”

“That’s because
it was waiting for me to come along and find it for you,” Logan
whispered, playing the game, wrapping her up in the moment and
using emotion against her.

Trouble was, he
felt the pull too, the temptation to believe in this and fall under
his own spell. Perhaps it could work. No matter how they’d gotten
together didn’t they say true love conquered all?

What the fuck?
Since when did he start buying into the fairytale? Next he’d be
believing in Santa Claus and bloody ‘happily ever afters.’ Clearing
his throat, Logan forced his mind away from dangerous waters. “We
can get a chain for it if you like. I should get back into the
office. Get back into the swing of things and see if that
kick-starts my memory. ”

She stiffened
slightly in his arms. “You’re leaving already? The doctor said you
couldn’t drive until you had your check up next week.”

Was that relief
or disappointment in her voice? Logan couldn’t tell, but there was
a slight hesitation. It
should
be relief with the
dangerous game she was playing here. Relief to get rid of him so
she wouldn’t be anywhere near the fallout when he ‘regained’ his
memory. But his ego wanted it to be disappointment he was going,
his male pride clamouring for her to want him around. Not that it
mattered; she wasn’t getting rid of him that easily.

“I can’t, so I
got a rental company to send a car down. They’re dropping it off
later so I was going to ask you if you’d drive me back up? I
checked your appointments diary and I saw your appointment tomorrow
had cancelled…” he trailed off, as though waiting for her answer.
But he didn’t give her time to speak, wrapping his arms tighter
around her and snuggling his face into her neck to kiss her
again.

“I’d really
like you to Rae, I don’t want to be away from you. In case I wake
up again and can’t remember anything at all.”

* * *

This was nuts.
This was not only nuts, it was dangerous. She needed her head
checked for agreeing, Rae berated herself silently as she sat
behind the steering wheel in the plush car Logan had rented,
heading towards the capital.

London. She
must be mad! What if they ran into his
real
wife? Rae
wasn’t an idiot, she knew time was running out on her little
charade. Before long the house of cards she’d built was going to
come crashing down, burying her under it.

What on earth
had she been thinking? This was such a stupid idea to begin with.
She kept her eyes firmly on the road ahead of her, trying her best
to ignore the tall, lean form lounging in the passenger seat. She
was trapped now, trapped by a web of her own lies and for the life
of her, she didn’t know how to get out of the mess she’d gotten
herself into.

There was
something about the monotony of a motorway journey that allowed her
to think, really think, about things. Rae nibbled her lip,
wondering what on earth to do. What if they got there and his wife
was waiting for him? His real, loving wife. She winced as her teeth
broke the skin a little and stopped nibbling her lip, laving the
small cut with her tongue.

‘Loving’ was
probably pushing it a little. Whoever she was, she hadn’t bothered
to ring Logan or try and contact him in anyway, even though he’d
rung into the office to inform them of the accident. But if he’d
said he was with his wife, they wouldn’t ring her, would they?

Rae shook her
head, her head pounding with the onset of a headache as the
thoughts whirled around in her head. One thing was for certain, she
couldn’t just admit her lies. Logan would be devastated…

* * *

She was getting
quieter, tension radiating from her slender figure the nearer they
got to their destination. Logan had been pretending to nap in the
passenger seat since they’d left, his head resting back against the
headrest and his eyes closed. Well, almost closed. Every so often
he’d crack his eyelids apart a little and take a look to see how
Rae was doing.

She was a very
competent driver, he had to give her that. Most women he knew drove
small cars and would have a fit at driving something this big and
powerful. But Rae hadn’t murmured or made a complaint, sliding
behind the steering wheel and starting to familiarise herself with
the controls without a word. He liked that about her, the no
nonsense attitude. It reminded him of Zette, his friend JJ’s wife.
A woman Logan had had a passing fancy for until JJ had sorted his
act out and told the woman he loved her.

Since meeting
Rae, Logan hadn’t thought about Zette, or any of the women he’d
been dating, which surprised him. It was rare for one woman to hold
his attention so completely. And it was more than the sex. Logan
had a high sex drive and although he treated all his mistresses
with the utmost respect, he had to admit that he struggled to
remember some of them after a while. All much the same as they
paraded through his bed. But Rae was different. He’d remember her
for sure. But was it because of the game she was playing, or
something else? He shook his head, not really wanting to think too
much on that one. He didn’t do deep and meaningful.

Clearing his
throat he sat up as though he’d woken up, and looked around. “Sorry
about that, I must have dropped off. Always happens to me in a car
no matter how I try and fight it.”

Rae smiled,
sliding him a sideways glance. “It’s okay, I’m used to it. My dad
used to do the same thing. I was just going to leave you to sleep
until we got there. Well, unless we’d been stopped or something. I
am insured for this thing aren’t I?” A worried note crept into her
voice. She hadn’t checked before they’d set off and it had been
playing on her mind since. Especially with the high numbers of
police patrol cars which had been on the road.

“Oh yeah, I
meant to tell you… The office needs a copy of your license to add
you to the company insurance. The insurance company put you on
without it, but we do need to prove you are who you say you are at
some point.”

Rae’s stomach
lurched. There was just one problem with that. She wasn’t who she
said she was. “Err, I changed to my maiden name a while back, will
that cause a problem?” she asked lightly. Too lightly, damn it.
Even she could hear the slight crack in her voice as she
answered.

“You did? It
shouldn’t but I’d better let them know in the morning. What name
are you using…” he trailed off, then admitted. “I’m afraid I don’t
remember your maiden name honey.”

“It’s
Borne.”

“Borne, Borne.
Yeah, that does seem familiar. Kind of… Makes me think of a man
though. Oh fuck it.” He slammed his head back against the seat.
“I’ll be bloody glad when I can remember things properly, this is
so damn frustrating!”

“Don’t push it,
it’ll come back in its own time.” Rae reached out to pat his arm.
In fact, don’t push it at all
, she wanted to say.

She had to tell
him. If he was remembering his first impression of Ray Borne as a
man then his memory wasn’t far from returning, and when that
happened she was sunk. She was under no impressions about what
would happen when Logan realised the truth. Either way she looked
at it, she was going to lose her house. But maybe if she said
something now, with him being romantically inclined, he might go
easy on her.

She gathered
her courage and opened her mouth. “Loga—”

“Hey, I didn’t
tell you, did I? I had a little chat with Estelle at the office.
She’s my PA, I have a PA, can you believe that?” Logan said
suddenly, cutting her off. He was beginning to be able to read her,
the little tells she had when she was uncomfortable. Like now. He
had the feeling she was about to come clean again and he couldn’t
allow that. He was having far too much fun with this game. It was
the most fun he’d had with a member of the opposite sex for years.
Well, that didn’t involve getting naked anyway.

She shook her
head, lapsing into silence again to gnaw at her lip. He’d have to
kiss that better later…

“Oh, it’s a
good one. She’s quite a nice girl… Young I think, eager. Anyway,
she was telling me about one of our material suppliers. The guy was
pulling a fast one with the plumbing supplies we ordered. We’d paid
for a certain line of goods but he’d substituted them with a
similar, cheaper alternative. It wasn’t until a customer asked why
the design was different that the switch was picked up.” He sighed
as he shook his head.

“One thing I
cannot abide is liars, people who set out deliberately to deceive.
Should be strung up as far as I’m concerned…”

It was worse
than she’d thought. Rae stood in front of the huge wardrobes in
‘their’ bedroom and looked in dismay at the contents. Not only did
Logan have a wife, but the woman was at least a size smaller than
Rae and a tart to boot.

She flicked
through the rails, a fluffy white robe swaddling her from neck to
mid calf, trying to find something to wear. Since the conversation
in the car with Logan she’d been silent, hoping for some sort of
divine intervention or the answer to her current predicament to pop
into her head. No luck so far, and now she had to contend with
this.

“A leopard skin
mini dress?” she murmured in disbelief as she pulled a dress from
the rail. Yeah, animal print had been all the rage this season, but
in tasteful little accents. Not all over bloody animal fur.
Wrinkling her nose she put it back, flicking through to try and
find something that she could squeeze into. Preferably something
that didn’t make her look like a hooker out to make a quick
buck.

Ten minutes
later she stood in front of the full length mirror in the corner of
the room, surveying herself with a critical eye. Okay, so the black
skirt was this side of too short, but at least it didn’t threaten
to ride up and flash her panties to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Teamed with a purple satin shirt and a pair of knee high boots
covering part of her legs, she didn’t look too bad…

The top button
of the shirt popped, revealing more of her cleavage. Rae sighed.
Okay, it would be better if it didn’t look as though she’d been
poured into her shirt. Wriggling a little, she tried to use her bra
to flatten her bust a bit then refastened the button. She checked
in the mirror again. And made the mistake of breathing.

The button
popped open.

Rae gritted her
teeth. She’d have to ask Logan if he had a sewing kit. A couple of
stitches would sort the problem and save her dignity. She left it
for now. There was only her and Logan in the apartment, and he’d
already seen everything she had.

Leaning
forwards she checked her eye makeup in the mirror and started to
reapply her lip gloss. Her hands shook, but she managed to slick
the gloss on without too much trouble. It was clear; just a little
sparkle for her full lips, so any little mistakes wouldn’t show
up.

They were going
out for a meal but even though Logan had told her which restaurant,
Rae couldn’t remember for the life of her. Dropping the gloss into
her hand bag, she zipped it up and checked the vanity for anything
else she might need to take with her. Then, with no further excuse
to linger and avoid Logan, she headed out to join him in the main
room.

* * *

Logan stood by
the floor to ceiling picture windows, whisky glass in hand, as he
waited for Rae. He took a long swallow, his pale eyes sharp as he
studied the glorious view. He hadn’t looked at it, really looked at
it, for months. Rae’s gasp of delight as they’d walked in earlier,
one quickly smothered as she recalled she was supposed to have been
here before, had made him look again.

Rolling his
shoulders in his expensive suit, Logan breathed a sigh of relief.
This was more him, not waxed jackets and jeans on a beach. He was a
corporate shark, lethal when it came to legalities and the fine
nitty-gritty of a contract. He’d lost count of the opponents he’d
tied in knots at the negotiation table, walking away with what he
wanted and leaving them wondering what had hit them. That they
couldn’t afford to lose those negotiations never crossed his mind.
It was business, what he did.

His fingers
tightened around the nearly empty glass, tapping it against his
thigh. Somehow he knew Rae would see things differently.

“So, how do I
look?” The voice from behind him took him by surprise and Logan
turned. His mouth opened, his jaw damn near hitting the floor. He
closed it again quickly and gave her an assessing look.

She’d done the
best with what she had and, if he was honest, she’d pulled it off
well. When he’d rang his PA earlier to tell her he wanted the spare
closets in his apartment filled with women’s clothing and
fripperies, he’d specified two things. Tarty, and a size smaller
than Rae’s.