Hired Bride (14 page)

“The pool room.” That ludicrous answer had come out of nowhere.

“The pool room?” Gwen echoed in surprise. “The
swimming
pool room?”

“Uh, yeah, I moved some things into it.” Zane was thinking clearly again, and as hard as it had been to get Gwen here alone, he wasn't going to let her leave without
some
conversation. “It's locked,” he told her. “We'll go through the kitchen, and I'll get the key.”

“Fine,” she agreed, and followed him unquestioningly.

But once inside the pool room, she became
very
questioning, because he locked the door behind them and then tucked the key into his pants pocket.

“What're you doing?” she demanded. “Why did you lock the door?” She glanced around. “And where's the furniture you want refinished?”

Zane leaned his back against the door. “There is no furniture. I mean, there's none that I want refinished. You're here so we can talk.”

Gwen's eyes narrowed menacingly. “You had Heather lie to get me here?”

“No, I lied to Heather to get you here. Let me remind you that I would not have had to resort to such a drastic measure if you hadn't slammed the phone down in my ear.”

“Then of course your lies and my being here is all my fault.” Her voice rose. “Is there anything you wouldn't do to satisfy a whim? You may be a Fortune, but that doesn't give you the right to control or manipulate my life. Unlock that door and let me out of here.”

“Sorry, but I can't do that.”

“If you dare to stand there and act calm and—and like everything is just peachy…when I'm ready to ex
plode over your deceit, I swear I'll…I'll…” Gwen stopped sputtering, because what could she do?

She walked over to the diving board and sat down. “You know, this could be construed as kidnapping,” she said with fire in her eyes. If he got near the edge of the pool, she was going to knock him into the water. He at least deserved to get wet for this fiasco, and if he dunked her in retaliation, so be it, but she really believed that she was fast enough on her feet to stay out of his reach. “And don't think I won't find out for sure and file charges if it is, because the minute I leave here I'm driving straight to the nearest police station.”

“You'd have me arrested?”

“In a New York minute.”

Zane rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Hmm. Can't say I'd like to go to jail just for stealing a few minutes of your time.” He took the key from his pocket. “Okay, you can leave. Here's the key. Catch!” He tossed it at her.

Gwen leaped up and tried to catch it but she missed, and it fell in the water. “Look what you've done!” she screeched. “Now it's at the bottom of the pool.”

Zane walked to the edge of the pool, hunkered down and peered into the water. “Yep, you're right. There it is.”

“You knew I wouldn't catch it! You did that on purpose!”

“I did not,” Zane said, sounding boyishly hurt that she would accuse him of something so sneaky.

“You big phony,” she seethed, and realized that he was still very close to the pool's edge and practically on his knees. Rushing forward with her hands extended, she hit him hard and he tumbled headfirst into
the pool. Only he didn't go alone. How he did it she would never know, but one of his hands closed around her ankle and she went sailing into the water along with him.

She came up sputtering. “Just wait till I get out of here. You are in big trouble.”

His response was to dive beneath the water, take her by the legs and pull her under. Again she came up sputtering and yelling, and again he pulled her down, this time clear to the bottom of the pool. She was so shocked she didn't even attempt to find the key. When she came up she coughed and said, “If you're trying to drown me, I'm almost there. And this water's cold too. Are you too cheap to run the heater?”

He swam over to her, and she took a swing at him. He ducked and laughed. “You must want another dunking.”

“I want to get out of this—this pool, you miserable man!” she shrieked. “I really am going to have you arrested, you can count on it!”

“You sure are cute all wet. Course, I noticed that the first day we met. Your wet T-shirt was just about the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. The one you're wearing right now is pretty sexy too.”

Gwen looked down at her chest and groaned. Her breasts were clearly delineated, her nipples hard and erect. “It's only the cold water,” she said furiously, “so don't go getting all macho and think I'm responding to your caveman tactics.”

“You're right, the water is cold. I'll have to turn up the heater. But for now I think a sauna is in order—we both need to warm up.”

“If you think I'm getting into the sauna with you, think again!” Gwen shrieked.

“I guess I can't force you to get warm, but the sauna's where I'm heading.” He took a dive to the bottom of the pool and brought up the key. Grinning at her, he held it up to show her, then swam to the shallow end, where he stood and walked to the steps. “You know where the sauna is, if you change your mind,” he called.

“Not a chance,” she muttered, then stared in dismay as he got rid of his dripping clothes right in front of her. “Don't you have even one gram of modesty?” she yelled.

“Honey, you've not only seen me naked, you enjoyed every second we
both spent
naked.”

“I did not!”

Laughing, he went to a cupboard, took out an enormous pile of folded towels, and carried all of them with him as he disappeared through a door that she knew led to his sauna.

“You rotten manipulator,” she whispered. “You took every towel!” Dammit, enough was enough! He could have left her a couple of towels, at least, even if she couldn't escape the pool room.

Enraged, she swam to the shallow end of the pool and climbed up the steps. Her soaked clothes felt like they weighed a ton, and she couldn't stop shivering. But she was mad as hell, so she marched militantly to the sauna door and yanked it open. Zane was stretched out full length on a bench, stark naked, and the big stack of towels was near his head.

“Close the door, you're letting the heat escape,” he said while slowly sitting up.

“I want a towel!” She pulled the door shut and the heat of the sauna felt incredible.

“You can have all the towels you want…if you get out of those clothes.”

“So you can do what?”

“Not one thing you don't want. Gwen, you have my word. I just don't want you coming down with pneumonia. Think of your kids, if you got sick.”

“Yeah, I'm sure that's what
you're
thinking of,” she drawled sarcastically. “And your word isn't worth two cents, so save your breath.”

“Okay, fine, have it your way.” Zane lay down again. “This really feels great. I'm warm all the way through.”

She was beginning to get warm, but her sodden clothes still felt awful.

“Are you going to give me the key so I can leave?” she asked while averting her eyes from his nude body.

“Nope.”

“I'm never going to forgive you for this, you know.”

“Sure you will. Just as soon as you unbend enough to get out of those wet clothes and relax enough for us to do some talking.”

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “And talking is all you want from me?”

“That's right.”

“Do you promise not to do anything but talk?”

“You said my word wasn't worth two cents.”

“Do you promise?”
she shrieked.

“Okay, okay, don't come unglued again. Yes, I promise.”

“Turn your back.”

“No way. I said I wouldn't touch, but you can't stop me from looking.”

“Won't you spare me one iota of embarrassment?”
Gwen turned her back and began stripping away her wet clothes. When she was naked she asked with biting sarcasm, “May I have a towel now, Your Majesty?”

Chuckling, Zane got up from the bench, picked up two of the towels and brought them over to her. She cringed, but she let him drape one over her shoulders, then took the other from his hand and wrapped it around her waist.

It felt so good to be warm that she nearly swooned. But she showed not a drop of good cheer as she opened the sauna door and tossed out her wet clothes, to be worried about later.

For now, she would soak up the heat and listen to what Zane had to say. Although she couldn't imagine what topic could be so crucial that he'd go to this much trouble.

I
t was a large sauna, and except for where the heating equipment was situated the walls were lined with benches. Gwen sat on a different bench from the one Zane was using. Hugging the towels around herself, she tried not to even look at Zane as she said frostily, “Please say whatever's on your mind and get it over with. I can't hang around this—this den of iniquity the rest of the day.”

He cocked an amused eyebrow and chuckled. “Den of iniquity?”

“Do you like the word
playpen
better?”

Zane turned onto his stomach so he could look at her. “Feeling a bit judgmental, are we?”

Gwen's ire rose again. “This isn't nearly as amusing as you seem to think it is, so stop your damn gloating. If there's anything I detest it's smugness—and an attitude of unwarranted superiority. The only area in which you're superior to me is your bank account.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. I don't know of one other adult who would behave as adolescently as you have today.”

“Could it be that you have some very dull friends?”

“Could it be that
you
relate maturity with a boring existence? Should I take that as a sign that you haven't yet grown up?”

“Who pushed who into the pool?”

“Who threw the key in the pool?” she shouted. “And you didn't have to haul me in with you and then try to drown me!”

“Are you really mad, or do you just want me to think you are?”

Gwen's jaw dropped. “Are you totally crazy?”

Zane sat up. “Well, hell, what I did wasn't that bad. If you had the slightest idea of how to relax and have a little fun, you'd be laughing now instead of yelling at me.”

“I suppose every other woman you nearly drowned in your pool came up laughing, which, of course, makes me a stick-in-the-mud. Well, sorry, sport, but I
still
don't think it's funny. And if you do, you have a very warped sense of humor.”

“At least I have one,” Zane said dryly.

Gwen glared at him. “Meaning that I don't?”

“I'm trying to remember if I've ever heard you laugh.”

“Well, why don't you tax your brain for a
reason
for me to laugh!”

Zane thought about that for a moment, then sighed. “Okay, I know you've got it tough.”

She had not been looking for sympathy, and embarrassment hit her so hard that she suddenly felt like bawling. Zane
knew
how she lived. He knew her financial situation and that she was the sole supporter of her children. He'd seen her house and her decrepit old van. He knew too much about her, way too much! How had she let that happen, when ordinarily she was so closemouthed about her problems? Ramona knew the truth of her life, of course, and so did Gwen's parents. But she had opened a door for Zane that was
usually locked pretty tightly, and that wasn't like her at all.

Her voice wasn't quite steady when she spoke, but there were things that needed to be said. “I've made too many mistakes with you, Zane. Sleeping with you was probably the worst, but then again maybe taking that two thousand for deceiving your family was, all things considered, a lot worse than that. The thing is, everything that's happened between us was wrong, and it's almost impossible to pick out our worst sin. Maybe none of it was a sin or a crime for you, but it was for me. You see, you and I are very different people. We've been different since the day we were born, and our differences will only increase as we grow older.”

She drew a breath. “I don't want your sympathy, Zane. I don't want
anyone's
sympathy. I might not have money, but what I do have is priceless.”

“Your kids,” Zane said softly.

“Yes, my kids.”

Zane chewed on his lower lip. He should be telling Gwen about the incident with her father. In fact, he should have told her about it the moment she arrived, instead of luring her to the pool. But how did a man tell a woman something like that? He knew now, without the slightest doubt, that she wouldn't deem it funny and laugh about it. Her whole life was just too serious for her to find much humor in it.

He looked at her and felt guilty because he'd never had to experience what she did on a daily basis—financial insecurity in every possible shape and form. And he felt other things, too—a flood of affection and warmth and admiration for her spunk, and, of course,
desire because she was a beautiful woman, in spite of the dunking she'd taken.

To heck with Jack Lafferty's weird ideas about his intentions, Zane thought then. Maybe he wasn't quite ready for marriage—and he should probably phone Jack and tell him that—but he and Gwen could still have something special going for them.

“I agree that mistakes were made since we met,” he said quietly. “But they're not the ones you just mentioned.” Rising, he moved from his bench to hers and sat next to her.

Gwen's eyes got big. “Zane, please don't make a pass.”

He took her hand in his and gazed into her eyes. “Tell me again why you don't date.”

“Be—because I don't have the, uh, time.”

“Honey, we both know that's not true. Let me amend that. It's true to a point, but if a man was willing to see you on your timetable, then that excuse would vanish, wouldn't it?”

“You're not going to talk me into anything,” she whispered, shaken by his nearness and the gleam of conviction in his eyes. She wished he would at least cover his lap; he was just too at ease with his nudity for her comfort.

“Gwen, all I want is to see you. San Antonio has some wonderful restaurants. Would having dinner with me once in a while be so terrible? Would simply talking to me on the phone take up too much of your time?”

“Why…why do you
want
to see me? Zane, don't you grasp how different we are from each other? Don't you understand what I tried to explain a minute ago?”

“Do you think I'd enjoy dating a clone of myself?
Gwen, your attitude doesn't make sense. You're a woman, I'm a man. Of course there are differences. Good Lord, it's the differences in people that make them interesting.”

“I was talking about…about social standing,” she blurted, and then turned her head to avoid his eyes.

“Oh, I get it. You're not listed in the Texas social registry, so someone who
is
shouldn't like someone who isn't.” Zane took her chin and turned her face toward him. “You're not really that kind of snob, are you?”

She had no immediate reply to what seemed a rather ludicrous question, and a silence lengthened until finally she said, “I'm simply not in your class, and you can call that snobbery if you wish, but that label is not going to change anything—certainly not how I feel about myself…or you.”

“That's an opening, if I ever heard one. How
do
you feel about me? I'm talking about me now, Gwen—not my name, not my family, not my net worth, but me, only me.”

She wilted. She was getting hot from the sauna, anyway, and being asked point-blank how she felt about him was too much to deal with.

He saw what he'd done to her and immediately became remorseful. He might not totally comprehend his feelings for Gwen, but he knew without doubt that he didn't want to discomfit her with difficult and maybe even unnecessary questions. Tenderly he put his arms around her and brought her head to his chest.

“You don't have to answer that,” he whispered into her damp hair. “Let me tell you how I feel about you. You're a special human being, Gwen. I honestly have never met anyone like you before. You're a wonderful
mother and a hard worker, and I've never heard you blame anyone else for your situation. On top of those great qualities, you're seriously beautiful and probably the most sensuous woman I've ever known. I'll say something else here. If you'd let me, I would give you the world. I hate your worrying about money, and—”

“Don't say it!” She dropped her forehead to his bare chest with a muffled groan of utter humiliation. “I would never take a penny from you or any other man. If you don't know that about me, you don't know anything.”

“I'm sorry, I do know that. Forgive me. I promise it will never happen again.” He took her chin and tipped up her face, but this time he pressed his mouth to hers.

Tears welled in her eyes, but she was completely defeated and knew it. Maybe she'd known this was going to happen even before ringing his doorbell. She let him kiss her, and she parted her lips for his tongue. She kissed him back and let the towels around her fall away, then turned on the bench so that her bare breasts were against his chest.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he moaned hoarsely, and settled them both on the bench so she was on her back and he was on top of her.

After a dozen feverish kisses to her mouth, her face, her breasts, she invited the final bliss by parting her legs. He wasted no time in complying, and in seconds she was gasping and writhing with him on that bench. They were both sweating, as much from the incredible passion of their lovemaking as from the temperature of the sauna.

I love you…love you…love you.
Her mind repeated the words again and again, though she couldn't say
them. It was the reason she hadn't been able to tell him how she felt about him when he'd asked. It was sad that she loved him so much, because even though he'd said some very nice things about his feelings for her, he hadn't even hinted at the word
love.

But such was their relationship, and she knew now that she would find a way to make the time to see him for as long as he wanted. It would be a little like living on the edge of a precipice, always nervous and wondering when he would meet someone new and more exciting, but it seemed as though she no longer had a choice. Fate, or something, had decreed that she fall in love with Zane Fortune, and free will had nothing to do with it.

It was strange how that knowledge affected her. She wasn't going to fight him or his attentions anymore, and knowing that with such brilliant clarity seemed to destroy every sexual inhibition she'd ever possessed.

She wound her legs around his hips, drew him deeper inside and released a long, drawn-out sigh of supreme pleasure. “It's so good, Zane, so good. Don't stop…don't ever stop.”

“Oh, baby,” he whispered raggedly. “We fit together so perfectly I can't believe it. It's like we were created for each other.”

“I know…I know.” She pulled his head down for a voraciously hungry kiss, and their passions seemed to explode. In seconds they each went over the edge, and neither of them even tried to keep their powerful feelings quiet, as they'd done in her bed the first time they'd made love.

Zane roared and shouted her name, and Gwen panted and moaned until she was totally drained. She was still whimpering deep in her throat when Zane
recovered enough of his normal strength to lift his head and look at her.

She looked back at him, straight into his beautiful blue eyes. “How can I fight this?” she said huskily.

“You can't. Neither can I. Why should we try?”

“We shouldn't.”

“Meaning, you're not going to?” Amazement entered his eyes. Was she saying that she would see him, go out with him, continue to make love with him? Had he really accomplished that much this afternoon? Dare he even hope for so much?

“That's right,” she whispered, and happiness suddenly bubbled within him. He smiled and brushed tendrils of hair back from her flushed face.

“You will never be sorry, I promise you,” he said ardently, and kissed her mouth with such feeling that she felt tears fill her eyes.

“I'm not asking for promises,” she whispered against his lips. “I'll never ask you for anything.”

He heard the husky quality of her voice and again raised his head to see her face. The tears in her eyes shook him. “No one has a better right to expect promises from me,” he said softly.

“Right now, that's probably true. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?” There was an underlying sadness in her voice, because with Zane she would be a fool to think that she was the final love of his life. While she knew in her soul that an affair with him was a fool's game, she wasn't irrational enough to bank on a future with him.

“Gwen…” A marriage proposal was lurking on the tip of Zane's tongue. It was, after all, what he'd told Jack he intended to do, and at this very special moment he could easily say the words.

Only, what Gwen had just said about tomorrow destroyed the impulse. Who knew better than he that he was as changeable as the wind? At this moment he loved Gwen madly, but he suspected the strong emotion was caused by the incredible sex they'd just shared. In fact, he was still inside her and he could feel himself becoming aroused again, which didn't happen often. He loved women and he loved sex, but it usually took more than a few minutes to recharge his batteries before he was ready for a second round.

Gwen felt what was happening to him and shook her head. “No, Zane, I can't. It's getting late and I have to pick up my kids.”

He moved lazily within her, simply because he couldn't stop himself. “Will you see me later this evening?” he asked while pressing tender kisses to her forehead, her cheeks, her lips.

“If I can get Norma Blake to watch the kids, yes,” she whispered as desire rose in her body again. “I'll call you when I get home and find out. Will you be here?”

“I wouldn't leave this house for any reason tonight. I'll be here to take your call, believe me.” He gazed into her eyes for a long, poignant moment, then lightened up with a grin. “Come on, let's go take a shower. I'll put your wet clothes in the dryer. You should be ready to go in twenty minutes.”

“Uh, there's something you should think about,” Gwen said hesitantly. “I get pregnant very easily. We should always use protection.”