Deceptive Love (10 page)

He was fascinating and dangerous. She'd be a fool to think she could escape unscathed from any relationship with him save the most cursory and formal and he'd already made it clear that their future relationship wasn't going to be either cursory or formal. She'd be safer picking up a live high-voltage wire in her bare hands than she would be picking up the challenge Dain had thrown her. Keri glanced sideways at Dain only to have her gaze collide and lock with his as his eyes lifted from an unhurried study of her profile.

Without a trace. Keri let a slow, almost feline smile curve her lips, green eyes tilting at the corners as a perceptible watched Dain suck in an involuntary gasp as she bathed him with the full force of her smile and gaze. Just because she had heretofore avoided using feminine wiles didn't mean she didn't know how to use them when it suited her! Perhaps attack might turn out to be the best defense after

The remainder of the evening was brilliant with rapid fire repartee. Charles and Mary swiveled like spectators at a tennis match when Keri threw away all remnants of her protective quietude and flamed with an almost febrile gaiety. If her previous tactics of avoidance had piqued Dain's interest, perhaps a complete reversal of strategy was called for.

Secure in the knowledge that Dain couldn't possibly do anything to her in Charles and Mary's protective presence, she sidled closer to him in the booth and proceeded to give a consummate imitation of a moth being drawn helplessly toward an engulfing flame. Charles, who knew his goddaughter very well, enjoyed the performance tremendously.

While they waited for their lobster to be served, Keri allowed her bare arm to brush against Dain's as she reached for her water glass. She sipped slowly and replaced the glass in the same place. Somehow Dain's arm had moved imperceptibly closer and the contact was firmer the second time. Keri grinned inwardly. There were no lost opportunities allowed around Dain!

She turned a gravely worshipful face up to his and fired a broadside. "It was so thoughtful of you to take us out for dinner tonight, Dain." She delicately laid only the faintest, breathy emphasis on the Dain. "It's rare for a girl to find such a considerate employer, but it really wasn't necessary, you know." She lectured gently. "The duties expected from an executive's secretary are quite a bit more comprehensive than those required from a typist in the typing pool, and acting as hostess for a business function certainly falls well within the scope of secretarial responsibilities! I'm perfectly willing to perform all my secretarial duties without additional reward." She fluttered her eyelashes at him outrageously.

Without hesitating a beat she turned to face Charles and Mary, and continued confidingly. "Dain has just finished an exhausting round of negotiations and last night RanCo held a party for the participants to celebrate the successful conclusion and signing of contracts. I was so happy to be able to help out when Dain asked me to act as his hostess. These contracts were quite a coup for RanCo."

The wide-eyed ingenuity of her look and dulcet demure- ness in her voice caused Charles and Dain to choke slightly as they took simultaneous sips of their drinks, but Mary beamed proudly at her goddaughter.

"I know Dain realizes just how fortunate he is to have you as his secretary, Keri, dear. Too many young girls nowadays don't realize that loyalty to an employer requires more than a strict nine-to-five workday at times. When I think of some of the secretaries Charles has had to contend with . . . well, really. Some of them couldn't even take down a telephone message correctly." Mary essayed a small joke, "You can take them down in six languages."

Keri chuckled. She glanced mischievously at Dain and added an outrageous postscript. "I'm sure Dain realizes
exactly
what kind of secretary he has working for him."

Fortunately for Keri the lobsters arrived at the table, because the glint in Dain's eyes was assuming rapier-sharp intensity. As she lifted a butter-dripping bite of lobster to her lips, Keri caught Charles's glance and he shook his head slightly in amused admonition. She returned the look he had seen all too often on her face when she was accepting some reckless dare from her older brothers, designed to prove she could do whatever it was just as well as they could! The proving had every so often cost her some bruises and once a broken bone, but it had never quenched her zest for a challenge. Headstrong as she was, but generally not reckless to a fault, he hoped Keri wasn't getting herself into a situation where she risked more being broken than a bone.

To say that having the tables turned on him was a novel experience for Dain was to understate the situation. Instead of running away from him, Keri now seemed to be running full tilt directly at him, on a collision course, in fact. Her glances were arch and her words provocative and the drift of her perfume in his nostrils was as teasing as the occasional warm brush of her arm and thigh. After those first lightly barbed thrusts, Keri settled down to conduct a serious flirtation.

With innate skill, learned at numerous embassy functions, she drew him out, had him doing all the talking before he realized what was happening. He was bemused by enormous green eyes and softly pouting lips. A slow smile made an elusive dimple flick in and out of her cheek and a soft touch of her hand and an admiring look increased his eloquence whenever it seemed to falter. Keri was careful to draw Charles and Mary into the admiring circle, a task made easy because Dain was genuinely interesting.

In normal circumstances Dain was habitually reserved, a past master at encouraging others to talk while he listened. His business caution reinforced a natural reticence, and though he could be an amusing raconteur, he gave little away of his personal feelings. He was a very private man, but Keri skillfully unlocked the guarded areas of his personal opinions, illuminating the real Dain Randolph to a degree his business associates would have found astounding.

When Dain was released from the enchantment, after he had dropped Keri, Charles, and Mary at their home, he realized with a shock just how deftly he had been interrogated. Keri had asked him nothing damaging, but he wasn't at all sure that he wouldn't have spilled out secrets with the fluidity of a waterfall if she had formed the questions with those enticing lips and snared him with those silky soft eyelashes.

She had promised all evening, but she made him forget to ask her to deliver, and he had meekly escorted her to her godparents' front door with all the respectful rectitude of a Victorian suitor. She had hidden more than physical beauty beneath that prim, deceptive exterior, and when he had released that glorious hair from the confinement of its beauty-destroying bun, it seemed that he had also unfettered a devious and mischievous mind. In short, she had taken him for an unexpected ride and he was just starting to realize how far off course she'd steered him.

As for Keri, when she finally lay in bed that night in Charles and Mary's guest room, she wondered how she'd dared. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, and Dain's reaction to her fledgling, trial run at being a femme fatale had been supremely satisfying, but
what
was she going to do for an encore? She certainly wasn't going to pay off on all those promises she'd made him from the security of Charles and Mary's chaperonage. He now probably figured she was the hottest thing since jalapenos were invented. He certainly hadn't run fast and furiously in the other direction from a pursuing female, to wit, herself, and she was dreadfully afraid that instead of finding his thrills by pursuing an unwilling female, Dain was looking forward to enjoying her pursuit of him! That was all wrong, and certainly not according to her plan. What would she
do
with him if she caught him?

She had a naturally optimistic nature, so her sleep was deep and refreshing, but her subconscious must have slept well too because it didn't present her with a tidy solution to Dain when she woke up the next morning. Keri lay in bed stretching and considering. All in all, Monday was going to be an uncomfortable day, caught as she would be between Miss Barth's jealous incredulity and Dain's expectations. She briefly considered what would happen if she remained the old Miss Dalton in defiance of Dain's orders, but decided that she could cope better with Miss Barth than she could with an infuriated Dain. He was going to be angry about being led down the garden path as it was. Not smart to add insult to insult.

Fortunately for Keri, Sunday passed peacefully. She accompanied her godparents to church and to lunch afterward. Charles and Mary had made plans to visit a friend recovering from an operation, and their relationship with Keri was so comfortably close that there was no strain on either side when they left her to fend for herself for the afternoon. She found herself free to spend the time drowsing by their pool, deepening her tan, and finally finishing the book she had started. The phone rang twice and she ignored it both times, on the theory that if it were for her godparents they wouldn't have been home to answer it anyway, and if it were for her it would most assuredly be Dain and she didn't want to talk to him.

She had a light supper ready by the time Charles and Mary returned and they spent the rest of the evening in quiet companionship. Keri shared her latest letter from her parents and the news from her two brothers, one of whom was a" mining engineer on a job in Canada while the other built bridges in South America. Charles and Mary had two children, both of whom were doctors, and they reciprocated with the latest adventures of Charles, Jr., and Steve. Mary also made her usual comment at this time, to the effect that she had always hoped that Keri and Steve
...
allowing the phrase to die gently away. Keri responded tolerantly that she loved Steve like a brother, which she did, but wouldn't have him as a husband even to get the two best in-laws a girl could ever want. He was a pathologist who liked to talk shop, a failing even a doting mother had to agree was a drawback to serene mealtimes.

Keri crept back into her apartment building with all the stealth of a seasoned burglar. Instead of coming openly up the elevator, she scurried up the fire stairs and peeked around the shielding door before venturing out into the corridor leading to her apartment. She felt rather foolish when the corridor proved innocent of any looming male figures, but reasoned foolish was better than caught. She just wasn't in the mood for a confrontation between herself and either Schyler or Dain. Tomorrow was going to be upsetting enough, if she read Miss Barth right, and she preferred not to dissipate her energies beforehand.

The next morning Keri searched among her pre-disguise-days wardrobe for her most becoming work outfit. It was a tailored suit, but bore no resemblance whatsoever to the suit she had worn the previous Friday. It was a clear, soft forest green and faithfully reflected the curved body beneath it. The soft silky blouse of cream and green lay smoothly against her skin. Her hair was pulled away from her face, but tumbled in a shining flow down the back of her neck. The prim Miss Dalton had vanished, basically unlamented, leaving behind the Keri of old.

This time, when she drove to work, her car matched her appearance and she got the first reaction to her new image after she deftly slid it into her assigned parking spot. As she locked the car she noticed two of the girls from the typing pool walk by on their way into the building, and as they saw her standing by her car, Keri received her first double take of the day. The stammered "Good morning, Miss Dalton?" with its rising inflection caused Keri's lips to twitch, her unruly sense of humor nearly getting the best of her. It would not have been kind to laugh, nor polite, but it was a near thing. Their faces were most expressive.

Keri dropped her key into her purse, allowing the two to gain a respectable distance from her. No sense in unduly inhibiting their discussion of her! She seemed oblivious to the covert glances cast back over their shoulders as she strolled in a leisurely fashion behind them, and they sped up, eager to carry the news of the miraculous transformation.

Keri didn't know whether to hope that the news would filter ahead of her, rising like the flood of high tide, to the executive level Would Miss Barth be forewarned and therefore forearmed? On the whole, Keri rather spitefully hoped that Miss Barth wouldn't hear beforehand. The look on her face when confronted by the new Keri was probably going to be the only funny part of the day.

So many double takes followed Keri's progress to the elevator that she wondered if the company was going to get a rash of whiplash complaints at the infirmary. She was beginning to get irritated. Damn Dain Randolph anyway. She could have made the transformation gradually if he'd let her, and she wouldn't now feel as though she were the star attraction at a freak show.

When she stalked into the suite of offices used by Dain, Keri knew she had her wish. Miss Barth hadn't heard. She was standing close to Dain as he gave her instructions, evidently concerning a report he held in his hand, but Keri sensed that the report was merely window dressing. Dain was there to see if she had obeyed his orders, and from the way his eyes flickered from Keri, confirming her appearance, back to watch Miss Barth, Keri knew he had wanted to be on hand to see Miss Barth's reaction. It was worth watching, if you liked that sort of thing.

It certainly was classic. Miss Barth's mouth dropped open, her eyes widened and darkened with shock. She turned white, then red, then white again around the mouth and nostrils, her shiny red lipgloss standing out starkly against the surrounding pressure-whitened skin. It gave the momentary effect of a clown mask—scarlet mouth against white greasepaint,—but it wasn't a smile that twisted those lips.

All humor had fled from the situation as far as Keri was concerned. She had made an enemy, though not by her will or by her desire. Miss Barth was feeling a fool and she was sure to blame Keri, human nature being sadly what it is.

"Ah, good morning, Miss Dalton." Dain's smoothly appreciative voice unfroze the three of them. "How charming you look this morning. A new outfit?"

Keri shot him a malignant glare. Somehow she knew that he'd never commented on Miss Barth's attire, new or not, and was merely pouring gasoline instead of soothing oil on inflammable and troubled waters! He didn't wither suitably beneath her scorning glare and his mouth compressed and twitched suspiciously.

Keri tried to salvage what she could of the situation. She ignored his comment. "Good morning, Mr. Randolph. Good morning, Miss Barth. I hope you had a pleasant weekend, Miss Barth."

Miss Barth didn't answer. No matter how exciting her weekend had been, Keri had just ruined her day!

"I had a very nice weekend, Miss Dalton," Dain introjected smoothly. Keri waited for his next words with a sense of inescapable fatalism. He was going
to ...
He did. "I found your godparents charming, and I'm glad they enjoyed our dinner together. Well have to take them out again soon, won't we?"

Keri's look assured him that she'd see him served up as the main course, an apple stuffed firmly in his mouth, if they ever dined together again. Miss Barth was oblivious to the byplay and Keri's disinclination to attract Dain's notice. As far as she was concerned, Keri Dalton was a scheming, manchasing, unprincipled epithet and the sooner she, Elise Barth, made Keri's position untenable, the better.

Keri glanced briefly at Miss Barth and read her mind like an open book.
Oh, Mr, Simonds,
she lamented mentally.
Why did you ever have to mention that you had a new secretary?
Keri still suffered under the delusion that Dain had heard of her through normal channels. Her enlightenment on that misconception was in the mercifully still shrouded future.

Feeling that nothing more could be gained, Keri prepared to retreat into the relative safety of the office she shared with Mrs. Covey. At least that lady wouldn't look at her with the hungry ferocity of a starving vixen preparing to take the first bite out of a farmyard chicken. Miss Barth's eyes had lost their initial dark surprise and now glittered with an icy malice, the pupils contracted to pinpoints of antagonism.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Randolph—"Keri began, moving toward the door. She wasn't allowed to finish.

"Just a moment, Keri." Her eyes flashed to him in shock. This was really going too far. Miss Barth's mouth had fallen open again. "I'd like to see you in my office for a moment, Keri. I have a few things I wish to discuss with you that I wasn't able to cover on Sunday." His look was significant and compelling.