Bound By Passion: No Desire Denied / One More Kiss / Second-Chance Seduction

8

I’M HOME, NELL thought as she trimmed the ends off string beans and added them to a pot of water. A few feet away, Aunt Vi took a roasting pan out of the oven and placed it on top of the stove to cool. The scent of the chicken and freshly baked scones surrounded her with comfort and a feeling of safety. She’d spent her childhood, her girlhood, her adolescence, in this room. On rainy days, she’d played Scrabble with her sisters at the counter. Under her aunt’s supervision, she had finished math assignments and had written her first short story at the kitchen table. After rinsing her hands in the sink, Nell sank into a chair to watch her aunt mash a steaming pot of potatoes. “You’re making a feast.”

Vi glanced up. “Tomorrow will be busy. There’s a rehearsal for the wedding on Saturday. Very small. Edie’s granddaughter Molly is getting married. So we’re having a family celebration tonight. Reid hasn’t visited since your father’s wedding, and it’s been nearly a year since you’ve been here—your longest absence yet. Your sisters were surprised that you completed your grant work. Very proud and pleased—but surprised.”

Nell grinned at her. “Did they expect me to get homesick and run back here?”

“Something like that. They were worried when you turned down that part-time teaching position at Huntleigh College. They saw it as the perfect job to complement your writing career.”

“And it would have kept me wrapped in a cocoon. I loved every minute of the year I spent on my own—no dorm supervisor, no one to report to except myself. No one to depend on except myself.”

“No one hovering over you. The butterfly breaks free.” Vi nodded in understanding. “You always had at least three of us looking out for you, telling you what to do.”

Nell laughed. “You never hovered. You were much more subtle than Piper and Adair.”

“I learned early on that it didn’t do much good to argue with you once you had your mind made up. You were always your own boss, Nell. When you know what you want, you go after it, and you usually get it. So besides celebrating your independence, what did you enjoy the most on your cross-country tour?”

Nell smiled. “The settings, the people, and I kept a daily log. Now I have so much that will enrich my writing. I’m trying my hand at writing a different kind of book this time. Romantic suspense for adults. It will be very different from my first.”

Vi glanced over her shoulder. “I’m not surprised that you’re taking on a new challenge. But it seems to me that It’s All Good shares many qualities of the genre. Eleanor is a strong woman—just the kind of heroine a reader would connect with in a romantic suspense novel. As for Angus—he’s a classic hero. He swept his true love off her feet and carried her off.”

Nell thought of how different their situation was from her own. Fat chance that Reid was going to sweep her off her feet. In fact, she suspected that she was the one who was going to have to do the sweeping. “That makes Eleanor sound like a wimp. I want my heroine to be stronger.”

“Don’t sell Eleanor short. She left everything to go with Angus—her family, her home, the life she knew. To my way of thinking, that took a lot of courage.”

Vi glanced through the glass terrace doors at the two men and then turned back to Nell. “They’re about halfway through their beers. How about we have a glass of wine, and you can tell me what you’re going to do about Reid Sutherland, and how you’re going to find the necklace.”

Nell tilted her head, studying her aunt as she opened a chilled bottle of white wine and filled two glasses. She hadn’t missed the fact that Reid had come first on her aunt’s list and not the necklace. “Reid’s always been your favorite of the Sutherland boys, hasn’t he?”

“He accepted the responsibility of taking care of my girls. You played a lot of risky games that summer.”

Nell grinned. “You weren’t supposed to know about them.”

After taking a sip of her wine, Vi poured warm milk into the pot with the potatoes, then continued to mash. “It was my job to know. And I worried less because of Reid. He and his brothers were ten. And they were boys through and through. Mischief was in their genes. Reid could have made it his entire focus that summer to have fun. Instead, he made it his responsibility to keep all of you safe.”

“He became my hero. My Prince Charming. I fell in love with him that summer.”

“I fell in love with him a bit, too,” Vi admitted. “He won my heart the day that Cam and Duncan decided you were all going to hike up Stone Mountain and find the source of the water that drops over Tinker’s Falls.”

Nell frowned for a bit as she searched her memory. “I remember we played at the falls a lot and in the cave where Piper and Duncan discovered the second earring, but I don’t recall going to Stone Mountain.”

“That’s because you and Reid didn’t go. He let his brothers go off with Adair and Piper. They were eight and nine. You were six. So he talked you into a day of playing tea party with your animals and dolls. I can’t imagine that was the way he preferred to spend his time.”

Nell grinned. “Now I remember that day. No one had been willing to play tea party with me before. Adair and Piper were always fascinated by the more dangerous games the boys came up with.”

“Reid knew exactly what bait to use to keep you from feeling you were missing out on the big adventure. I figured then he had to be pretty good at keeping watch over his brothers.”

Nell shifted her gaze to the two men on the terrace. Vi’s description of Reid rang true. He was a natural-born caretaker and it made him very good at his job. “He’s still very much a protector.”

“I’m depending on that.” Vi set the pot of potatoes on a burner and sat down next to her niece.

A line appeared on Nell’s brow as she continued to study Reid speculatively. “That’s posing a bit of a challenge for me.”

“A challenge?”

“A big one. I was drawn to him when he was a boy because he was handsome and kind, a storybook hero. A fantasy in the flesh. Now what he makes me feel is entirely different. He stirs things up in me I didn’t know were there. I didn’t even know they were possible. I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about him.”

Vi took Nell’s hands in hers. “Does he know how you feel?”

“Oh, yes. And the stirring-up part is mutual. That’s when our narratives start to conflict.”

“How?”

“He’s not happy about it. He doesn’t want to hurt me. He thinks we should file away what we’re feeling and what we could feel, and forget all about it. If Angus had been that kind of hero, this castle wouldn’t be here. And neither would all of us.”

Vi smiled at her. “You obviously take issue with Reid’s solution.”

Nell shifted her gaze to Reid again. “I do. I only have to look at him to want him. And I can’t stop thinking about how much more we could stir up in each other. He kissed me today for the first time. I’m hoping that the forbidden-fruit thing kicks in, and he won’t be able to resist taking another bite. I definitely want to kiss him again, and I want to know what comes next.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do about it?” Vi asked.

“Yes.” Nell thought of the scenarios she’d plotted out and hidden away on the night of their parents’ wedding, and of all the other similar ones that had fueled her dreams for years.

Vi patted her hand. “Good. I’d act fast. That’s what I did with Daryl.”

Nell’s eyes widened. “You did?”

“I did.” She grinned at her niece. “I knew I wanted him the first time I looked at him, so I took him out to the stone arch and kissed him there on the first day we met.”

Nell laughed as she hugged her aunt. “Well, that’s not my plan with Reid. He’s made it clear that he doesn’t want the happy-ever-after part.”

“What do you want?”

“More than anything I want to enjoy what he and I can have together right now. And I have a plan.”

“Of course you do. But don’t kiss him beneath the stones. Not until you’re sure you want the happy-ever-after part.” Vi took another sip of her wine. “Do you know what you’re going to do about Eleanor’s necklace?”

“Working on it.” She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of pink paper. “Remember Mom’s old jewelry box that Adair and Piper and I used to bury our goals and dreams in?”

“The one you buried in the stone arch? The one I wasn’t supposed to know anything about?”

Nell laughed. “You knew everything we did, and you let us do it.”

“So you’ve written down your goal to find Eleanor’s necklace, and you’re going to tap into the power of the stone arch to help you. That’s a brilliant plan.”

Nell glanced through the glass doors at Reid. Using the stone arch to facilitate finding Eleanor’s necklace was only half of her plan. She had another piece of pink paper in her pocket. On that one she’d written her goal to seduce Reid and turn into reality the fantasies she’d written seven years ago. That way she could weave plot and subplot together. Since she could hardly seduce a man who wasn’t around, any plan she might have entertained of slipping away from Reid and trying to find the necklace on her own would have to be modified. She’d have to work with him. She intended to place both papers in the jewelry box tonight because the clock was ticking.

* * *

THE CLOCK ON the parlor mantel struck the first of eleven bongs when Vi smothered a yawn and said, “Well, I’m ready to call it a night.” Alba rose from her relaxed position in front of the fireplace and moved to Vi’s side.

“When you hit a brick wall, sometimes the best cure is a good night’s sleep,” Daryl said.

They’d hit a brick wall all right, Nell thought as she hugged her aunt, and then Daryl surprised her by kissing her on the cheek. After dinner, they’d retired to the main parlor, reviewing everything they knew, didn’t know, guessed or speculated.

Vi had even set up one of the whiteboards from Adair’s office so that they could map out everything that had happened along a time line. However, at the end of more than two hours of studying the chronology of events, discussing, and theorizing, they weren’t any further ahead than when they’d started. Reid followed Daryl out of the room. From the corner of her eye, Nell saw the two men pause to talk at the foot of the main staircase. Protection strategies, she thought.

There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Reid expected her to join them so that he could escort her up to her room and “file her away” for the night.

Not happening. To distract herself from the flutter of nerves in her stomach, she moved closer to Eleanor’s portrait. There was a part of her that envied the woman for having a lover who simply swept her away. The old Nell would have been thrilled by that. Recalling her aunt’s comments on Eleanor’s strength, she studied the painting more closely. At first glance, Eleanor appeared the same: beautiful, serene and very happy. But there was no denying the look of determination in her eyes, the lift to her chin.

All Nell needed was half the guts it had taken Eleanor to leave her family and home in Scotland to run away with her true love. Not that she intended to run away with Reid. All she wanted to do was give in to the yearning that had been growing inside her since the first time she’d seen him.

If Eleanor had felt this way about Angus, no wonder she’d risked everything to be with him. Again Nell checked the doorway to the main parlor. No sign of Reid. She glanced back up at the portrait and whispered, “At least you didn’t have to deal with a reluctant lover.”

* * *

REID WAITED UNTIL Daryl had disappeared around the curve of the landing before he turned and walked toward the open door of the main parlor. He’d successfully avoided being alone with Nell since they’d arrived at the castle. Not that the strategy had helped him control his preoccupation with her. While they’d been discussing the case for that last hour, he’d entirely lost the thread of the conversation. Twice.

That wasn’t like him at all. In his job, he couldn’t afford to lose his focus. Even when she wasn’t looking at him, he still felt her in every pore of his being, and he felt that same sense of connection, which bordered on recognition, that he’d felt when they’d stood together beneath the stone arch seven years ago.

The Nell he’d known when he was ten was simple. The Nell he was coming to know was complex. He liked the way she looked—the delicate features, the fair skin, the hair that reminded him of spun gold. He also was coming to like and admire the way her mind worked. The problem was, the longer he was with her, the more he learned about her, the more fascinating she became.

He half hoped that she’d follow them out into the hallway, so that he could escort her safely up to her room and retire to his own. Separation and some distance were what he needed.

Right.

He wasn’t a man who lied to himself. Half hoped were two telling words. There was a part of him that had wanted her to linger in the parlor so that he could be alone with her. Even though it meant playing with fire. Reid shoved his hands into his pockets. That wasn’t like him, either. At least it hadn’t been like him in a long time. Not since he and his brothers had been eight and they’d literally played with some matches they’d found in a kitchen drawer. Their father had been away, their mother working in her office. And she’d left him in charge. Her words had been, “Don’t let your brothers burn down the house—or worse.”

Cam had initiated the disaster by striking the first match. Then Duncan, usually the one to remain on the sidelines, had joined in. Finally Reid had succumbed to the hypnotic power of the bright flames. Their little adventure had progressed quickly from striking individual matches to starting a small blaze in a wastebasket which had severely damaged one wall of kitchen cabinets before the fire department arrived on the scene to put it out.

Even more than the scorched wood, he regretted the look of disappointment in his mother’s eyes.

But he wasn’t eight years old anymore. Dammit. Nell was changing him. There was something in her that tempted him to give in to that streak of recklessness that he suspected he and his brothers had inherited from his father. He wasn’t sure he could resist her any more than he’d been able to resist striking that match on that long-ago afternoon. What he was absolutely certain of was that, if he started this particular fire, disaster lay ahead.

He didn’t move into the room when he spoke. “You’re not ready to call it a night yet.”

“No.” She flicked him a glance, then turned her attention back to the painting. “I want to start looking for the necklace.”

“Tonight?”

“The clock is ticking. And this portrait is part of the story. For years it’s been the only evidence that the sapphires exist. I think there’s something in it that might provide a clue.”

Intrigued, Reid joined her in front of the painting. “Why do you think that?”

“It’s always been called her wedding portrait, but that can’t be what it really is. True, she’s wearing a white dress and there are flowers in her hair. But she and Angus ran away.” Nell gestured to the upper right-hand corner of the painting. “You can see the stone arch that Angus built for her. So she sat for this portrait after they’d been here awhile. In my book, they married onboard the ship that brought them here. I had them renew their wedding vows beneath the arch once it was completed.”

“In celebration of their first anniversary,” Reid murmured.

She turned to stare at him. “You read It’s All Good?”

He picked up a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers. “Several times. I enjoyed it. Their story has always intrigued me, and you captured the heart of it in your book.”

When she said nothing and continued to stare at him, he said, “You seem surprised that I enjoyed it.”