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Duets™
Two brand-new stories in every volume…twice a month!
Duets Vol. #75
Isabel Sharpe kicks off the month with a very special Double Duets on the theme of “manhunting.” Enjoy the chase as these heroines track down the men of their dreams! This writer “pens a fresh tale with solid characterization and snappy dialogue…” says Romantic Times Magazine.
Duets Vol. #76
Two talented new writers join the Duets lineup this month! Please welcome Sandra Kelly and Wendy Etherington, who have crafted two funny related tales about heroines fixing up “money pits”—and the romantic chaos that ensues with the heroes in their lives! Enjoy.
Be sure to pick up both Duets volumes today!
Suiteheart of a Deal
Sandra Kelly
My Place or Yours?
Wendy Etherington
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Contents
Suiteheart of a Deal
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
My Place or Yours?
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Suiteheart of a Deal
Sandra Kelly
“It’s my parents!” Beck exclaimed.
“They can’t find out we’re not a real couple—it’ll ruin everything!” Rainey added.
His eyes traveled up the stairs. “The bedrooms! The separate bedrooms! Quick, we have to move your things into my room!”
“But why?” Rainey huffed.
“They’ve driven a huge distance. They’ll want to stay overnight.”
In a flash they charged into her room. While she hastily pulled together the unmade bed, he yanked her clothes from the closet.
“Hurry!” Beck ran into his room with a truckload of Rainey’s things and rushed back to her room. She frantically emptied drawers and stuffed his outstretched arms. He shot next door and returned again.
The doorbell sounded.
“Okay, you get ready and I’ll get the door.”
Before leaving, he asked, “Are we still fighting?”
“No!” Rainey wheezed. “We can’t. It’s show time.”
Dear Reader,
Love is funny, don’t you think?
My favorite love stories are always those in which there’s more going on than meets the reader’s eye. So it’s fitting that my first published novel should be about two people who are so taken with one another that they just can’t see what’s happening around them. That’s definitely the case with Rainey and Beck, two fools for love who were easily fooled. We should all be as gullible!
Special thanks to Duets editor Kathryn Lye for seeing the humor in Rainey and Beck’s situation, and to the people of Bragg Creek, Alberta, for lending me their town. The folks who live in my Bragg Creek are nutty and sneaky, but the real residents of that breathtakingly beautiful place are, I assure you, the nicest folks you’ll ever meet.
Enjoy!
Sandra Kelly
For my husband, Bob. Thanks for waiting.
1
“OKAY, SO YOU’RE, ah, married, huh? Ah, let me see now…Oh, man! Would you look at the time? I have an important meeting in, ah, in less than, ah, I’m sure it’s in less than an hour….”
Rainey Miller laughed aloud. She couldn’t hold it in any longer. Never had she seen a man blush so deeply—or backpeddle so swiftly. The guy was too funny. He obviously wasn’t too bright, though.
Why would he assume that just because a woman was seated alone that she must be single? Everybody from around here knew that, aside from a few young chambermaids and reservations clerks, there were no single, available women at the Honeymoon Haven. Only couples in love, celebrating their honeymoon, or a major anniversary. This guy had to be a tourist.
When her spontaneous eruption drew curious stares from the other guests in the Haven’s quaint dining room, Rainey quickly withdrew into the shadow of the huge potted fern beside her table. The last thing she wanted was to attract the attention of the brain-damaged Lothario who had made her laugh in the first place.
For twenty minutes she had eavesdropped—unintentionally, of course—while the guy did his darndest to entice the stunning blonde seated at the next table. The plant enabled Rainey to watch the show, undetected.
And what a show it was! Hovering over the woman’s table, oozing testosterone, he had tried every dumb line in the book, right down to, “You remind me of somebody I used to know.” He had tried flattery, complimenting her on her beautiful blue eyes and sweet smile. He had offered her a “free” massage, whatever that meant. After telling him twice to get lost, the poor woman had finally been reduced to muttering, “Look, buster, I’m married. I’m on my honeymoon, and my husband will be here any minute!”
Romeo’s immediate and lightning-fast retreat was just about the funniest thing Rainey had ever seen. He might not be a Rhodes Scholar, but she would give him points for cheesy charm.
When he backed away from the table, she got a better look at the guy. My, but he was gorgeous. Tall and athletically built, with a mop of shoulder-length dark-blond hair fingered back from a classically handsome face. He had high cheekbones and full, sensuous lips that promised unspeakable pleasures. Rainey found herself staring at those lips and wondering how the blonde could resist them—married or not.
On second glance, Romeo didn’t look like a tourist. Rainey had spent all her childhood summers in this sleepy little town just west of Calgary. She could easily distinguish the locals from the imports. Everything about Romeo screamed local. The faded jeans, the unbuttoned flannel shirt over a dark-blue T-shirt, the scuffed hiking boots. Plus he had the wind-whipped complexion of an outdoorsman. The tourists usually had delicate city skin and were turned out in stiff new duds straight from the L.L. Bean catalogue.
Rainey sighed. Ever since her breakup with Trevor last month, she had hardly glanced at a man, much less noticed a finely sculptured mouth. One thing was for sure, if she ever got involved with another man, it definitely wouldn’t be someone like superstud here. She could tell just by looking at him that he was a flake. No sooner would you fall head over heels for the guy than he’d start mumbling that he just couldn’t make a commitment “at this time.” Meaning, of course, that he just couldn’t make one with you.
Or worse, he’d win your heart, then make a play for your best friend, the way Trevor had for Rainey’s friend, Dana.
Besides, Rainey wasn’t here to get caught up in another messy romance. She was here to take her rightful place as owner and general manager of the Honeymoon Haven, Canada’s most famous getaway for lovers, in the beautiful town of Bragg Creek, Alberta. She had worked hard for it and she was ready. Well, almost ready.
Learn everything there is to know about running a hotel, and when I pass on I’ll leave the Haven to you. That’s what Rainey’s childless great-aunt Lilly had told her when she was just a kid. Rainey took the offer seriously. She grew weary just thinking about the ten long years she toiled nights and weekends at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto while dozing through business courses during the day. It was a grueling life. No fun whatsoever. But she had done it. Lilly had passed away peacefully last week, and Rainey’s time had come. Now if only she could get over her terror.
She was wrestling with that emotion when Romeo finally spotted her. Oh, no. He was coming her way, mischief plastered all over his stubbled mug.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” he murmured, placing his hands flat on Rainey’s table and locking eyes with her. “A beautiful woman, all alone.” He gave her what he undoubtedly thought was an irresistible smile.
How charming. And what a waste. He had about as much chance of scoring with Rainey as he had of being abducted by aliens. Less, actually.
She glanced at her watch. It was nearly one o’clock. After a sleepless night followed by a turbulent, early-morning flight from Toronto to Calgary, she was exhausted. She had just enough time to catch a nap and freshen up before her three o’clock meeting with Lilly’s attorney. On the telephone this morning he had advised her of last-minute changes to Lilly’s will, changes he couldn’t discuss over the phone. She would shake Romeo off quickly. In the meantime, why not have a little fun?
She ventured a coy smile and nodded in the direction of the blonde. “Surely you must be exhausted from trying to pick up beautiful women.”
Romeo’s grin quickly dissolved into a pout. “Ouch! That wasn’t very nice, was it?” Recovering quickly, he added, “Besides, I never get tired of picking up beautiful women, especially women as gorgeous as you.”
While Rainey laughed, his amber eyes took in her dark, shoulder-length hair, her heart-shaped face, her slender neck and the cleavage showing just above the top of her scooped-neck blouse. Rainey knew she should have thrown the blouse away. She was a little too well endowed for it.
She shook her head. “You’re some piece of work, aren’t you?” It was a lame retort, but it was the best she could do. Rainey wasn’t intimidated by them, but neither was she used to guys like Romeo here. Sexual predators on the prowl. Trevor may have been a wolf, but he came across as a lamb.
Superstud cocked his head sideways and gave her a playful look. “I could be the man of your dreams, if you’d just give me the chance.”
A crazy thought popped into Rainey’s head: Honey, you are the man of my dreams; you just aren’t the man of my reality.
“Really, how so?” Feigning deep interest, she let her green eyes slide over him just as seductively as his had slid over her. What was the harm? He was about to strike out anyway.
He sighed wearily. “Well, first of all, let’s get one thing out of the way. Are you on your honeymoon?”
“Nope.”
His dark-blond eyebrows shot up. “Married?”
“Nope.”
He took a deep breath and made a big show of expelling it. “Whew, it must be my lucky day. Okay, then, here’s what would happen…” Before Rainey could object, he dropped into the chair next to hers. “We’d start the evening with a nice meal at the Bragg Creek Steak Pit. Ever heard of it?”
Rainey nodded. She and her parents had dined there at least once a week, all those summers ago. The food was fabulous.
“Terrific. Then we’d take a stroll through town, just so the locals could see what a good score you made.” He actually kept a straight face while awaiting her reaction.
Good score? Good grief! If this guy wasn’t the most arrogant, conceited jerk who had ever lived, Rainey sure would like to meet his competition. “Of course,” she purred. “That’s a given. Then what would we do?”
“Then we’d retire to my cottage out on Bear Road. Did I tell you that I own a beautiful cottage?”
“Nope. We hadn’t got that far. We were still in town, showing off my good score.”
He nodded earnestly. “Well, I do. Then we’d strip you down to your undoubtedly gorgeous birthday suit and I’d give you a long, slow massage. On the house, of course.”
At the mention of the words long and slow, Rainey felt a serious blush coming on. But hey, there was no way she was going to fall under the spell of this frivolous creature. No, sir. And what exactly did he mean by “on the house?”
She peeked at her watch again. It was almost time for the fun to end. “Need I ask what we would do after that?”
In a voice more seductive, more nakedly intimate than any voice she had ever heard, he leaned forward and murmured, “That’s easy. I’d make you forget every man you’ve ever known.”
Rainey blinked. For one fleeting moment, Mr. Insincerity had sounded almost, well, sincere. As if he couldn’t think of anything in the world he would rather do, or anyone he would rather do it with.
Whoa! Wait a minute. There you had it. There was the power of the hunter to entice his prey just before snaring, and then devouring, it. That she had been enticed, even for a millisecond, left Rainey feeling foolish. She wasn’t about to be devoured—not again. She grabbed her purse and stood to leave. There was no check to pay, of course. The owner of the Honeymoon Haven dined for free.
“Look,” she said curtly, “I have to run. It’s been fun chatting with you. Best of luck on the hunt.”
Jumping to his feet, Romeo seemed genuinely disappointed. “Hey, not so fast! I didn’t get your name. Let’s get to know one another.”
Rainey laughed derisively. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not exchange names. I’m going to file this little encounter away under the heading ‘Anonymous.’ Or maybe ‘Meaningless.”’
He feigned devastation. “Meaningless? Now there you go again, hurting my feelings. I thought we had something here. I thought we really, you know, connected.”
Right, thought Rainey, I know what kind of connection you’re looking for! Shaking her head, she tried to ease past the flake without brushing up against him, but it proved impossible. The tables were placed too close together, and the huge potted plants between them didn’t help. She made a mental note to lose the greenery and reconfigure the room.
Romeo stood fast and she had no choice but to clutch one of his muscular arms, to steady herself as she made her way around him. It was either that or fall into the plant. “Well, you thought wrong,” she snapped.
He finally stepped aside and let her pass, but not before taking one last shot. “Hey, look, I meant what I said about wanting to get to know you. You give as good as you get. I like that in a woman.”
There it was again, that well-rehearsed sincerity. Rainey wasn’t buying it, but she was charmed nonetheless. She offered him a small, conciliatory smile. “Uh-huh, and I suppose you’re going to tell me now that I have beautiful eyes, and that I remind you of somebody you used to know.”
Thrilled to have captivated her a few seconds longer, he leaned forward and gushed, “You do have beautiful eyes. What are they? Green? Hazel?”
“Green,” Rainey called over her shoulder as she marched out of the dining room and into the wide corridor leading to the lobby. Why was she still talking to this jerk? And why was he following her? He’d given up on the blonde pretty quickly. Of course, she hadn’t cut him one inch of slack. Rainey should have known better than to flirt with a flirt.
Close on her heels, he declared, “And, for your information, you don’t remind me of anyone. You’re an original.”
Rainey abruptly stopped and turned around, and Romeo crashed into her. “Whoa there!” He grasped her forearms. When she didn’t fall, he released her, but not before lightly caressing the bare skin below her short sleeves. His touch felt strangely soothing.
“Look, buster,” Rainey muttered, sounding to herself like the exasperated blonde, “I’m tired and I have a very important meeting in less than two hours. It’s time for you to run along now.”
He lit up like a neon sign. “Hey, what an interesting coincidence! I, too, have an important meeting this afternoon. See, we already have something in common.”
As she turned smartly on her heel and headed for the lobby, Rainey muttered, “Oh, I doubt very much that we have anything in common.” When she reached the wide staircase leading to Lilly’s private apartment and the second-floor suites, Romeo was still on her tail, trying to persuade her that dinner at the Steak Pit, say, around seven, was definitely her best bet for tonight.
At her wit’s end, she confronted him one last time. “Surely you’re not going to follow me upstairs!”
“Aha! So you’re staying here at the inn. I may not know your name, but at least I know where to find you.” He grinned as if that were a major coup.
“Get lost!”
“Okay, okay!” Backing away, he raised both hands to signal defeat. “I know when I’m not wanted.” He tilted his leonine head sideways and wagged a finger at her. “But sooner or later you’ll be seeing me again. And I promise you won’t be able to resist me next time.”
“Oh, yes, I will,” Rainey said to herself as she climbed the creaky stairs. “You can count on it.”
STILL SHAKING HER HEAD, Rainey let herself into Lilly’s apartment—her apartment now—and locked the door behind her. She wouldn’t put it past Romeo to have followed her up the stairs. For all she knew, he might be the town nutcase. Then again, he might just be a harmless hustler. That was more likely.
Whew, but he was a hunk! Delicious was actually the word that came to mind. Too bad he was such a pest. She made a silent vow to avoid him at all costs. It probably wouldn’t be easy in a town of only five hundred people.
Strolling through the stuffy, eerily silent apartment toward the bedroom, she took her first good look at the place. The decor was floral and fussy, with an abundance of over-stuffed colonial furniture crammed together, and knick-knacks crowding every dusty ledge and tabletop. There were dozens of family photos in gilt frames, and worn cushions in every shade of pastel, and doilies and candles and incense and…Rainey did a double take. Candles? Incense? Seconds later, she spotted a Ouija board resting on a TV tray. Why on earth would Lilly have had a Ouija board?
Realizing she would have to redecorate, Rainey felt a sharp stab of guilt. How could she do that? This had been her beloved aunt Lilly’s home for nearly fifty years. Moving even a single picture would be sacrilegious. But what choice did she have? This just wasn’t her taste.
She went into the bedroom and kicked off her shoes. Lord, she was tired. There was so much to think about, so much to do. After her meeting this afternoon she would take a leisurely tour of the Haven. Frankly, the place seemed rundown. The paint in the lobby was scuffed and worn, and the carpet was threadbare in spots. She had already scheduled a meeting for first thing tomorrow with Hollis Harriman, the bookkeeper. In a brief exchange this morning, he had seemed anxious to show her the books as soon as possible.
Rainey suddenly realized just how demanding her new job was going to be. Everyone would be looking to her to make decisions and solve problems and provide inspiration. Her last position at the Royal York Hotel had been that of reservations supervisor. The job had required tact and patience, but it couldn’t compare with being general manager. With only thirty-two suites, the Haven was small stuff when compared to the Royal York, but, even so, the prospect of managing the entire operation, all by herself, was more daunting than she cared to admit.
A new feeling crept up on her now—loneliness. She was in a new town and she had no friends here, no family to provide support. Nobody to joke with, play with, confide in. She was truly alone.
She was also too tired to think about much of anything right now. After puzzling over it for a few minutes, she set Lilly’s old manual alarm clock for two-fifteen and fell across the bed, fully clothed.
She dreamed about a giant set of lips over dazzling white teeth, bearing down on her from above, ready to devour her one bite at a time.
2
“SURELY THERE MUST be some mistake! Could you…could you check again?”
Heart pounding, palms sweating, Rainey leaned forward in her chair and looked frantically at the file lying open on the polished rosewood desk. Several documents lay atop the open folder, stapled together with little blue paper corners. They looked awfully official.
Nate Frome of the firm of Wilson, Hutchinson, Frome sat on the other side of the desk. He was a tall, slender man with dark hair, the bland good looks of a television news anchor, and the brisk manner of a busy lawyer. Rainey guessed he was a few years older than she.
He nodded sympathetically. “I’m afraid there’s no mistake, Rainey. Your great aunt amended her will just six weeks ago. She was physically ill, but she wasn’t mentally incapacitated. The will is valid.”
Rainey slumped back in her chair, stunned beyond words. Half the Haven? How could Lilly have done that? How could she have left only half the inn to Rainey and the other half to some guy named Beckett Mahoney? Why, she hadn’t even left Rainey a controlling interest in the place. Instead she had doomed her to equal partnership with a total stranger. It wasn’t fair! Rainey had kept her part of their deal, but Lilly had reneged on hers. Why?
Fighting tears, she asked, “Who, pray tell, is Beckett Mahoney?”
From the look of mild disdain on his face, Rainey instantly got the impression that Nate knew this—this Mahoney person, and that he didn’t much care for him. And, furthermore, that there was a pretty good chance Rainey wasn’t going to care for him, either. A feeling of doom descended on her.
“Actually, he’s an old friend of mine, Rainey. We grew up together. Ah, well, maybe friend is too strong a word for…” Nate paused and cleared his throat. “He was a close friend of Lilly’s. He helped out around the Haven quite a bit, with repairs and that sort of thing. I think they played poker together once in a while. She was very fond of him.”
Rainey furrowed her brows. “Repairs? Is he some sort of handyman?” She envisioned an aging Mr. Fix-It, a stooped and arthritic grandfatherly type, shuffling around after Lilly with a tool kit in his hand. Terrific. Just what she needed.
“Ah, well, you might say that.” Nate chuckled. “Beck is certainly known to be, ah, quite handy.” Seeing the bewildered look on Rainey’s face, he adopted a more serious tone. “To be fair, Beck is actually a very accomplished man, Rainey. He’s licensed to fly small aircraft and gives lessons at the Springbank Airport near Calgary. He also gives ski lessons and volunteers for the Banff ski patrol. He’s a trained mountain guide and a pretty fair climber, too.”
A climber? “How old is Mr. Mahoney?”
“I believe Beck is thirty-two.”
Thirty-two. Well, that wasn’t so bad, really. At least he was only four years older than Rainey. Even so. An equal partner. She just plain didn’t want one. Arghhh! If sweet, funny, eccentric, Great-Aunt Lilly were alive, Rainey would kill her.
Nate gave her a warning look. “Rainey, you probably should know that Beck has a bit of a reputation with the ladies.”
Terrific, thought Rainey. We’ve swung all the way from handyman to ladies’ man. “What sort of reputation?”
“Ah, well, some of it is exaggerated, I’m sure, but let’s just say that Beck is well-known in these parts.”
Rainey leaned forward on her seat. “Define ‘parts.”’
“Calgary, Bragg Creek, Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, some parts of British Columbia, maybe even Washington State…”
She slumped back again. “Okay, I get the picture.”
While Rainey battled wildly mixed emotions—on the one hand she felt cheated; on the other hand she felt relieved—Nate casually added, “Oh, I forgot to mention, he’s also a licensed masseuse. Actually, he has a salon at the Haven.”
A masseuse? Wait a minute. Hadn’t the hustler in the dining room offered to give Rainey a massage? On the house? Surely…oh, no…surely Romeo wasn’t Beck Mahoney. Then again, he must be. He was about the right age. And how many masseuses could there be in a town the size of Bragg Creek?
“Nate,” Rainey asked with mounting dread, “is Beck Mahoney tall and blond?”
“He sure is. I take it you’ve met Beck?” His expression suggested that if Rainey had met the man, she would definitely remember him.
“I may have. I’m not sure.”
“Well, you’ll be meeting him shortly.” Nate glanced at his watch. “I asked him to join us at three-thirty. Your aunt said you would probably be a little upset, and that I should speak with you first.”
A little upset? While an astonished Nate looked on, Rainey threw back her head and laughed hysterically. Romeo as a business partner! It was too rich. She had just managed to get one hustler out of her life, and now she was going into business with another. Could things get any worse?
“MAN, OH MAN, what’s with this traffic,” Beck grumbled to himself as he cruised well below the speed limit along the Trans-Canada Highway between Bragg Creek and Banff. “Don’t these people know I’m late for an important date?”
Every summer, it was the same. Tourists and more tourists, clogging up the roadways of the Bow Valley Corridor, the steadily rising stretch of land that paralleled the Bow River west from Calgary, past Bragg Creek and Canmore, to the Rockies. But it was mid-September and most of them should have packed up and gone home by now. Obviously these road hogs didn’t know when to clear out.
Beck always looked forward to the lull between the summer tourists—the hikers and climbers and fishermen—and the droves of skiers who showed up in November when the region’s numerous ski hills opened for business. It gave him a welcome break from being nice to strangers from Winnipeg and Montreal and Denver and Dallas.
Normally he used the time to do a little fishing of his own, or to help Lilly with one of her pet projects. Last year he had lovingly restored the aqua-blue 1967 Ford Fairlane she had been smart enough to keep. He chuckled, recalling how his only reward for doing the work had been the privilege of chauffeuring her and her cackling, whiskey-addled cronies from one crazy appointment to another. Facials, makeovers, color charting sessions—they couldn’t get enough. Once, he had even taken them to see a psychic in Calgary. Imagine a bunch of eighty-year-olds consulting with a psychic. Now that was optimism.
With Lilly gone—gee, he was going to miss the darn girl!—he had no particular project in mind for this autumn break. Unless, of course…Speeding up to pass a sluggish camper van with Montana plates, his mind drifted to a pair of mesmerizing green eyes framed by a pert, pretty face and a crown of dark, silky hair. The mystery woman in the restaurant. What a babe.
Beck couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman worth taking a second look at. Sure he could have his pick of women anywhere in the corridor. But he’d never met one who looked quite like her, or sounded like her—ooh, that throaty, sexy voice—or who could dish it out and take it. She was in his head now, and he sensed it was going to be hard to get her out.
Who was she? There weren’t many single women hanging around the Haven. Maybe she was somebody’s mistress. Lots of secret lovers, some quite famous, appreciated Lilly’s legendary discretion.
Nah, somehow he didn’t think so. Not in this case. She was too fine to settle for second spot.
Maybe she was a new resident in town. Nah, that was even less likely. Tourist attractions aside, Bragg Creek was mostly a bedroom community for the families who preferred its Nordic beauty and small-town friendliness to the concrete hustle and bustle of Calgary. It didn’t attract too many singles—especially gorgeous single women.
And hey, what did it matter anyway? After that scene in the restaurant, he’d be lucky if Gorgeous Green Eyes didn’t cross the road to avoid him. Talk about making a bad first impression! Maybe he should do a little damage control—go back to the Haven later today and track her down. It was crazy, and probably pointless, but he was itching to tell her: Look, don’t take me too seriously, okay? It’s just that I need something to do until…
Yeah well, why bother? Once she found out about the money, she’d be no different than the others—salivating all over him every chance she got. He’d manage to keep it under wraps for a while, but sooner or later somebody would clue her in.
Dammit, he needed to fall in love with somebody for real and get married as soon as possible. The sooner he got married, the sooner he’d be able to get his hands on the second half of his trust fund. Then he could get a law degree and give his aching knees a rest. A man couldn’t give skiing lessons forever.
Three more years before they would cut the check. It seemed like an eternity.
Too bad about the babe with the shining eyes and the voluptuous curves. He had no trouble picturing himself married to her. He’d come home every night from his thriving practice in environmental law to find her wrapped in a white silk kimono, stoking the fire in his cottage, a snifter of brandy already poured for him. It made a nice picture.
What the hell, she probably knew about the money already. After all, she’d been in town for more than ten minutes.
As the corridor’s rolling foothills gradually gave way to the steely peaks of the Rockies, Beck marveled once again at the fact that Lilly had named him in her will. Man, what a shock. It hadn’t occurred to him for one second that she would leave him something. Oh, sure, he’d done some minor repair work around the Haven, and he’d given her more than a few foot massages over the years. But that didn’t amount to much. She had treated him like a son, and he’d been happy to help out an old lady with no kids of her own.
He’d also given her a lot of his hard-earned cash. What a poker player old Lilly had been! He had called her Poker Face Miller and she had nicknamed him Beck and Call.
What could she possibly have left him? He sure hoped it was the Fairlane.
“ANGELA, you sweet thing, you’re looking mighty fine today. Mighty fine indeed.”
Calmer now but still shaky, Rainey groaned and turned halfway around in her chair. The buttery voice behind her was unmistakable. Beck Mahoney, alias Romeo, alias Superstud, alias Mr. Insincerity, had burst into the reception area adjacent to Nate’s office and managed to get all of three steps into the room before finding a woman to charm.
Through the frosted glass between the two rooms, Rainey saw the blurred image of the flustered, middle-aged receptionist waving a hand in Beck’s direction. “Oh, get away with you, Beck Mahoney!” she admonished him with a girlish giggle. Beck grasped her hand in midair and planted a kiss on the back of it. “Angela, if I were twenty years older…”
Suddenly a group of boisterous young clerks appeared out of nowhere and began to ooh and ah over a preening Beck. “All hands on Beck!” a girlish voice shrieked, and they gathered around him like a pack of starstruck groupies.
“Beck, honey,” one cried with petulance, “you said you would call me and you didn’t!”
“You told me the same thing!” someone else whined.
“Girls, girls,” Beck drawled. “Patience. There’s plenty of me to go around. Speaking of which, who wants to climb the Galatea Trail and have a picnic at Mirror Lake on Sunday?”
“I do!” they all cried.
Gently pulling free from their clutches, he said, “Okay, well, I’ll definitely be taking one of you. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, so I won’t say who it’s going to be right now. If it’s you, you’ll know soon enough.”
Groaning good-naturedly, the young women dispersed. Beck burst into Nate’s office. “Nate, old boy,” he bellowed, “I see you’ve still got a license to practise. How can that—” spotting Rainey, he stopped dead in his tracks “—possibly be?” His gorgeous mouth fell open and his face turned beet red.
Rising to her feet, Rainey managed a tight smile. “Hello, Romeo. How’s the hunt going?”
“I…” His blush actually deepened another shade. Dripping sarcasm, she quipped, “Ooh, he blushes all the time. I like that in a man.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked with wide-eyed astonishment. “For that matter, who are you?”
Nate gestured between them. “Beck Mahoney, meet Rainey Miller. Though it seems you’ve already had the pleasure.”
The look of total bewilderment on Beck’s scarlet face gradually gave way to a sheepish grin. “Well, I’ll be. Gorgeous Green Eyes is Lilly Miller’s favorite niece. I was right. This is my lucky day.”
“In more ways than one,” Rainey said dryly. “As it turns out, you’re my new business partner.”
“Your new what?” His amber eyes darted from Rainey to Nate and back again. He waved a hand in the air. “Okay, you’ve lost me now.”
Nate motioned for them to sit down and then told a bugeyed Beck what he had just told Rainey—that he was half owner of the Honeymoon Haven, effective immediately. Beck looked like he didn’t know whether to jump for joy or jump out the second-floor window onto busy Banff Avenue.
Breaking a thick silence, he murmured to himself, “Half the Haven? Man, I would have been thrilled if she’d just left me her car.”
Nate rifled through the papers on his desk. “I believe she did leave you the Fairlane.”
Beck’s eyebrows shot up. “Half of it or all of it?”
Even the humorless lawyer had to laugh at that. “Every inch of it, Beck. I assure you.”
“Cool!” Shaking his head, Beck turned to Rainey. “But I don’t get it. Weren’t you supposed to inherit the inn? That’s what she told everybody.”
“Apparently she had second thoughts,” Rainey muttered.
“No kidding!”
For the next twenty minutes, Rainey stubbornly ignored Beck’s furtive glances while Nate went over the fine details of the will, coming finally to the section on special instructions.
“As you know,” he said to Rainey, “your aunt waived a memorial service. She stipulated instead that a party be held to commemorate her life, not her death. The party is to take place at the inn, as soon as you feel ready.”
Rainey nodded. It was a wonderful idea. Lilly had been a real live wire. Nothing short of a lively send-off would do. Beck nodded, too, and Rainey felt a stab of resentment. How dare he presume to…Ah, wait a minute. He was a full partner here, whether she liked it or not.
No sooner had that thought knocked her over than Nate threw her another curve. “Rainey,” he began cautiously, “Lilly made one additional request.” He paused and she tensed. Surely there wasn’t more bad news? “She asked that her apartment at the Haven be converted to a wedding chapel. Apparently it was always a dream of hers, but she never got around to it.”
“That’s right,” Beck said. “She talked about it often.”
Rainey gasped. “A wedding chapel! But where will I live?”
“Hey, did I mention that I own a beautiful cottage?” Beck joked.
Eyes blazing, she turned toward him. “Beck Mahoney, if I hear one more word about that cottage, I’ll scream!”
He held up both hands. “Gotcha. Not one word. I promise.”
“One more thing,” Nate added. “She asked that the party be held in the chapel. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was because she never married.”
While Beck and Nate discussed the transfer of ownership, Rainey struggled to get her thoughts in order. Her mind was spinning. No, she didn’t want a partner. Yes, she was grateful for a partner. No, she didn’t want Beck Mahoney as a partner. Yes, she…Good grief, what did he know about running an inn? He was a ski bum, for heaven’s sake. A pilot. A masseuse. A playboy!
With a not-too-discreet glance at his watch, Nate indicated that the meeting was over. Rainey thanked him, grabbed her purse and hurried out. She was halfway to her rental car when Beck caught up to her.
“Hey, lady, wait just one minute!” He grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Don’t you think we should sit down and talk about this? I know you don’t think much of me, but the fact is that we’re partners now.”
“I didn’t ask for a partner!”
“I didn’t ask for one, either!”
“Yes, but…” Oh, darn. It was true. When you got right down to it, Beck was no more responsible for their predicament than she was. He was stunned, too. Obviously, Lilly hadn’t seen fit to tell him about this.
And, darn it all, as much as Rainey wanted to hate the guy, she just couldn’t. Underneath that phony charm, there was something faintly likable about him.
“Look,” she said softly. “I’m in shock, Beck. I need a little time to digest this. I expect you do, too.”
“You’ve got that right. Listen, why don’t we grab that dinner at the Steak Pit tonight? Talk things over. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be famished by seven o’clock.”
Rainey bit her lower lip. It was tempting. All she had eaten today was a salad at lunchtime, and she’d mostly picked at it. A juicy steak and a baked potato would really hit the spot. “Sure,” she muttered.
Romeo backed away, grinning. “Terrific! I’ll meet you there.”
Just then, an attractive, fire-breathing redhead burst through the throng of tourists across the street and shouted, “Beck Mahoney, you snake. You said you’d call!”
3
THE STEAK PIT was exactly as Rainey remembered it. Rustic and cozy, with dark, rough-hewn wood paneling, an assortment of copper bric-a-brac and antique-stained glass lamps that cast a soft glow over each of the small, intimate booths.
She had arrived early and been pleasantly surprised to learn that Beck had called ahead and reserved the best booth in the restaurant, near a bank of windows overlooking the dense forest and the rippling, pale-green waters of the glacier-fed Elbow River. Seated alone at their table, she gazed out the window into the woods. Shafts of twilight fell between the trees, giving the entire scene a golden glow. It took her breath away.
She was calmer now, better able to think. In the past two hours she had more or less become resigned to her fate. After all, what options did she have? One: Buy Beck out. Hah! With what? Two: Kill Beck. Sure! Go to jail. Three: Convince him to act as a silent partner and leave the running of the inn to her. Right! She couldn’t imagine the guy being silent for ten seconds.
Nope, for all intents and purposes it looked like she and Romeo would just have to get along—according to a few ground rules, of course.
Her thoughts drifted to Trevor. After the meeting with Nate Frome, she had gone back to the Haven to find two telephone messages: one from him, the other from Dana. She had called Dana back right away but got only her machine. There were no hard feelings between them. After all, it wasn’t Dana’s fault if Trevor was a jerk. His message she tossed straight into the garbage. What could he possibly have to say that she would want to hear?
Then she had wandered around the inn, poking her head into the big kitchen with its long wooden chopping table and antiquated ovens, the cluttered housekeeping quarters and each of the unoccupied suites. There were a lot of those—far too many for this time of year. It seemed to Rainey that when she was a child the inn was full all the time. She had clear memories of Lilly turning disappointed travelers away at the front desk.
Oh, well, at least the place was spotless. Rainey smiled, recalling her impromptu encounter with Freda Norman, the head housekeeper.
“I see you’re here!” someone had barked over Rainey’s shoulder as she peered into one of the empty suites. Startled, she turned around and came face-to-face with a barrel-shaped woman of perhaps sixty, with thick gray hair held back, oddly enough, with a series of purple plastic butterfly clips. Childishly cute, they seemed out of place atop the menacing scowl on her masculine face. The woman thrust out a huge hand and introduced herself as Mrs. Norman. Rainey got the message: there’ll be no first names here.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Norman.”
The women shook hands. Freda Norman had a handshake that would intimidate a grizzly bear.
“What do you think of my inn?” she shouted, even though Rainey was just inches away.
Rainey blinked. Her inn? “Well, frankly, Mrs. Norman, it looks a little tired.”
“Humph, don’t we all!” Looking Rainey up and down with mild contempt, she added, “Came out here from Tronna, huh?”
Suppressing a smile, Rainey replied, “Yes, just this morning.” Why did she think Mrs. Norman would be thrilled if she hopped on a plane and headed straight back to “Tronna?”
“Hope you had a nice trip!” Mrs. Norman growled as if Rainey were just another guest at the Haven. With that, she abruptly excused herself to carry out a final inspection of the rooms. Rainey stood there for a moment, shaking her head. There had been no welcoming remarks, no best wishes for a good working relationship, none of the professional etiquette she was accustomed to.
As for the wear and tear she had spotted this morning, that had turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. On the outside the Haven still presented itself as a stunning example of Laurentian architecture. Its cedar roof shingles, dark wood siding and stone pillars were in relatively good shape. But inside the place was a wreck. The white plaster walls were crumbling and the oak floors creaked terribly. All the windows needed replacing and the furnishings were tired and dated. How could Lilly have let the place get so rundown?
“Good evening.”
Startled, Rainey jumped a little as Beck slid into the booth. He was clean shaven, his unruly hair neatly combed back. He smelled like sandalwood. A soft black sweater accentuated his tan and turned his amber eyes a deeper shade of gold. Up close, Rainey noticed little flecks of dark brown in those eyes.
“E-e-evening,” she stammered, annoyed with herself for suddenly being nervous. Two seconds alone with this guy and her mouth was dry, her knees trembling slightly under the table. What was it about Beck? What special power did he have with women? He was gorgeous, no question about it, but lots of men were attractive without being so darned compelling. No, Beck had something else, something special.
“You look absolutely beautiful,” he murmured. Eyes glowing, he frankly appraised every inch of her that was visible above the table. Rainey felt her skin grow warm. After changing her clothes exactly seven times, she had settled on a short-sleeved, loose-fitting paisley dress that was neutral enough for a business meeting but dressy enough for dinner. Beck’s penetrating gaze made it feel like the most daring lingerie imaginable.
That was it. That was his unique gift, she realized—Beck had the rare and oh-so-useful ability to make a woman feel beautiful and sexy and cherished and safe just by paying her special attention. No wonder he was irresistible.
Well, that was fine for Beck, but she just had to resist him. They were business partners, and if there was one thing Rainey had learned at the Royal York, it was not to get involved with a colleague. Trevor had taught her that one.
She decided to hit him with ground rule number one. “You know, Beck, if we’re going to work together, I think you should stop flirting with me.”
His eyes widened. “Who’s flirting? I mean it.”
“You’re flirting. You’re always flirting.”
He shook his head. “You’re right, you’re right. I’ll try to stop. But I have to warn you—a tiger can’t easily change its stripes.” He grinned.
A pouty waitress sidled up to their table and fixed her adoring baby blues on Beck. Before Rainey could open her mouth, he took the liberty of ordering for both of them. Rainey should have been offended, but somehow she wasn’t. It was good that he had a take-charge attitude and a commanding presence. He was going to need them.
“Very good, Beck,” the waitress intoned with more meaning, strictly speaking, than a steak deserved. Then she sashayed off to the kitchen without so much as a backward glance at Rainey.
Beck turned his full attention to Rainey again. “I think if we’re going to work together we should get to know one another. I already know a little about you.”
“Oh, really? What do you know?”
“I know you were born and raised in Toronto. I know you vacationed here every summer until about five years ago. You’re an only child. You don’t smoke or use any drugs. You seldom drink and always socially. Your favorite color is yellow. You’re a hard worker. And you’re smart, but you lack self-confidence.” He picked up a bread stick and chomped on it.
Rainey couldn’t believe her ears. “How do you know all that?”
“Loose-lipped Lilly. She talked about you all the time.”
“Okay, what about you? I don’t know a thing about you except that you’re a hopeless flirt.”
“Okay, okay, I’m a fourth-generation native of Edmonton, but I prefer to live in Bragg Creek. I have twin brothers, both married, and three nephews. I love to ski. I love to fish. I love to fly. I went to college but didn’t quite graduate.” He grinned. “So many parties, so little time.”
Right, Rainey thought. So many women, so little time.
“I don’t smoke or use any drugs,” he continued, “but I like a brandy on a cold winter night.” He fell silent and gave her a dreamy, almost melancholy look. “Did I tell you, Rainey Miller, that you’re a knockout?”
She shot him a warning look. “You’re doing it again, Beck.”
“Darn! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe we should talk business.”
“Okay. What do you know about running an inn?” Rainey meant to sound merely inquisitive, but somehow the words came out sounding like a challenge.
“Less than nothing,” Beck admitted with a shake of his head. “But I’m willing to learn. What do you know about fixing one? I expect you’ve had a look around the Haven.”
Rainey nodded. “What on earth happened? That inn was Lilly’s pride and joy.”
With a shrug, Beck replied, “Well, partly, she just got old, I guess. Lost her enthusiasm for it. And partly, I think she just wanted to have a little fun before her time was up.” Rainey gave him a questioning look, and he explained, “I may be wrong, but I think she borrowed some money against the inn last year, to buy a few personal pleasures.”
She asked what kind of pleasures, and Beck told her about some of the crazy stuff Lilly and her cronies had done.
“Her cronies?”
“Yeah. There’s a service club in town called the Women of the Wapiti,” he explained. “They raise money for charity, visit the sick…”
“Women of the what?” Rainey’s laugh startled the nearby diners.
“The Wapiti. It’s a big deer. They’re all over the roads here. Anyway, Lilly was a member. My grandmother is a member. So is Freda Norman.” His eyebrows shot up. “Have you met Freda?”
Rainey rolled her eyes. “I had the pleasure this afternoon.”
He snorted. “Yeah, well, don’t be too quick to judge her. She’s actually the sanest employee there.” Ignoring Rainey’s frown, he continued, “Anyway, the three of them blew a bundle last year and the year before on trips. Caribbean cruises, little jaunts to Cancun, that sort of thing. There was other stuff, too, but you’ll know about it soon enough. I suspect Lilly paid for all those trips.”
Before Rainey could digest that information, their food arrived. “Hope your steak is okay, Beck,” the waitress purred. Once again, she ignored Rainey. With nothing more than a curt nod, Beck said he was sure it would be fine. Ooh, but he was smooth. They obviously knew one another. Rainey could just smell a history coming off them. But Beck was with another woman tonight. Like all poker players, he knew which card to play.
Between bites of the delicious, perfectly cooked food, they talked about the repairs that needed to be done, and about the vacancy problem. Rainey commented that an inn like the Haven should be fully booked all year round. Some fresh marketing strategies would have to be developed.
“You know, you’re right about that,” Beck said. “I don’t know much about marketing, but just for starters, don’t you think the name Honeymoon Haven is a little dated? I mean, it’s kind of corny, isn’t it?”
Pleasantly surprised, Rainey nodded. That very thought had occurred to her just this morning. Obviously there was more to Beck than just dazzling good looks and a beautiful body and a simmering sexiness that could reduce a woman to mush in two seconds flat. Maybe, just maybe, this partnership thing was going to work out after all.
Then again, maybe not. Time would tell.
When the meal was over, Beck ordered two brandys for them, then sat back and searched Rainey’s eyes. She returned his soul-searching gaze and the air grew thick around them. Finally he ventured, “So, ah, I guess this business partnership thing sort of rules out other kinds of partnership, huh?” He gave her a look of such hangdog disappointment that Rainey nearly laughed. Instead, she replied, “I don’t get involved with colleagues, Beck.” Or with hustlers like you.
“Hmmm.” He tilted his brandy snifter from right to left so that the gold liquid, so much like his eyes, sloshed gently from side to side. “Maybe you should buy me out,” he murmured in the soft, seductive tone he had obviously mastered. “Then I can devote myself to trying to get you into bed. Seems like way more fun than running an inn.”
Rainey was instantly grateful for the dim lighting; it concealed the hot blush that spread up through her skin like wildfire. It wasn’t hard to imagine making love with Beck. On the contrary…But it was out of the question. Working with Trevor after their breakup had been a miserable experience, but at least she had been able to get away from him by climbing on a plane and coming west. How would she get away from this guy?
Because as surely as he was drop-dead gorgeous, Beck Mahoney would break her heart. He had said it himself: A tiger can’t change its stripes.
“Don’t you ever quit, Beck?” she asked with a weary sigh.
“I guess not. Maybe I am hopeless.”
It was time for ground rule number two. “Beck, I think we need to do more than stop flirting. For the sake of the partnership, I think we should agree to keep our business and personal lives separate.”
For a second, he looked devastated. As usual, he recovered at the speed of sound. “Well, that’ll be tough in Bragg Creek, Rainey. It’s a small town. Everybody’s in bed with everybody else, so to speak.”
Rainey laughed. After Toronto, small-town life was definitely going to take some getting used to.
On the way to her car, she informed him of the meeting tomorrow morning with Hollis Harriman, and warned him not to be late. If there was one thing she couldn’t tolerate, it was tardiness. He accepted the warning with a lazy shrug. She sensed he had something else on his mind.
Sure enough, as she searched for her keys, he ventured, “So, I guess we can rule out that massage too, huh?” He chuckled.
“It was never going to happen, Beck.”
“Okay, then, how about a simple handshake to seal our partnership?”
“Of course.” Rainey grasped the keys in her left hand and stuck her right hand out. Beck ignored it. Instead, he gently cupped the back of her head with one hand, leaned down and lightly touched his soft lips to hers.
“Beck Mahoney!” she cried when he pulled away, grinning like a frat boy who had just got to first base. “Didn’t you hear a word I said in there?”
“Hey, lady, that’s how we shake hands in Bragg Creek. You should see what happens when we hug!”
On the drive home, all Rainey could think about was how right she had been about him. He was delicious.
“TWO HUNDRED thousand dollars!” Rainey and Beck shrieked in unison.
Eyes flaring, Rainey motioned for Beck to close the door leading to the lobby, and he quickly complied. The reservations clerks working just outside the Haven’s administrative office didn’t need to hear this; they were jumpy enough. The place was abuzz with gossip about the new owners, and the air was thick with tension.
“Ah, that’s right,” Hollis Harriman confirmed with a violent twitch of his right eye. “That’s what she borrowed.”
Rainey stared across the meeting table at him, dumb-founded. In his midsixties, Hollis was a tall, perilously thin man with a few wisps of gray hair lacquered and stretched across a shiny skull. He had a funny little heart-shaped mouth and blue eyes so light they looked like the surface of a swimming pool. In addition to the twitch, he had a tremor in his left hand and whenever he stood his right knee buckled.
For the better part of two hours he had painstakingly gone over the Haven’s books with them. Now they were poring over a list of things Lilly had cheekily labeled Extraordinary Expenses. Hah! They were extraordinary, all right. Hot air balloon rides. Helicopter tours over the mountains. The trips Beck had mentioned last night.
A mind-boggling item at the bottom of the first page caught Rainey’s eye. “An aromatherapist?” she cried. “On retainer?” No sooner had that bowled her over than she spotted another doozy. “Please,” she said to Beck, “tell me she didn’t hire a psychic to conduct a seance.”
“‘Fraid I can’t do that,” he replied. “I think they were trying to call up the spirit of her dead father.”
Rainey groaned. “I can’t believe she wrote these things off as business expenses!”
“Oh, she definitely had a talent for numbers,” Hollis declared with a twitch and a tremor. He chuckled nervously. To Rainey he seemed perpetually anxious, as if disaster were lurking around every corner. Of course, it might just be these darned books.
She looked at Beck. Ever since that silly kiss, she had found it unnerving to make full eye contact with him. Whenever their eyes did meet, he did something goofy—like wink at her, or raise his eyebrows several times very quickly. Oh, what a mistake that darned kiss was!
Still, she was grateful for him this morning. How on earth would she deal with all this stuff by herself?
Reading her thoughts, Beck stepped in and asked for the bottom line. Hollis explained that while the inn wasn’t exactly bankrupt, it was barely breaking even. Occupancy was down to fifty percent, even in peak season, and the loan payments were eating up what little profits could be made. Not only that, major repairs needed to be carried out. He handed Beck a list of critical items. To Rainey he said, “Frankly, the staff are starting to be concerned about their jobs. They hear things.”
“No one’s going to lose their job,” she declared with fierce determination. “But where on earth will we get the money to do the repairs? We can’t borrow any more, and there’s no cash on reserve.” She bit her lower lip and began to pace back and forth.
A grin slowly spread across Beck’s face, and a frustrated Rainey wondered if he’d lost his mind. There was nothing funny about any of this. First of all, he had been fifteen minutes late for the meeting—fifteen minutes. Secondly, he had so far showed precious little interest in their situation. He was going to have to buck up, start taking things just a little more seriously.
“I know where we can get it,” he murmured like a boy who knew where secret treasure was buried. He smiled politely at Hollis. “Would you kindly excuse us for just a moment?”
After Hollis shuffled out of the room, knee buckling slightly, a still-grinning Beck turned to Rainey. “I have an idea, but you won’t like it.”
“Try me.”
“Okay, but you have to promise me that you’ll stay calm.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Beck. What is it?”
He leaned forward and whispered, “I think we should get married.”
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