Читать книгу Tangled Destinies - Diana Palmer - Страница 8

CHAPTER TWO

GABY HAD JUST left the elevator on the twelfth floor of the office building where Motocraft, Inc., was located when she collided with something big and warm and solid.

She felt his hands before she looked up and saw his face. Big, warm, firm hands that kept her from pitching to the floor. Hands that her body remembered long before her eyes flooded with helpless memory.

“Gaby?” His deep voice ran through her like ripples on clear water, and her heart beat crazily as she straightened, drowning in the spicy scent of his cologne, a scent she’d associated with him all the long years.

Her wide green eyes searched his black ones, and all her resolutions to hate him, to wreak vengeance, went into stark eclipse. She’d heard of people being frozen in place, but until now she’d never actually experienced it. She didn’t move. She hardly breathed. The world narrowed to Marcus Stephano’s broad, dark face, and she looked and looked until her starving heart began to expand with feeling.

Older. He was older. There were streaks of gray in the thick straight black hair that still fell onto his forehead in unruly strands. There were lines under his eyes, beside his chiseled, wide mouth. He was heavier than he used to be but was still all muscle: broad shoulders that strained against a beautifully tailored jacket, powerful legs that were barely encased in thin, close-fitting slacks. Under his brow his dark eyes narrowed and stared down at her unblinkingly, as if he, too, were comparing memory with reality.

It was too quick. She’d expected that she might see him, dreaded and anticipated it with wild abandon. But she hadn’t expected that it would happen suddenly, like this, before she had time to prepare herself. It was like walking into a hole in a shallow creek.

“Marc,” she said, her voice sounding ghostly, not its normal, sweet contralto.

His chest expanded with what looked like a deliberate breath, but his face showed nothing. Just like old times.

“Surely I haven’t changed that much, honey?” he asked, nothing hostile in his tone. “You’ve grown up, little Gaby. I hardly recognized you.”

Her nails gripped her small purse until she thought they might pierce the delicate leather. But somehow she smiled.

“I’m nine years older,” she reminded him. “Twenty-six, my last birthday.”

“Yes, I know.” He let his eyes go slowly down her body. She felt almost as if he were touching her skin, and she trembled inside. Part of her was glad that she’d chosen to wear a silky, sleeveless beige dress that clung lovingly to her body and that she’d put her hair up into a sleek chignon. She looked elegant and sophisticated, and her eyes were triumphant when she saw the masculine appreciation in his hard face. “You were a bud then. You’ve blossomed.”

“Quite,” she said in a haughty tone.

He still didn’t react. His eyes went past her to Joe, as if he’d only just realized that his brother was with her. Joe’s face was an emotionless mask, and his hands were jammed deeply into his pockets.

“Ciao, mio fratello,” Marc said in Italian, and smiled pleasantly at the younger man.

“Hi,” Joe replied. “I thought Gaby might like to see the offices and meet David Smith, our vice president in charge of advertising.”

“Oh, yes,” Marc said. He glanced at his watch and pulled a gold cigarette case from his inside pocket, his eyes steady and curious on Gaby’s flushed face. “You’re our new image, aren’t you, Gaby?”

He seemed so condescending that she colored. So that was how he planned to play it. Very cool, she gave him that.

“We’re lucky to get her,” Joe broke in, sounding more belligerent than she’d ever heard him.

“Gaby’s reached the point where she’s turning down work these days.”

“Yes, indeed,” she agreed, laying it on thick as she peered up at the taller man and treated him to a flirtatious smile. “I’m in demand, as they say. My bankbook runneth over.” Her eyes narrowed, and the smile iced over. “Sometimes I make more than five thousand a week.”

She’d chosen the figure deliberately, and she watched it hit home, watched his expression freeze in place. He didn’t move for a long moment.

“Nice for you,” he said then, and the mask was in place again. It had hardly slipped at all.

“Nice for you, if this place is indicative of your empire, Mr. Stephano,” she said, glancing around at furnishings that were obviously expensive and probably had been chosen by interior decorators. “Amazing how far you’ve come from that garage where you used to work when I knew you.”

“I got lucky,” he said through his teeth.

“Oh, didn’t you just,” she drawled, delighting at the fury that darkened his eyes.

Joe, standing to one side, frowned at the byplay, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrents.

“Shall we go?” Joe asked Gaby, holding out a hand.

“Whenever you’re ready,” she said lightly, and took the outstretched hand. She didn’t miss Marc’s reaction, and that pleased her too. “See you, big boss.”

Joe seemed as triumphant as she felt, and she darted a glance at him. Well, there was no doubt that he’d grown up in Marc’s shadow. Marc had had to be father and mother to the younger man, and she remembered vividly how Marc wielded that authority. He expected immediate obedience, no delays, no excuses. He’d been rigid, and she’d wondered even then if he hadn’t been too tough on Joe. She’d even mentioned it once, only to have him lash out at her for trespassing in family matters.

“Do you work here too?” she asked Joe.

“Me? Nope.” He shrugged it off. “I have an office at the main supply store. It’s kind of my territory. Besides, Marc and I do better when we only see each other occasionally.”

“I see.”

“How was it, seeing him again after so long?” he asked, pausing at the door to an office that carried David Smith’s name in gold letters.

She grimaced. “Not so bad, I guess.”

“He went up in smoke, did you notice?” He laughed, as if that amused him. “I’ll hear about this, you know. He’ll be all over me. Fraternizing with the employees...”

“Joe, you won’t get in trouble, will you?” she asked nervously. She didn’t want to be the cause of an argument.

“Don’t worry, I can take care of myself,” he told her. “Let him rage. Besides,” he added with a calculating stare at Gaby, “he’s got his own problems. I hear his newest lovely is angling for matrimony.”

“His newest?” she asked softly.

“Lana Moore. She’s a British woman. Very wealthy. Brains and beauty. He’s been her lover for the past year. Who knows, he might settle down at last.”

Gaby felt sick, unsteady on her feet. But she couldn’t let it show; she couldn’t let Joe see how that news affected her. She smiled and acted as if she were on stage. “Think so?” she teased. “What will we give him for a wedding present? How about the engine out of that ’56 Chevy?”

He smiled and looked so relieved that she almost burst out laughing. “You’re terrific,” he said under his breath. “Class all the way. Me, I got so many rough edges, I look like a building under construction, but you’re pure, smooth curves, Gaby.”

“What rough edges?” she said, chiding.

His thin shoulders lifted and fell. “My background shows. So does Marc’s, although he hides it well. It’s hard to go from poverty to money. Hard to leave old friends behind because they can’t share your new interests, can’t keep up with the money. Hard to try to fit into the lifestyle of new acquaintances who have money as a common interest, but you can’t relate to them as well as you can to the old friends. You never quite fit in, you know?”

She shook her head. “I came from money,” she confessed. “I’ve always had it. I guess it would be hard, though. Like having a foot in two worlds.”

“Well put. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Dave.”

He opened the door. A thin, nervous-looking man stood up, smiling at Joe. “Hi, son.” He laughed. He was barely forty, but he must feel fatherly. At least he looked it with his bald head and narrow amber eyes. “This must be Gaby. I recognize you from your photos. You’re doing a great job. We’re getting a lot of attention because of you.”

“I’m very glad, Mr. Smith,” she said, leaning forward to shake the clammy, outstretched hand. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”

“We’re happy to have you. Can I show you around?”

“We’ll show her around,” Joe said possessively, and winked as he took Gaby’s arm.

They gave her the cook’s tour, and at the end of it she had a vivid picture of the size of the company. It was monstrous, and she wondered how Marc, even with executives and a board of directors, kept track of all of it.

“The mind boggles,” she told Joe on the way out, all the while glancing around as if she expected that Marc might bound out from hiding. “It’s so...big! How do you keep track of everything?”

“Oh, we have enough employees,” he said easily. “It’s mostly bookkeeping, anyway.”

“Some bookkeeping! I’d go blind staring at so many numbers.”

“The auditors do, I think.” He laughed. He studied her for a long moment as they went down in the elevator. “There’s a party next Friday night at Marc’s apartment. Come with me.”

She felt herself go trembly. She wanted to go. She wanted to see Marc, just once more, to let her eyes have the freedom to look at him, to enjoy the sight and smell and reality of him after all this time. She’d thought that after all these years she’d gotten over him, but now, after seeing him just once, she wanted desperately to be near him again. It was so dangerous, though. The trap was there: she could fall in headfirst; she could give up her soul to him all over again. And this time it would be harder to let go. Despite his betrayal, despite the anguish, a part of her belonged to him and always would.

“I don’t think so,” she said quietly.

“Don’t be afraid of him,” Joe taunted lightly, touching her face. “I’ll be right there with you. He won’t bother you.”

That’s what you think, she thought. She looked up, her green eyes dominating her soft face. “Do you know how it ended between Marc and me?” she asked abruptly.

His eyebrows arched. “Sure. Your parents sent you away to school, to get you away from him.”

She opened her mouth. “Almost,” she told him. She and Joe were friends now, and she liked him. He felt like the brother she’d never had. And that being the case, she didn’t want to hurt him, to disillusion him about Marc. She knew he still looked up to his older brother, and she couldn’t destroy his dreams. She remembered how it had hurt when Marc destroyed hers.

She smiled faintly. “He told you, then?”

“Marc?” He stuck out his lower lip and laughed. “He never tells me anything. I just probed until I dragged that out of him. He wouldn’t talk about you afterward. Not one word. I guess it stung, having you taken out of his life like that.”

Sure it had stung, she thought, but the money had surely taken out the sting. He’d used it to good effect, too, she thought bitterly. She straightened. So he hadn’t told Joe the truth. How odd. Perhaps he didn’t want his younger brother to know what a cold-blooded, mercenary man he really was.

Her eyes grew cold as she relived it. “I’ll go to the party with you,” she said. “It will be an experience.”

“You’ll get to meet Lana,” he remarked, watching closely for her reaction.

She didn’t give him one. She’d learned to hide her feelings. “What a treat!” she said sarcastically.

He chuckled. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll protect you.”

Her eyes twinkled as she smiled back. He was really a nice man when he forgot his shyness. He did, with her. She seemed to bring out a new side of him. Interesting how that happened, she thought. Some people could draw out the darkness, others the light. She tucked her hand in his arm and let him lead her out of the building.

She almost looked back. But the trauma of seeing Marc again kept her eyes facing toward the street. Now that it had happened, it was over. She could be prepared for their next meeting. And no way was she going to miss that party now. She wanted to show him how little she cared for him. She wanted to dress to the teeth and show him exactly what he’d thrown away for money. The thought brightened her eyes, sharpened her smile. Joe, looking down, grinned. He could be forgiven for thinking he was the cause of her heightened color and being flattered by it.