A full moon was floating in an unusually clear night sky, lighting Amanda’s way to the boathouse. At any other time she might have paused to enjoy the silvery white path on the moon-gilded waters of the Pacific Ocean, or stopped to gaze up at the millions of stars sparkling overhead like loose diamonds scattered across a black velvet jeweler’s cloth.
But her mind was not on the dazzling bright moon, nor the silvery water, nor the stars. Amanda was on her way to the boathouse to kill Dane Cutter.
He was waiting for her, just as he’d promised. Just as he had so many years ago. Unaware of the pique simmering through her, Dane greeted her with a smile that under any other conditions she would have found devastatingly attractive.
“I was getting worried about you.”
She glared up at him, a slender, furious warrior with right on her side. “I got held up.”
“So I see.” Lines crinkled at the corners of his smiling eyes. “I hope that’s Mom’s carrot cake.”
She’d forgotten she was still carrying the pink box. “It is.” She handed it to him. Then reached back and slammed her fist into his stomach.
He doubled over with a grunt of surprise, dropping the cake box. “Damn it, Amanda!”
He gingerly straightened. She was standing, legs braced, as if intending to pound him again. He waited until he was sure his voice would be steady.
“You get one free shot, contessa. That’s it. Try another cheap stunt like that and I’ll have no choice but to slug you back.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” He might be a liar, but the man she’d fallen in love with ten years ago would never strike a woman. Then again, she reminded herself, apparently there was a lot she didn’t know about the man Dane Cutter had become.
“I wouldn’t risk putting it to the test.” His dark eyes were hard. Implacable.
Dane saw her hand move to her stomach and damned himself for having caused another flare-up of her obviously touchy nerves.
But damn it, he hadn’t started this. His plans for the evening had been to start out with some slow, deep kisses. After that, he’d intended to play things by ear, although if they ended up in bed, he certainly wasn’t going to complain.
The worst-possible-case scenario was that they might waste valuable time together actually talking about her damn challenge-week events. One thing he hadn’t planned on was having a fist slammed into his gut.
“You know, you really ought to see a doctor about that.”
She frowned, momentarily thrown off track. “About what?”
“You could have an ulcer.”
Following his gaze, she realized that the way her hand was pressed against the front of her blouse was a sure giveaway that she wasn’t as much in control as she was trying to appear. “I don’t have an ulcer.”
“You sure? They can treat them with antibiotics, so—”
“I said, I don’t have any damn ulcer.”
Dane shrugged. “Fine. Then I’d suggest you work on your attitude.”
“My attitude?” Her hands settled on her hips. “How dare you question my attitude. After what you’ve done!”
“What, exactly, have I done? Other than to offer to pull your fat out of the fire? Corporately speaking, that is.”
Physically, she didn’t appear to have an ounce of fat on her—one of the things he was hoping his mother’s cooking could change. Amanda’s society mother had been wrong; there was such a thing as a woman being too thin.
“That wasn’t exactly the act of pure selflessness you made it out to be at the time,” she countered with a toss of her head. “Not when you consider the new furnace for the inn. Which is scheduled to be installed Friday, by the way.”
“Ah.” It finally made sense. “Who told you?”
Amanda didn’t know which made her more angry. That Dane had lied to her in the first place, or that he appeared so cavalier at having gotten caught.
“That doesn’t matter,” she said between clenched teeth. “What matters is that you lied to me.”
Now that he knew what all the storm and fury was about, Dane found himself enjoying the murder in her eyes. It spoke of a passion he had every intention of experiencing before this week was over.
“I’d never lie to you, Amanda.”
She folded her arms and shot him a disbelieving look. “I don’t recall you telling me that you were the new owner of Smugglers’ Inn.”
“I don’t recall you asking.”
Frustrated and furious, Amanda let out a huff of breath. “It’s not the sort of question one asks a person one believes to be a bellman.”
Her words were dripping icicles. Although hauteur was not her usual style, having been on the receiving end of her mother’s cool conceit for all of her twenty-five years, Amanda had learned, on rare occasions, to wield the icy weapon herself. Tonight was one of those occasions.
Dane revealed no sign of having been fatally wounded. “You know, that snotty attitude doesn’t suit you, contessa.” Ignoring her warning glare, he reached out and stroked her hair. “It’s too remote.” Stroked her cheek. “Too passionless.” Stroked the side of her neck. “Too untouchable.”
That was precisely the point, damn it! Unfortunately, it wasn’t working. Seemingly undeterred by her fury, he was jangling her nerves, weakening her defenses. Reminding herself that she was no longer a naive, hopelessly romantic young fifteen-year-old, Amanda moved away from his beguiling touch.
“You let me think you were still just an employee.” Although his touch had regrettably cooled her ire, the thought that he might have been laughing at her still stung.
Just an employee. He wondered if she knew how much like her rich, snobbish mother those words sounded. “I suppose I did.” Until now, Dane hadn’t realized that he’d been testing her. But, he admitted, that was exactly what he’d been doing.
“Does it really make that much of a difference? Whether I work at the inn? Or own it?” Her answer was suddenly uncomfortably important.
Amanda had worked long enough in the advertising jungle to recognize a verbal trap when she spotted one. “That’s not the point,” she insisted, sidestepping the issue for the moment.
He lifted an eyebrow. “May I ask what the point is, then? As you see it?”
“You were pretending to be something you weren’t.”
“We all pretend to be something—or someone—we aren’t from time to time.”
Like that long-ago summer when she’d pretended to be the Lolita of Satan’s Cove. She hadn’t fooled Dane then. And she didn’t now. Although he had no doubt that she was more than capable of doing her job, he also knew that she wasn’t the brisk, efficient advertising automaton she tried so hard to appear.
“I don’t.” She jutted her chin forward in a way that inexplicably made Dane want to kiss her. Then again, he’d been wanting to kiss her all day long.
Thinking how ridiculous their entire situation was turning out to be, Dane threw back his head and laughed.
“I hadn’t realized I’d said anything humorous,” she said stiffly.
Her vulnerability, which she was trying so hard to conceal, made him want to take her into his arms. “I’m sorry.” He wiped the grin from his face. “I guess you’ve spent so many years perfecting your career-woman act that you’ve forgotten that it really isn’t you.”
His accusation hit like the sucker punch she’d slammed into his stomach. The familiar headache came crashing back. “It isn’t an act.”
“Of course, it is.” As he watched the sheen of hurt, followed by a shadow of pain, move across her eyes, Dane damned himself for putting them there. Laying aside his romantic plans, he began massaging her throbbing temples, as he had last night.
“I don’t want you to touch me,” she complained.
“Sure you do. The problem is you don’t want to want me to touch you.” His fingertips were making circles against her skin. Igniting licks of fire, burning away the pain. “Would it make you feel any better if I promised not to seduce you tonight?”
“As if you could,” she muttered, trying to ignore the delicious heat that his caresses were creating.
Dane didn’t answer. They both knew there was no need.
He abandoned his sensual attack on her headache, sliding his hands down her neck, over her shoulders, and down her arms. Amanda did not resist as he linked their fingers together.
“For the record, I think you’re intelligent, creative, and ambitious. You believe you think you know what you want—”
“I do know,” she insisted.
“And you’re not going to stop until you get it,” he said, ignoring her firmly stated correction. “Whatever the cost.”
“I have every intention of becoming Northwest regional creative director of Janzen, Lawton and Young.” Determination burned in her eyes and had her unconsciously lifting her chin. “Once I get rid of Greg Parsons, just watch me go.”
He smiled at that, because tonight, despite the change in plans, was not a night for arguing. “Believe me, I have no intention of taking my eyes off you.”
Alerted by the huskiness in his tone, Amanda blew out a breath. “Am I going to have trouble with you?”
His answer was a slow masculine grin. “I certainly hope so.” He moved closer. “Lots and lots of it.”
She pulled a hand free and pressed it against his shoulder. “Damn it, Dane—”
He touched a finger against her mouth, cutting off her weak protest. “If you can forget what we had together, Amanda, you’re a helluva lot stronger person than I am.”
With effort, she resisted the urge to draw that long finger into her mouth. “It’s over. And has been for years.”
“That’s what you think.” He lifted the hand he was still holding and pressed his lips against her knuckles. Their eyes met over their linked hands—his, hot and determined; hers, soft and wary. “It’s just beginning, Amanda. And we both know it.”
Those words, so quietly spoken, could have been a promise or a threat. Needing time to think, not to mention space in which to breathe, Amanda tugged her hand free and backed away. Both physically and emotionally.
“I only came down here to discuss the challenge.”
Frustration rose; Dane controlled it. For now. “You’re the boss,” he said agreeably.
“Not yet,” Amanda corrected. “But I will be.” Because her unpleasant conversation with Greg was still in her mind, her shoulders slumped. “If I’m not fired first.”
He wondered if she had any idea how vulnerable she could appear and decided that bringing it up now, after what even he would have to admit had not been the most successful of days, would serve no purpose.
Dane wanted to put his arm around her, to soothe more than seduce, but knew that if he allowed himself to touch her again, all his good intentions would fly right out the window. That being the case, he slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans to keep them out of trouble.
“I can’t see that happening.”
“Believe me, it’s a distinct possibility.” She hadn’t thought so, before today. Oh, she’d considered herself so clever with her little plan to get Greg promoted. Caught up in the logistics of getting the horrid man out of Portland, she hadn’t given enough thought to the inescapable fact that half the challenge team actively disliked the other half. “After what happened today.”
She dragged her hand through her hair. “Speaking of which, I suppose I ought to thank you.”
“And here I thought you wanted to knock my block off.”
“I did. Still do,” she admitted. “But, as angry as I am at you for not being entirely honest with me, I can’t overlook the fact that you were probably the only thing standing between me and the unemployment line today.”
She sighed and shook her head as she stared out over the gilded sea. “From the way Julian, Marvin, Don, and Greg were behaving, you’d think we’d all come here to play war games.”
“Business is probably as close to war as most people get,” Dane said. “Other than marriage.”
His grim tone suggested he was speaking from experience. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “You’re not married, are you?”
Dane swore. Annoyance flickered in his dark eyes, and drew his lips into a hard line. “Do you honestly believe that if I had a wife, I’d be planning to take you to bed?”
“Planning is a long way from doing.” As she’d learned, only too well. She’d had such plans for this week!
“That may be true for some people. But I’ve developed a reputation for being tenacious.” He cupped her chin between his fingers, holding her gaze to his. “I’m going to have you, contessa. And you’re going to love it.”
The last time she’d allowed him to bait her, she’d ended up kissing him as if there were no tomorrow. Afraid that the next time she wouldn’t be able to stop with a mere kiss, Amanda jerked her head back, folded her arms across her chest and reminded herself that it was important at least to pretend to remain cool.
“You may be accustomed to women succumbing to your seduction techniques, Dane. But I have no intention of joining the hordes. I’m also a tougher case than you’re obviously accustomed to.”
“Victories are always more satisfying when they don’t come easily. And you haven’t answered my question.”
Discounting his arrogant male statement about taking her to bed, despite the fact that he was also confusing, beguiling, and distracting her, Amanda sensed that Dane was a caring, compassionate individual. And although he had misled her, she knew, from past experiences, that he was also an honorable man. Most men would have taken what she was literally throwing at him ten years ago without a backward glance when the summer was over. But Dane was not most men.
“I suppose I can’t imagine you committing adultery.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a start. Perhaps I ought to have someone write a reference letter. How about my mother? She’d love an opportunity to sing my praises.”
“That’s not the way I remember it.”
“Ten years ago she was a single mother concerned her son was about to repeat her own romantic mistake.” Because he could not continue to stand this close to Amanda without touching, he reached out and twined a strand of her hair around his finger.
“These days, she’s a mother who’s begun to worry that her son isn’t ever going to provide her with the grandchildren she’s so eager to spoil.”
That was yet another difference between the Stockenbergs and the Cutters. Amanda’s mother refused even to discuss the possibility of becoming a grandmother anytime in this century. While her father had warned her on more than one occasion of the dangers of falling prey to the infamous “baby track” that would hinder her success.
“How do you feel about that?” she asked.
“Actually, I think it’s a pretty good idea. With the right woman, of course.”
She couldn’t help thinking of a time when she’d dreamed of having children with this man. She also had no intention of asking Dane what type of woman fit his criteria. Deciding that the conversation was drifting into dangerous territory, she opted to change the subject.
“May I ask a question?”
“Shoot.”
“What did you say to Greg and the others today? To stop them from brawling on the beach?”
Dane shrugged. “Not that much. I merely pointed out to Parsons that he had too much riding on this week to risk getting into a fistfight with his employees.”
That was why Greg had marched away, steam practically coming from his ears, Amanda decided. “But what about Julian and Marvin? They were at each other’s throats after that disastrous first heat, but by the end of the day they were behaving as if they were candidates for the Kayaking Olympic Team.”
Dane knew he was treading in dangerous waters again. He didn’t want to lie to Amanda. But if he told her the truth about his conversation with the art director and head copywriter, she’d undoubtedly want to slug him again.
She’d also be furious that he’d interfered, little mind the fact that she’d needed some help at the time. Especially since her egocentric supervisor was obviously not only a bully, but an incompetent idiot to boot.
“I said pretty much the same thing to them I did to Parsons.” He forced himself to meet her lovely, serious eyes. “I suggested this week was going to be long and tough enough to get through without complicating things with useless feuds.
“I also mentioned that since management, in its own ignorance, tended to take things like this ridiculous corporate challenge week seriously, it made sense to save their differences for the creative arena where it mattered, bury their individual hatchets and cooperate by trying to win the thing together.”
“I’m impressed.”
“It’s not that big a deal.”
It was the truth, so far as it went. What he’d failed to mention was that he’d also told the two combatants that if they didn’t shape up and do their best to make this week a success, he’d throw them both off the cliff. Then drown them.
Although they’d resorted to bluster, from the uneasiness in their eyes, he realized that they’d half believed he might actually do it. And, although he wasn’t violent, such behavior was undeniably tempting. If it helped Amanda.
Watching her today, seeing how seriously she took her work, understanding how important it was to her that she pull off this week, Dane knew that in order to get what he wanted, he would have to see that Amanda got what she wanted. And what she wanted, it seemed, was Greg Parsons’s job. That being the case, he intended to move heaven and earth—and a portion of the Oregon coast, if necessary—to ensure her success.
“Believe me, Dane, it was a very big deal.” Thinking back on what he’d done for her—for no other reason than that he’d wanted to help—Amanda felt guilty. “I’m sorry I hit you.”
Her hand was on his arm. Dane covered it with his. “You were right. I haven’t exactly been the most forthright guy in the world the past couple of days. But I never meant to hurt you. Or to make you feel I was having fun at your expense.”
His hand was darker than hers. Larger. And warmer. When she began imagining it moving over her body, touching her in places that were aching for just such a sensual touch, Amanda knew that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, Dane was right. Before this week was over, they would become lovers.
That idea was thrilling and terrifying at the same time.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” she murmured.
“What’s that?”
“What made you decide to buy the inn? After swearing that you couldn’t wait to get away from Satan’s Cove, I’m surprised to find you still here.”
“Not still.”
“Pardon me?”
“I said, I’m not still here. I’m back.”
“Oh.” That made a bit more sense, she supposed. “What did you do in between?”
Dane took encouragement from the fact that she cared about how he’d spent his life during those intervening years. “A little of this. A little of that.”
“That’s not very enlightening.”
“I suppose not.” He gave her a long look. “I guess I just can’t figure out why you’d care. Since you’ve already said you haven’t thought about me since that summer.”
“I may have thought of you,” she admitted, realizing that there was no way she’d be able to keep up the subterfuge. “From time to time.”
Dane didn’t answer. He just stood there, looking down at her, a frustratingly inscrutable look on his face, as the tension grew thicker and thicker between them.
“All right!” She threw up her hands in surrender. “I lied. I thought about you a lot, Dane. More than I should have. More than I wanted.
“Every man I’ve ever gone out with, I’ve ended up comparing to you. Once I dated a man for six months because, believe it or not, if I closed my eyes, his voice reminded me of yours.
“I go to work, and if I’m not careful, my mind will drift and I’ll think of you and wonder where you are, and what you’re doing. And at night—” On a roll now, she began to pace. “At night I’ll lie in bed, and you’ll be lying there beside me, kissing me, touching me, loving me.
“And then I’ll wake up, and realize it was only a dream. But it doesn’t seem like a dream, damn it. It seems real! And then, last night, I was tired and cranky, and worried, and all of a sudden I heard this voice I’ve dreamed about time and time again, and I turned around and there you were, and this time you weren’t a dream.
“You were real. Wonderfully, marvelously real! And it was all I could do not to throw myself in your arms and beg you to make love to me—with me—for the rest of my life!
“So, there.” She stopped in front of him, close enough that he could see the sheen of tears in her expressive blue eyes. “Now you know. Is that what you wanted to hear me say? Is your almighty male ego satisfied now?”
She was trembling. Once again the need to comfort warred with the desire to seduce. Once again comfort won out. “Yes. It’s what I wanted to hear.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and drew her to him. And although she remained stiff, she wasn’t exactly resisting, either.
He cupped her chin again. “But only because it’s a relief to know that I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.”
Amanda read the truth in his warm, loving gaze and felt even more like weeping. Her emotions were in a turmoil. She couldn’t think straight. She could only feel. She wrapped her arms around his waist and clung. “Really?”
“Really.” His smile was that crooked, boyish one that had once possessed the power to make her young heart turn somersaults. It still did.
“And if you think it’s dumb dating a guy for six months because he sounds like someone else, how about marrying someone because she has the same laugh as a girl you once loved?”
“You didn’t!”
“Guilty.” His grin turned sheepish. “I was young and determined to get you out of my system when I met Denise.”
Denise. Dane had been married to a woman named Denise. A woman with her laugh. Amanda hated her. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m not in any hurry to be anywhere.” On the contrary, a very strong part of Amanda wished she could stop time and make this night last forever.
There’d been a moment, during her passionate speech about how many times she’d thought of him over the intervening years, that Dane had thought perhaps tonight would turn out to be the night he finally made love to Amanda. Now that he’d made the mistake of bringing up his ex-wife, he knew he’d have to remain patient a bit longer.
Reminding himself that Amanda was worth waiting for, Dane took her hand and led her over to a rowboat tied to the pier.
“We may as well get reasonably comfortable,” he said. “Because this is going to take a while.”