Honeymoon To Die For (17 page)

Ryder had flipped a button on her libido, but so had Bernard at first. Regardless, this whole attraction thing was not happening with Ryder. Plus, he was a prisoner in her custody.

Ryder had been frowning at her, but then his eyebrows shot up as if he’d realized something.

“What do you mean by not wired for seduction?” The surprise on Ryder’s face was comical. “Do you prefer ... women?”

“What? No.”  Was he really going to make her explain? “I don’t like sex.”  

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Were they really having this conversation standing in a driveway? “I was in a relationship and found out I wasn’t cut out for that.”  There. Done.

Ryder nodded.

What did that knowing look on his face mean? She didn’t care as long as the topic ended there. “Glad we’re clear.” With that out of the way, she turned to head for the front door that might as well be the gate to hell.

“Bianca?”

“What?” she snapped, turning back.

Ryder leaned down and kissed her, holding her face between
his hands. He didn’t touch her anywhere else, but it sure felt like his hands were running over her breasts and down between her legs.

Something had to be causing the ache in both places.

When he lifted his head, he had that half-smile tugging at his lips again, as if he’d answered a question. Taking her hand in his, Ryder turned her toward the house.

She stunned silent by another Ryder kiss. How could his feel so different from any other, so intense?

If Bernard had ever kissed her with that much heat, Bianca might have stuck it out longer, but that would’ve been a mistake. Rich guys wanted toys to play with. Once the toy was no more fun, they tossed it aside.

Everything was disposable to those with money.

Even hearts.

Ryder led her up the steps to a pair of leaded-glass doors beneath a high canopy supported by huge columns.

The door on the left opened before they reached it, and an owlish man with thinning gray hair and sunken cheeks appeared. Had to be the butler, Edward Harken. Bianca prodded her tired mind to dredge up his details. Age sixty and he’d worked for the Van Dykes for thirty-four, no, thirty-five years. He wore a dark charcoal suit with a matching gray bowtie on his five-foot-nine body.

Edward didn’t so much as blink at Ryder’s unkempt appearance, saying only, “How nice to see you, Mr. Van Dyke.”  

Did the butler need glasses or was it bad manners to say, “What in blazes happened to you?”  Bianca’s family would have been raisin’ cane over who had dared to harm one of theirs, be it family or friend.

Ryder answered the butler as if he showed up every day looking beat to hell. “Hello, Edward. I’d like to introduce my wife, Bianca.”

If she didn’t know better, she’d be flattered by the warm introduction that sounded as though Ryder was proud of her and their alliance.   

Every time she thought she had Ryder figured out, he kicked his game up a notch. But he was in his natural environment, had come from wealth.

Edward gave a half bow. “So nice to meet you, Lady Bianca.”

“
No!
” Ryder snapped.

Bianca flinched at the wrath behind that word.

“My apologies,
Sir
.”  Edward stiffened.

By God, Ryder appeared chastised by the butler’s response.

“Sorry, Edward,” Ryder said. “Been a long day.”

Eyes tracking across Ryder’s ripped clothes and bruised face, Edward answered, “It would appear so.”

Ryder’s voice was full of warmth when he said, “You haven’t called me
sir
since I was old enough to tell you to use my name, which you know is
not
Mr. Van Dyke. I’m still fine with Ryder.”  He ran his fingers through his hair and expelled a hiss of breath. “You may call my wife Bianca or Mrs. Van Dyke, but—please—do
not
call her Lady anything.”

“As you wish.” Edward backed into the foyer and managed a guarded smile. “It’s good to have you home, Ryder. Your room has been prepared and your clothes have been unpacked. Dinner will be at eight unless you’d prefer it in your room.”

“Thank you, Edward. Given the day we’ve had, I think we’ll eat in our room.”  Ryder took Bianca’s hand and towed her toward the stairs on the left.

“Good God, are you alright, Ryder?”  Terrence came hurrying down the curved stairs. A young woman followed more slowly, and several steps behind him.

Ryder raised a hand as Terrence hit the landing. “Nothing ice, a shot of Jack Daniels and a few Band
-A
ids won’t fix.”

Bianca disagreed on Band
-A
ids fixing some of Ryder’s injuries, but kept quiet and observed the woman just taking the last step. Had to be Ryder’s sister, Janeen, in snug black pants and a gold sweater that clung to her lithe shape. She moved with the grace of those born to wealth and good genes.

Bianca had practiced hard to emulate that grace in college.

Dark blonde hair fell around her shoulders, lying as smooth and straight as her bangs.

Janeen had Terrence’s pale skin and narrow cheekbones, but her gray-blue eyes were more like Hubrecht’s intense,
sky-blue
gaze than Terrence’s faded green eyes.

Terrence said, “Father is at a business dinner tonight. I’ll inform him of what happened as soon as he arrives home.”

Janeen swept up to them, but spoke to Terrence. “Have Kale put a security detail on these two.”

Bodyguards would be a disaster for this mission. Bianca waited to see how Ryder would handle this.

Ryder shook his head. “No, Terrence. Don’t mention this to Hubrecht tonight, or he’ll want details, and I’m too tired to go over everything. I’ll inform him tomorrow at the office.”  Turning his head to address Janeen, Ryder said, “I don’t need a security detail. Kearn’s boys were behind this. He’d be a fool to try it again and I’ll be driving myself next time.”

Bianca studied the two biological children and one adopted sibling. She noted the concern in Terrence’s worried eyes and what she could only describe as irritation in Janeen’s.

Janeen shrugged. “But you will give Kale a full report, right?”

“Probably.”  

The conversation died with Janeen and Ryder staring at each other until Janeen said, “I suppose congratulations are in order.”

His sister didn’t make specific whether she meant Ryder’s release from prison or his getting married. Bianca had a strange urge to hug Ryder, since no one had embraced him or cheered for his release from prison.

Family should be happy. They didn’t know his release was temporary.

You’re not supposed to be encouraging him either.

Bianca was going to need therapy when this was over to untangle her jacked-up emotions.

Ryder didn’t ask for clarification from Janeen, instead saying, “Speaking of that, this is Bianca, my wife. Bianca this is our sister Janeen.”

Terrence smiled at Bianca and told Janeen, “I had the pleasure this afternoon.”

Janeen studied her a moment then extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too.” Bianca shook hands, hearing the total lack of sincerity in Janeen’s voice.

Janeen gave Ryder a malicious smile. “You haven’t lost your touch.”

Ryder’s eyes turned so frigid there should have been icicles hanging from his lashes.

What had Janeen said that insulted Ryder?

Bianca ran back over Janeen Van Dyke’s file in her mind. Oldest Van Dyke child at twenty-eight, enjoyed the nightlife, several semi-serious relationships since entering Yale for a business degree she’d never finished or put to use. She’d had no one man in her life for the past year and a half, which might be to preserve her party girl image. And no visible means of support other than being independently wealthy by virtue of birth.

She
was
on the boards of several charities, and she was the face of the Van Dyke family at major social or community events, so Bianca couldn’t write her off entirely as fluff.

“What are your plans now, Ryder?” Janeen asked.

“Looks like I’m back at VDE.”

“When you swore never to work there again?”

Ryder gave her a wry look. “I don’t have a lot of career options at the moment.”

Terrence managed to look pitiful in spite of smiling.

Janeen’s eyes skated over to Terrence, then back to Ryder. “In what capacity?”

The question had held a warning of some sort, but Ryder brushed it off with, “That’s up to Hubrecht.”

Bianca had noticed how Ryder constantly addressed Hubrecht as
our
father or Hubrecht, or just
Father
on very rare occasions, but never as
my
father, as if he refused to accept any part in having Hubrecht as a father.

Another disconnect of Ryder’s being adopted?

Terrence rubbed his hands together in a blatant attempt to ease the tension. “We’ll have to find a night to go out and celebrate once you two are settled in. We know where
you
will be tomorrow, Ryder, but what about your new wife?”

Everyone turned on Bianca so quickly she blurted out, “I’ll be looking for work.”

Janeen’s cool attitude couldn’t have switched to surprise faster if the giant bouquet of fresh flowers on the table in the foyer had started talking. “Ridiculous. You just got married, and to a Van Dyke, no less.”  Her eyes lit up with some idea. “I know. We’ll go shopping and have lunch. We can leave around ten. Give us a chance to get to know one another.”

Murdock would be pleased since he’d told Bianca to insinuate herself as quickly as possible into the family, but she still didn’t like the idea of being split up from Ryder.

And something in Janeen’s voice made jackhammers go off in Bianca’s gut, which Daddy would have said meant trouble.

Ryder put his arm around Bianca’s waist. “What do you think,
S
weetheart?”

Bianca was all set to beg off until he’d called her sweetheart. Again. Why that caused her a mental stumble, she didn’t know, but everyone was waiting for her answer and she didn’t have an acceptable reason to refuse.

She beamed a smile, which made it easier to grind her teeth. “That’s very nice of you. I’d be delighted.”  Ryder’s fingers had tightened on Bianca’s hip, but they loosened and he let out a weary sounding breath when he told his siblings, “We’re eating in tonight, so if you two will excuse us.”  He’d tugged Bianca toward the stairs, but Janeen stopped him with one more thing.

“Lady Anne wants to see you now.”

Ryder paused. “We clearly are not up for socializing.”

“She’s been waiting in her solarium for an hour and said she wanted to see you the minute you stepped through the door if you intended to stay here. She gave that stipulation to Father when he announced that he’d invited you here. He saw no problem with that requirement, but if you want to blow her off ... ”

Janeen’s voice trailed off, leaving it clear that Ryder would be defying Lady Anne if he didn’t go now.

What a bitch. Bianca did not want to meet the woman Ryder thought of as the
Dragon Lady
dressed as she was, but Murdock expected her and Ryder to stay at this house. Murdock would not understand their refusal to meet with Ryder’s mother, short of their landing in a hospital.

But Bianca had spent enough time around Ryder to see he was ready to fight. Mission or no mission, he was not a man who allowed anyone to push him around.

She cupped his arm. “If Lady Anne doesn’t care what we look like, I don’t. Let’s get this done.”

“This is bullshit.”

“We’ll stay a couple minutes and be out of there.”

He finally ripped his angry gaze from Janeen and looked at Bianca.

She didn’t say a word, hoping this time he got the eye message right. She was trying to remind him how much was at stake.

That wasn’t working. She raised up and kissed him, just a brief touch of her lips to his.

The fury migrated out of his face. He took a breath. “Okay. Let’s go.”

When they stepped away, Janeen called out. “She said if she’s not there, it means she assumed you chose not to meet with her and prefer staying elsewhere.”  

Bianca picked up the pace, but if Ryder lost his temper with Lady Anne this might blow up anyhow.

CHAPTER 14

Ryder wanted to climb into a car and drive as far away from the Van Dyke home as he could.

If Bianca wasn’t standing next to him, he’d have walked out. She was the levelheaded one here.

He needed this more than she did, but she was the voice of calm when he would have screwed up the plan by pissing off Lady Anne. Not that he cared about pissing off the cold bitch, but creating conflict between Lady Anne and Hubrecht could end with Ryder out of a job at VDE tomorrow.

Ignoring the deplorable state of her clothes, Bianca carried herself as a lady. But she kept glancing at the Remington sculptures and priceless art.

Bianca’s fingers kept gripping his hand and releasing the pressure, fidgeting. She asked, “Would Lady Anne really toss us if Hubrecht wants you here?”

In spite of Janeen’s warning, Ryder kept the pace easy for Bianca’s shorter stride. Screw Lady Anne. “She runs the estate with a gloved fist. Hubrecht may control a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, but even he defers to Lady Anne in her home, and rest assured, all of this is
hers
.”

“Have you always called her Lady Anne?”

“She prefers the title and, frankly, calling her
Mother
never would have worked. She doesn’t fit the image.”  Resentment leaked through Ryder’s words, ruining his attempt to sound matter-of-fact.

He pulled his temper back under control as they neared a room at the end of a long marble corridor. Golden light from Italian wall sconces washed across the solarium.

“That is the revered Lady Anne,” Ryder whispered in Bianca’s ear when they moved into the doorway and Lady Anne came into view wearing a funeral-black dress. She sat in repose next to a delicately carved antique table. Soft light accented her pale-blond hair styled in a graceful upsweep. She gazed out a window that faced the gardens behind the house, which were lit for night viewing.