Promoted to Wife (Destiny Bay) (17 page)

Caren's smile was scornful. “Of course not. Men only get confused when you tell them these things. They like
to think they're the ones running the show, don't they?
But never fear. Aunt Julia is on my side, and Aunt Julia
has a way of getting what she wants.”

Suddenly a sound in another part of the house caught
her attention. “What is that?” she asked suspiciously.

Terry listened. Jeremy was teasing Erica and she was
screaming at him to leave her alone. Scenes like that had
become so commonplace lately, she hardly noticed them
any longer.

“It's just the children...” she began.

Caren grew pale. “Children? What are the children doing here? I thought they would surely be at boarding school.”

“The children are staying here for the rest of the summer,” Terry said coolly.

Caren shook her head as she removed her leather gloves. “That won't do at all. I can't abide children.” She wrinkled her beautiful nose. “Too noisy, too messy, too demanding. They'll have to go.”

A sharp retort rose to the tip of Terry's tongue, but fortunately Aunt Julia interrupted before she could put her outrage into words. Terry turned away, amazed by the warmth Caren was greeted with and determined to keep as far away from the woman as possible.

That turned out to be difficult. Caren was everywhere over the next few days, taking charge as though she were already installed as the new Mrs. Carrington. Aunt Julia had consented to have a small gathering in her honor. Caren had invited a few friends from San Francisco, and she wanted to be sure everything was perfect.

“I'd like the party around the pool,” she decided when Julia suggested using the rose gardens. “Not so many thorns. And we can float lilies in the blue water. Won't that be spectacular?”

Julia smiled indulgently, as she did when Caren suggested moving out the redwood furniture around the pool and ordering something more modern in aluminum and blue canvas, and again when Caren nixed the
menu Anatole had planned.

“No red meat, please,” she'd sighed. “Most of my friends are vegetarians, or into the new cuisine. How about a simple timbale of eggplant and goat cheese, followed by cold pasta nicoise and marinated carrots?”

Anatole fumed, Julia smiled, and Caren had her way.
The mystery was, what did Rick think of it all?

Terry couldn't tell. From bits and pieces of overheard
conversations, she realized Rick and Caren had known
each other since childhood. Caren had lived in New York
for years, working as a high-priced fashion model. Now she was back, for good she said, and ready to jump into
something new.

She and Rick shared jokes and memories in common.
They sometimes spoke in the shorthand people who've
known each other well and long seem to share. And
when she was with Rick, Caren often lost the glossy
sophistication she cultivated and seemed almost real. But whenever she got back on her high horse, Rick just
grinned and left the room.

“I think it would be smashing if the staff all dressed in
some sort of special costumes for the night,” Caren said
on the evening before the party, gazing pointedly at
Terry, who was serving sherry in the sitting room.

Terry stiffened, but she didn't say a word. A butler was supposed to be invisible and emotionless, gliding through the room without a sound. A butler did not rip a guest's heart out, no matter what the provocation. She
managed to pour Aunt Julia's portion of the amber liquid
without spilling a drop.

“Why not pink?” Rick countered lazily, his steady
gaze following Terry's every movement. For a brief second she wondered if he could read her mind. If so, he was
pushing the limits of her endurance. “Or better yet, pink and white and violet—like summer flowers.”

“Lovely!” Caren cooed. “What an adorable idea. The
staff will look like a walking flower garden. We could tie
flowers in each servant's hair to match her color—pink
for petunias, yellow for hibiscus... oooh!” She giggled
with delight as she thought of something new. “We'll
dress the footmen like honey bees, with little antennae on
their heads and get them to buzz about the 'flowers.' ...”

Terry's fingers tightened on the sherry bottle. She quietly turned to leave the room, carefully avoiding meeting
Rick's gaze. At the same time, Caren turned to speak to Julia and Rick rose, following Terry out of the room and into the hallway. As soon as they were out of earshot of the others, Terry turned on him, trying hard to put a
leash on her fury, but not succeeding.

“I will not dress up like a stupid flower to please that woman,” she hissed, eyes flashing. “I didn't hire on here
to be used, or to be the butt of a joke, and I won't—”

His hand was on her arm, silencing her with the
strength of his grip. He'd come out to reassure her, to
turn the whole thing into a joke that they could laugh at together, but her words triggered something inside that exploded into an answering anger that he hadn't antici
pated.

“You're very big on what you won't do,” he said
coldly, glaring down at her. “If you want to keep this job,
you'd better bear in mind just who gives the orders around here, and who takes them.”

The words were pompous, arrogant, and he could
hardly believe they were coming from his own mouth. Here he was, Rick Carrington, famed far and wide for his cynically amused detachment, spouting off like a Victo
rian overseer.

“I'll quit before I wear a clown suit for her,” she in
sisted angrily. “I'll walk out of here and never come
back.”

The thought of her leaving twisted like a knife in his gut, and he half hated her for being so important to him. He wanted to shake her, to make her ... what? Understand? Change? Love him? He wasn't sure himself what he wanted.

His anger faded as he gazed at her. She felt so fragile. Her arm seemed childlike in his grasp, but warmth radiated from her shapely body, a warmth that quickly flooded him as well. She stared up into his eyes and he could hardly remember what they were arguing about.

The grip of his hand turned to a caress, moving across her flesh with seductive curiosity. “Terry...” he whispered, and she closed her eyes, crying fiercely, “No! No!” and pulling away from his grasp to run down the hall, leaving the sherry bottle where it dropped as she ran.

Nothing more was mentioned about special uniforms, and the party went nicely without them the following afternoon. Limousines and other fancy cars arrived one after another, letting out beautiful people dressed in beautiful clothes. Treating it as a sort of rehearsal for the charity ball, Terry worked hard, coordinating the assignments of the extra waiters who'd been hired for the day with those of the regular staff, overseeing the entire operation. And she was generally pleased at the results.

It only galled her that all this success was for Caren's benefit. Every time she passed the woman she heard something else to put her back up. It seemed that Caren felt no hesitation in telling her plans to anyone who would listen.

“Of course old Mr. Carrington adores me,” Terry heard her say as she lifted her champagne glass high against the
summer evening sun and laughed with a few of her jet-set
friends. “Just as he adored my mother before me. I'll have no problems there.”

Terry winced. How could Julia possibly want this awful woman for Rick? He deserved better. And so did the
children.

“But then, there is that dreadful ranch of Rick's,”
Caren was saying airily a few moments later as Terry
passed with the after-dinner coffee. “I'm going to have to
do something about that place.”

“You mean you wouldn't want to live there?” an elegant young man beside her asked laughingly.

“Oh, darling, be serious! I'm not exactly the type to rough it, am I?” Caren smiled lazily. “I mean, can't you
just see me in my little blue jeans, out milking the cows or
collecting eggs?”

They all laughed, and to Terry's mind they were laughing at Rick, as though he were some sort of naive patsy to their clever games. That made her furious and she toyed with the idea of knocking Caren into the pool. One little push and the Parisian gown and the elaborate hairdo would be ruined. Caren was standing so close to
the edge. All it would take would be one little shove. ...

She pulled herself up short, biting her lip. How could she even think such a thing! She was the butler, for Pete’s sake! “Decorum,” she muttered to herself as she passed the cream and sugar. “Professional detachment.” „

Then she remembered the children's wan faces as
they'd gone up the stairs when the first of the guests had arrived—”We can't have children about,” Caren had in
sisted to Julia. “They destroy the atmosphere.”
 

As she was recalling the sad look on their young faces, Terry
heard Caren say, “You know how I am once I get going on something. Nothing can push me from the path....”—and the next thing Terry knew, she'd shifted her weight, just a little, throwing out her hip, and Caren was screaming, flying backward through the air and landing in the blue-green water of the pool with a tremendous splash.

“Oh, no!” Terry cried, horrified. Had she really done it? “Oh, I'm so sorry!” She reached down to try to help Caren back up, but so did everyone else around the pool, and Caren furiously refused her offer.

Caren came out of the water like a wet hen, sputtering and babbling incoherently. Terry started to go to her, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“I wouldn't,” Rick murmured, his face very near hers and his eyes full of laughter. “I don't think she'll be in a very forgiving mood for quite some time.”

“I... I did it on purpose,” she whispered to him, guilt-stricken. “How could I do that?”

He laughed, his arm sliding around her shoulders to pull her close, and in the crowd of guests still excited over Caren's “fall,” his action went unnoticed.

Terry found herself leaning on him, letting him curl her into his embrace, hungering for his comfort. “Oh, this is horrible,” she murmured despairingly. “What can I do to make it up to her? Everyone must think I'm crazy.”

“No one thinks you did it on purpose,” he assured her. “I don't think anyone noticed your connection at all. Besides, I suppose you were just following orders. One of the very first duties I assigned was the task of protecting me from Julia's marriage prospects.” He grinned at her. “Job well done, Yardley.”

His words were teasing, but his lips were coming close,
and she suddenly remembered that they were out in the
open, surrounded by guests. Rick kissing the butler was
bound to make an even bigger stir than the butler push
ing the guest of honor into the pool.

“Not here,” she whispered, drawing away and alarmed
at how difficult it was to leave him.

His hand slid down to hold her elbow. “Not here,” he agreed, his eyes shimmering in the afternoon light. “But
somewhere, Terry. Sometime.”

She broke away and hurried to her pantry, desperately
needing a moment alone. But there wasn't much solace in
her loneliness: Rick was haunting her wherever she
went.

It was after midnight before Terry and her crew had everything straightened up. The house was quiet. Terry was exhausted, but too tense to sleep. Slipping down the
hall to her room, she went straight into the bath and began to run the water for a long, relaxing soak that would wash her troubles away.

She put in plenty of bubbling bath oil and watched as the white suds filled the old-fashioned, lion-claw tub.

When the bath was full she slipped out of her clothes
and sank slowly into the hot water, sighing with pleasure.
Her feet ached, her head ached, her soul ached. Stretching back, she closed her eyes and luxuriated in the hot
suds.

She heard the door to the bathroom open, but she
didn't open her eyes. She was pretty sure she knew who it
was.

“Mind if I come in?” Rick's voice was low and deep
as velvet.

“Of course I mind,” she answered softly. “But I don't suppose that's going to stop you.”

She heard the door close, heard him moving near, and finally she opened her eyes and looked up at him. She'd never seen him with his hair so rumpled before, as though he'd spent a lot of time running his hand through it. He wore dark slacks and a black short-sleeved knit shirt that hugged the rugged muscles of his chest. His gaze was smoky, and full of passion she wasn't sure she was ready to face. As she watched he dropped to one knee beside the tub and dipped a hand into the bubbles.

“We've got a problem, you and me,” he murmured, running his fingers through the water.

“I know,” she whispered.

He lifted his hand suddenly and caught her chin, turning her eyes to meet his. “We can't ignore it any longer, you know. It's not going away on its own.”

She nodded, her gaze full of him and wanting more.

His hand slipped down to her shoulder. “I want you, Terry,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. “I don't think I've ever wanted a woman before the way I want you.”

Her lips parted. Her mind was numb. She knew that she should be resisting this, should be telling him to leave, but somehow she couldn't. What she felt for him had grown too strong, and for the time being she was too weak to fight it.

Rick was a playboy. She knew that only too well. And she hadn't the luxury to be his playmate. She needed all her strength to make her way in the world. But she couldn't think about that now. Something else, something too strong to resist, was pulling her.