Her eyes darkened with pain. “You’re wrong, Beau. Anthony doesn’t need anyone. He told me so.” Her lips trembled as she tried to smile. “And that makes him very dangerous to someone like me. I think I’d be safer to keep my defenses very high and firm.”
There was a sudden flicker of surprise and then a dawning comprehension in the warm hazel eyes gazing into her own. His lips pursed in a soundless whistle. “Like that, Dany?”
She nodded. “Like that,” she said simply. “I’ll work myself into the ground to give him the gold. It’s really his, no matter what he says. But after that I’m going to put all the distance I can between us. He may have been a good friend to you, but with very little effort he could probably tear my life to shreds. I’m not about to give him the opportunity if I can help it.” She shrugged off her jacket and took her skate bag from him. Her lashes lowered as her tone became brisk. “So I’ll maintain my safe and sheltered role as Anthony’s protégée and leave his personal life to the Luisas of the world.” Lord, it was sheer torture to get those words out, she thought.
“Maybe that would be best,” Beau said after a troubled pause. “Friendship I think you can handle, but I’m not sure you wouldn’t be right about anything more … intimate. He’s not an easy man.”
“That’s putting it conservatively,” she said with a wry smile. “Don’t worry, Beau, I—”
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Miss Alexander.” The butler’s voice was punctiliously polite as he appeared at her side. “Mr. Malik has called twice since you’ve been down at the pond practicing. He was quite surprised you weren’t at the rink and couldn’t be reached by phone. He asked you to call him at his apartment in New York immediately on your return. The number is on the pad on his desk in the library.”
She felt a queer little flutter in the pit of her stomach that was half excitement, half trepidation. “Thank you,” she said absently, handing him her skate bag and jacket. “Will you have these taken to my room? I’ll make the call right away.”
“Certainly.” He turned and started to mount the stairs with august dignity.
“Why don’t you go lie down and rest for a while?” Beau asked gently. “You can always make the call later. If you like, I’ll give him a ring and tell him you’ll phone after dinner tonight.”
She shook her head. “We both know when Anthony asks someone to call, it’s tantamount to a royal decree.” She was already striding briskly down the hall toward the library, but she looked over her shoulder to give him a reassuring smile. “Thanks for trying to run interference, Beau, but I’ll be fine. I’m a dynamo, remember?”
“How could I forget?” he asked with a graceful mocking bow. “You remind me a bit of Scarlett O’Hara without her more unpleasant qualities. You were never meant to be a Yankee, Dany. It’s some ghastly celestial mistake.”
“If you say so,” she said absently, her thoughts already on the phone call to be made in the next few moments. “I’ll see you at dinner, Beau.”
As she was listening to the phone ring a little bit later, she didn’t feel like anything even remotely resembling a dynamo. She felt miserably unsure, and a barrage of memories of last night’s intimacies assaulted her with a force that caused her uneasiness to escalate more by the second. How stupid to be so vulnerable, she thought with an impatience that sent a sudden tingle of defiance surging through her. It came just in time, for the next moment Anthony picked up the receiver with a terse “Malik.”
“Anthony?” Her voice was amazingly cool, she congratulated herself. “Dany. I understand you’ve been trying to get in touch with me.”
“What the hell were you doing at the pond?” His voice was roughly impatient. “That snow last night would have made it totally unfit for any serious practice.”
“It wasn’t all that bad,” she said evasively. “I’ll work out on the rink tomorrow. Beau said the triples went fairly well.”
“And the spins?”
She wasn’t about to confess they lacked the needed speed. “Why don’t you ask him?” she asked with dulcet sweetness. “Would you like me to put him on?”
“No.” His reply was terse. “I’ll see them myself tomorrow. Work on your compulsory figures in the morning. I want to go over your long freestyle program with you in the afternoon.”
“Yes, master,” she said meekly. “It shall be as you decree. And now, if that’s all you wanted, I’d like to change for dinner.”
“That’s not all.” There was a long pause. “Paul Jens said you didn’t arrive at Briarcliff until nearly three thirty. Pete picked you up at eleven. Where were you all that time?”
Her hand tightened on the receiver. “I stopped in at Jack Kowalt’s apartment and had lunch with him.” She could sense the crackling tension on the other end of the line but managed to keep her tone calmly confident. “You’ll be glad to know that Jack accepted both of our apologies. He’s a very understanding man.”
“And how understanding was he?” Anthony’s voice was silky. “You were there long enough for him to demonstrate in detail just how understanding he could be.” His tone dropped to menacing softness. “Perhaps I should have been there when you awoke this morning. Were you wanting a man so badly that you had to run to Kowalt to assuage it?”
“No!” She took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure. “I told you it wasn’t like that with us. But even if it were, I wouldn’t let you interfere. I’ll see Jack whenever I like. I won’t have my life choreographed by you.”
There was a long silence. “And what about last night?”
She moistened her lips nervously. “Last night was a mistake,” she said quickly. She let her breath out shakily. “It wouldn’t work out between us, Anthony. I don’t want to become an appendage to any man. And with you that’s what it would come down to in the end. You’re that kind of person.”
“Am I?” Anthony’s tone was expressionless. “I thought you might have some sort of backlash reaction from last night. I didn’t think it would be this radical, however. Not enough to drive you back to Kowalt.”
“It’s not a backlash,” she denied firmly. “I’m just thinking clearly now. You’re a very desirable and experienced man, Anthony. And it was perfectly natural that our good judgment was destroyed by a chemistry as potent as ours. But you can see it’s better that we continue as we have been all these years.”
“The hell I can!” The violence in his tone was so raw, it shocked her. “You may think you’re going to be able to turn your back on last night and walk away, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you.” There was a moment’s silence in which he was obviously struggling for control. “If I hadn’t been so blasted noble, you wouldn’t be giving me this damn lecture on the wisdom of maintaining your independence. You’d be here with me now, with your legs wrapped around me while I—”
“Anthony!” She felt a melting heat in her loins, and her exclamation sounded faint and breathless even to her own ears.
“You would; you know it as well as I do.” His voice was suddenly unutterably weary. “I won’t be such a fool again. Enough is enough. From now on our relationship comes first and to hell with Calgary. I wasn’t comfortable in the role of a self-sacrificing Galahad anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow, Dany.”
Before she could reply, he’d hung up the receiver.
Chapter 4
“Is there some kind of unwritten law that says skaters have to be up at the crack of dawn?” Marta complained with a sleepy yawn. She watched blearily as Dany, before the vanity mirror, pinned her hair up into its customary topknot. “I thought when we came here to Briarcliff, some of the pressure would be off you.” She sighed. “I might have known better. You’re the one who applies most of the pressure on yourself.”
Dany looked over her shoulder with a quick grin. “I do my best concentrating before the sun comes up.” She made a face. “I’m going to need every bit of concentration I can muster while I’m working on those compulsory figures. They’re definitely not my
strong point.” She watched Marta straighten up from leaning indolently against the doorjamb to cross her room and drop into the beige Queen Anne chair a few feet away with a flurry of her sheer blue chiffon negligee.
Marta’s passion for soft, ultrafeminine lingerie was completely at odds with her pragmatic image and always came as a surprise to Dany. It just went to show that no one was predictable. After Beau’s revelation last night she found herself looking at Marta with new eyes. She’d been so involved in her own work, she’d taken everyone around her terribly for granted, she realized now. Just because Marta was maternal and protective with her, it didn’t mean that was the face she revealed to the rest of the world. Marta had been divorced for some years before she’d come to work for Anthony, but what did Dany really know about her personal life? Marta was a very private person and seemed to prefer to keep her own counsel regarding her past.
Marta smothered another yawn. “I don’t see why those judges make you do compulsory figures anyway. The free skating is much nicer to watch.”
“It’s all a part of the sport.” Dany stood up and smoothed the skintight aqua-and-white-striped jumpsuit she was wearing. She always preferred a skirt and tights when she skated, liking the way the material flowed around her with every movement. Still, no one could deny that these jumpsuits were warmer. While she was working on the slow precision figures it would be much more practical. “Why don’t you go back to bed? I’ll be working most of the day and won’t need you until late afternoon.”
“I just might do that.” Marta struggled to her feet and crossed to the closet to pull out Dany’s skate bag. “Lord, I hate getting up early. I seem destined to spend most of my life stumbling around with my eyes half closed.” She slipped Dany’s white leather jacket off the hanger. “First on that farm in Minnesota where I grew up, then in the Army, and now with a workaholic skater who doesn’t have the sense to know every day should start at noon.”
“Sorry.” An amused smile tugged at Dany’s lips as she took the jacket and skate bag Marta handed her. “I guess it’s the nature of the beast.” Her dark eyes twinkled. “Of course, since you can’t seem to convince me of that, you could join me instead. I’ve never seen you on skates, Marta. Why don’t you come down to the rink and we’ll do some freestyle warm-ups before I start to practice?”
“Me?” Marta’s blue eyes widened in shock. “You’ve got to be kidding!” She shook her head firmly. “I don’t skate.”
“Then I’ll teach you,” Dany coaxed. “Come on, Marta, you’ll love it once you start.”
“Oh, no, I won’t.” Marta scowled. “I had lessons once, but it took me only a very short time to realize I’d never be a skater.” She paused before adding reluctantly, “There’s something physically wrong with me. I’ll never be able to skate.”
“Physically?” Dany asked with quick concern. “I didn’t know. What is it?” Marta appeared to be in the most robust health. Perhaps it was only weak ankles. A great many people were afflicted with that.
“I can only skate backward,” Marta answered glumly. “There’s got to be something wrong with my equilibrium. Every time I skate forward, I fall on my tush. Skating backward, I’m Peggy Fleming. Skating forward, I’m Bozo the Clown.”
Dany was trying desperately to keep a straight face. “I’m sure with practice—”
“I did practice,” Marta said indignantly. “I tell you, there’s something wrong with the way I’m put together.” She looked speculatively down at her ample bosom. “Maybe I just kind of overbalance.”
Dany was chuckling helplessly now. “Why didn’t you keep on skating anyway? A reverse Peggy Fleming isn’t half bad.”
“Oh yeah? You just try it sometime. It gets lonely as hell skating backward all the time when everyone else is skating forward. It’s all very well to march to the tune of a different drummer but skating to one is an entirely different cup of tea!”
Dany shook her head, still chuckling. “I can see your point,” she said solemnly. She leaned forward and gave Marta an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “If you change your mind, the offer is always open. Between Beau and me, we should be able to get you on the right track. We’ll look upon it as the supreme challenge to our expertise.”
“Maybe someday,” Marta said with a good deal of skepticism. She frowned suddenly. “I don’t suppose you’re intending to eat any breakfast before you start working? You look like a puff of wind would blow you away in that jumpsuit. You didn’t eat more than a few bites at dinner last night.”
Dany quickly lowered her eyes as she turned to leave. She had been in such emotional turmoil last night after the phone call from Anthony, she’d barely been conscious of eating at all. “Beau will see that I stop to eat breakfast sometime this morning,” she said vaguely. “He’s as much of a mother hen as you are about my losing weight.”
“That’s because Anthony’s on his tail if he notices even an ounce difference,” Marta said grimly. “Even when he’s halfway across the country, he hears about it. It’s not exactly pleasant to be on the receiving end when Anthony’s not pleased about something.”
She was well aware of that, Dany thought wearily as she opened the door. Following last night’s confrontation she hadn’t been able to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, and then only for a restless few hours.
Luisa Kendall was absolutely gorgeous as usual. Her knee-length raccoon poncho was worn with her customary dash over designer jeans tucked into brown knee-length boots. Her long, dark hair was tumbling about her shoulders in stylish profusion, and her violet eyes, framed in long lashes that made them appear even larger, were sparkling with good nature as she waved at Dany from behind the barricade that surrounded the rink.
“Hi, Dany,” she called as she leaned her elbows on the balustrade. “I love your outfit. You look like a très chic skin diver or something.”
“How would you know?” Anthony asked, an indulgent smile curving his lips. “The closest you’ve ever come to any kind of aquatic undertaking is dipping your toes in the water to wash the sand off.”
Dany stopped in the middle of the figure she’d been tracing and with a bright smile carefully masked the shock she was experiencing. She suddenly felt very naked and exposed alone out on the ice in the middle of the rink. Luisa’s appearance at Briarcliff with Anthony had come as a complete surprise and caught her off guard. After the remarks he’d made on the phone, the last thing she’d expected was to have him show up with his mistress in tow or to have him stand there gazing at her with cool detachment as if nothing had changed. Well, perhaps nothing had changed. Perhaps he’d thought over what she’d said and decided it made sense to go along with her way of thinking. Luisa’s appearance here certainly seemed to indicate that, Dany thought, simultaneously feeling an irrational burst of pain.
“Thanks, Luisa,” she called back. “But it’s not supposed to be fashionable, just functional. It’s specially insulated to keep out the cold.”
“Whatever.” Luisa shrugged her elegantly furred shoulders. “It’s still pretty, and that’s the bottom line.”
At least it was for Luisa, Dany thought as she skated over to the bench behind the balustrade that was across the rink from where they were standing. Luisa loved pretty clothes with a passion. That was one of the reasons she’d chosen to become a photographer’s model. She was very successful at it, too, when she made the effort. Unfortunately most aspects of her career were too much effort for Luisa’s good-natured but indolent temperament. Not that she needed to work, Dany thought as she started to unlace her skates with feverish swiftness. Anthony, for over a year now, had kept her very well supplied with every luxury. An undemanding beauty like Luisa was exactly what he wanted in a mistress.
“Those skates are different from the other ones you usually wear, aren’t they?” Luisa’s eyes were bright with curiosity. She’d wandered around the rink and was standing by the bench. Beau and Anthony were still across the rink absorbed in discussion, and Luisa had n
o doubt become bored and was seeking distraction.
Dany nodded. “The blades have a wider radius. I use them only for compulsory figures. They make a clearer tracing for the judges.”
“I like the dancing better,” Luisa said. “That looks like you’re having a real ball.” Her eyes went around the large rink, lingering on the arched, paneled skylight that covered most of the ceiling. “This is really very nice. Anthony says it’s relatively new, compared to the rest of the estate.”
“Anthony had it built about nine years ago,” Dany said quietly. “He said it would be more convenient for practice.”
“I can see that.” A puzzled frown suddenly knotted Luisa’s brow. “But you’ve not been here for almost six years, I understand.”
“That’s right,” she answered briefly. Most of the time she liked Luisa, but she was finding that eager curiosity a little hard to take today. “Is this the first time you’ve been to Briarcliff?”
The other woman nodded her fashionably tousled head. “I’ve been to Anthony’s apartment in town, naturally, but he’s never brought me here.” Long, dark hair spread over gray silk pillows. Why did the thought twist inside her like a knife? “It really surprised me last night when he asked me to come up here for a few days.”
Last night. He’d been with Luisa last night, she thought dully. He’d probably gone straight from talking to her to Luisa’s very willing arms. “You’re staying overnight?” Well, why shouldn’t she? Briarcliff was Anthony’s to do with as he wished now. She had no right to resent any of his choice of guests. But she did, dammit. She did.