Million Dollar Mistake (13 page)

“What gave you that impression?”

“The expression on Nicholas’s face.”

“How did you see—”

“He was facing the door as I was coming down the hallway. Right before he…” Jackson hesitated, letting her draw her own conclusion.

“Kissed me,” Raven said, her voice quiet and to anyone who really knew her—dangerous.

“That’s right.” His eyes met her questioning ones.

“I see,” Raven said slowly, pulling her gaze from Jackson. And she did. The feeling, the passion, it had all been an act, one more example of Nicholas the master strategist at work. She should have known.

 
“Raven? You look a bit pale. Aren’t you feeling well?”

She switched her attention back to Jackson, staring at him blankly for a moment before pulling herself together to give him a small smile. “I have a slight headache.”

“What you need is fresh air.”

“Oh yes, that would help.” Raven laughed as she glanced toward the windows, weighing options on both hands. “Fresh air, freeze to death, fresh air, freeze to death.”

He grabbed her hands. “I’m serious. I know the snow’s still falling, but the winds have died down. What do you say to an old-fashioned horse-pulled sleigh ride?”

“That’s tempting, very tempting.” Raven smiled. “I love horses.”

“Me, too,” he agreed, his expression satisfied. “That’s something we have in common.”

“Nicholas also loves them,” she said, drawing her hands from his caressing ones, trying to put some distance between them. Although she wasn’t sure why, given what she’d just heard about that conniving cousin of hers.

“Naturally. The Kristof family is known for their stable of thoroughbreds.”

“Even more so since my cousin Darcy married a horsewoman.”

“Your father has horses, too, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t raise or train them.” She looked through the glass at the falling snow. “A sleigh ride, hmm?”

“Come on. Say yes.”

She looked into his eager eyes. “You’re sure the weather—”

“Positive.” Jackson laughed and took her hand, all but pulling her into the hallway. “But you’ll need to bundle up.”

Raven allowed him to lead her up the hall. “It does sound like fun.” And it had the added attraction of not involving her so-called fiancé.

Nicholas
.

Her expression darkened. How could she have been such a fool? Thinking for a moment that he felt something for her. He’d played on her sympathy for the boy he’d been, confusing her, and most of all kissing her in that bone-melting way, making her want more than he’d ever offer. And he knew Jackson was there watching all the time. How could she have thought for even a moment—

As if she’d conjured him up, Nicholas stepped out of the library and into the hall. He just missed bumping into them, then scowled as he focused on Raven’s hand entwined with Jackson’s.

“What’s up? House on fire?” His joking tone contradicted the hard question in his eyes.

Raven tossed her head in her cockiest gesture. “Jackson and I are going for a sleigh ride.”

He looked from one to the other. “Is that so?”

“Yes, that’s so,” Raven announced, daring him to correct her. She’d give anything for an excuse to blast him with her temper.

He turned to look at Jackson. “Bit dangerous at the moment, isn’t it?”

Jackson’s jaw firmed. “I wouldn’t suggest it if there were any danger to Raven.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t.” Raven smiled, patting his hand.

“Besides, I know the countryside around here like the back of my hand.”

Nicholas smiled. A smile Raven didn’t trust. “Then I’d say it sounds like a plan. I’ll round up Lorianne and we’ll join you.”

Jackson said, “What?”

“Some bracing fresh air is just what we need.” With an expert move he detached Raven’s hand from Jackson and pushed her toward the stairs. “Change into something warm, darling.”

“Don’t tell me what to wear,” Raven muttered, stunned at the expert high-handed control Nicholas had taken of the situation. She started up the stairs and surprised Lorianne coming down.

“What’s going on?” the small blonde asked, her expression concerned as her gaze passed over the three of them. “Is there a problem?”

“Not at all.” Nicholas moved in smoothly, looking up at Lorianne with a charming smile. “Jackson’s suggested a sleigh ride. Why don’t you come along?”

Lorianne clapped her hands together, bringing a sour taste to Raven’s mouth as Nicholas chuckled at her. “That sounds like yes.”

“Yes, yes. I’d love to go.” Lorianne smiled, her eyes sparkling.

Jackson stepped next to Nicholas, his expression a bit like a kid who’d lost his candy. “Fine. Since we’re
all
going, let’s meet down here in fifteen minutes.”

With that, everyone tromped up the stairs to their rooms, with Raven staying next to Lorianne to avoid Nicholas. She couldn’t trust what she might say to him at the moment. As they turned into the upper hallway and went their separate directions, she heard Nicholas’s smooth, deep voice flowing after her.

“Raven. A word, please.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “No.”

That stopped him cold. “No?”

“That’s right, no. I have nothing to say to you.”

“That call was from my secretary about some business, not from—”

“I don’t care.”

He frowned, reaching for her arm. “What game are you playing now?”

She jerked it away. “You’re a fine one to talk about playing games.”

“Meaning?”

“You know very well what I mean.”

He stepped closer and snarled, “Pretending to be engaged was for your benefit, not mine, remember?”

“And I’m sorry I ever agreed to it,” she snarled right back, then whirled around to enter her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Twenty minutes later, the quartet, now bundled up in snug jackets, hats, scarves, boots and gloves, trooped into the hallway only to be stopped by a bright-eyed Nana.

Nana sent a look around, her sharp glance passing from Jackson to Raven to Lorianne to Nicholas. “What a happy group. Where are you off to, darlings?” She hid a smile as her glance passed again from Nicholas to Jackson, taking in their bristling positions, which reminded her of two male dogs ready to charge. Her interest quickened. “Going out for a snowball fight, perhaps?”

Nicholas chuckled before sending Jackson a sidelong glance. “No, ma’am. At least, I don’t think so.”

“Jackson suggested a sleigh ride,” Raven said. “It sounded like fun.”

“It is.” Nana nodded. “I remember coming up here with my husband during the winter. We’d bundle under warm blankets and furs and go out whatever the weather.” She sighed, but her gaze was mischievous as she added, “So romantic.”

“It should have been,” Jackson muttered under his breath.

“What’s that, Jackson? Speak up, dear.” She smiled, enjoying the sulky look on her grandson’s face. There was nothing she liked more than stirring the coals to heat things up a bit.

“I’m sure it would have been if you and Grandfather were alone,” Jackson commented.

Nana let a smile play around her mouth. “Yes, he was a very dynamic, sexy and attentive man. Especially under the blankets.” Her smile broadened as she glanced around the group. “So make sure you have enough of them.”

At that, Nicholas laughed, Raven chuckled, Lorianne sighed and an appalled look shot onto Jackson’s face.

“Grandmother,” he said in a choked voice, “for God’s sakes.”

Satisfied that she’d done something to liven up the gathering, Nana moved to the stairs. “Have fun, children.”

Her elderly heart leapt for a moment as she watched the group leave, her gaze lingering on her grandson’s knitted cap and fine form as he went out the door into the wintry weather. Jackson looked so like his grandfather, Black Jack Exeter. And he was just as blind when it came to love. In her day, she’d had to force Black Jack to look in her direction, so it wasn’t surprising that his grandson needed the same lesson. She’d have to help Jackson discover what was under his nose. Raven wasn’t for Jackson. Lorianne was. Just as Raven was for Nicholas—not that they seemed to know it either.

Nana grinned as she ascended the stairs. “A bit of matchmaking sure beats the hell out of talking to Margaret.”

The snow was still falling, making the landscape resemble a scenic post card; but Jackson had been right, Raven realized as they reached the barn, the winds had stopped. She followed the others.

“Wait here,” Jackson said, “I’ll get the horses.”

“I’ll help,” Lorianne offered, following him into the recesses of the barn.

Raven looked around, her memory tugged by the high arched enclosure with its cement walkway and parking spaces for a sleigh, buggy and wagon. For a long moment, she just absorbed—the hard-packed horse stalls and animal warmth, mixed with the pungent smell of saddle leather, liniment, hay and grain, not to mention the horse sounds, from curious snorting nickers to soft whickered hellos.

“Seems familiar, huh?” Nicholas’s voice whispered into her ear.

“Yes,” she said, surprised by the longing for home that swept over her.

“No matter where I travel or how I spend my time, I always need to come back to something basic. Come back to what’s real. Like working my muscles, caring for an animal…” He gave a self-conscious shrug when Raven turned her head to stare up at him.

“It’s hard to imagine the sophisticated Nicholas Demetrious needing to shovel manure.” She forced her voice into an acerbic tone, wanting to cut off the connection she’d felt at his statement, reminding her that he’d deliberately baited and then misled her earlier.

Nicholas closed down as if she’d slapped him. “No more than the thought of the racy, cosmopolitan Raven Rutledge hanging out in the barn.”

“I didn’t hang out. I merely pointed at an animal, then rode for pleasure.”

“You forget who you’re talking to, sweetheart. You haunted the barn as a kid. As well as the fields, the woods, the bushes, anywhere you could hide from your family troubles.”

Because he was right, Raven lifted her chin and snapped. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And it was generally trouble you caused.”

“You make me sound like a horrible child.”

“I remember you were always getting the short end of your mother’s tongue.”

She shrugged, keeping it light. “I could never please her.”

“You didn’t try to, sweetheart.”

“Not true.” Oh so not true, she thought, her heart hurting. She’d never been the perfection her mother expected. She couldn’t hold a match to her older sisters in looks, manners or obedience. She’d always been the ugly duckling and her mother didn’t let her forget it. Not consciously, but she’d known.

“Look, Raven—” Whatever Nicholas was going to say was interrupted by Jackson and Lorianne leading two horses toward them.

“This is Oscar and Ophelia. Aren’t they beautiful?” Lorianne asked, indicating the perfectly matched set of bay horses.

“Very,” Raven agreed.

“We’ll be ready in a few minutes,” Jackson said.

Nicholas took one of the leads from Lorianne and moved toward Jackson. “I’ll take it from here, Lorianne.”

Lorianne joined Raven, who’d walked over to open the barn doors while the two men hitched the horses and maneuvered the sleigh from its berth. The jaunty sleigh was decorated with bells. Its red-painted body, complete with bench seats in the front and back, sat sleek and fast on its two shiny metal sleds that slid to a stop in front of them.

“Ladies,” Jackson came around the sleigh, sweeping an elegant bow, saying with a charming grin, “your carriage awaits.” Then he outmaneuvered Nicholas by helping Raven into the front seat and scrambling in beside her.

After one slicing glare at the two in the front, Nicholas turned to Lorianne and held out his hand. “May I?”

“Oh.” Lorianne blushed as she placed her hand in his.

Nicholas assisted her into the seat directly behind Jackson, closed the barn doors, then joined the group in the sleigh.

With a smooth tap of the reins against the horses’ flank, Jackson called, “Giddyup,” and away they sailed on the smooth snow with sleigh bells jingling.

The horses tossed their heads, pleased to be released from the barn and out in the wintry sunshine. They didn’t mind the snowflakes any more than the occupants of the sleigh. Lorianne even demonstrated the fine art of catching them on her tongue and encouraged Nicholas to do the same. They drove for a while before turning off onto a side path that circled a small lake. It wasn’t a lane as it was too narrow and close to the edge for that, but Jackson reassured them all that it was safe. It was certainly beautiful with the snow falling onto the ice-covered lake and tall marsh grasses that surrounded it.

Delighted, Raven dropped her sophisticated affectation and clapped her hands as the air streamed by them. “Oh, it’s wonderful.”