Operation Saving Daniel (Entangled Covet) (2 page)

Luckily, by the time he turned to face her, he’d gotten both emotions under tight control; it wouldn’t do for Sophia to realize that Lissa was anything other than a family friend.

Still, he found himself holding his breath as he waited for her answer.

She was thinner than he remembered, and her skin was tanned to a dark gold where before she’d been pale. As a teenager, he’d spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to work out what it was about her that fascinated him…

Shit, he shouldn’t be thinking like this with Sophia standing right beside him. It seemed indecent somehow. He dug his sunglasses out of his pocket and slid them on so he could continue to study her
and
keep up his pretense of indifference.

Her faded jeans molded her slender hips and the long length of her thighs; her thin T-shirt clung to her small breasts. Was she naked underneath? On her feet, she wore flip-flops. He couldn’t decide whether to be flattered or upset that she had taken so little bother with her appearance.

As she considered his request, she chewed on her lower lip, her gaze switching between him and Sophia. “If Spot won’t be a problem, I’d love to join you.”

He released his breath and tried to tell himself that his reaction was purely because he needed to understand why she was here. After all, she’d gone ten years quite happily without speaking to him.

This was his sisters’ work. If they had sent her after him, he had to face the threat head on. That was his excuse for inviting her, anyway.

“Let’s go then,” he said before he could convince himself this was a really bad idea.

The restaurant was around the corner from the office; they used the place regularly, and he presumed the dog would not be an issue. As they walked, he cast a sideways glance at Lissa, managing to do it without turning his head. She might be thinner, but she still had breasts. She’d had beautiful breasts, small but full and firm, and sweet. With hard little nipples, and she’d been so sensitive there. At the memory, his cock twitched in his pants.

Shit, he
really
shouldn’t be thinking like this.

And another thing, maybe worse; when he’d first seen Lissa, something had awoken deep in his mind, clawing at the mental bonds that usually bound it tight inside. The sensation was strange and new.

Had he gone too far and too fast with that last dose?

Beside him, he could feel the weight of Sophia’s puzzled glance, as if she, too, sensed another presence, and he clamped down, tightening his control. A low growl trickled through his mind and then was silent.

As he suspected, the hostess at the restaurant hardly batted an eye at the dog, merely led them to a table on the terrace. Daniel glanced at the animal where it lay under the table, its protuberant brown eyes never leaving Lissa. She couldn’t have a nice pedigree pooch like normal people. No, she had a three-legged mutt.

Maybe if
he’d
lost a leg or a limb, or something, she might not have run from him all those years ago.

It occurred to him that he was really quite bitter. And the idea shocked him because it wasn’t Lissa’s fault that his life was such a pile of crap.

“Let’s have some champagne,” Sophia said. “It’s not every day an old friend returns.”

“An old
family
friend,” he inserted. He didn’t like the way Sophia scrutinized Lissa. “A very distant, old family friend.”

Lissa cast him a black glance, while managing to smile brightly at Sophia. “Why not? I’m not averse to a little champers. But could you keep an eye on Spot. I must go wash up.”

The dog whined as she walked away, but then settled to keeping a wary eye on them. Daniel watched until Lissa disappeared, then glanced down to where Sophia’s fingers rested possessively on his arm. He’d had about as much of the touchy-feely stuff he could take—she was making his skin crawl. He picked up her hand, dropped it on the table, and moved his chair a little distance from her.

Sophia narrowed her eyes. “She seems to know you very well, considering she’s nothing but a ‘distant’ friend of the family. I’m guessing your little sister has sent her friend to spy on us. Julia hates me.”

Julia wasn’t the only one. “Does it bother you?”

She pouted. “Of course it bothers me. I want your family to love me as much as I love you.”

“Yeah, right.” Sophia was a power-crazy bitch and liked to tug on his rope every now and then. If only to prove her power and piss him off.

One day she would push him too far.

The growl echoed inside his head again and he flinched.

“What was that?” Sophia asked, her arched brows drawing together.

Had she sensed it? Luckily, Lissa returned so he was saved from answering. He’d thought—no hoped—she might have taken the opportunity to put on some makeup, lipstick perhaps. Not because he particularly liked makeup, but because a perverse part of his brain needed some small indication that she wanted to impress him. But no, her face was as bare as when she’d left the table.

She sank down opposite him and waited while the waiter poured her Dom Perignon. When he was done, she raised her glass. “To old times,” she said and downed the drink in one gulp.

Daniel pulled the bottle from the ice bucket and refilled her glass. Old times? She’d drunk champagne that night as well. He remembered the taste of it on her tongue.

“Are you coming to the party?” he asked Lissa.

His mother turned sixty in a week’s time, and she was holding a party at their place in Spain. Family get-togethers made him uncomfortable these days and he wished to hell he could get out of it. Worse, Sophia would insist on accompanying him and his family probably expected them to make an announcement. Could that be the explanation for Lissa turning up at this time? He didn’t believe in coincidences.

“I hope so,” Lissa replied. “It depends if I can find someone to take care of Spot.”

“So,” Sophia said. “What do you do, Ms. Jackson?”

“Call me Lissa,” she replied. “And I’ve been working as the coordinator for a development project out in Africa.”

“Very noble.”

Daniel could hear the slight sneer in Sophia’s voice; she did condescending extremely well. He waited to see how Lissa would react, but she just shrugged.

“Yeah, noble—that’s me. Actually, it was something I enjoyed doing.”

“Do you plan to go back?”

Half of Daniel hoped it would be very soon. The other half…

Lissa shook her head. “My last contract finished and I’ve been ill with malaria. The doctors advised that I stay out of the tropics for a while.”

“Hmm, you do look a little…peaky.”

“So what will you do?” Daniel asked.

She took a sip of champagne while she considered her answer. “I’m not sure. I feel a little…burned out. Or maybe I just need a break and can go back to it fresh afterward.”

Their meals arrived, and they were silent for a while, concentrating on the food. Lissa fed tidbits to the dog under the table, grinning when Sophia suggested that it wasn’t hygienic.

Daniel couldn’t work up an interest in the food, his insides churning. In the end, he stopped trying to eat, leaned back, and waited for the meal to be over. Occasionally, he’d glance up and find Lissa watching him with those strange golden eyes and something twisted inside him. The meal went on forever, but finally, Sophia put her knife and fork down. Shifting her chair closer, she stroked her fingers down his cheek. “Not hungry, darling?”

This time, as the growl rolled through his mind, he was ready for it, and managed not to react. “No.”

“Well, then, pleasant as this has been, we really should be getting back.”

Lissa glanced between the two of them. “You work together?”

“It’s how we met,” Daniel said. “And Sophia is right. We must go.” He pushed back his chair and stood. Lissa and Sophia did the same. “Well, that was nice,” he said, his tone implying it was anything but.

“It was,” Lissa replied, her tone equally insincere. “We must do it again.”

“In another ten years perhaps. And now you can report back to Julia.”

Her eyes widened slightly, but she didn’t deny it. “She worries about you,” she said sweetly. “Your sisters never really considered you capable of taking care of yourself. But at least I can go back and tell them that you and Sophia are perfect for each other.”

Why didn’t he think she was complimenting either of them? “Maybe we’ll see you at the party,” he said.

“I hope so, but I doubt it.”

He escorted her outside the restaurant and watched her walk away. She glanced back as she got to the corner and waggled her fingers in his general direction. Then she was gone. Again. The damn beast growled and he got the distinct idea it didn’t want her to go. Hard fucking luck.

“Why do I get the impression there’s more to the two of you than you’re letting on?” Sophia murmured.

He gave what he hoped was a casual shrug. “She’s part of the past and nothing to do with us—why should you care?”

“I care about everything you do, Daniel.” She rested a hand on his arm, the touch like a brand. “So don’t you forget it.”

He let out a humorless laugh. “As if you’d let me.”

A longing welled up inside him for the boy he had once been.
You believe in fairy tales…
Lissa had told him that long ago night. Well, he still did, the only difference was these days he no longer assumed he was the prince.

No, these days, he was definitely the big, bad monster.

“You know,” Sophia said, “things would be so much easier for you if you’d just accept what you are.”

He glanced down at the hand on his arm, the nails crimson as though she’d dipped her fingers in fresh blood.

“Never,” he replied.

Chapter Two

Lissa was still trying to get her head around the lunch with Daniel and Sophia as she let herself into Julia’s house in Notting Hill. There was something very strange about that couple; she just couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong.

The sound of muted voices drifted along the narrow hallway. Julia had company. Unclipping Spot’s lead, Lissa left him to get a drink and have an afternoon nap while she made her way to the living room. The dulcet tones of Julia’s sisters, Marcella and Debora wafted from the open doorway, and she hesitated before entering. Despite the fact that all the Melville sisters were small, blonde, blue-eyed, and cute, en-masse they could be quite intimidating. At least on the surface. Lissa had always felt like some sort of alien in their midst.

Debs, the youngest, was seated on the sofa looking cool and collected. She’d changed beyond recognition since she’d married four years ago. In contrast, next to her, Marcy looked positively scruffy in khaki combat pants, a black T-shirt, and Doc Martens. Julia was pacing the room; she very rarely sat down when she could stand and very rarely stood still when she could move. Small, curvy, with curly blond hair, big blue eyes, and a penchant for all things pink, she was the cutest of the lot—and Lissa loved her dearly.

Without Julia, Lissa’s time at boarding school might have been very unpleasant and probably very short. Lissa’s accent proclaimed she came from a council estate in inner-city Manchester, and she didn’t have the clothes or the attitude to fit in. Her natural reaction to the teasing and bullying was aggression. You didn’t survive where she came from without being able to stand up for yourself, and Lissa had always had a smart mouth and not been afraid to use it, or her fists.

But once Julia had taken her under her wing, the other girls, at least most of them, had accepted her.

All three stopped talking and turned to Lissa as she entered the room.

“What’s up?” Lissa asked, hovering inside the door.

“Daniel called about ten minutes ago,” Marcy said.

“He did? What did he want?”

Debora shook her head in obvious disapproval. “To tell us he’s taking Sophia to Spain.”

“To the party?” Lissa frowned. He must have called soon after she’d left. But she couldn’t decide whether that might be because she’d said she probably wouldn’t go or because she might. Of course, it was more likely nothing to do with her.

“It’s good he’s taking her,” Julia said. “Lissa has got him rattled. He obviously thinks he needs protection from her.”

“He didn’t act rattled.”

“You saw him?” Julia grinned. “So, how did he act?”

“Weird.” Lissa thought about it. How best to describe her impressions. “He acted like a robot. I know it’s been ten years since I’ve seen him, but he was like a different person.”

“He’s got everything so tightly wrapped up inside that there’s no real person coming through,” Julia said. “And The Evil One doesn’t help. You’ll meet her at the party.”

“I met her today.” Lissa crossed the room and flung herself on the sofa next to Debs. “We had lunch.”

“I bet that was fun.”

“It was. She alternated between groping Daniel and glaring at me, and he just sat there.” She shook her head. “How long has he been like this?”

“Years,” Marcy said.

“Really since Barbara disappeared,” Debs added.

They were silent for a minute. Their oldest sister Barbara had gone missing six years ago. No clues had ever been found, but the police believed Babs had had some sort of breakdown, taken herself off, and would no doubt magically reappear one day.

None of the family believed that but without a body, it was impossible to mourn her and move on. She’d left a big hole in the family.

“But Daniel’s odd behavior really started before that,” Julia said. “He’d finished his doctorate in the States and had been offered a research place at Oxford—all he ever wanted was to do pure research.”

“He was the ultimate geek,” Marcy continued. “A mad scientist in the making and this was his dream job. We imagined we’d never see him again. He’d be in the lab 24/7.”

“Then something happened. We have no clue what, and for a while he went sort of wild. Really un-Daniel-like, almost out of control. He didn’t go in to work. In fact, he walked out on the job. He was drinking a lot and had loads of girls.”

What sort of girls?
And how many?
But she kept her mouth shut and waited for Julia to go on. This was fascinating and she’d never heard it before, probably because she’d banned Julia from talking about Daniel as part of her I-will-get-over-him strategy.

“Mum and Dad tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t open up. He’d always been so perfect and we thought maybe he was simply catching up—sowing some wild oats.” Julia paused and bit her lip. She stopped her pacing and perched on the arm of the sofa next to Lissa. “Then Babs disappeared and the wildness cut off abruptly and overnight he changed. Became this…robot…as you said. He got a big swanky job for a big swanky company, something he’d always sworn he would never do, and he’s been there ever since. Now, he runs the place. From what we can tell, he’s hardly ever in the lab. He just delegates. He turned himself into the perfect businessman and must be worth billions.”

“And not long after, Sophia turned up on the scene,” Marcy said morosely. “It’s like she’s glued to him, though he doesn’t often bring her to family functions. But he hardly ever spends time with the family anyway. It’s like he’s trying to distance himself.”

“Or maybe she’s trying to distance him,” Lissa suggested. “She did seem a little possessive. Maybe she doesn’t like that he has a family and she wants him to herself.”

“Did you tell them you were going to the party, Lissa?” Debs asked.

“I said I might.”

“That’s it then. You turning up has Sophia worried.” Julia rubbed her palms together again as though she were plotting some devious Machiavellian plan. Which she probably was. “I bet she sensed something between the two of you and—”

“How would she sense something that isn’t there?” Lissa interrupted. “I haven’t even seen Daniel in ten years. There is nothing between us.”

Julia reached across and patted Lissa’s leg. “Of course there isn’t. You know what,” she said jumping to her feet. “We need wine. And we need to plan.”

She disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a bottle of Rioja. After pouring them all a glass, she handed one to Lissa.

“So what did you think of Sophia?”

“Scary, very scary,” Lissa replied. “And almost as perfect as Daniel.”

“Do you think they’re in love?”

“I have no clue. She felt
something
for him though.”

“I bet they’re going to announce their engagement at the party,” Debs said.

Marcy slammed her glass on the table. “We can’t let it happen. The old Daniel must be under there somewhere. We have to dig him out and pry him away from The Evil One. It’s our duty.”

“You’re right,” Julia said. “There’s only one solution: Lissa is going to have to seduce him.”

Lissa’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

Julia waved away her question. “This is Daniel. Some sacrifices must be made.”

“That didn’t work last time,” Debora said. “You remember his twentieth birthday. Lissa went in there armed with black underwear and enough condoms to last a month, and he wouldn’t cooperate. Why should it be any different this time?”

Lissa took a sip of her wine and tried to look innocent.

“You’re hiding something,” Julia said.

“Well, I might have lied about that night,” she muttered.

The morning after she’d seduced Daniel, the sisters had given her the third degree, but she’d found herself reluctant to talk about Daniel and her. She wanted to keep what happened between them to herself, as something precious to remember. But after seeing Daniel again it didn’t seem real, and maybe she needed to say it out loud to make herself believe it had happened.

Julia eyed her suspiciously. “Lied about what?”

“Well…” Oh God, how was she supposed to word this?

Three sets of eyes focused on her, staring intently until she squirmed in her seat and took a gulp of wine. She reached across and picked up the bottle, emptied it into her glass.

“We did it,” she said. “More than once.”

Julia slammed her glass down. “I knew it. I knew he wouldn’t have been able to resist you—he always fancied you—however much he used to try and hide it. He’d pretend to be all cool, but I’d catch him watching you all the time.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you lied to me.”

Had he watched her? Lissa had never noticed. “It didn’t seem appropriate. It was private.”

She sipped her drink and avoided their eyes for a few minutes.

“So what was it like?” Debora asked.

Lissa gave an exaggerated sigh. “It was earth-shattering.” And it had been. Daniel might have been a virgin but he’d known exactly what to do. She really didn’t want to say any more on the subject so she hurried on. “So—Operation: Saving Daniel—how are we going to do this?”

“At the party, we maneuver it so you and Danny get some time alone.”

“I’m not having sex with him,” she said. “It wouldn’t be right, and I’m certainly not sleeping with him if he’s engaged to someone else.”

“You don’t have to. Simply let him see what he’s missing and maybe let The Evil One catch you in a compromising position.” Julia’s eyes gleamed in anticipation.

“Are you absolutely sure she’s that bad?” Debs asked. “Daniel must see something in her. Are we being unfair?”

“No,” her two sisters said in unison.

But the question made Lissa think—were they being unfair? Could that little twinge she was feeling be guilt? After all, it was Daniel’s life. Daniel’s choices. If this was the way he wanted to live, did they have the right to try and sabotage him? Maybe he did love Sophia.

Then she remembered his coldness at their meeting. How he’d tried to get rid of her. He’d acted as though he wanted her out of there as fast as possible. Right until he’d asked her to join them—talk about mixed messages. It was almost as if he was hiding something. But what?

And Julia and her sisters were truly worried about their brother—this was more than an urge to meddle. “Okay, I’m in as long as the no-sex thing is clearly understood. But maybe he won’t go for it. I mean—compared to Sophia, I’m…” She waved a hand down over her tatty jeans and T-shirt.

“Well, obviously we’re going to have to clean you up a bit,” Marcy said.

“A lot,” Julia added. “A complete makeover and about time. New clothes, hair, makeup…” Her rosebud lips curved into a self-satisfied grin—she’d been trying to get Lissa to agree to a makeover ever since she’d arrived back in the country. “It will be like Cinderella going to the ball.”

“I am not Cinder-fucking-rella,” Lissa pointed out. “And Daniel is not my prince.”

“Not yet, but give me time.” Julia was almost bouncing with eagerness. “This is going to be so much fun.”

Why did Lissa doubt that?