Seducing The Enemy. Emma Darcy

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СКАЧАТЬ well above average height, with a frame that held generous curves in pleasing proportion and long legs that were strong and athletic from regular gym workouts. His legs, she couldn’t help noticing, were longer and stronger, and he was a head taller than she was. Everything about him seemed to put her at a disadvantage.

      “Is your sister here, too?”

      He asked the question lightly, a seemingly innocuous inquiry. Annabel’s inner tension leapt to red alert. Why would he ask about Isabel? To all intents and purposes she and her twin led very separate lives. How did he even know about Isabel?

      A bit of probing might be profitable, Annabel decided. She gave him a puzzled look. “Why would you imagine I’d have my sister with me?”

      He shrugged. “Twins—identical twins—are very close, aren’t they? Perfectly natural to stick together.”

      There was something very ominous about that knowing little speech. To her perhaps oversensitive mind it suggested he suspected the sister swap. Yet why should he?

      “My sister has a husband and three children,” Annabel dryly informed him. “We gave up sharing a bed before we went to school.”

      His mouth twitched in amusement. “I take it you’re alone on this trip.”

      “I happen to like my own company,” she said with pointed emphasis.

      “Yes,” he agreed affably, letting the hint to leave her alone slide right past him. “You come over as unusually self-sufficient. It’s quite intriguing, given you’re a twin. Are you the older or the younger?”

      The harping on twins needled her. “Does age prove anything?”

      “I wondered if the stronger was born first.”

      Annabel had no compunction in tossing the quiz back at him. “Did you find that in your family?” She knew he was the younger brother. Barry Wolfe had been forty-two when he’d died. She remembered reading that the brilliant barrister was six years his junior.

      His eyes flashed mocking appreciation for the neat bit of fencing. “If you’re comparing me to Barry, it doesn’t really apply. We were both firstborns. To different mothers.”

      Only half-brothers! “Your father was widowed?” she asked, curious about his family situation.

      “No. Divorced.”

      That answered a lot of questions. Barry Wolfe had probably played his divorced parents against each other, learning to double-deal at a very early age and using his considerable charm to get away with it. Whereas Daniel Wolfe undoubtedly grew up enjoying the united focus of both parents. It did make for differences, she decided, apart from those arising from separate genetic pools.

      “Were you very close to your half-brother?” she asked, wanting to know his motive for this supposedly accidental encounter with her. Affection? Loyalty? Pride? A wish to clear his family name? Tarnishing hers and Isabel’s would not achieve that, but it could muddy the issue and throw doubt on her integrity.

      “We were never what you might call close,” he answered slowly, “but his company was always lively and interesting when we did get together. Barry was very likable.”

      His stock in trade, Annabel thought cynically, wishing her sister hadn’t been drawn in by it. Although she could understand the attraction, the wicked appeal of a sexy seducer. After eleven years of marriage to Neil Mason—so upright and unimaginative he probably never deviated from the missionary position—Isabel could have been ripe for some creative attention. Annabel inwardly groaned every time she heard Neil pompously declare there was a time and place for everything.

      “I shall miss him.”

      The rueful note in Daniel Wolfe’s voice jolted her. He was human, after all. Not the cold, calculating machine she’d been building him into. It also forced her to realise she shouldn’t be judging Barry Wolfe as nothing but a two-faced rat.

      There had been many sides to him. Despite his crookedness and lack of conscience about it, he’d been a very popular personality. He’d coloured people’s lives. Perhaps that was valued more highly than integrity by people who overlooked anything if they were being entertained by lively company.

      “I’m sorry,” she said impulsively, then frowned over what seemed an insincerity. She didn’t regret Barry Wolfe’s death, though she was sorry about the loss his brother felt. Family was family, however black the sheep.

      She felt Daniel Wolfe’s sharp glance at her. Disbelief? Scepticism? She kept her gaze trained ahead, telling herself she was wasting sympathy on him. He was out to get her. Something was niggling him and he wouldn’t rest until he had the answers he wanted.

      They passed the bridge that led to the administration centre. Annabel thought about checking out of the resort. It wasn’t far to Port Douglas. Plenty of facilities there to give her a pleasant vacation. If Daniel Wolfe followed her, she’d know for certain he was pursuing a purpose.

      “The last time I saw him was at a fund-raiser for his political party,” he said in quiet reminiscence. “Barry was in top form that night, working the crowd for hefty donations. I enjoyed watching him. He had a knack of making people feel good. Their faces lit up.”

      Annabel kept her mouth firmly shut. They’d reached the parking area below the administrative building. She mentally measured the distance to the Long House. Only another five minutes until she could effect a reasonable parting from this troublesome man.

      “I saw him talking to your sister.”

      Alarm bells clanged through her mind. She clenched her teeth. No comment was the safest course. Let him spill out what he knew about Isabel.

      “She seemed very taken with him.”

      Her heart turned over. Had the sexual signals been obvious? Surely Isabel hadn’t been too indiscreet, or had she thought herself unobserved? Whatever suspicions Daniel Wolfe harboured, damage control had to be put in place. The need to divert this man’s dangerously acute perception, colour it differently, was immediate and critical.

      She summoned up a fond smile and said, “Isabel responds warmly to everyone. She’s the perfect political wife for Neil. It balances his tendency towards aloofness.”

      He ruminated over that as they crossed the public road that cut through the resort. Then he startled her by asking, “Have you always been protective of your sister?”

      “Whatever made you think that?” she demanded, her eyes wide and innocent.

      “Steel and putty.”

      “I beg your pardon?”

      He shook his head at her show of incomprehension. “You’re a very smart lady, Annabel Parker. Quite the most tantalising woman I’ve ever met. So many layers to peel.”

      “You’ve lost me.”

      “No.” A ruthless glint in his eyes. “You’re with me. Every step of the way.”

      Annabel had the sense of a trap closing inexorably around her. Rebellion stirred. She stopped in the middle of the parking lot for passing tourists who wanted a drink or a meal in the Long House. There was no incoming СКАЧАТЬ