Kay Hooper - In Serenas Web

Contents

With her fallen-angel smile, Serena Jameson looked like a cross between a temptress and a teenager, but she could be gently ruthless when it came to getting Brian Ashford to make his move! The handsome industrialist was determined to play Galahad and protect her from danger--danger in the form of rakish playboy Joshua Long. But when Serena pleaded with Brian to teach her how to seduce a man, she ignited a primitive heat that shattered his control...and hers. A captive of her own desires, could Serena escape the tangles of her bewitchingly woven web?

She watched the tall, dark, undeniably handsome man enter the restaurant, watched his graceful progress through the crowded room. She watched the fawning waiters and noted the interested stares of fellow diners. She studied the man's companion for a brief moment. Blondes, she thought. Always blondes. Doesn't his taste vary?

She looked across the table at her own companion. Another blonde. But the face she studied now was the opposite in every wayexcept onefrom the face belonging to the blonde across the room.

The one similarity was beauty.

Masculine beauty met her thoughtful gaze as she studied her companion. His was an arresting face: lean, classical of feature, tanned, with a determined jaw and humor playing about the curved lips and gleaming in green eyes. A face capable, certainly, of haunting dreams and breaking hearts.

He was a tall man, athletic, with broad shoulders and a lithe way of moving. Thick, silvery blond hair. A man in his mid-thirties who was obviously strong, tough, and determined.

She looked once again at the dark man across the room. Slowly she began to smile.

"You're smiling," her companion observed in a tone of immense foreboding.

She laughed softly and looked across the table at him, her gray eyes as deceptively unthreatening as a silent mountain fog.

"Why are you smiling?" he demanded, anxiety mixed with amusement in his deep, pleasant voice.

"I'm not blond, and I don't have blue eyes."

"That's why you're smiling?" He glanced at her wineglass suspiciously, obviously wondering how much was too much.

Her smile widened. "Brian, you're a lovely man. I don't know what I would have done without you these last weeks."

Far from being flattered by these soulful remarks, Brian Ashford began to frown in earnest. "Rena, you're up to something," he said uneasily. "The last time you told me I was a lovely man, I had to bail you out of jail the next day!"

Serena Jameson waved a slender hand in a dismissing gesture. "That was a misunderstanding."

"You bet it was! You misunderstood that cop when he arrested you, so you punched him in the eye!"

Serena gave him another of the gentle, unthreatening smiles he'd learned to mistrust. "He was going to arrest Sam, and I couldn't allow that."

Brian sighed. "I know, I know. Sam was in trouble, so you got yourself into trouble to keep him out of troublewhich is the way your mind works! You're frightening, d'you know that?"

"Nothing terrible's happened, so"

"I know nothing terrible's happened ... this week. Unlike last week. And the week before. Rena, I'm going to apologize to your father if I ever live to see him again. I believedtruly believedthat he was showing needless concern by requesting someone to accompany you from Europe to New York and then on to the West Coast."

"Brian"

"I never thought," he went on cordially, " that six weeks in the company of a rather lovely twenty-six-year-old woman could hold anything remotely resembling danger. Piece of cake, I thought. Oversee the travel arrangements, keep the lady company, see some of the country I've never seen, and Just make sure the genius's daughter doesn't fall down and break a leg during the trip. Easy. Simple. Safe."

"Brian"

"However, no one warned me that you bleed when somebodyanybodygets cut. No one warned me that your gentle smile and soft voice cloak the heart of an army general bent on victory. No one warned me that the genius's daughter inherited more than her fair share of the parent's brains, and his lack of common sense! And no one warned me that you get into more trouble than a shipful of sailors on liberty!"

Serena looked mildly shocked. "Not that kind of trouble, Brian."

Brain gazed imploringly toward the ceiling and whatever lay beyond. "She's going to get me killed," he murmured.

Reaching across the table to pat his hand comfortingly, Serena said, "Daddy won't blame you, Brian, whatever happens. He's used to me."

Brian employed his free hand to rake through his thick blond hair. "No man in his right mind could ever get used to you," he told her frankly. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. "Look, Renayour father is very important to my company. If that electronic brain he's developing really works, it'll definitely revolutionize the computer industry. And I really don't mind taking an extended vacation and accompanying you across the country. I could even enjoy it, except for the fact that I'm slightly concerned about two possibilities."

"Which are?" She was gazing thoughtfully across the room, her hand still resting gently on his.

Brian waited until she returned her gaze to him. "One, that you'll get me killed. Two, that I'll murder you."

Serena sat back, her hand sliding smoothly over his as it withdrew. She was still smiling. "Nonsense, Brian." She summoned a waiter with a glance, a trick she had learned from her charismatic father. "You'll feel better after a good night's sleep."

As if he were approaching senility and needed extra sleep, Brian thought irritably. "Rena" He broke off with a sigh as the waiter approached.

With the gently wistful smile that always won her instant slaves of the male sex, Serena spoke to the waiter. "Would you please have a bottle of your finest champagne sent over to Mr. Long's table and put it on my bill?"

"Certainly, Miss Jameson."

The waiter, Brian observed sourly, was ready to die for her. Then her request sank in, and he began to feel seriously alarmed.

Serena added sweetly, "And when he asks who sent it, just tell him an admirer, would you, please?"

"Of course. Miss Jameson." The waiter, a silly smile on his face, departed.

"What," Brian asked evenly, "was that all about? Who's Long?"

Wide gray eyes gazed at him innocently. "Joshua Long," she murmured. "He's staying here at the hotel, in case you haven't noticed."

Brian glanced across the room and frowned. He waited until the waiter appeared again, following the man's progress as he carried champagne to another table. When he got a good look at the recipient of that expensive bottle, his frown deepened. "I know the name." Then he looked back at her quickly. "Of course I know the name! Rena. he's the closest thing this century's seen to a rake!"

"Exciting, isn't it?"

He stared at her. "I knew you were up to something. Dammit, what're you up to?"

Serena returned the stare, her expression utterly guileless. "Well, Brian, you've convinced me that I need... someone to take care of me."

"And so?" Foreboding was heavy in his voice.

"I thought I'd get married," she told him in the casual tone of one deciding which wine might go with dinner.

After a long moment Briannot trusting his voicesent an inquiring glance toward Long's table before staring again at Serena.

She nodded. "I should think he'd know how to manage me, wouldn't you?"

Brian ignored the question to ask one of his own. "And is he aware of the treat in store for him?"

If Serena was irritated by his sarcasm, it certainly didn't show on her lovely face. "Not yet. But he will be soon. Very soon."

"Rena, we're going on to Flagstaff tomorrow," he reminded her carefully.