Every Breath You Take Read online

  “I can come to the party, but I have to leave at eight.”

  He waited for her to explain why, and when she didn’t, he turned and began putting away his shaving things. “If you’re here for an hour, that will be enough,” he said mildly.

  “Someone’s picking me up,” Kate provided lamely. “I can’t cancel it. I’ve already done that several times.”

  “Is he someone special?” Mitchell asked casually—too casually, Kate realized.

  “Yes, he’s very special. But not to me.”

  “Next time,” Mitchell suggested mildly, “put the end of that sentence at the beginning.”

  Kate’s brief bout with jealous insecurity disintegrated and she laughed.

  “Stay at the party for an hour,” he said, his good spirits restored. “That should be long enough.”

  Standing slightly off to the side of the living room, Mitchell proudly watched Kate mingle with his guests. She was poised, unaffected, and artlessly sophisticated. In a matter of minutes, she’d recovered from the shock of finding out that Zack and Julie Benedict were two of the guests, and if she felt any awe, she kept it hidden. She chatted easily with his aunt, whom she knew, and slightly less easily with the Farrells, who’d witnessed the scene at the benefit. To complete Mitchell’s satisfaction with the progression of the evening, the redhead who he loved looked sexy as hell in high heels that showed off her gorgeous legs and a silky green dress that clung to her beautiful figure.

  Outside, lightning streaked across the sky and thunder boomed while Mitchell prepared to entice his guests to spontaneously reveal information that would erase all Kate’s doubts about his actions and feelings for her while they were in St. Maarten. He could have prompted them, but Kate was intuitive and still mistrustful of him, so he needed the revelations to be completely convincing to her.

  In his heart, he expected her to cancel her date tonight when she discovered what Mitchell intended her to learn. That’s what he wanted her to do; however, he was prepared for her to leave if that’s what she still felt she should do. He was prepared, but not pleased at the prospect. His aunt—who was never awed by anyone she met, including two United States Presidents and countless celebrities—was gazing worshipfully at Zack and sipping a second glass of sherry. Mitchell headed toward the group before the sherry relaxed Olivia so much that she wouldn’t feel her usual need to supervise social gossip and speak up when she heard an inaccuracy.

  Kate looked up at him with a smile when he walked up behind her and laid his hand lightly on the small of her back. He waited until there was a break in the conversation about Danny, and then he said to Zack and Julie, “Kate and I met in the islands three years ago when I was staying aboard the Julie.”

  “Really?” Zack replied, and Julie smiled.

  “I think you were staying at my place in Rome at the time,” Mitchell prompted.

  Zack remembered what film he’d been making, mentioned it, and said nothing else. That’s when it belatedly occurred to Mitchell that discretion would prevent the Benedicts from saying anything for fear of bringing up the “wrong Kate” in front of the current Kate, and so he looked pointedly at Julie who was watching him closely, and said, “I phoned you in Rome, and I think I mentioned Kate to you. I thought she might enjoy a cruise.”

  Julie looked warily at him, but Zack finally sensed what Mitchell was trying to do, and he rose to the occasion magnificently. “So you’re that Kate!” he exclaimed. Directing the full force of his movie-star smile at Kate, he confided, “My God, Julie and I were dying to meet you.”

  “Why is that?” Kate asked.

  “Because when Mitchell phoned, he told me he wanted you to be able to cruise on the Julie during the day, but your destination islands had to have runways long enough to accommodate his plane. He said he intended to fly back and forth to join you every night, and then fly back to Chicago the next morning. I told him you must be one woman in ten million. He said you were,” Zack finished.

  Against his hand, Mitchell felt Kate stiffen as if tensing against a blow; then she bent her head briefly. He glanced at his watch, realized that it was fifteen minutes to eight, and steered her over to his aunt.

  Kate walked where he guided her, her emotions in turmoil over what Zack Benedict had said. She realized that Mitchell had nudged him to open up, but what Zack Benedict said hadn’t sounded rehearsed, or untruthful. On the other hand, he was an actor. She was so upset that she actually found comfort in reminding herself that the yacht was a minor issue. But then she realized that if Zack Benedict had told the truth, then Mitchell had been waiting for her at the wharf for one reason only—he’d cared about her then as much as she’d cared about him.

  She tried to look as if she was listening to Mitchell and his aunt’s conversation, but her stomach cramped and she winced.

  “Is something wrong, dear?” Olivia Hebert asked, tipping her head to the side. She was seated in a chair, her white hair drawn into its customary bun, her pearls around her neck, her eyes bright. She was an icon in the Bartletts’ social circle, and Kate had met her at various functions, but when Mitchell spoke to her, she positively beamed, Kate noticed.

  “No, I’m fine,” Kate assured her.

  “I just realized something,” Mitchell said, and that was enough to make Olivia beam expectantly at him. “You were standing beside me at Cecil’s party when Evan Bartlett mentioned that he and Kate were going down to Anguilla.” Not until his aunt looked at him in wary silence did Mitchell take into account his stern, long-ago warning to her that she was not to discuss Kate Donovan with him. Evidently, she was prepared to follow that to the letter now, even though Kate was beside him and Olivia had spent several minutes admiring Danny. She had to realize that the situation had changed, Mitchell thought. But on the other hand, she hadn’t known what the situation was before that, because he had refused to discuss it with her, so she didn’t necessarily know that it had changed.

  Thoughtfully, he reached for a small plate of hors d’oeuvres on the coffee table and cautiously switched the focus of his conversation strictly to Evan and Kate while withdrawing himself from it.

  “Did Evan Bartlett ever buy a plane?” Mitchell inquired. “As I remember, he mentioned that he wanted to, but then he said he had to leave for Kate’s father’s funeral.”

  “His wake,” Olivia corrected. “He said a client had died and he had to leave for his wake.” She looked at Kate and said, “I remember because I was surprised he didn’t mention your father’s name.”

  Having failed to get her to make a statement about Kate, Mitchell deliberately imparted incorrect information in the hope that she’d be absolutely unable to resist correcting his mistake. “Since he’d already told me Kate’s name, there was really no reason for him to tell me her father’s—”

  “He didn’t mention any names at all, dear. I particularly remember thinking that was very unforthcoming of him. I assumed that was because he’d sensed the friction when I introduced you to his father, and Evan decided to be—Kate, dear, you look very pale.”

  Kate put her drink on the table beside Olivia. “I’m sorry to be abrupt,” she said in a voice that sounded surprisingly normal given her emotional state. “I’m sorry I can’t stay.” She turned to Mitchell, her green eyes dazed and almost accusing. “I—I have to leave.

  We’ll talk later,” she added.

  “Kate has a date,” Mitchell told his aunt, hiding his surprised hurt behind a glib explanation. “A what?” Olivia gasped.

  Kate made her excuses to the Benedicts and Farrells, picked up her purse, and then realized that Mitchell was politely walking her to the door. “I’ll come back as early as I can,” she offered inanely.

  Mitchell nodded.

  Drink in hand, he stood at the windows staring down at the street. When she left him in St. Maarten, the day had been bright blue and he’d seen her get into a cab. Now rain was lashing the windows, and he could barely see a foot beyond them. He couldn’t believe she’d