Tangled Destinies Read online

  CHAPTER TWO

  GABY HAD JUST left the elevator on the twelfth floor of the office building where Motocraft, Inc., was located when she collided with something big and warm and solid.

  She felt his hands before she looked up and saw his face. Big, warm, firm hands that kept her from pitching to the floor. Hands that her body remembered long before her eyes flooded with helpless memory.

  “Gaby?” His deep voice ran through her like ripples on clear water, and her heart beat crazily as she straightened, drowning in the spicy scent of his cologne, a scent she’d associated with him all the long years.

  Her wide green eyes searched his black ones, and all her resolutions to hate him, to wreak vengeance, went into stark eclipse. She’d heard of people being frozen in place, but until now she’d never actually experienced it. She didn’t move. She hardly breathed. The world narrowed to Marcus Stephano’s broad, dark face, and she looked and looked until her starving heart began to expand with feeling.

  Older. He was older. There were streaks of gray in the thick straight black hair that still fell onto his forehead in unruly strands. There were lines under his eyes, beside his chiseled, wide mouth. He was heavier than he used to be but was still all muscle: broad shoulders that strained against a beautifully tailored jacket, powerful legs that were barely encased in thin, close-fitting slacks. Under his brow his dark eyes narrowed and stared down at her unblinkingly, as if he, too, were comparing memory with reality.

  It was too quick. She’d expected that she might see him, dreaded and anticipated it with wild abandon. But she hadn’t expected that it would happen suddenly, like this, before she had time to prepare herself. It was like walking into a hole in a shallow creek.

  “Marc,” she said, her voice sounding ghostly, not its normal, sweet contralto.

  His chest expanded with what looked like a deliberate breath, but his face showed nothing. Just like old times.

  “Surely I haven’t changed that much, honey?” he asked, nothing hostile in his tone. “You’ve grown up, little Gaby. I hardly recognized you.”

  Her nails gripped her small purse until she thought they might pierce the delicate leather. But somehow she smiled.

  “I’m nine years older,” she reminded him. “Twenty-six, my last birthday.”

  “Yes, I know.” He let his eyes go slowly down her body. She felt almost as if he were touching her skin, and she trembled inside. Part of her was glad that she’d chosen to wear a silky, sleeveless beige dress that clung lovingly to her body and that she’d put her hair up into a sleek chignon. She looked elegant and sophisticated, and her eyes were triumphant when she saw the masculine appreciation in his hard face. “You were a bud then. You’ve blossomed.”

  “Quite,” she said in a haughty tone.

  He still didn’t react. His eyes went past her to Joe, as if he’d only just realized that his brother was with her. Joe’s face was an emotionless mask, and his hands were jammed deeply into his pockets.

  “Ciao, mio fratello,” Marc said in Italian, and smiled pleasantly at the younger man.

  “Hi,” Joe replied. “I thought Gaby might like to see the offices and meet David Smith, our vice president in charge of advertising.”

  “Oh, yes,” Marc said. He glanced at his watch and pulled a gold cigarette case from his inside pocket, his eyes steady and curious on Gaby’s flushed face. “You’re our new image, aren’t you, Gaby?”

  He seemed so condescending that she colored. So that was how he planned to play it. Very cool, she gave him that.

  “We’re lucky to get her,” Joe broke in, sounding more belligerent than she’d ever heard him.

  “Gaby’s reached the point where she’s turning down work these days.”

  “Yes, indeed,” she agreed, laying it on thick as she peered up at the taller man and treated him to a flirtatious smile. “I’m in demand, as they say. My bankbook runneth over.” Her eyes narrowed, and the smile iced over. “Sometimes I make more than five thousand a week.”

  She’d chosen the figure deliberately, and she watched it hit home, watched his expression freeze in place. He didn’t move for a long moment.

  “Nice for you,” he said then, and the mask was in place again. It had hardly slipped at all.

  “Nice for you, if this place is indicative of your empire, Mr. Stephano,” she said, glancing around at furnishings that were obviously expensive and probably had been chosen by interior decorators. “Amazing how far you’ve come from that garage where you used to work when I knew you.”

  “I got lucky,” he said through his teeth.

  “Oh, didn’t you just,” she drawled, delighting at the fury that darkened his eyes.

  Joe, standing to one side, frowned at the byplay, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrents.

  “Shall we go?” Joe asked Gaby, holding out a hand.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” she said lightly, and took the outstretched hand. She didn’t miss Marc’s reaction, and that pleased her too. “See you, big boss.”

  Joe seemed as triumphant as she felt, and she darted a glance at him. Well, there was no doubt that he’d grown up in Marc’s shadow. Marc had had to be father and mother to the younger man, and she remembered vividly how Marc wielded that authority. He expected immediate obedience, no delays, no excuses. He’d been rigid, and she’d wondered even then if he hadn’t been too tough on Joe. She’d even mentioned it once, only to have him lash out at her for trespassing in family matters.

  “Do you work here too?” she asked Joe.

  “Me? Nope.” He shrugged it off. “I have an office at the main supply store. It’s kind of my territory. Besides, Marc and I do better when we only see each other occasionally.”

  “I see.”

  “How was it, seeing him again after so long?” he asked, pausing at the door to an office that carried David Smith’s name in gold letters.

  She grimaced. “Not so bad, I guess.”

  “He went up in smoke, did you notice?” He laughed, as if that amused him. “I’ll hear about this, you know. He’ll be all over me. Fraternizing with the employees...”

  “Joe, you won’t get in trouble, will you?” she asked nervously. She didn’t want to be the cause of an argument.

  “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself,” he told her. “Let him rage. Besides,” he added with a calculating stare at Gaby, “he’s got his own problems. I hear his newest lovely is angling for matrimony.”

  “His newest?” she asked softly.

  “Lana Moore. She’s a British woman. Very wealthy. Brains and beauty. He’s been her lover for the past year. Who knows, he might settle down at last.”

  Gaby felt sick, unsteady on her feet. But she couldn’t let it show; she couldn’t let Joe see how that news affected her. She smiled and acted as if she were on stage. “Think so?” she teased. “What will we give him for a wedding present? How about the engine out of that ’56 Chevy?”

  He smiled and looked so relieved that she almost burst out laughing. “You’re terrific,” he said under his breath. “Class all the way. Me, I got so many rough edges, I look like a building under construction, but you’re pure, smooth curves, Gaby.”

  “What rough edges?” she said, chiding.

  His thin shoulders lifted and fell. “My background shows. So does Marc’s, although he hides it well. It’s hard to go from poverty to money. Hard to leave old friends behind because they can’t share your new interests, can’t keep up with the money. Hard to try to fit into the lifestyle of new acquaintances who have money as a common interest, but you can’t relate to them as well as you can to the old friends. You never quite fit in, you know?”

  She shook her head. “I came from money,” she confessed. “I’ve always had it. I guess it would be hard, though. Like having a foot in two worlds.”
>
  “Well put. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Dave.”

  He opened the door. A thin, nervous-looking man stood up, smiling at Joe. “Hi, son.” He laughed. He was barely forty, but he must feel fatherly. At least he looked it with his bald head and narrow amber eyes. “This must be Gaby. I recognize you from your photos. You’re doing a great job. We’re getting a lot of attention because of you.”

  “I’m very glad, Mr. Smith,” she said, leaning forward to shake the clammy, outstretched hand. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”

  “We’re happy to have you. Can I show you around?”

  “We’ll show her around,” Joe said possessively, and winked as he took Gaby’s arm.

  They gave her the cook’s tour, and at the end of it she had a vivid picture of the size of the company. It was monstrous, and she wondered how Marc, even with executives and a board of directors, kept track of all of it.

  “The mind boggles,” she told Joe on the way out, all the while glancing around as if she expected that Marc might bound out from hiding. “It’s so...big! How do you keep track of everything?”

  “Oh, we have enough employees,” he said easily. “It’s mostly bookkeeping, anyway.”

  “Some bookkeeping! I’d go blind staring at so many numbers.”

  “The auditors do, I think.” He laughed. He studied her for a long moment as they went down in the elevator. “There’s a party next Friday night at Marc’s apartment. Come with me.”

  She felt herself go trembly. She wanted to go. She wanted to see Marc, just once more, to let her eyes have the freedom to look at him, to enjoy the sight and smell and reality of him after all this time. She’d thought that after all these years she’d gotten over him, but now, after seeing him just once, she wanted desperately to be near him again. It was so dangerous, though. The trap was there: she could fall in headfirst; she could give up her soul to him all over again. And this time it would be harder to let go. Despite his betrayal, despite the anguish, a part of her belonged to him and always would.

  “I don’t think so,” she said quietly.

  “Don’t be afraid of him,” Joe taunted lightly, touching her face. “I’ll be right there with you. He won’t bother you.”

  That’s what you think, she thought. She looked up, her green eyes dominating her soft face. “Do you know how it ended between Marc and me?” she asked abruptly.

  His eyebrows arched. “Sure. Your parents sent you away to school, to get you away from him.”

  She opened her mouth. “Almost,” she told him. She and Joe were friends now, and she liked him. He felt like the brother she’d never had. And that being the case, she didn’t want to hurt him, to disillusion him about Marc. She knew he still looked up to his older brother, and she couldn’t destroy his dreams. She remembered how it had hurt when Marc destroyed hers.

  She smiled faintly. “He told you, then?”

  “Marc?” He stuck out his lower lip and laughed. “He never tells me anything. I just probed until I dragged that out of him. He wouldn’t talk about you afterward. Not one word. I guess it stung, having you taken out of his life like that.”

  Sure it had stung, she thought, but the money had surely taken out the sting. He’d used it to good effect, too, she thought bitterly. She straightened. So he hadn’t told Joe the truth. How odd. Perhaps he didn’t want his younger brother to know what a cold-blooded, mercenary man he really was.

  Her eyes grew cold as she relived it. “I’ll go to the party with you,” she said. “It will be an experience.”

  “You’ll get to meet Lana,” he remarked, watching closely for her reaction.

  She didn’t give him one. She’d learned to hide her feelings. “What a treat!” she said sarcastically.

  He chuckled. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll protect you.”

  Her eyes twinkled as she smiled back. He was really a nice man when he forgot his shyness. He did, with her. She seemed to bring out a new side of him. Interesting how that happened, she thought. Some people could draw out the darkness, others the light. She tucked her hand in his arm and let him lead her out of the building.

  She almost looked back. But the trauma of seeing Marc again kept her eyes facing toward the street. Now that it had happened, it was over. She could be prepared for their next meeting. And no way was she going to miss that party now. She wanted to show him how little she cared for him. She wanted to dress to the teeth and show him exactly what he’d thrown away for money. The thought brightened her eyes, sharpened her smile. Joe, looking down, grinned. He could be forgiven for thinking he was the cause of her heightened color and being flattered by it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  MARC’S APARTMENT WAS LUXURIOUS, just as Gaby had pictured it. From the thick pile of the gray carpet to the charcoal, brown and beige striped furniture and coordinating curtains, it was as striking as the man who lived there. She had to admit that his taste in furnishings was very good. If he’d had any part in the decorating, she thought bitterly, when she caught a glimpse of him with the beautiful blonde on his arm.

  So that was Lana Moore. She was wearing a black shoulderless gown, and it emphasized her very apparent femininity. Her hair was done Grecian style, very flattering to her delicate features and big blue eyes.

  Gaby was wearing gold lamé, her sheath gown also shoulderless and with a deep slit down the front of the skirt, but her carriage had more panache than Ms. Moore. She had the modeling background to wear anything with style and exquisite grace. She was very grateful for that fact tonight. She couldn’t have borne coming off second best to Marc’s new love.

  She’d left her own hair long, so that it swirled like copper around her face and shoulders. The few tiny freckles across her nose had been carefully camouflaged with makeup. Joe, when he’d picked her up at her home, had just stood and stared and whistled fervently. She’d grinned at him, pleased that he liked her choice of gowns. Now she was hardly able to grin as he propelled her toward his brother and Lana Moore.

  “We’ll get this over first,” he whispered, smiling. He looked good, too, in dark evening clothes, although to Gaby he was still only a shadow of Marc. The older man wore his own dinner jacket with careless elegance, and Gaby had to force herself not to stare at him. His face was as dark as the beautiful, masculine hand that curved around Lana Moore’s milky shoulders...

  “Joseph,” Marc said in greeting, turning with a smile that lasted only until he saw Gaby. “Miss Bennett,” he emphasized, nodding politely, although his eyes possessed her, thrilling eyes that had once looked hungrily on her. Was he remembering that? she wondered. Gaby felt as if she could almost see the thought in his mind.

  The blonde beside him smiled, too, and it was genuine. She wasn’t at all what Gaby had expected.

  “He won’t introduce me, but I’m Lana Moore,” the woman said gently. She looked about Gaby’s age, and her eyes were as warm as her smile. “He’s my best friend.”

  “How do you do?” Gaby asked politely, feeling as if a knife turned in her heart as she returned the smile. “I’m Gaby Bennett. I’m sort of an employee,” she added, glancing at Joe.

  Joe chuckled, reaching out to take Lana’s hand. “Hi. I’m the black sheep, remember me?” he asked. “Gaby, here, is our new commercial lady. She’s making the transmission-and-parts business boom.”

  “No wonder you looked familiar!” Lana said. “I should have known straightaway. I’ve seen your commercials. You’re even lovelier in person!”

  How horrible it was to be admired by the woman who’d replaced her in Marc’s life, in Marc’s heart. She had to act for all she was worth. “Thank you, but it’s the quality of the merchandise selling itself,” she replied. “I’m only the window dressing.”

  “More than that,” Joe said under his breath, and tugged a lock of her hair affectionately. “S
he’s the whole show.”

  “There’s a buffet, if you’d like something,” Marc told Joe and Gaby, and his arm drew Lana closer while she beamed up at him.

  “All I’m allowed after meals is butterfly steak,” Gaby murmured dryly. “But I’d love some coffee,” she told Joe.

  “Sure. Come on. See you,” he called to Marc and Lana, and guided Gaby toward the buffet.

  Her eyes, if he could have seen them, would have shocked him. The anguish in them would have melted steel. But she quickly erased it and clung to his arm.

  “She’s lovely,” she said. “And she seems a wonderful person.”

  “She’s a nice kid, all right,” he agreed. “I hope he won’t hurt her too badly. He’s an iceberg, old Marc. He can’t seem to give. His emotions are tied up in knots.”

  Not always, she wanted to tell him. There was a time, once, when he was as open and giving and loving as a man could possibly be. And with the memory tugging at her heart she turned and looked full into Marc’s eyes across the room. Suddenly they were locked, mind and soul, for an instant that burned away time, that made her throb with remembered passion. His lips parted, and his dark eyes went down her body slowly with total possession. Oh, Marc, she thought miserably, how did we ever come to this? Why wasn’t I enough? Why did you want the money so much more than you wanted me?

  Tears stung her eyes, and she turned away before he could see what a fool she was making of herself. He liked her body, yes, he always had. She was unconsciously flaunting it tonight, to make him aware of her, of what he’d thrown away. And now she felt cheap and sick, after meeting Lana, after seeing how helplessly in love with him the British girl was—in love with him, as she’d been, so long ago. But that was the past. There was no going back, however much she might have liked a second chance. Marc was making it painfully obvious that he wanted no second chances. He’d gotten what he was after. He had money and power and a beautiful woman to share it with. He had the world. And Gaby had...what?