Weddings: The Proposals. Rebecca Winters

on time had to be a first. He coasted to a stop.

      However, the sight of her champagne hair and unmistakable figure made him slow to realize she had a pallor that hadn’t been there when she’d left the table. He had a suspicion she’d seen Guy on her way out and they’d had words. To learn Laura was leaving the villa with Chantelle’s blessing in order to go with Raoul must have upset his brother.

      Pleased to have foiled another attempt for Guy to be alone with her, Raoul reached across the seat to open the passenger door for her. She looked good. Most women past their teens couldn’t get away without wearing makeup, but she carried it off perfectly.

      Beneath the attractive skirt, her gorgeous long legs were bare. Much to his chagrin he could find nothing artificial about her. The more she underplayed her looks, the more she stood out like a fresh peach warming in the sun, all pink and golden.

      Her arm brushed against his as she fastened her seat belt. His body quickened at the contact. The recurring sensation wasn’t supposed to happen. Once she closed the door, he put the car in gear and took off without saying anything. He followed the winding drive flanked by cypress trees until they passed the guardhouse and came out on the coast road.

      After a few minutes he said, “If Chantelle had come with us, I would have brought the sedan. Do you mind the top down? I can always put it up.”

      “That’s up to you. Frankly I like being able to see all around,” she responded without looking at him.

      The women he knew didn’t want to be blown about, but as he was finding out with Laura, she wasn’t your typical female. She didn’t talk incessantly, a quality that should have pleased him since they were going to be together for as long as he felt like keeping her away from Guy. Yet the fact that she appeared so relaxed with him actually irritated him.

      “This area isn’t that much different from your coast in Southern California.”

      “It’s completely different,” she countered. “The ocean and the sea can’t be compared.” Having been to California on several occasions, he privately agreed with her. “All those ancient little villages I saw from the helicopter tucked away high in the Maritime Alps create a charm like no place else on earth.”

      He hadn’t realized Guy had flown her here in the helicopter. That was an unprecedented move on his part. His brother was in deep.

      She recrossed her legs, probably on purpose. Among other things it drew his attention to the bone-colored leather sandals encasing her feet. No toenail polish. Everything au naturel. So far he couldn’t see anything he didn’t like and he’d been trying!

      “You’ve traveled in Europe before?”

      “Some, but not along the Riviera. It’s breathtaking.”

      Raoul hated to admit she was too. The truth of it shook him almost as much as the fact that she didn’t give anything away she didn’t want him to know.

      He came to the turn for Cros de Cagnes and veered left to follow the coast road. “What is it you do for a living … besides rescue drowning victims?”

      She put on a pair of sunglasses. “I draw landscapes to create backgrounds for video games.”

      Video games? Raoul had to admit that was one answer he would never have expected. “What genre?” She was an artiste all right, but the kind she was alluding to came as a revelation, if it were true.

      “Mostly for children and young adults.”

      “No war games?”

      “If you mean the kind guys from eighteen to thirty play all day and all night long, then no.”

      Whether she was conning him or not, he couldn’t help but chuckle because what she’d said was so true. After she gave him some examples, he was prompted to ask the name of the company she worked for.

      “Other World Video Games. You’ve probably never heard of it.”

      “I can’t say I have.” So far she’d picked something so safe, he couldn’t accuse her of lying until he’d researched it. “How long have you been doing that kind of work?”

      “Since college.”

      “Did you get a degree?”

      She nodded. “Graphic design.”

      While his mind did the math he remembered something. “At breakfast I saw you with a sketchpad.”

      “Yes. It’s filled with drawings of Siena and the Palio. I was working on a scene when your brother started to choke. Chantelle wanted to see it.”

      To his dismay, every time he asked her a question, she answered it without hesitation. If she had things to hide, he wouldn’t know it from her seemingly forthright manner. So far she hadn’t asked anything of him. The idea that she was merely tolerating him didn’t sit well.

      Raoul kept telling himself he was doing this for Guy’s sake, but a part of him knew that wasn’t totally true. Laura Aldridge had captured his attention in too many ways to lie to himself.

      Earlier this morning he’d phoned his attorney and asked him to run a background check on her. Louis promised to get back to him when he had any solid information. In the meantime it was up to Raoul to learn what he could from the woman herself. If he asked more personal questions, maybe he could get her to squirm. That’s what he was looking for, to catch her in something that would give away her agenda.

      “How do you balance your work and marriage?”

      After a quiet interval, she said, “I don’t.”

      That’s right. She only had time to concentrate on ruining someone else’s. Her refusal to play his game had just raised the stakes. He took the next right that brought them into Juan-les-Pins, an extension of Antibes.

      “I’m going to check out a complex of buildings in the yachting district that our company might purchase for our export line. It won’t take me long. Afterward I’ll drive us through Vence to one of those little villages you referred to. We’ll have a late lunch and do whatever we feel like.”

      She nodded as if amenable, but he felt her tension because she’d only been putting up with him until they returned to the villa. He could tell by the rigidity of her body that her patience was wearing thin. That was the crack in the veneer he’d been waiting for.

      “Would you like me to stop and get you a drink first?”

      “No, thank you. I have a bottle of water in my bag if I get thirsty.”

      Still no eye contact. To travel around Europe alone picking up vulnerable men, she’d learned to be independent. It was part of her mystique, another intriguing trait he hated to acknowledge.

      A few minutes later he pulled up to the entry of an empty warehouse and parked the car alongside a bank of palm trees. They’d shield her from the sun while he was inside. Jean-Luc, their company’s real estate agent, was already in front of the doors waiting for him.

      As soon as he saw them, the older man headed for the Porsche. One look at Laura and he started salivating. It put Raoul in mind of Guy, who would have had the same reaction when he’d seen Laura for the first time. The identical thing had happened to Raoul, causing his own desire and anger to flare.

      On impulse and something else he couldn’t put a name to yet, he leaned across the seat and kissed her full on her unsuspecting mouth. It happened so naturally she didn’t have time to resist.

      That was the idea. Jean-Luc was bearing down on them. A picture was worth a thousand words, so they said. He was the biggest gossip on the Côte d’Azur. He had to be to stay in business. By tomorrow word would have reached Guy’s ears that his brother was involved with a blond bombshell, and Guy’s hands would be tied.

      If he confronted Raoul, Guy would be admitting his own guilt. Though he’d be furious with him at first, it would expose Laura for the opportunist she was. One