Notorious

“Maybe she does.”

“One thing’s for sure—Jonas thinks she’s fascinating. And B.J.’s still the same riding, roping gal as always, but there is something sort of different about her. It’s like she’s in full bloom or something.”

“See? She’s pregnant!”

“No, she’s not, but I can see you aren’t going to take my word for it.” He paused. “Guess you’ll have to ask her yourself.”

After a long moment, Keely sighed. “I understand what you’re trying to do, Noah, and it’s very sweet, but…too much water’s gone over the dam, or under the bridge. At any rate, there’s been a heck of a lot of water running. I don’t think I’d be a welcome guest at the wedding.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Noah was taking a chance saying that. But he had a hunch Arch and B.J. would love it if Keely showed up. Besides, he didn’t see how the gap in the family could get any wider, so he thought it was worth the risk to suggest she go.

KEELY WALKED along silently beside Noah as they covered the last block before reaching the towering hotel that would magically transport them to the South Pacific. She was afraid to say too much more on the subject of her sister’s wedding for fear Noah would figure out how much she longed to go back and see her father and sister. Maybe now her sister was old enough and experienced enough to understand what had happened all those years ago. Maybe they could be friends again.

Only two years apart, they had been friends once. Then Keely had launched into puberty like a rocket, leaving B.J. behind. Living on a ranch where the only other females were her boyish younger sister and the Garfields’ housekeeper, Keely had found no one to help her through the confusing process of growing into a sexual person. She’d only had the dim memory of her mother to guide her, a mother who had apparently looked and acted just like her. Or so her father said.

Keely had developed early, B.J. late. And it had seemed to Keely that B.J. had tried to keep her tomboy image just to set her apart from her wild sister. Or maybe they’d split the parental influences between them, with B.J. becoming like Arch and Keely growing more and more like her mother. At any rate, B.J. had become the good daughter in their father’s eyes, while Keely had continued to blaze a path toward bad-girl land.

But Jonas wouldn’t be attracted to a woman who didn’t have a touch of naughtiness, so maybe B.J. wasn’t Little Miss Innocent anymore. Maybe she wouldn’t be as mystified by Keely now. Then again, maybe she would turn her back on her rebel sister, and that would be painful. Keely had a real aversion to pain.

In fact, she gravitated almost exclusively to pleasure and living in the present moment. The past couldn’t be changed and the future was a guess, but for the moment she had Noah Garfield right where she wanted him at last. As they approached the Tahitian, a ripple of anticipation made her shiver with delight. He had found her hard to resist in a drugstore. Once she got him inside this tropical paradise, he’d be a goner.

Set a distance back from the street, the hotel beckoned visitors to approach by leading them through a man-made jungle misted with thousands of tiny jets and cooled with countless tumbling waterfalls. The air reverberated with exotic birdsong and the steady beat of native drums.

“What fun,” Keely said as they joined the throng headed toward the entrance.

“I’d hate to get their water bill,” Noah said.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Can you do me a favor for the next three days and try not to think of practical things like that? You’re going to ruin my fantasy if you insist on worrying about utility bills.”

To her surprise, Noah laughed. “You’re right,” he said. “Vegas is over the top, and you might as well accept that from the git-go.”

“Very good.” She took off her sunglasses and slipped them into her purse as they approached a large clearing. “There’s hope for you, cowboy. Maybe before the weekend is over, you—”

She forgot what she’d intended to say as the foliage gave way to a view of a granite cliff rising ten stories above them. “My God. They dive off this thing.” She stood and gazed at the deep pool at the base of the cliff while she tried to imagine having the courage to hurl yourself into it from that height. “I definitely want to see this show tonight.”

Noah glanced over at her. “I hope you don’t mind watching it by yourself. I have a bachelor party I’m supposed to go to and it might run late.”

That fit perfectly into her plans. She could squeeze in some interview time. “No problem,” she said. “I’m good at amusing myself. But could we stop by the desk and get me a key to the room?”

“Oh. Sure.” He sounded anything but sure.

“Would that make you uncomfortable?”

“No, no, of course not.”

“You’re worried that the people at the desk will think you picked up a call girl, aren’t you? Just like Richard Gere picked up Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.” She thought that was a good image to plant in his mind.

He looked uneasy. “But I’m not—I mean, we’re not—”

“Tell you what. I’m going to help you out, here. In that movie, he told everybody the girl was his niece. So let’s say I’m your cousin.”

“Nobody will believe that.”

“Of course they won’t, but they’ll pretend to believe it, and that’s good enough, right?”

“I think if we say that you’re my cousin they’ll know we’re lying and be even more sure you’re a call girl.”

Keely smiled at him. “Okay, then what do you want to say? That I’m a wayward woman and you’re trying to reform me? They’ll believe that even less. I’d better be your cousin.”

He gazed at the cliff before looking back at her. “Maybe we could share a key.”

“I don’t see how that would work, unless you want me to hang around outside the room waiting for you to come back tonight. I don’t think that would be too good for your image, either.”

“I guess not.”

“Noah, we’re in Vegas, Sin City. So what if you have your cousin staying in your room? That’s probably one of the tamest situations they’ve seen around here in ages. I’ll bet an hour ago they gave a guy two extra keys because he ran into his twin cousins. And remember that not a single person behind that desk is your neighbor. So you don’t have to give a care what they think.”

He gave her a wry grin. “Point made. Let’s go get the key.” But as he started toward the large entrance doors decorated in brass bamboo, he suddenly turned back and grabbed her arm. “Come this way,” he said.

“Why?”

“Just go with it. Head back the way we came.” He hustled her down the walk past the crowd of pedestrians.

“Noah, I don’t understand what we’re doing.”

“I’ll tell you in a minute. Come over here.” He stepped into the landscaping and pulled her in with him.

Instantly she was spritzed from head to toe. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be walking on the—”

“Down behind this rock.” He pulled her to a crouch behind a large lava rock.

“Noah, I’m getting soaked from all those misters spraying down. What on earth is the matter?”

“The groom.” He took off his Stetson and peered up over the rock. “Brandon.”

“Ah.” She gazed at Noah’s tense profile. Despite her complaining, the mist felt kind of good after the warmth of their walk. “So you’re planning on keeping me a secret from the bridal party?”

“I hadn’t thought about it until you started talking about the extra key, but then I began thinking that it could be kind of awkward, trying to explain everything.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Far from being insulted, she was delighted. One of her most popular magazine articles had dealt with secrecy in a relationship and how tantalizing the forbidden could become. She would love to be Noah’s forbidden secret for the weekend. It would make her that much harder to resist.

“Here comes Brandon. Can you get down lower?”

“Sure.” She got to her knees on the mossy ground and hunched down even more. The plants gave off a loamy, fertile scent that was quite exciting. And fortunately this wasn’t really the tropics, so she didn’t have to worry about putting her hand on an icky bug by accident.

Noah went down on his knees, too. Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her in close.

Secrecy had all sorts of benefits, she decided as she snuggled against him. She’d only felt the hard press of his body once before and that had been wildly exciting. Yet he’d been a kid then, not much older than the drugstore clerk. She preferred this version. Maturity sat well on him—he had the solid strength and intriguing scent of a man in his prime. Their damp clothes seemed to melt against their bodies, giving the illusion of skin against skin. She could almost feel steam rising from where they were pressed together.