Rebecca Winters - Manhattan Merger

There was a prolonged silence.

“Uncle Payne…does Diane know?”

“Not yet. I’ll tell her tonight.”

“That’s going to hurt her a lot.”

“I’m hoping it’ll make her angry.”

He could hear her brain working. “You want her to be jealous.”

“I want her to walk again. Maybe if she gets angry enough, she’ll do something about it and consider going to that clinic in Switzerland.”

Another pause. “Does Rainey know why you’ve asked her to come to work for you?”

“Yes. She wants to help Diane too.”

“So do I.”

“You already have. You’re a sweetheart. I’m sure Rainey will enjoy your company, especially when I’m out of town. You can show her around, make certain she knows where to swim safely.”

“Do you think she likes to sail?”

“I guess we’re going to find out. Come on over in the morning and have breakfast with us.”

“Will Diane be there?”

“I’ll invite her. Let’s hope she won’t be able to stay away. Have fun this afternoon. I’ll see you in the morning.”

After ending the call, he made one more to his pilot to alert him they’d be flying back to Crag’s Head soon.

Two hours later he experienced the sensation of déjà vu when his housekeeper met him and Rainey in the foyer.

“Mrs. Myers? Ms. Bennett has agreed to come to work for me. For the time being she’ll be living here. Let’s put her in the bedroom with the view of Phantom Point.”

Rainey’s mouth curved upward. “That sounds intriguing.”

“It is. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t. Shall I take up your bags now, Ms. Bennett?”

“Please call me Rainey. I’ll carry them.”

“You’re going to find out my new assistant has an independent streak,” Payne murmured.

“That’s fine with me as long as you call me Betty.”

His housekeeper liked to keep things formal. For her to make a concession like that meant Rainey had already won her over.

“It’s a deal.”

“We’re going to get busy in my study, Betty. When you have a moment, will you bring us some lunch?”

“Coming right up.”

Payne was eager to sit down with Rainey and explain how he put his crude drawings together into one blueprint. With her intuitive eye, she would bring her own expertise to streamline the process and make innovations.

After a moment’s consideration he pulled out a tube housing the drawings of Paris he’d already begun work on. While he was laying them out on the large worktable, his cell phone rang. A check of the Caller ID confirmed it was Diane.

His eyes flicked to Rainey. “I have to take this call. Go ahead and see what you make of everything.”

It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle. He couldn’t help but be curious how long it would take her to fit each piece together.

Moving a few feet away he answered the phone. Now that he had Rainey firmly entrenched beneath his roof, it was time to follow through with the rest of his plan.

RAINEY slept, but it was fitful. At dawn she stole from the queen-size bed to half lie in the window seat and contemplate the vast Atlantic from her bedroom high above the water. As morning broke to the sounds of gulls, she remembered something Craig had said in an attempt to comfort her.

Treat the whole experience with Payne Sterling as part of your adventure in the Big Apple.

He didn’t know it then, but her brother had dispensed the best advice he could have given her. That was exactly the way she was going to look at her situation from here on out.

A marvelous adventure. The kind she enjoyed living with the heroine inside a romance novel until the very last page when she closed the book.

There would come a last page with Payne. Until then, what were the odds of meeting an exciting, brilliant New York billionaire-soon-to-be-trillionaire in her lifetime? Of working temporarily as his live-in assistant in his hideaway which was an architectural treasure?

Maybe a gazillion-to-one?

She leaned out the window to inhale the tangy sea air and enjoy the ocean breeze. The humidity curled the ends of her hair. Her skin, so used to the dry climate of the Colorado Rockies, felt soft and smooth.

By some quirk of fate, she and Payne had been brought together at this moment in time. It wouldn’t last, so why go on torturing herself about it?

Why not be the catalyst that might rouse his fiancée from debilitating fear so she could walk down the aisle to the man waiting for her at the altar?

What were the odds of Rainey ever playing a major role in someone else’s rescue again?

The answer was, never.

“Good morning, Ms. Bennett!”

Rainey looked down to see her host walking up the beach in cutoffs and a T-shirt looking like a contemporary Jane Austen hero.

“Why if it isn’t Mr. Darcy!”

His hands went to his hips. The next thing she knew he was laughing up at her. She found herself laughing with him.

Careful, Rainey. Don’t let him guess the very sight of him turns your bones to liquid. Keep things light.

“If it was your intention to go about startling all the young ladies, you can consider you’ve accomplished your objective, sir.”

“My Dear Miss Bennett-if I startled you, it was because you were hoping I would happen to come along at this precise moment to catch you in, shall we say, flagrante delicto? so you could be pretend to be startled.”

“Oh my, Mr. Darcy. Rumors of your monumental ego combined with your insufferable arrogance have been greatly understated. Isn’t it a good thing you’re in love with yourself since it’s probable no one else would ever be able to love you quite so well.”

More laughter rumbled out of him, the deep, rich male kind.

Suddenly Rainey heard clapping. “Well done, you two. Jane Austen is alive and doing just fine at Crag’s Head.”

Rainey looked to the right and caught sight of Diane. “She wrote one of the great romances, don’t you think, Ms. Wylie?”

“She wrote several. I found Persuasion her most compelling.”

The mention of that particular title sounded cryptic and introduced a different mood into the tenor of the morning. Rainey could tell Payne was equally affected.

Persuasion was what was needed to get her to that clinic.

“I understand we were all going to have breakfast when you arrived. Excuse me and I’ll be right down.” She tore herself from the window, unwilling to put herself through the agony of watching him greet his fiancée.

Yesterday he’d worked with Rainey all afternoon and into the early evening. The rapport between them had been uncanny. She couldn’t believe how well things had gone, what a remarkable teacher he was.

Being with him, she’d been unaware of time passing. It had almost killed her when seven-thirty rolled around and he’d excused himself to go pick up Diane for dinner. At some point in the evening Rainey knew he would inform his fiancée he’d hired Rainey to come to work for him.

Since Rainey hadn’t seen him until he’d been walking along the surf moments ago, it was anyone’s guess how Diane had reacted to his news.

Judging by her unexpected appearance on the path just now, his plan seemed to be working to some degree. She’d plunged right into the thick of things, staking her claim in front of Rainey.

His fiancée had a lot of demons to fight besides her fear that another woman was interested in her fiancé. The last thing Rainey wanted to do was hurt her. All she could do was follow Payne’s lead and hope it caused the kind of reaction that would force Diane to get past her psychological block.

Rainey pulled clothes from the closet and drawers. The temperature had dropped to the low seventies prompting her to dress in a pair of white pleated trousers and a yellow cotton pullover.

With a good brushing of her hair and an application of coral lipstick, there was nothing more to do but join them. She left the bedroom not knowing quite what to expect, but realizing that Diane was waiting for her.

The dining room off the study had its own glorious view of the ocean. Payne and Diane had already started to eat.

His gaze flicked to Rainey’s. So much vital masculinity for breakfast made her heart race. “Help yourself to anything you want at the buffet.”

“Thank you.”

It looked like the housekeeper had outdone herself. Rainey poured herself some orange juice, then went for the sausage and eggs, her favorite breakfast.

“Come and sit down.”

Said the spider to the fly?

The other woman’s smile was benign enough. Yet Rainey did her bidding with a prickling awareness that Diane had been geared for a confrontation since Payne had dropped his bombshell.

“How did you sleep, Ms. Bennett?”

Payne covered Diane’s hand. “Since we’re all going to be seeing a lot of each other from now on, let’s get on a first name basis.”

Fearing she might choke on her juice, Rainey put the glass back down. “To be honest, I was so excited to be right here on the water, I stayed awake most of the night. It’s quite heavenly.”

“No other woman apart from Mrs. Myers has ever slept at Crag’s Head before.”

His fiancée had just fired her first salvo.

“It must be thrilling for you to know that after August first this will be your home, Diane. The design transports you to another realm, yet you’re firmly planted on a headland with a whole ocean at your feet. I think you’re the luckiest woman alive to have all this to look forward to.”

“When Payne installs an elevator, it will be more livable for me.”

“If we leave for Switzerland right away, it’s possible you’ll never have to use another elevator again.”

“It’s not going to happen, Payne. But since you brought the subject up, now would be the time to say what’s on my mind.”