“I’m afraid so,” Ragnor murmured. He rose from his bar stool as well, stretching out an arm as Anna Maria approached them, her smile broad. Lynn followed, delighted, and a round of double-cheeked kissing went around as everyone greeted everyone. Cindy seemed pleased to welcome Ragnor; only Jared appeared to be a little stiff. He spoke politely, and made no protest when Anna Maria suggested that Ragnor must join them for dinner. Jared seemed leery of the stranger among them, and curious?even suspicious?when his eyes met Jordan’s.
She shrugged, trying to assure her cousin that she hadn’t invited or encouraged the man to join them.
The doorman came, telling them that their table was ready. Jordan found Ragnor’s hand on her back, guiding her through the crowd into one of the dining rooms. With his fingers against her naked back, she had to admit, again, that he had an effect on her. Like fire. An uncomfortable effect. At the bar, she had felt the urge to lean in against him, to feel the fabric of his suit against her cheek, to breathe in the clean, intoxicating scent of his shaven cheeks. Now, as she had last night, watching the dancers, she felt an intoxicating sensuality in proximity. Lynn would say that she wanted to jump his bones. She wouldn’t be quite so crude?or honest But her mind strayed during the simple act of walking from bar to table. His hands were unbelievably masculine. She wondered what it would be like to feel them moving along her arms.
And other places.
She wondered if his chest was as broad and compelling when naked.
She wondered what it would feel like if she were naked too, rubbing against the length of him. And if his chest was bare, his hips would be bare, and then she found herself wondering if he was powerful and lithe and large throughout...
He pulled out a chair for her at the table. She sat. Her face was lobster tinted, she was certain. From head to toe she felt a crimson flush. She wasn’t even breathing normally.
Maybe he would sit somewhere else, other than beside her!
He didn’t. He took the chair at her left. Lynn was already seated at her right A waiter set her half-finished drink in front of her. She reached for it, taking a long swallow. Menus appeared and Lynn reached over, pointing at items, telling her what she thought was especially good. She responded, nodding, saving something, she wasn’t sure exactly what Jared and Anna Maria were discussing a number of the people Jared had booked for her ball the following night; the seating had already been planned, there were several hundred guests coming, but it seemed that Anna Maria wanted to know more about those coming, so as to put people with similar interests together.
“So?where were you off to today?” Cindy suddenly asked Jordan.
“I went to have coffee with Tiff.”
“Isn’t the palazzo marvelous?” Raphael asked her.
“Yes, very nice.”
“The marble in the foyer is supposed to have been salvaged from the ruins of a Roman palace,” Anna Maria told her.
“You had coffee all day?” Jared asked. The question sounded a little grating to Jordan, and she wasn’t pleased to realize that now everyone at the table was looking at her, as if they all waited for an answer.
“I had coffee, I shopped, I wandered,” she said.
“I thought you might come by the shop,” Lynn said.
“I knew you all would be very busy,” Jordan told her.
“Tiff is something, eh?” Raphael said.
“In actuality, a very highly paid prostitute,” Jared said.
“Jared!” Cindy remonstrated.
“Well! She marries old rich men for their money. Isn’t that kind of the same thing?” Jared queried.
“What about old and middle-aged men who discard their wives of thirty years or so to go after shapely young things?” Jordan said in defense of her friend. “I like her.”
“What do you think about Mrs. Tiffany Henley, Ragnor?” Cindy asked.
Ragnor arched a brow. “I suppose we all have our priorities. She is blunt, beyond a doubt.” Lynn giggled. “She has much more to say about you,” she told him.
“She is fine; a bit much sometimes, but polite,” Ragnor said with a shrug. “I don’t know her very well.”
“I saw you with her this afternoon,” Jordan said.
His eyes suddenly turned full force on her.
“Oh? And where did you see me from?”
“A canal.”
“What were you doing in the canal?” Cindy asked with a frown.
“I wasn’t in the canal. I was in a gondola.”
“You took a gondola ride all by yourself?” Jared said.
Again, she felt that he was asking questions like a disapproving parent.
“Are gondolas supposed to be dangerous?” she asked lightly.
“A gondola should be shared with a lover,” Raphael said.
“Actually, I wound up on the gondola because of you,” Jordan told Jared, wishing that she weren’t so aware of Ragnor’s eyes, always seeming to be on her.
“Me!”
“Um. I thought that I was following you home last night?but of course, it wasn’t you. It was another man dressed in a dottore costume.”
“Definitely a man?” Ragnor asked.
“Well, I assume.”
“What does that have to do with you taking a gondola ride today because of me?” Jared asked, baffled.
“I thought I saw the man again. I followed him.”
“You followed a stranger in a dottore costume?” Anna Maria queried.
“That was an idiotic thing to do,” Jared said harshly.
“Everyone is in costume, Jared,” Jordan said coolly. “And people follow people in costumes all day, snapping pictures.”
“How did this man in the costume lead to the gondola?” Anna Maria asked quickly, trying to ease the tension.
“I saw a friend. And he gave me a ride home.”
“Wait, wait, wait. What friend do you have who is a gondolier?” Jared demanded.
“Jared, you have lots of friends I don’t know, and I have friends you don’t know.”
“In Venice?” he queried.
“Yes. In Venice.”
“So.. .what was Tiff up to? ”Raphael asked Ragnor. He might just as well have said, “Hey, how about that game?”
“Ah, well she asked me to the cocktail party she’s having before Anna Maria’s ball.”
“Tiff Henley is having a cocktail party?” Cindy said.
“She assured me you were coming,” Ragnor replied.
“I hadn’t had a chance to tell you,” Jordan told them quickly.
“You knew she was having a cocktail party?” Jared queried.
“I just learned about it this morning.”
The wine steward, who had been standing nearby, cleared his throat. Jared quickly apologized in Italian, and a discussion regarding choices for dinner wine went around the table.
“I think you just found out about this cocktail party tonight.” Jordan started, Ragnor’s whisper so close against her cheek, so softly spoken.
She smiled sweetly at him. “I think that big egos can come in very large packages as well.” His head remained lowered near hers, his eyes dark, intense, and strangely serious. “Do you dislike me, Miss Riley?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Maybe because you insult me each time we meet.”
“I wouldn’t dream of insulting you.”
“I think that you implied I looked like a real hooker in red vinyl.” Avery slight smile curved his lips. “I could apologize, but that isn’t really the answer, is it? So, why do you dislike me?”
“Maybe because you’re a liar,” she heard herself say.
“What lies have I told?” Ragnor inquired.
“You were at the contessa’s ball. And you deny it.”
He sat back. “We’re not at all friends, I do assure you. That is no lie.” She would have believed him. Except at that moment, Raphael suddenly had a question for Ragnor.
“Ragnor. I saw you with the contessa in the Square today. At least, I’m quite certain that it was the contessa. She was wearing a mask, but... there’s something in the way she moves, yes? Have you two decided that you are not such great enemies?” Raphael was full of his sense of fun. He lifted his wineglass. “You seemed quite close.”
“Like the sun and the moon, my friend,” Ragnor said evenly.
Everyone at the table was staring at him.
“Night and day,” Anna Maria murmured.
Jordan excused herself suddenly, rising with a murmur about going to the ladies room and asking Lynn to order for her. She hurried off to the restroom and doused her face in cold water. She stared at her reflection.
“Go home, get out of this insanity!” she told herself. But the more it seemed she should do so, the more she longed to run, the more she felt impelled to stay.
Ragnor was a liar. He was with Tiff today, and with the contessa in the Square. It didn’t change the fact that she was torn between hostility . . . and almost overwhelming desire.
“He’s handsomely built,” she told her reflection. “Good, rugged features, great hands. You’ve been alone; you lost a fiancé a year ago. You are human, and that is all.” She suddenly realized that another woman had come in and was staring at her. She had spoken aloud.
“Scusi, scusi,” the woman said.
“No, no, per favore, mi scusi,” Jordan murmured quickly, slipping by the woman.
Great. As if the world didn’t think that Americans were crazy enough.
She ran right into Ragnor. He had apparently followed her, and waited for her to emerge.
“I had to make you understand that I am not in any way the contessa’s friend,” he told her.
She shook her head. “Your friendships are completely your own business, Mister . .. Mister ...” She threw up her hands. “I don’t even know your last name.”
“It’s important that you believe me.”
