“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.”
Diane’s gaze swerved to Rainey who wondered what was coming next. She stopped chewing.
“I know why he hired you.”
Her bold declaration revealed the fire Payne had been referring to when he’d asked Rainey to be his accomplice.
“The problem is, I’m not sure he told you why.”
Rainey had no choice but to play dumb. “I don’t think I understand.”
“Those maps of Payne’s are sacrosanct. No one in the hierarchy of his company is allowed inside Crag’s Head to see them. He trusts no one to touch them. They’re his brainchild, the key to his success.
“Then suddenly he decides to let a portrait artist who paints covers for Red Rose Romance move into his fortress and assist him on drawings that are so complicated no one but Payne himself can understand them?” She left out a brittle laugh.
“I don’t think so. I may not be able to walk, but credit me with more brains than that, Rainey. We both know he’s installed you here to force my hand because he wants me to go to Switzerland for an operation.”
The strength it took to hold the other woman’s gaze without flinching called on every nerve and muscle in Rainey’s body.
“I’ve told him I’m not going. Of course he doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no. What he’s done is pull one of his shrewd business ploys to get me to capitulate by bringing a beautiful woman into his home on the pretext of working for him.
“He knows this will cause our families and friends to talk. What better way to get me to change my mind than threaten to humiliate me.”
Rainey’s heart sank like a stone. Though Diane’s delivery had been unemotional, she had to be dying inside.
“What he refuses to accept is that there’s no miracle cure waiting for me at the end of the road. I guess what I’m saying is, the next move is up to you.”
She paused to take a drink of her coffee. When she put the cup down again she said, “If you truly thought he was offering you a legitimate job, and yet you continue to stay under his roof knowing what I’ve just told you, then it will be clear to everyone who loves him that you two are having an affair.”
A groan almost made it past Rainey’s lips.
Diane had just called her fiancé’s bluff. The fear that an operation wouldn’t change anything was keeping her locked in that wheelchair. Rainey could weep for both of them because that fear was holding him prisoner too.
Somehow Rainey needed to say something in a counter move that would still be the truth, yet not jeopardize an already precarious situation.
“I’m aware of his hopes for you,” she began quietly. “It’s only natural when he loves you so much, but I’m afraid the blame for the job offer lies with me.”
One of Diane’s brows lifted in a patronizing gesture. “Your attraction to him has made you the proverbial putty in his hands.”
“I am attracted to him,” Rainey came back, fighting fire with fire. “If you’re talking physical attraction, then I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit it considering I’ve done eight paintings of him already. He’s an incredibly good-looking man.”
The mockery in Diane’s smile started to vanish.
“If you’re talking mental attraction, I admit to that too. Let me tell you why.” Now that Rainey was all wound up, it would be therapeutic to get certain things said.
“You don’t know very much about me. How could you? I grew up in a small town. My brother loves it there. From an early age on, he knew he wanted to live there forever and run a sportings goods store. Come fall, that dream is finally going to happen for him.
“I was different. I had this dream to move to a big city and see what it was like.
“The money from teaching art in public school was a means of keeping me alive, but it was my freelance jobs that paid me enough to get here. In all honesty, I came to New York hoping I might stumble on to my life. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
Diane brushed some hair away from her forehead. “People like you flock to New York every day looking for the same thing. The difference is, none of them ended up in a courtroom with my fiancé.”