The Temptress (Montgomery/Taggert 8)

“I can’t wrap Asher—” She stopped because, walking through the trees, was an utterly beautiful woman with dark hair and eyes, a perfect figure, and a graceful walk that emanated sexuality. “Who is that?”

“My bodyguard. I thought since you could make up a new identity, I could too. Pilar has agreed to be my wife for the duration of this fiasco. I figured with your living with the brave Mr. Prescott, and me with Pilar, there wouldn’t be anymore of what happened in the rain forest. I don’t plan to go back to jail.”

“Wife,” Chris whispered. “Wife?”

Tynan narrowed his eyes at her. “Yeah, the gardener has a wife. Pilar will be helping out in the house and I’ll be out here. Between the two of us, we should be able to watch out for you.”

“Where will you live?”

“In the gardener’s house, of course. Look, Chris, if we’re going to play this until you get your story, we’d better get started. Are you supposed to tell me what to do?”

“I would love to tell you what to do, Mr. Tynan,” she said with a false smile, turning away from him and starting back to the house.

“Don’t you want to meet Pilar?” he called after her, laughter in his voice.

Chris kept walking.

Chapter Thirteen

“Diana!” Asher said sharply. “Your cousin was speaking to you.”

Chris looked up from her plate of food to gaze blankly at Owen Hamilton, for a moment not knowing who he was.

“You can see what a time I have with her,” Asher was saying. “She can be most exasperating at times.”

“Yes, well…” Owen said hesitantly. “How did you get on with the new gardener, Diana?”

Unity set a large bowl of carrots on the table. “Anybody that looks like him can get along with any woman. I’m not sure I ever wanta see Al’s ugly ol’ face again.”

Owen gave his housekeeper a look of reproach.

“He seems to know what he’s doing,” Chris murmured. “I think he’s worked on a farm.”

“I don’t think he’s a farmer,” Lionel said. “I think he’s a robber. I think he robs banks and kills people.”

“There are worse ways to go,” Unity muttered before leaving the room.

Asher was watching Chris intently, while she just looked at her food. Thirty minutes later, as everyone was leaving the table, he grabbed her arm. “Come outside with me, I want to talk to you.”

Asher practically dragged her into the garden, out of hearing distance of the house. “All right, who is this robber-farmer? Is it who I think it is?”

“Yes,” she said, “but I had no idea he was coming here. He says I am his responsibility until he turns me over to my father.”

“So now I have to deal with him again. Chris, I hope you aren’t going to make a fool of yourself over him this time. I don’t think it would fit meek little Diana’s image to be seen following the gardener about.”

She was glad for the darkness to hide her red face. “No, I am not going to make a fool of myself again. Besides, he brought a woman with him. He doesn’t want to have any more to do with me than I with him. Now, does that soothe your jealousy? Could we go in now? I’m awfully tired.”

Asher looked at something over her head and then he quite suddenly grabbed her and pressed his mouth to hers. Chris thought it was meant to be a kiss, but it didn’t feel like one. Her eyes were open and his were staring at something behind her. She began to push away from him, but just then she heard someone whistling from behind her and she knew who it was. She grabbed Asher closer to her, trying to put some passion into the kiss. It seemed to work for Ash because his eyes closed and he began to pull her to him, but Chris was only aware of where Tynan was.

“Ah, newlyweds,” Tynan said as he passed them. “It’s so good to see people in love.”

Chris pushed Asher away with some force, put her chin in the air and walked past Ty without a backward glance.

When Asher got to their room, she was slinging sheets onto the narrow fainting couch. “I hate that man! Absolutely, totally, completely hate that man. I wish he’d go back to jail and stay there forever. I’d like to think of him rotting away somewhere.”

“It didn’t look to me as if you hated him,” Asher said stiffly. “It seemed to me that you were trying to use me to make him jealous.”

“Jealous! He said he couldn’t stand to see me with other men, but he didn’t really care. All he cares about is getting that money.”