Double Dealing Read Online Free PDF Page A

musings to inquire politely.
    Samantha winced, remembering. “My first experience with a
spa, I’m afraid. I simply wasn’t prepared for what I got. I had read this
wonderful article about these places in a fashion magazine a couple of weeks
ago. ‘A time of cleansing for the body and the mind’ or some such garbage, I
believe was the exact quote.” Samantha shook her head in baffled wonder. “Maybe
you Californians need Miss Carson and her friends to cleanse the body and mind,
but personally, I don’t have the stamina for it. I’ve been here twenty-four
hours, and already I’m exhausted. Also starving to death,” she tacked on with
feeling. “I must thank you for rescuing me, even if you didn’t choose the most
gallant method!” She fixed him with a deliberately charming smile.
    Gabriel stared at the smile for a moment, as if that, too,
had to be assessed and pigeonholed. Then he nodded once. “If it’s any
consolation, I surprised myself as much as you. I’m not normally the impulsive
type.”
    “No, I don’t imagine you are,” she managed lightly. “What
type are you, Mr. Sinclair?”
    “Merely a businessman. Like your father, I imagine. How does
he tolerate your mother’s passion for causes, by the way?”
    Samantha went still, the charming smile tightening into a
cool, too-civil line as she began to realize how very many questions Gabriel
Sinclair was inclined to ask. She had already revealed more about herself than
she had ever intended. It wasn’t that she particularly cared if he knew about
her background, she told herself, it was simply that the matter was largely
irrelevant to the issue at hand. “My father’s tolerance for Vera’s passions was
not a problem. My parents were never married, Mr. Sinclair,” she stated very
neutrally. “He had no say in what she chose to do.”
    There was a pause, and then Gabriel probed carefully.
    “You speak of him in the past tense. Your father is dead?”
    “My father was several years older than my mother. He died
two years ago in his late seventies.”
    Sinclair must have finally sensed her desire to close the
discussion about her parents because he acceded politely to the firm tone of
her words. For a long moment they continued to sip their tea in silence, each
waiting for the other to establish the new direction of the conversation. There
was really only one other topic that was appropriate, of course, and Samantha
realized that Sinclair was going to let her be the one to bring up the business
between them. It was a subtle but effective method of telling her silently that
he wasn’t dying of eagerness to hear the details, she decided wryly. Had
Gabriel Sinclair ever been overly eager or enthused about anything in his
entire life, she wondered.
    In the small, quiet space of time it took her to marshal her
thoughts, Samantha took a moment to analyze the man opposite her. The impression
of solid, even stolid presence which she’d had from first sight of him was
stronger than ever. But now she had time to note other details. The
conservatively cut hair was a deep, dark shade of mahogany, a shade repeated in
the heavy eyebrows. The hazel eyes were as politely unreadable now as they had
been earlier in the spa room, but there was no doubting the intelligence behind
them. She had the feeling that his smiles would be infrequent and would rarely
reach those assessing eyes. The clothes were casual, but they, too, were
conservative, considering the fact that he was a Californian. A button-down oxford
cloth shirt worn open at the throat and subdued slacks clasped with an
unadorned leather belt went with the quietly styled jacket she’d “borrowed”
earlier.
    A conservative, cautious man in all things, she thought in
fleeting frustration. Why couldn’t he have been more like herself? Matters
would have been so much easier.
    “About that note I sent you,” Samantha finally said, taking
the plunge. “I assume from your presence here at the spa that