smile faded from her face. “So that you could blacken Wallace’s name from one end of the country to the other? I don’t think so. Which room is mine?”
“At the end of the hall.”
For the first time, Lauren took stock of her surroundings. Her initial impression was of space; and of some wonderful oak and leather furniture by a modern Finnish designer whom she’d met once at a showing in Manhattan. Then her gaze took in the collection of art that filled the space with color, movement and excitement. She said dazedly, “That’s a Kandinsky. A Picasso. A Chagall. And surely that collage is James Ardmore. Reece, it’s a wonderful piece, I know he’s not very popular, but I’m convinced he’s the real thing. And look, a Pirot, don’t you love the way his sculptures catch the light no matter where you stand?”
Her face lit with enthusiasm, she walked over to the gleaming copper coils, caressing them gently with her fingertips. When she looked up, Reece was watching her, his expression inscrutable. She said eagerly, “It begs to be touched, don’t you think? I adore his stuff.”
“I have another of his works. In my bedroom.”
She didn’t even stop to think. “Can I see it?”
Reece led the way down a wide hallway, where more paintings danced in front of her dazzled gaze. His bedroom windows overlooked the spangled avenues in Stanley Park; but Lauren had eyes only for the bronze sculpture of a man that stood on a pedestal by the balcony doors. She let her hands rest on the man’s bare shoulders, her eyes half shut as she traced the taut tendons. “It’s as though Pirot creates something that’s already there,” she whispered, “just waiting for him.”
Reece said harshly, “Is that how you make love?”
Her head jerked ’round. Jamming her hands in her pockets, she said, “What do you mean?”
“Sensual. Rapt. Absorbed.”
She’d hated being anywhere near Sandor’s bed by the end of the relationship. Not that Reece needed to know that. “How I do or do not make love is none of your concern.”
“So what are you doing in my bedroom?”
The bedside lamp cast planes of light and shadow across Reece’s bare chest; Lauren was suddenly aware that she was completely alone with him only feet from the wide bed in which he slept. “You think it was a come-on, me asking to see the sculpture?” she cried. “Do you have to cheapen everything?”
As if the words were wrenched from him, he said, “I bought the condo new just ten months ago. You’re the only woman to have ever been in this room.”
She knew instantly that he was telling the truth; although she couldn’t have said where that knowledge came from. Frightened out of all proportion, she took two steps backward. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve had fifty women in your bedroom,” she said in a thin voice. “I haven’t slept with anyone since Sandor and I’m certainly not going to start with you.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t care if you do or not!”
“But that was four years ago and—”
“Three years and ten months,” she interrupted furiously, “and what business is it of yours anyway?”
“None. I’ll show you to your room.”
If eyes were the windows of the soul, Lauren thought fancifully, then Reece had just closed the shutters. But did he have a soul? He certainly had emotions. She’d learned that much in the last few minutes.
She trailed after him, noticing another Picasso sketch on his bedroom wall, as well as a delightful Degas impression of a dancer. Reece was striding down the hallway as though pursued by a hungry polar bear. About to hurry after him, Lauren suddenly came to a halt. In a lit alcove in the wall stood a small Madonna and child, carved in wood so old its patina was almost black. The figures were simply, rather crudely carved; yet such a radiant tenderness flowed from one to the other that Lauren felt emotion clog her throat.
She wasn’t even aware of Reece walking back to where she was standing. He said roughly, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered, her eyes filled with wonderment.
“Unknown artist, late fourteenth century. You can pick it up, if you want to.”
“But—”
“Lauren, pick it up.”
With a kind of reverence she lifted the statue, her hands curling around it with the same tenderness that infused the figures. “Look how her shoulder curves into her arm and then into the child’s body,” she said. “Whoever carved it must have loved his child…don’t you think?” She lifted her face to Reece, a face open and unguarded, totally without guile.
Briefly he rested his hand on her cheek. He said thickly, “You could have been the model. For the mother.”
“That’s a lovely thing to say…”
The warmth from his touch coursed through her veins; he was standing very close to her. And this was the man she’d thought bore no resemblance to a human being? A man who had no soul? “Wherever did you find it?” she asked, wanting to prolong a moment that felt both fragile and of enormous significance.
“In a little village in Austria—way off the beaten track.”
“Would you mind if I made a copy of it? I’d destroy the copy once it was finished.” Very gently she put the carving back in its niche.
“I’ll be out every day,” Reece said. “You can do what you like.”
She glanced up. The shutters were back, she thought in true dismay; his face had closed against her. Her question came from nowhere, the words out before she could stop them. “Did your mother love you, Reece?”
He said with deadly quietness, “You have no right to ask that question and I have no intention of answering it.”
“I guess I—”
“Your room’s at the end of the hall. Do you want anything to eat or drink before you go to bed?”
“I’m not a child to be sent to bed because she’s misbehaved!”
“No. You’re an intrusive and insensitive young woman.”
“If you have problems with my question, then say so. But don’t blame me for asking it.”
“We have a business arrangement—nothing more. Kindly remember that, will you?”
Lauren said evenly, “Years ago, I allowed Sandor to cower me into submission over and over again…and I almost lost myself in the process. I vowed I’d never let that happen again. So don’t try, Reece—it won’t wash.”
“We’re fighting cat-and-dog again. And that’s not in the agreement, isn’t that what you said?”
He was right; she had. “There’s something about you,”
