Chapter Six
Oliver was still out when the call came. Tegan was upstairs, unpacking the last of her extensive wardrobe and installing it in the spare dressing room off the master. She’d agreed to move in, and then Oliver’s people had packed her entire wardrobe, books and other items. Luckily, she didn’t go in for ornaments or personal items. No love letters, no dog-eared birthday cards. Or they might have had more to pack.
Oliver had left her reluctantly to attend a business meeting. Tegan had spent most of her day surfing the net, collecting the pictures of her with him the day before. They hadn't wasted time. Speculation abounded. They’d mobbed Oliver outside his offices, but he’d said nothing. He didn’t need to. He appeared happy and relaxed. They’d seen him take her in, but they hadn't seen her leave so they waited outside the house. Oliver’s security people were keeping the media away from the doorstep, although they couldn’t prevent them populating the street outside. She’d peeped out at them from behind the privacy glass.
Considering she’d spent last night in a man’s arms for the first time, she felt amazingly relaxed about it all, better than she had for months. He really had helped. She’d known that getting a man to fuck her, asking for it and being in control of her own fate would help her, but not to this extent. She suspected it was also because he’d given her her first taste of telepathy since the rape. She’d missed that more than she’d thought. The sense of being alone in her own head with no way of developing communication, no hope of it coming back, had wound her up like a clockwork toy, ready to go off any minute.
He remained in her mind today, although he was stretching his telepathy to the max, and by the time he reached his office, his presence was too faint to be anything but a reassuring presence. She couldn’t contact him that way. But she loved having him there, despite the little warning voice in her mind that warned her she could become dependent on it.
She just had to be aware, that was all. Then she’d be fine. She knew this was only for the duration of the operation, and then she’d move on. Oliver wasn’t exactly known for the duration of his relationships. She’d enjoy the hell out of it while it lasted. Although he’d made her feel like a virgin princess the night before, she was more than that. And less, but she’d never be less than grateful to him for making her initiation so good.
A woman in every sense of the word, and not a hymen to show for it. Just an orgasm that had rocked her world. Rocked her universe.
When she heard the faint sound of the doorbell, she ignored it. There were plenty of people downstairs to answer it, and it was probably for one of them.
But a sharp ring on one of the old-fashioned dial phones scattered around this floor startled her. They had to know he’d gone out so it could only be for her. She picked up the receiver, holding the unusually large piece of plastic awkwardly. “Hello?”
“Ms. Gibbs, there is someone here to see you. If it weren’t that she looks remarkably like you, I wouldn’t have let her in, you understand. The woman claims she’s your sister, Virginia. Is there any way of verifying that?”
“I have a sister called Virginia. She usually carries ID with her, so you could ask for that.” She gave the information reluctantly. She didn’t want Virginia here, in this place she shared with Oliver. A reticence new to Tegan made her want her sister, usually a welcome presence, to stay away. And she had no right to ask anyone up here. Oliver could have any amount of private papers and information he wouldn’t want to let people near, even someone as close to her as her sister. Better to take precautions rather than to put either of them in an invidious position. “Can we use one of the downstairs rooms?”
She heard the relief in Mrs. Leeming’s voice. She’d thought that, too, then. Either that, or Oliver was extremely restrictive about who he invited here. “The drawing room would be best. It’s free all afternoon. I’ll bring you refreshments there.”
“Thank you.”
Careful to tuck the keycard Oliver had given her that morning in her jeans pocket, she left the apartment and headed downstairs. She took a breath and entered the drawing room.
Her sister occupied a chair in the middle of the room, but she rose, hands outstretched as Tegan entered. Virginia looked like she always did, stern and tough, but since she’d chosen a different path in life to Tegan, that was only to be expected. Virginia worked as “bodyguard to the stars,” as her company put it. They didn’t know she was a sorcerer, albeit with weaker powers than Tegan’s—the ones she’d once had—and her martial arts prowess was legendary in some circles. The media liked to picture her as the millionaire with the karate kick, which was fair, apart from the millionaire part.
Virginia studied Tegan, a slight frown between her brows, then rushed across the room and took her into her arms. “It’s so good to see you, darling.” Tegan embraced Virginia warmly and heard her sister’s delighted laugh. “I am so pleased you’ve come through this. You seem a lot better than when I saw you last.” She drew back but kept her arms on either side of Tegan’s waist, surprising Tegan by how much she welcomed the simple human contact. She’d never sought it before, even after her rape.
“I am.”
“And you landed on your feet.”
“I did.”
Mrs. Leeming entered and placed a tray with several pots and a plate of biscuits on the table. Very special chocolate biscuits. She recognized the swirled F on the chocolate covering them. Oliver didn’t stint on his guests, even the ones he didn’t know about. “Tea or coffee?”
They both opted for tea, and her sister shuddered. “The English make terrible coffee.”
“It’s not all bad.” She broke away and took the cup from the housekeeper, who smiled and left the room. She handed Virginia her cup, and she took it with a brief smile. “I’ve taken to tea now.”
“You have to. Self-defense.” Virginia winked and reclaimed her seat, putting the dainty china cup on the glass-topped table in front of her.
Tegan added enough milk to her tea and took her time stirring it. “What are you doing this side of the Atlantic? I thought all the action was in Washington, with the vote for the first Talented bill coming up. Weren’t you bodyguard to a senator?”
Virginia grimaced. “We parted.” She glanced up, and her guarded expression cleared. “What the hell, I’m talking to my sister, the most discreet person in the world. He got fresh. Then he got fresh again. It’s not good to maim the clients, so I left. Most politicians I’ve worked for are sex mad.”
“Looking as you do, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Virginia glanced down at her plunging top and tight jeans and grinned. “Not what I wear at work.”
“You’d look spectacular in sackcloth.” That reminded Tegan of another point. “You’re still covert?”
In deference to Tegan’s job, where covert was an advantage, Virginia hadn’t come out. It meant her reputation as a kick-ass defense expert was huge, as she could use her mind as much as her moves in her job. It worked well for her, and she probably earned the same as Tegan had in CAT. It made the relationship easier between the sisters, that was for sure. Although Virginia had the same dark hair as Tegan, she wore hers in a sleek bob, and her style was distinctly less classic, more edgy. This was probably the first time she’d seen Tegan in jeans, thinking about it. Tegan owned a pair, that was it. One pair, and she’d never worn them out of the house. Too sexy, too revealing. Too inviting. Now that she’d loosened up, maybe she’d ask Virginia for some fashion tips. Maybe.
“No, I haven’t. Not yet. Though, if they out you, they might out me,” Virginia said.
“Is that a problem?”
Virginia shrugged. “Not really. I told my bosses, so they’re ready for it if it happens. It’s just useful, that’s all, but I won’t lose my job over it.” Her smile turned conspiratorial. “Oliver Derrington? No offence, but I’d have thought he was too much for you to take on, big sister, especially for your first affair.”
“How do you know it’s my first affair?” Tegan demanded indignantly. “I’ve been in England a month. It might have been anyone.”
Virginia snorted. “Yeah, right. You’d have called. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted you’ve joined the human race, but the last time I saw you, you were still shivering when the door opened.” She groaned and clapped her hand to her head. “I’m an insensitive bitch. Please, I didn’t mean that last part.”
“That’s okay.” Tegan had to be fair. “Besides, you are right. But the therapy helped and so did the move. Staying in New York would have been wrong. I’d have seen things, remembered things, and I needed the break. I’m thinking of staying on here for work.”
Virginia raised a brow. “Doing what? I mean, you’ve trained for one thing all your adult life. Do you plan something else?”
“CAT can still use me. I’m a trained field agent, Virginia. I just have to retrain in a few areas.”
All this meeting, Virginia hadn’t attempted to contact her mentally, just as she had refrained in the last several months, since she’d first visited Tegan in the facility where she’d spent the first month after the attack. She frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Working for CAT got you into this shit to begin with.”
“It’s a start while I look around and think.”
Virginia took in the elegant room with its discreet, tasteful, expensive fittings, and its equally expensive view over Regent’s Park. “If you were looking for a place do it, you couldn’t do better than this.” She grinned and leaned forward conspiratorially. “So tell me. How did you meet him? What’s he like?”
Tegan tensed. She didn’t want to lie to her sister, who had proved such a wonderful support when she needed it. She and Virginia had never had secrets from each other, apart from the necessary ones when she was working undercover. As Virginia had said to her once, they didn’t count, that was work. But this…this was more than work. But that would mean revealing things about Oliver that he might not want anyone to know.
She sensed rather than heard when Oliver entered the building, but she showed no sign. He put a gentle nudge into her mind, like a mental caress, and she was hard pressed not to run to the door like a schoolgirl with her first crush.
Her sister shot her a tense glance. She’d sensed someone coming close, but not who. The thick stair carpets would muffle his approach, but Tegan’s heart still took an extra beat when the door handle turned and he opened it.
“Good afternoon.” His smooth voice cut through the atmosphere, and she wished she’d sat in a chair rather than the sofa opposite her sister. Because she knew where he’d sit.
After shaking hands with Virginia, he sat next to her. He reached for her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Not something they’d done for the first time yesterday. But a habit set up over time. “To what do we owe the honor?” he asked, his voice upper-class and urbane, at the same time sending her a private message. You’re okay?
I’m fine. More than fine. “You got your work done?”
He glanced at her, smiling in an intimate way that nobody could mistake. “Most of it. I thought I’d come home. I’d done most of it by ten this morning. Once we’d signed the contract, it was a done deal. We just have the details to hammer out.” He held up his hand when Tegan let go it and reached for the teapot. “None for me, thank you. I’m awash with tea.”
He exchanged a smile and reached for her hand again when she leaned back. She got the feeling that if they were alone, he’d waste no time in pulling her into his arms. It was strange and, if she stopped to consider it long enough, unbelievable. That he should want her, that she wanted him quite this much. That she’d allowed herself to want him.
“You came around on the off chance you’d find Tegan here?” he asked Virginia, an edge to his voice.
“I saw the news the minute I opened my computer yesterday,” Virginia said. “The pictures are everywhere.”
Oliver grimaced. “It made the gossip columns, that’s all. And they haven’t identified Tegan yet. Her job wasn’t exactly high profile.” He glanced at her. “I’m guessing they will, since you’ve visited.”
“Kind of.” Virginia cast a conspiratorial look at Oliver. “Family alliances are always good to have.”
Oliver’s features turned impassive and cool, and she felt him withdraw from her a little. “Sometimes they are. Sometimes they’re a damned nuisance.” He was being very British today.
“So, what do I call you?” Virginia demanded.
Oliver smiled, ostensibly friendly. “Oliver, or Derrington. Never Ollie, never my surname.”
“I thought that was Derrington,” she said.
Oliver shook his head. “My surname is Cranfield. If I had any siblings, they’d be Cranfields. But the title holder uses the title as his surname. At formal occasions, you’re supposed to call me ‘My lord’ at first, and then ‘Sir,’ but those kinds of occasions are few and far between.” He paused. “I’ve never found the need to hide behind my title.”
“I can see that. I’ve done some research on you. You’re Tegan’s first boyfriend, you know that?”
“And honored to be so.” He squeezed Tegan’s hand, but she didn’t need that to feel the shot of heat that arced between them.
To break the tension, Tegan laughed. “I took my time, unlike you. I can’t keep track of yours.”
“I’ve been lucky,” Oliver said.
No, he hadn’t. She’d done her research, too, and she knew just how little Oliver’s parents had left him when they died. A huge house in the country and an equally huge burden of debt.
“You have business in London?” Oliver asked.
Tegan felt his impatience as if it were her own. He wanted to be alone with her. He wanted her. The knowledge burned through her. Last night, he’d shown superhuman restraint because it had been her first time. Or so he insisted. She hadn’t been sure, had wondered if he’d done what she asked out of compassion for her or a casual urge to take her or even a desire to imprint his personality on her. She knew only too well how business people could insinuate themselves into people’s lives and their networks, and it couldn’t be denied that she had some useful contacts, one of which was sitting opposite her.
Virginia cleared her throat. “Actually, this is a day for announcements. I should be seeing a bit more of you, Tegan.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’ve taken a job with a colleague of Oliver’s. You probably know him. Marcus Schofield.”
Tegan could have measured the silence in the room in inches, it was so thick.