Foolish Deceiver Page 16

  'I don't understand,' Allie admitted, shaking her head. 'What are you afraid of? That you'll tire of me? I just told you I'm not like your late wife, I'm not domesticated. I ...'

  Before she could continue, there was a discreet knock at the door. They both glanced towards it, then Linc released her, saying, 'I suppose you had better see who it is.'

  Allie nodded, going quickly to answer the summons. Whoever was calling had picked an inauspicious moment to do so, and they'd get little welcome from her.

  It was only a bellboy, however. 'Dr Smith?' he asked, and she nodded. 'This message was left for you at the desk.' He handed over the white envelope and she accepted it.

  'Just a moment.' Retrieving her bag, she found the boy a tip, then sent him on his way. The door closed, she leaned against it and glanced down at the unopened envelope. The prosaic interruption had recalled her to the details of ordinary life. She glanced at her watch. 'Damn, my meeting was supposed to have started ten minutes ago,' she said distractedly, not looking up at Linc as she tore the envelope open.

  'Oh, good ... it's been post ... poned.' The last word was drawn out as she read the signature on the message. For the first time since opening the door, she looked at Linc, her eyes startled. 'You're Aragon Software?'

  'And you are Dr A. Jennings Smith,' Linc stated grimly, his voice a blend of astonishment and anger.

  His tone jolted her, and she eyed him warily. She hadn't even thought about Linc's still regarding her as the air-headed dimwit she'd pretended to be last summer. Carelessly, she had given herself away now without preparing him—and obviously he wasn't too pleased with her. Little drifts of crimson rage were creeping up his cheeks, and his eyes couldn't have been harder if they'd been made of stone.

  Striving to pass it over, Allie answered lightly, 'Well, of course I am.' He didn't reply. 'Surely you knew that?' She laughed softly, but to no avail. No answering smile touched his mouth. Cornered, Allie went on the offensive. 'I told you I had an appointment. Why didn't you let me know it was with you so I wouldn't have been worrying about missing it?'

  'My appointment, which I put off, was with A. Jennings Smith, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. We were going to discuss the new software package he, or rather she, had developed for the fish-farming industry.' His gaze slid down her figure with insulting intent. 'I certainly never imagined that Dr Smith was the dumb blonde I'd met last summer.'

  'You mean, Clare didn't tell you?' Allie attempted, quailing slightly under his towering rage.

  'No, Clare didn't tell me!' he mimicked snidely. 'You two really must have laughed yourself silly at the fool you made out of me.' He pushed past her, heading for the door.

  'Yes, just get the hell out of here!' Allie shouted at him. 'You're just like every other man I ever met. You can't stand the idea that I might be smarter than you are!'

  'There you've got it wrong, lady,' he shot back, swinging back around to confront her. 'With all your vast IQ, can't you figure out why I dumped you last summer? I cut you out of my life because I thought you were so dumb you'd bore me silly if we ever got married! That's where your stupid little game got us!'

  They glared at one another, two antagonists facing one another in mortal combat. Suddenly, though, the bubble of Allie's anger burst, shattering her. 'You thought I was too dumb to be your wife?' she asked in a whisper.

  'That's right, too dumb,' he confirmed, his voice subsiding to a normal level as his fury subsided. They stared at one another for a full minute, then one corner of Linc's mouth suddenly twitched upwards. Allie saw the movement, and a giggle rose in her throat.

  'You thought I was too dumb,' she repeated, her laughter breaking free to be joined by his.

  'Yes, Dr Smith, I guess I'm a hard man to please,' he advised her through his mirth. When eventually they gained control of their hilarity, Linc sobered. 'I was afraid of making the same mistake I did in my first marriage. Natalie ... I couldn't talk to her. She couldn't understand half of what I tried to explain to her, so I finally gave up. We just sort of drifted along after that, going our separate ways.'

  'I ... I ...' She shook her head. 'I thought you wouldn't want anything to do with me if you knew I was ...'

  'A brain?' he supplied. He smiled, and it was as if the sun had come out after a thunderstorm. 'It was just the opposite. I tried to get you interested in my work, but you didn't seem to understand any of it.'

  Allie nibbled her lower lip, then confessed, 'Actually, I was very interested. In fact, that night you were telling me about the program you were developing—later, I looked up the company that was producing that new echo-sounder you told me about. I used data from it to develop my fish-count program.'

  'You did?' he asked, considering for a moment. 'So that's how you've managed to get such accuracy.' He gave her a long look, his features demanding, but there was a gentle light in his eyes. 'And what about chess? Do you really not know how to play?'

  'I know how,' she admitted sheepishly, flushing pink. 'I've collected a few master points, in fact.'

  His eyebrows rose. 'I really ought to beat you for deceiving me like you did,' he said sternly. Despite his tone, when he walked over to her, his arms were gentle as they encircled her willing form. His lips took hers in a warm, tender kiss. When he lifted his head, he murmured, 'What were we arguing about?' Unable to get enough of the taste of her, his lips lingered over her cheek, her temple.

  'I don't remember,' Allie breathed, tightening her arms about his waist to pull him closer. She moved against him provocatively, her mouth parted in invitation.

  He denied her, however. Although his arms remained around her, he put a space between them so that he could look down into her eyes. 'Did you really think I wouldn't love you if I thought you were too intelligent.'

  Avoiding his gaze, Allie nodded slightly and felt him tense.

  'Can't say I care much for your assessment of my character,' he admitted sardonically.

  'You have to understand,' Allie explained, smoothing down his ruffled feathers. 'That's been men's usual reaction to me in the past ... all except for one.'

  'The man you were involved with before coming out to Vancouver Island? Tell me about him. Did you love him?'

  There was a faint note of jealousy in his voice that thrilled her, but she wanted to allay it none the less. 'Not really.' She went on to tell him all that had happened with Kevin.

  'He sounds like a jerk,' Linc pronounced dismissively at the end, but she heard relief in his voice. They kissed again, then Linc pulled away. 'I hope you're not going to think that the only reason I am marrying you is to get hold of your fish-count program. I will admit that I'd be pretty upset if you sold it to anyone else.'

  Allie's eyes were misted with happiness as she looked up at him. 'Are we getting married?'

  'Of course we are. The minute I saw you again in that elevator, I knew I had to stop kidding myself. Dumb blonde or not, I knew I couldn't let you slip away from me again.'

  'How would you like a program for counting fish as a wedding present?'

  He gave her a glance of wry charm. 'That doesn't sound very romantic. Besides, I won't let you. You may be a whiz at maths and science, but you don't appear to know much about business. That program could make you a fortune.'

  'Really?' Allie exclaimed, drawing back to peer into his face. He nodded. 'I thought I'd only get a few thousand dollars for it.'

  'If it does what you claim it does, you'd better be adding some zeros on that estimate, my dear.'

  'Oh.' She gave him a disconcerted look. 'I don't know much about the marketing end of things. This was the first time I've tried to sell a freelance project. In fact, I was scared about having to meet with ... I guess it was you,' she laughed softly.

  'Well, you're just lucky it was me. Someone else might have been tempted to take you to the cleaners, but I pride myself on Aragon Software's making a profit without having to take advantage of people.'

  Her grin was pert. 'I won't worry about that. I think I'll let
my husband deal with all my business in the future.'

  'I guess that would be a solution,' he laughed. Bending his head to claim her mouth again, they were interrupted by the jangling of the telephone. 'Damn,' he said, releasing her.

  'We could let it ring,' Allie suggested, but glanced over to the offending instrument. Her gaze caught on the bedside clock: five past eight. 'Oh, no!' she exclaimed. 'I'm supposed to give a talk tonight at eight o'clock. I haven't even changed!' She gave Linc a look of helpless distress.

  'Calm down,' Linc advised, striding over to the phone and lifting the receiver. 'Yes, Dr Smith is here ... yes, yes. Well there's been a delay, but she'll be along in a few minutes.' He replaced the receiver and turned back to where Allie was standing passively in the centre of the room. 'That was the conference organisers. They're wondering what's happened to you.'

  'Oh, hell! This is always happening to me!' Allie swore, feeling dreadful and ashamed at having let the conference organisers down. 'I don't suppose they'll ever ask me back.'

  'They will. After all, you have a good excuse for being late ... unless you get engaged every day?'

  She grinned at him suddenly. 'I don't.' Like a homing pigeon, she headed for his arms again, but he stopped her.

  'None of that,' he chided. 'I promised them I'd have you there in a few minutes. Now, have you got your notes for your talk prepared?'

  'They're in my briefcase,' she admitted, reluctantly going to fetch it. Her nerves were rock-steady now—she just didn't want to leave Linc to give her talk. She'd rather stay here and have him make love to her.

  'Stop dallying,' Linc disciplined her, taking the briefcase from her. 'I'll dig out your notes while you go do whatever you have to with your hair and make-up.'

  'But my dress! It's too casual,' Allie protested. 'I haven't time to change it. Couldn't we just call them and tell them I've died!'

  He chuckled at her suggestion, but none the less started rummaging through the papers in her case, looking for the appropriate pages. 'You don't want to cheat me out of my moment of glory, do you?'

  'What do you mean?'

  Finding the notes at last, he walked over to her, planting a firm kiss on her mouth. 'I mean that every man there is going to be envying the fellow who's captured the most beautiful, brilliant woman in the world. And I'm that fellow!' Turning her towards the bathroom, he gave her a little shove. 'Now, go gild the lily a little bit and we'll be on our way.'

  The delegates to the annual convention of the National Association of Computer Programmers and Analysts stirred restlessly in their seats as they waited for the main speaker of the evening session to arrive. At last there was a flurry of movement at the stage door, and a young girl with flyaway blonde hair and sparkling grey eyes emerged on to the stage. There was a general sigh of disgruntlement. She was probably the eminent Dr Smith's secretary, here to tell them that the delay would be prolonged.

  However, the master of ceremonies for the evening greeted the girl with relief—his small store of anecdotes to keep the crowd amused having been depleted—and turned to face the audience.

  'Distinguished colleagues, I give you our speaker for the evening, Dr A. Jennings Smith.'

  Allie stepped up to the podium and waited for the man who had just entered the auditorium to take his seat in the front row. The shy smile that flitted across her lips was solely for his benefit. He returned it with one of his own, a smile of pride and encouragement. Linc raised his thumb in a thumbs-up signal and, leaning back in his seat, crossed his arms in front of him, relishing the coming moments. Before launching into her opening remarks, Allie saw him turn his head to say a word to the man seated next to him. The distinguished gentleman looked hard at Linc, then up at her. Hiding a grin, Allie looked down at her notes. She guessed the man had looked faintly envious after hearing what Linc had told him. Lifting her head with an upsurge of self-confidence, Allie began to speak.