See Me in Your Dreams (15 page)

"Whoever
has Cheryl is the worse human being," Keelin assured him.

When he didn't
respond, she let it go. Tension already thickened the space between them. And
they didn't have long to go. She recognized the dome-shaped temple that was now
lit a brilliant white against the night sky.

The sky.
Illumination from the skyscrapers in the city proper reached even this far,
dulling the blanket against which the stars lay. At home, she had but to step
from her cottage on a clear night to feel as if she were crowned with heavenly
jewels.

A wave of
homesickness washed over her, and Keelin wondered how Da was faring. She
offered a quick prayer for her father's physical recovery and for her own
success in giving him a gift that would bring him peace of mind.

Then Keelin
worried for her own peace, for she wondered if she would get any at Tyler's
home. Not if his ex-wife could help it, she was certain. But upon arrival, she
noted no other vehicle in the drive and had to admit to her relief. Though
she'd stood up for the woman's rights to have a relationship with her daughter,
she didn't care for Helen Dunn.

"Looks
like my ex got tired of waiting to hear about the daughter she professes to be
so worried about," Tyler said.

"You did
try to banish her from the house. Perhaps she took you at your word."

"Helen
does exactly as Helen wants." Then he muttered more to himself than to
her, "More likely she went seeking some male company."

Giving Keelin
a hint at what might have gone wrong in their marriage. Had Helen fallen for
another man? She imagined that when they were first married all those years
ago, Tyler had been just getting started in business. Perhaps he had neglected
his young wife too often...not that there was an excuse for infidelity.

"You must
be starving," Tyler said as he opened the front door. "I never did
heat up that food I promised."

"I could
use a bite," she admitted, though her appetite wasn't what it should be.

Worry about
hunger was the last thing on her mind. Too much else had happened to disturb
her. Being together alone in his house brought back in clarity what had passed
between them earlier. Her in his arms. The sensual demand he'd stirred in
her...then as easily had extinguished with his harsh attitude toward his
ex-wife.

Tyler Leighton
was a complex man, Keelin told herself. She'd best not get too close.

"Freshen
up, if you want," Tyler was saying. "I'll have something on the table
in fifteen minutes."

After racing
up the stairs to Cheryl's rooms, Keelin was ready in five. Wondering if Skelly
had tried to reach her, she thought to ease her cousin's mind if he was
worrying at her whereabouts. She called him at home, expecting his machine to
answer. But when the ringing was cut off, it was Himself at the other end.

"Skelly,
tis
Keelin."

"Hey,
cous
, I was about to send a posse after you. Where'd you
disappear to?"

"North
Bluff. Tyler Leighton's home." The pause at the other end telegraphed her
cousin's disapproval. "I thought it a good idea to get closer to his
daughter." She added, "I already had another contact with
Cheryl."

"How
so?"

Keelin quickly
brought Skelly up to date about the dream and the search, leaving out the more
personal details between her and Tyler. Skipping over the surprise visit from
the dead for the moment.

"And
we'll be out looking for the area again in the morning," she finished.

"You're
staying in his house for the night?"

"I
am."

Skelly didn't
try to hide his sigh of disapproval. "You are a big girl, so I suppose you
know what you're doing. Just promise me you'll be careful around
Leighton."

Her cue to
fill in some details. "Skelly, there's been a development." She
wasn't certain if telling him would worry her cousin less...or more.

"What
kind of development?"

"Helen
Dunn is alive and well."

"Helen as
in Leighton's supposedly dead wife?"

From his tone,
Keelin realized she'd actually shocked him. "The same. Helen was here earlier.
Skelly, Tyler's been paying off his ex-wife to play dead."

A low whistle
at the other end alarmed her. Remembering what her cousin did for a living,
Keelin hoped she hadn't made a mistake in confiding in Skelly. But before she
could caution him that she expected the news to stay strictly between them, she
realized she wasn't alone.

The hair at
the back of her neck rose as she twisted around to see a glowering Tyler
looming over her, his pale eyes as cold as frosted steel.

Chapter Seven

"KEEP THE INFORMATION TO YOURSELF,
Skelly, please," Keelin said, her expression revealing her guilt. "I
must hang up now."

Tyler didn't
wait until the receiver hit the cradle before saying, "I have to be the
most stupid man on earth."
                                                                                    

"You
aren't stupid."

"Then
what do you call my believing you?" He closed the gap between them. She
was sitting on his daughter's bed, for Chrissakes. Betraying Cheryl. Betraying
him
. "You swore to me that you
weren't hand-in-glove with your
sleazoid
reporter
cousin and I bought it."

"Surely
you don't think I was giving Skelly information for another story on you?"

"Just
stop
this!"He
grasped her arm and brought her to
her feet. "Stop playing the innocent. I've had enough for one day!"

All the color
drained from Keelin's face and she stared up at him with wounded eyes as if she
were the injured party. Her pulse jumped in her throat. Mesmerized, he moved
his free hand to her neck, slid his thumb along the center of the slender
column until he found the echo of her too-rapidly beating heart.

"The
least you could do is be honest with me after I've caught you in your
lie."

Her lips
trembled, and she forced out a response. "I have been honest."

He could sense
she was afraid of him. The same way Helen had been afraid when he'd caught his
ex-wife in
her
lies...

But Keelin wasn't Helen,
a small voice inside him
insisted.

He snatched
his hand away and tightly contained his anger. Not to mention his
disappointment.

"Now
you're going to tell me I imagined the conversation you just had with your
cousin, is that it?" Tyler mused in a much calmer tone. "You didn't
waste any time filling him in on my business."

"I merely
rang Skelly to reassure him...let him know where he could find me."

Fool that he
was, Tyler wanted to believe Keelin. He even half did. But he also knew what
he'd overheard.

"And
Helen's name just happened to pop up in that conversation."

"Not
exactly. Skelly had warned me about you because he couldn't find any
information about your late wife's death. No obituary. So he
thought...maybe..."

"That I
did away with her?" The irony striking him, Tyler laughed. He couldn't
help himself. Anger tempered by black humor, he said, "So the whole time
you've been helping me, you thought I was a murderer?"

“No, of course
not. I never believed that, not even before I met your ex-wife."

Her forehead
furrowed in concern, Keelin moved closer and placed a placating hand on his
chest. "I was only hoping to ease my cousin's mind so that he would not
worry about me," she insisted. "That was all, Tyler. I swear you can
trust me."

"Can
I?"

Could she feel
the way his heart was beating unevenly beneath her fingers? Could she sense how
much he wanted to believe her? Was it possible that even now, he might be
fooling himself?

Just in
case...he tested her. "Then prove it," he said in a low voice,
inching closer.

How far would
she go to
prove
her innocence? Would
she try to entice him with her lips? Her body?

When Keelin
backed off, disappointment so clearly written on her features, chagrin filled
him and he felt like an idiot.

"If you
really do not
want
to believe
me," she said coolly, "then I shall leave your house now and never
look back."

Keelin decided
she was finished with trying to convince Tyler Leighton of her good intentions.
Unless he stopped her, she would find Cheryl with Skelly's help and deliver the
girl into the hands of the local constables rather than to her father, she
vowed, even as she fought the frustration...and something that went far deeper.

Tyler's
expression changed, but he said nothing. Keelin crossed her arms over her
chest. She would give him about two minutes to decide...and then she would
leave.

Heartsick, she
counted the seconds.

Only a few to
spare when he finally said, "Perhaps I was mistaken."

"Mistaken?"
she echoed.

"All
right. Maybe I was out of line."

Figuring that
she'd gotten more apology than Tyler would care to deliver, Keelin was
satisfied. Taking a deep breath, she let her arms fall to her side.

"I am
exhausted. If you'll leave–"

"What
about dinner?"

Anything that
she put in her mouth now would turn to cardboard, Keelin was certain. "I
find that my appetite has dulled."

"In the
morning, then."

"I shall
rise at daybreak," she agreed.

Unless another
visit with Cheryl woke her first.

BUT CHERYL MUST HAVE BEEN FAST ASLEEP
HERSELF, for the only dream that came to Keelin in the wee hours of the morning
was of Tyler. Rather of them together, she fumed, staring at the ceiling in the
dark.

In the midst
of her sleep, she'd envisioned him kissing her.

Arousing her.

Confusing her.

For, while made of flesh and blood,
human emotions and passions, Keelin was not a woman to be driven by sheer lust.
She believed in the kind of love found in high

romance – Romeo and Juliet, Guinevere
and
Launcelot
,
Heloïse
and
Abelard – the utopian state of passion her parents had never found together,
sadly enough.

The kind she
had only dreamed of finding...

Nevermind
that all of
those great epics of literature and/or history had ended in tragedy, Keelin was
certain equally many real romances ended in happily-ever-after. For some
reason, one just rarely heard about the good endings. Perhaps they weren't
dramatic enough. She believed that genuine and total love of mind, body and
spirit existed. She was certain her grandparents Moira and Seamus had found
such in each other, hence Moira's last wish for her grandchildren.

For all of her
adult life, Keelin had been waiting to meet the one man she couldn't live
without...and according to the McKenna Legacy, she was fast running out of
time.

But that man
simply could not be Tyler Leighton, she decided.

Not a man who
could deny his child a mother.

But he was
also a man who would do anything for his daughter, an inner voice argued. He
was a man capable of loving another well, perhaps even more than himself.

Keelin had no
doubts that Tyler loved Cheryl with his whole being, that he would do anything
to rescue his daughter. He was even trying to trust
her
despite his cynicism and what must have seemed just cause.
Tyler was not an unfeeling man, merely a misguided one.

So what was it
about him that got to her on a very basic level? The men of Éire with whom
she'd kept company had been quite different. Mostly charming and fun-filled.
Uncomplicated. So why had she never fallen for one of them?

Why did she
now obsess on a man of dark secrets and passions?

Keelin was
still thinking on it when the first gray of dawn stole into the room. Resigned,
she rose from the futon. Ten minutes later she was ready to get started.

And when she
descended to the first floor, Tyler was already waiting. Rising from a chair in
the living room that faced the stairs, he came toward her. If he harbored any
anger from the night before, she couldn't tell. He seemed calm enough. He even
looked better rested than she until they drew closer. Then she noted the puffy
flesh below his eyes that indicated he might not have slept so well, after all.

Had he lain
awake thinking of his daughter half the night?

"Any dreams?"
Tyler asked.

Pulse
thrumming, Keelin lied. "None that would interest you." And felt the
heat rise along her neck and steal into her cheeks.