Read Online No Red Roses: A Loveswept Classic Romance (Santa Flores) by Iris Johansen - Free Book Online

he was looking at you, and I guess I drank a little too much.”
    “That makes two of us,” Tamara said. “I wouldn’t have responded quite so readily to your charming little remark if I hadn’t had more than I could handle.” She shrugged. “Let’s just try to forget about it, Celia.”
    “I can’t,” she said, her lips trembling. “I can’t take any more. Won’t you please go away?”
    The woman was actually pleading with her. Where was that brittle, sophisticated façade with which Celia Bettencourt usually faced the world? She looked more like a desperate little girl with those big brown eyes swimming with tears. Here was a Celia Tamara had never seen before.
    “This must mean a good deal to you,” she said slowly, her gaze fixed on the other woman’s face. “You don’t have to worry about Todd and me, you know. There’s really nothing between us.”
    “Yes, I know that.” Celia smiled bitterly. “I also know that Todd wants you. It was clear to everyone at the party last night. You only have to reach out your hand and gather him up as you do all the other prizes.”
    “Prizes?”
    “Even when we were children in school, you were always the bright little star pupil who won all the blue ribbons in sight,” Celia said. “And when Daddy hired you after you graduated, he could never stop raving about you. I thought after high school I’d go right into the store but Daddy sent me to Switzerland instead.” She drew a deep, shaky breath. “Then when I came back you were even more deeply entrenched.”
    Good Lord, how close Aunt Elizabeth had come to the truth, Tamara thought with a touch of remorse. Why couldn’t she herself have seen beyond that hard stinging exterior to the hurt that lay beneath the surface?
    “Why are you staring at me like that?” Celia asked impatiently. “Why don’t you say something?”
    “I was just thinking that there’s so much moreto all of us than what appears on the surface,” Tamara said quietly. “And how seldom we make the effort to see beyond the superficial. Do you really love Todd Jamison, Celia?”
    “Yes, I really do,” the other woman answered simply. “And I can make him love me. Give me a year and he’ll forget you ever existed.”
    “And my job at Bettencourt’s?”
    “At least I’ll have a chance to prove myself to Daddy without standing in your shadow.” Her face brightened hopefully. “You’re considering it, aren’t you? You’re going to take the money?”
    Tamara shook her head. “No, I don’t want your money,” she said as she rose to her feet. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get what you want. I’ll think about it, Celia.”
    Celia also stood up. “I suppose I should be grateful you haven’t given me an outright refusal,” she said, attempting to smile. “I can’t lie and tell you I’ll like you any better if you do this for me. You’ve been a thorn in my flesh far too long for me to promise that.”
    “You haven’t made my life exactly a bed ofroses either,” Tamara said dryly, as she followed Celia to the door.
    “I felt I was entitled to get a little of my own back,” Celia defended herself. “That’s why I turned Rex Brody loose on you last night.” There was a ghost of a catty smile tugging at her lips. “I wanted to see how you’d cope with a man the caliber of Brody. I even told him you’d only gotten the job at Bettencourt’s because you’d had an affair with my father.”
    “Charming,” Tamara said sarcastically. “I think perhaps you’d better leave while you’re still ahead.”
    “I didn’t really mean to cause—”
    “Good-bye, Celia.”
    The other woman shrugged as she opened the door. “You’ll let me know what you decide?”
    “Somehow,” Tamara answered. “But I don’t think either one of us would really enjoy another tête-à-tête .”
    Celia Bettencourt nodded. “Good-bye, Tamara.” The door shut quietly behind her.
    Tamara shook her head ruefully as