Double Take by Brenda Joyce Read Free Book Online Page A

glitter in his eyes.
    He turned abruptly and walked out of the dressing room. “We need to talk,” he said from the bedroom. “Come down to my study when you’re dressed.” His tone was oddly polite.
    Kait sagged against the wall, but there was no wall there, just two racks of clothes, which she fell into. She landed with a thump, grabbed a rack, and righted herself. She was quivering like a leaf and her cheeks remained on fire.
    Was she attracted to this man?
    She told herself that it was simply impossible.
    He was good-looking and sexy, but that did not mean she found him desirable. He belonged to her sister. In fact, barring instructions otherwise, Kait intended to do her best to help Lana salvage her marriage and her entire wonderful life.
    Her spirits suddenly crashed and she sank down on the floor. “Damn it,” she said, hugging her knees. How had she ever gotten herself into this?
    She could come clean now, before it was too late. But then Trev Coleman would want to know why she was pretending to be Lana, and what would she say? He’d also want to know just where his wife was— and Kait couldn’t betray Lana that way. Not without her permission. If she did, Kait knew it would be another ten years, if not more, before she ever saw her sister again.
    No, she had promised to help her, and she had to keep that promise. More importantly, when this was over, they would be real friends and she would have a real family. In fact, when this was over, not only would Marni be her niece, but Trev Coleman would be her brother-inlaw.
    Kait cursed again, still hugging her knees. Now she felt sick to her stomach, sick enough to retch.
    Resigned—and fearful of what Trev wanted to discuss—as if she didn’t know!—she got up and pulled on a black V-neck sweater over the gray trousers. She had had enough of heels for one day and she went downstairs in her bare feet, trying to banish the expression she had just seen in Trev Coleman’s eyes from her very treacherous mind.
    He was attracted to her, too.
    No, he was attracted to Lana, his wife.
    In Kait’s silly, plain cotton underwear.
    His door was open; still, she knocked. He was standing before the fire and when he turned to face her, she saw that he was a man very much in control of all of his feelings; a cool gaze swept over her. He saw her bare feet. “What’s that?”
    She tilted up her chin. “My feet hurt,” she said.
    He stared at her with the same calculating look he had given her before.
    “I’m really tired,” she said, and it was the truth. She had the urge to go upstairs and throw the covers over her head, just to escape him for a while.
    Or was it to run from herself?
    “Yeah.” His smile was twisted. “Me, too.”
    She became alert. She did not like the sound of that, and she did not like the suddenly weary look in his eyes.
    “This is a done deal, Lana,” he said softly, his regard unwavering. “I have made up my mind.”
    Dread filled her. What should she say? What should she do? “You can’t make a decision like this unilaterally.”
    “Unilaterally?” His brows drew together. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    Uh-oh,
Kait thought. “We can work this out,” she said.
    “Are you nuts? Have you changed your mind? We’ve been speaking about—no, arguing about—this for months.”
    Kait went into shock. Lana had known that this was coming—and she hadn’t said a word. How could she have deliberately put her in such a position? And did his words mean that Lana had agreed to the concept of a divorce?
    “Why are you acting so dumbfounded?” He sat down, moving some legal pads about as if looking for something. Then he looked up, his green eyes skewering her. “This is hardly a surprise. You knew this was coming.”
    Her mind was overactive now. How could Lana have asked her to switch places when her marriage was on the brink? And the answer was so easy—because she was in terrible trouble, and desperate enough to ask anything