The Spiral Path by Mary Jo Putney Read Free Book Online Page B

costume
designer was supervising as her assistants tucked and tacked a low-cut chemise
and frothing, lace-trimmed petticoats around Rainey. The effect was deliciously
provocative even though the garments covered her far more thoroughly than
modern clothing.
    "Your
unmentionables look very authentic," he observed.
    Rainey
grinned. "I'll bet you learned a lot about period undies when you did work
for the BBC. These have to be right since they're going to appear on
camera."
    The
knowledge that he would peel that chemise from her slim body accelerated his
pulse, even though there would be a production crew present when that happened.
"Making a television version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses was a
graduate course eighteenth-century lingerie. In the process I learned that it's
powerfully arousing to remove layer after layer to find the hidden woman."
    "Really?
I thought men found it powerfully arousing when females wear only about two
ounces of nylon."
    "That,
too."
    A
young female assistant wrapped a boned corset around Rainey and began
tightening the laces. "Now we'll fit the ball gown over this, Miss
Marlowe."
    Rainey
gasped as the corset tightened. "I may die of suffocation!"
    "There's
a trick to corsets," Kenzie said. "Inhale deeply while she pulls the
laces, and you'll have an inch or so more room in the gown."
    She
promptly sucked in a lungful of air to expand her chest and waist. The costume
designer on the other side of the room said disapprovingly, "An inch more
on the corset will look like two inches on camera."
    "Better
a live, chunky actress than a thin, dead one," Rainey retorted.
    The
designer smiled at the idea that Raine Marlowe could ever be considered chunky.
"You can see why women in this era weren't very liberated. It took most of
their energy just to breathe."
    "The
men weren't much better off." Rainey studied Kenzie's long satin coat,
striped waistcoat, tight breeches, and high, gleaming boots with more than
professional interest. "Amazing how long it took the human race to invent
jeans and T-shirts."
    Kenzie
gave her his best courtly bow. "Ah, Marguerite, much elegance has been
sacrificed to the squalid little god of comfort."
    She
immediately dropped into her role. Expression sultry, she lifted a carved ivory
fan from a table and waved it languidly. "I vow, my lord, that you quite
outshine me, as the glorious peacock outshines his drab peahen."
    "My
plumage has but one purpose, and that is to attract the most desirable female
in the land." On impulse, he pressed his lips to the slender nape exposed
by her upswept hair. Her skin was warm and silky firm.
    She shivered and caught her breath,
yearning and vulnerability apparent on her face. When he stepped back, their
gazes caught as wordless messages hummed between them. Messages, and promises.
    A
poster of a similar kiss was used to illustrate the movie. It embodied such
tender, erotic power that it ended up in the bedrooms of hundreds of thousands
of schoolgirls. Critics raved that the onscreen chemistry between the Pimpernel leads threatened to melt the film stock.
    But
that was later. At the time, Kenzie had known only that Raine Marlowe was like
a spun glass butterfly--delicate, strong, and utterly captivating.

    He rounded a tight
curve and found a straight, empty stretch of road ahead. He accelerated the
Ferrari in a long, smooth surge of power, wishing he had the time to drive to
the Mojave. There was something deeply purifying about the desert. But for now,
the Santa Monica Mountains would do.
    Flashing
lights appeared in his rearview mirror. Bloody hell. Swearing at
himself, he pulled onto the shoulder.
    Behind
him a motorcycle cop braked in a shower of gravel. After checking Kenzie's
license tag in his computer, he swung from his bike and swaggered to the car.
No doubt he was enjoying the prospect of proving that a badge was more powerful
than an Italian sports car. Kenzie opened the driver's window and resigned
himself to receiving a richly deserved