“It wasn’t a joke, exactly. You see, I-”
She spotted Trent.
He was standing several yards away, chatting companionably with several of his teammates-linemen, if their size was any indication. They towered over Trent, but to Rana, he was the most impressive man in the room.
His dark hair was as carelessly styled as ever, curling over his ears and collar. His tanned face contrasted appealingly with his white shirt. Only Trent could get by with wearing such closely fitted white trousers. They were perfectly tailored to his narrow buttocks and trim thighs. The fit of his navy blazer was impeccable.
As he laughed, his teeth flashed brilliantly. His brown eyes, which kept glancing toward the front door, were shining with excitement and expectation.
Rana’s heart ached with love for him. She wanted to continue staring at him for a long time, prolonging the inevitable. But it had to happen. Only seconds after she’d spotted him his eyes scanned the crowd and came to a stop on her.
Trent, like his friend before him, did a double take when he saw the dazzling woman in white. She had dark red hair, skin that looked as lustrous as marble and as delicious as a ripe peach, eyes that spoke volumes, and a figure that made him think she might not be real.
Feeling a sharp pang of guilt for the sudden pounding of his heart, he tore his eyes away from her. Where was Ana?
The woman’s eyes compelled him to go back for one more look. She was still staring at him. He acknowledged her interest with a slight nod. Her lips parted in a hesitant smile. He noticed then that her front teeth overlapped a little, but they certainly didn’t detract-
Rana knew the moment recognition dawned in Trent. She saw realization break across his face as visibly as ink spilled on white paper. Disbelief was the first expression she read there, then gladness. He even elbowed his way past a monstrous tackle and took a step toward her. She experienced one blissful moment of pure joy before the expression she had dreaded appeared on his features.
The wide smile, there only a fleeting second ago, disappeared abruptly. His eyes went from shining warmth to glittering coldness. Even his body changed. It became stiff and rigid, as though he had snapped to attention.
She watched him turn angrily on his heel and shove his way through the crowd. The partygoers around them, unaware of the drama unfolding in their midst, were still drinking, eating, celebrating.
“Say, I don’t get it,” Tom said as Rana set out after Trent. “What’s wrong with him? What’s going on?”
“We’ll explain everything later, Tom.”
“Do you want me to come along?”
“No. Thanks anyway, but we need to be alone,” she said over her shoulder.
It only took that rapid glance behind her to lose sight of Trent. He had always seemed to tower over her, but he was dwarfed by most of his teammates. The athletes seemed as immovable as giant redwoods when Rana tried to wend her way through them. Her eyes frantically darted around the obstacles of their massive bodies.
She caught a glimpse of Trent going through a set of French doors on the far side of the room and struggled to push through the crowd. It didn’t help when the dance band chose that moment to break into the team’s theme song. Drunk on champagne and optimism about the forthcoming season, everyone went a little crazy.
She finally made it through the gyrating throng to the French doors, and stepped outside into the sultry evening. Steps led down to a brick patio and a magnificent pool. A pair of lovers was unabashedly necking on a chaise. Trent was angrily striding around the far end of the pool, furiously grappling with the knot of his necktie.
“ Trent, wait!”
Either he didn’t hear her or he was ignoring her cry. She feared the latter and went running down the steps after him. Her progress was impeded by her high heels and narrow skirt. She kicked off her shoes and hiked the skirt of her dress above her knees.
The bricks were hot. By contrast, the grass was cool and damp on her bare feet as she followed Trent ’s progress across the lawn toward the man-made lake. A white summerhouse with lacy gingerbread trim stood on its ferny banks.
It was there that Rana caught up with Trent. He was in the act of slinging off his blazer and throwing it into a wicker chair. His necktie lay looped around his neck, and his shirt was unbuttoned almost to his waist. His impressive, hair-matted chest was heaving with rage.
He launched his verbal attack the moment she stepped into the opening of the gazebo. “Did you come to see if my ears were growing?”
Baffled by his question, she shook her head. Until then she hadn’t realized that she was crying. Tears splashed against her cheeks. “What? What do you mean?”
“You made a jackass out of me. I presume you came to see if I could actually bray.”
“It’s not like that, Trent.”
Belligerently he propped his hands on his hips. “No? Then what is it like? Huh? At least have the courtesy to tell me why you made a fool of me. ”
“Making a fool of you wasn’t my intention. You moved in on me, not the other way around. Remember? Who pursued whom first?”
He looked down at the index finger that was pointing at him imperiously. He didn’t recognize it as the one often smudged with paint. The eyes that gazed into his in the darkness were exquisite. And unrecognizable as well. His anger was momentarily overridden by bafflement. “Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Rana.”
“I know that,” he said irritably. “I’m not your average dumb jock, though you obviously seem to think so. I read magazines. I drive down the highway, for heaven’s sake.” He made an angry, sweeping gesture with his hand. “Who could miss you sprawled across a billboard half naked? I watch TV. I see the inane talk shows that focus on the really important things, like hem lengths, while half the world is starving.”
“Oh,” she ground out, “and I suppose a football game has much more global merit.”
He put his face in his hands for a moment, trying to cap his erupting temper. “You’re right. Neither one of us amounts to much, do we? The thing that galls me is that I make no bones about my shallowness. You, on the other hand… What was the disguise for? Those damn clothes and all the rest?”
“I left modeling behind me more than six months ago. I got fed up with it.”
“With looking great? With having the world at your feet, with every woman in the world trying to copy your look? Come on, Ana, or Rana, or whatever the hell your name is, I wasn’t born yesterday. Give me a reason that’s at least plausible enough to believe.”
“It wasn’t the career I left behind. It was everything that went with it.”
“Yeah,” he said sarcastically, “like fame and fortune.”
“My mother was trying to sell me to a rich old man,” she said heatedly. “Is that plausible enough for you? I chose not to prostitute myself that way, and left New York. I came here, moved in with Ruby. I wanted a new name. An unrecognizable, plain, ordinary face. Anonymity. Peace. I wanted people to accept me without the glamorous trimmings, to see past the surface, into the woman I am on the inside.”
“Okay, I’ll buy that for now.” His eyes took in the hairdo, the dress, the accessories. “But what about tonight? Why, after having made that drastic change, did you show up like this tonight?”