Illusions Read online

  “No.” She lifted her chin a little higher.

  “Why not?” He arched an eyebrow in silent challenge.

  “There never seemed to be a good time.”

  “Then everything is still hanging between you? Nothing has been settled?”

  “Like I said, there was never a good time.”

  “So you’re just going to walk away, with none of your ghosts from the past put to rest?” A thinning patience showed around his mouth, narrowing its line.

  “That’s precisely what I’m going to do.” Pivoting, Delaney headed toward the security screen.

  Riley fell in step with her, murmuring out of the corner of his mouth, “I gave you credit for being smarter than that, Delaney.”

  “Let’s drop the subject, Riley,” she said, curt with him as she dumped her purse and overnight bag on the X-ray machine’s conveyor belt.

  In silence, they went through security and proceeded to the gate. Few other passengers were in the waiting area, leaving plenty of empty seats available. Delaney chose the closest one. Riley snapped the newspaper open to an article on lung cancer while Delaney flipped open her notebook to begin making a list of the things she needed to do when she got back to Los Angeles. But she couldn’t seem to make her mind focus on the task.

  Riley touched her arm and nodded. “A good time or not, there’s no time like the present.”

  She looked up and saw Jared enter the gate area, his hands shoved deep inside the pockets of his denim jacket. He looked tired and drawn—and angry. Delaney put her notebook away and rose to meet him, tightly clutching the shoulder strap of her purse.

  “I stopped by your condo.” Jared’s gaze bored into her. “They told me you had left for the airport. You were going to leave without saying goodbye, weren’t you?”

  “It seemed best.”

  “Why? Do you think I’m still upset because you pulled me off Lucas Wayne?”

  “No.”

  “Then why are you leaving like this?”

  “Because I don’t see how it could ever work between us,” she said in all candor and heard the rustling of a newspaper as Riley turned a page.

  “Just like that?” Jared argued. “You decided it won’t work without ever talking to me?”

  The boarding call for her flight came over the public address system. Riley stood up, folded the newspaper, and tucked it under his arm before he walked over to them and handed Delaney her flight coupon and boarding pass. “I’ll be on the plane,” he told her and nodded to Jared, then joined the line of passengers at the door.

  “How can you leave like this?” Jared demanded again. “I love you and I thought you loved me.”

  “Be honest, Jared.” Delaney struggled against the heaviness she felt. “You hate my work. More specifically, you despise the people I am paid to protect. Even if I moved my offices to Aspen and worked out of here, that wouldn’t change.”

  His expression hardened. “What you are really saying is that your work is more important.”

  “No, it isn’t more important. But it is a part of me—a part of who and what I am. I enjoy it. I enjoy the satisfaction it gives me. But I can’t talk to you about it. I can’t complain about the bad days or brag about the good ones. Every time I try, I end up defending what I do or the clients my company protects.”

  “I could learn to accept it,” Jared insisted, his eyes pained.

  “You would try,” she said gently, aware that the prejudices of a lifetime weren’t so easily discarded. Especially not for Jared when the circumstances surrounding Kelly’s death were still so fresh in his mind. Delaney realized that even if she told Jared about Toby’s role in it, he would still regard Lucas Wayne as being ultimately responsible.

  “Dammit, I love you, Delaney,” he declared, his voice thick with emotion.

  In that instant, everything crystallized. Suddenly she saw the truth.

  “Do you, Jared?” she wondered. “I don’t think so. I think you are in love with who you want me to be.”

  “That isn’t true.”

  “Isn’t it? If you were really in love with me, my work wouldn’t come between us the way it does. I’m not saying you would love it, but you would take pride in my accomplishments, celebrate my victories, and stand beside me when things go wrong. But you can’t do that.”

  “You’re wrong. I love you—”

  “You want to love me,” Delaney said, and recognized a second truth. “And I wanted to love you. For a while, I even convinced myself I did. I was wrong. We were both wrong.” She lifted a hand, wanting to touch him, then let it fall back. “I’m sorry, Jared.”

  She turned and walked to the passenger door. When she stopped to hand the flight attendant her boarding pass, she glanced back and saw Jared striding angrily away. As she walked onto the plane, Delaney felt incredibly free, and incredibly alive for the first time in years.

  Riley sat in a window seat, his head turned to look out. When she swung her overnight bag onto the floor in front of the aisle seat, he turned with a startled look. Then a slow smile spread across his face.

  “You dumped him,” he guessed, his eyes glinting with satisfaction.

  “No, I finally recognized it was all an illusion. Smoke and mirrors with no substance.” She sat down and buckled her seatbelt, using her feet to shove the overnight bag under the seat in front of her.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Riley said. “That means you’re free to marry me.”

  “Right,” she mocked, certain he was joking.

  “Don’t laugh. I’m serious,” he informed her calmly. “In case you don’t know it, there are two kinds of love. The most popular is the instant, fire-and-flames kind, with rockets going off and bells ringing. But there’s another kind of love, one that sneaks up on you. One day you turn around and there it is—strong and deep and true.”

  Delaney stared at him. “You’re crazy.”

  Riley smiled. “Crazy in love with you. I have been for years.”

  His gaze locked with hers, a warm steady light shining from the depths of his eyes. To Delaney’s absolute and utter amazement, she felt her pulse quicken.

  About the Author

  JANET DAILEY is among the world’s bestselling authors. She has written over ninety novels and lives with her husband, Bill, in Branson, Missouri. Visit her website at www.janetdailey.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Praise

  RAVES FOR ILLUSIONS

  “Janet Dailey’s name is synonymous with romance….Illusions…contains a twist at every turn.”

  —Tulsa World

  “The perfect beach book.”

  —Wichita Eagle

  “The perfect title for this story in which things may not be as they seem…. Enjoyable.”

  —Knoxville News-Sentinel

  “Dailey is a smooth, experienced romance writer.”

  —Arizona Daily Star

  “[Ms. Dailey]…has had ample practice in tugging at heart strings while creating suspense. It’s a sure-fire combination.”

  —Cape Codder

  “Janet Dailey’s mastery of sweeping romance, divided loyalties, and searing passion has made her one of the bestselling authors of all time.”

  —Lanier County (GA) News

  “A master storyteller of romantic tales, Dailey weaves all the ‘musts’ together to create the perfect love story.”

  —Leisure magazine

  Books by Janet Dailey

  CALDER PRIDE

  ILLUSIONS

  LEGACIES

  THE PROUD AND THE FREE

  TANGLED VINES

  ASPEN GOLD

  MASQUERADE

  RIVALS

  HEIRESS

  THE GREAT ALONE

  THE GLORY GAME

  THE PRIDE OF HANNAH WADE

  SILVER WINGS, SANTIAGO BLUE

  CALDER BORN, CALDER BRED

  STANDS A CALDER MAN

  THIS C
ALDER RANGE

  THIS CALDER SKY

  NIGHT WAY

  RIDE THE THUNDER

  THE ROGUE

  TOUCH THE WIND

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ILLUSIONS. Copyright © 1997 by Janet Dailey. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2007 ISBN: 9780061832949

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