Grand Passion

her reassuringly. “I think if anyone can do it, Max can.”
    “Cleo's right,” Andromeda said. “Max seems very competent.”
    They all watched in silence as the Jaguar disappeared from sight.
    “ He's gone .” Sammy came running down the hall into the lobby. He was clutching Lucky Ducky, and his eyes were huge.
    Cleo and the others looked at him in concern.
    “What's wrong, darling?” Sylvia asked gently.
    “Max went away for good.” Tears formed in Sammy's eyes.
    “No, dear, he just went to look for Benjy.” Sylvia grimaced. “I mean, Ben. He'll be back tonight.”
    Sammy shook his head with solemn despair. “He went away for ever.”
    Cleo went down on one knee beside him. “How do you know that, Sammy?”
    “'Cause he took everything with him,” Sammy sobbed. “I went upstairs to his room, and all his stuff is gone. Even the picture I gave him.”
    “You must be mistaken, honey.” Cleo stood up quickly. “I'm sure his things are all there.”
    “They're gone,” Sammy whispered. “His door was unlocked, and everything's gone.”
    “I'll go check,” Cleo said.
    She dashed up the three flights of stairs to the third floor and paused to catch her breath before she went down the hall to the attic stairs.
    Sammy had to be wrong. Max was coming back. He'd said so.
    Or had he? Cleo tried to recall his exact words. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that although Max had implied he would return that evening, he hadn't actually promised to do so.
    Cleo opened the narrow door at the end of the hall and took the attic stairs two at a time.
    The door to Max's room was unlocked, just as Sammy had said.
    Cleo opened it cautiously, aware of a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach.
    The room was as neat and orderly as it had been the day Max had moved in. Cleo went through it methodically. Not a single one of Max's expensive white shirts hung in the closet. The dresser was empty. The black leather carryall was gone. So was Sammy's picture, and the copy of The Mirror that Cleo had given to Max.
    It was as if Max had never been there.
    Cleo sank slowly down onto the bed and clasped her hands very tightly in her lap. She remembered the question Max had asked her last night after he had seduced her.
    Speaking of paintings, you really don't know where my Luttrells are, do you ?

Chapter

8

    H e would remember her joyous laughter for the rest of his life. Max could still see Cleo clearly in his mind, shimmering first with passion and then with delight. And he had been the one responsible for giving her both.
    Max savored the unfamiliar pleasure that coursed through him. Even the pouring rain that partially obscured the highway and the knowledge of what lay ahead could not dim the warmth that welled up inside. He was not accustomed to being viewed as a man who could make someone else happy. He certainly had never seen himself in such a light.
    But last night he, Max Fortune, had made Cleo Robbins happy.
    She said she had waited all her life for the right man, for him , and she claimed she had not been disappointed. Last night, for the first time in his entire life, he, Max Fortune, had been someone's Mr. Right.
    And this morning the bizarre little circle of friends that orbited around Cleo had treated him like an important member of the family. To them he had been a hero setting forth on a quest. Everyone had fussed over him, fed him homemade buckwheat pancakes, urged him to drive carefully, told him to hurry home, reminded him that dinner would be waiting.
    Dinner would be waiting .
    Max contemplated that notion for a long time. He could not remember anyone ever holding dinner for him. The closest he ever came to the experience was when he ordered room service at a Curzon hotel. Max decided that room service definitely didn't count.
    Too bad he would not be able to enjoy arriving late at Robbins' Nest Inn to find a hot meal and a family waiting this evening. But he had known from the start that his odds of returning to a warm welcome were vanishingly small. After all, everyone would be waiting for a hero, and Max knew he probably would not qualify for the role.
    Returning to Cleo and her family as a hero tonight meant returning with Ben Atkins in tow. There was little chance of that.
    He had known the quest was doomed from the start. He should have refused it. But somehow, what with everyone from Cleo to Sammy expecting him to do something, he had been unable to say no.
    After a long,