The Claiming by Kaitlyn O'Connor

reached her goal when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned just in time to see the cook poke her head around the door at the opposite end of the hallway. Repressing a strong urge to grind her teeth in vexation, she forced a polite smile as cook beamed at her and hurried forward. "There you be, Missy! I sure glad I catch you b’fore you got away."
    Jana’s heart leapt into her throat. Glancing apprehensively toward the study door, she rushed back the way she’d only just come, hoping to quiet the woman before she alerted Alain. "Yes, Vir?" she asked in a hushed voice.
    It was a problem in the kitchen, which Jana solved by agreeing with the cook’s suggestion.
    No sooner had she rid herself of the cook, however, than she heard sounds indicating the overseer's imminent departure. Whirling, she darted on tiptoe toward the front door once more. She was on the point of slipping out the door when Alain noticed her. She whirled, feeling her face flush guiltily. "Yes?"
    "I see you're dressed for riding. Shall I join you?" Alain asked, starting toward her as the overseer disappeared down the hallway in the opposite direction.
    Jana's face fell. She stared at him wide-eyed a moment while her mind leapt nimbly from one lame excuse to another. It wouldn't do at all to tell him that she hadn't planned to ride, she decided. It would be too obviously a lie when she was wearing a riding costume.
    Alain hesitated when he noticed her obvious dismay at his suggestion, then sauntered forward, one eyebrow lifted quizzically. "You have some objection?"
    She blinked up at him, sorry she couldn't think of one. "Oh, no. I thought you were probably much too busy or I would have mentioned it."
    A slight smile curved his lips, but his eyes were watchful. "By no means. I'm completely at your disposal, as you can see."
    "Shall we go then?" she suggested lightly, since there seemed no hope for it, trying to smile as if she was pleasantly surprised by the offered treat.
    Blane had set aside the most docile Zell for Jana’s use, so she managed to mount without difficulty. Relieved, she guided the animal toward the road and pointed it in the proper direction. They rode for some time in silence. Jana was caught up in her own thoughts and for the most part oblivious to both her companion and her surroundings.
    Alain eyed her pensively, trying to shake off his irritation at her latest rebuff, and the suspicion that he'd stumbled upon a tryst. There was nothing to support such a notion other than Jana's very obvious reluctance for his company and the sense of possessiveness that had descended upon him from the moment he’d met her.
    To say that Jana wasn't what he'd been expecting would've been a colossal understatement.
    She was enchanting. Even knowing what he did, he had been so thoroughly charmed by her that he almost hoped he wouldn't find out what her reasons were for deceiving him.
    He was not so smitten that he allowed himself any doubt that she was. She was not the woman he had contracted with, but she had traveled to Orleans using Jana’s identification and travel code.
    The question was, had she simply stolen the code from some need to escape Earth—possibly prosecution for some crime? Or was she part of some sort of con game with the real Jana? Or a con of her own design?
    Perhaps it was a case of once burned, twice shy, but, given the way men fell at her feet, it had occurred to him to wonder at the possibility of Jana having come to him impure and already impregnated with another man’s offspring. It seemed too farfetched. Jana was certainly beautiful enough, but was she devious enough to have hatched a plot so similar to that his first wife had hatched?
    He meant to discover the truth before he committed himself irrevocably.
    He would, he decided rather grimly, take advantage of the opportunity that had presented itself and see if he could penetrate her guard to find answers.
    Jana’s thoughts were no more pleasant. She was fairly