Free Deceit by Fayrene Preston Page A

yelled that something's wrong with Rosalyn as she raced by. What is it?”
    Liana took one look at the worsening blisters on Rosalyn’s face. "God, Steve, go call an ambulance. Now!”
    Fifteen minutes later. Liana was watching the ambulance with Rosalyn in it roar off. “I need to be there for her,” she said to no one in particular. “I’d better get dressed.”
    “Just a minute.” Steve restrained her with a hand on her arm. “I heard you tell the paramedics that she’d had an allergic reaction to face powder. What exactly happened?”
    “I’d like to know that myself,” Richard said, coming up to them.
    Her already distressed state was worsened by the sight of Richard. Intellectually, she knew that he was staying here at SwanSea. She was even on the alert against a sudden appearance by him. But she still couldn’t get used to him —the flesh and blood presence of the man.
    “I’d like to hear the story again, myself,” Clay said, joining them.
    Agitated and anxious to be with Rosalyn, Liana gazed at the three men around her. “I’ve already told you. She had an allergic reaction to the face powder. ”
    Clay walked to the table behind them and picked up the still open jar. The paramedics had peeled off the label that listed the ingredients and had taken it with them. “Is this what she normally uses?”
    "Yes, except normally she uses it on me, not on herself.”
    “Had she put any on you yet?” Richard asked, scrutinizing her face with narrowed eyes.
    “No, she was just about to.” “What about when we last worked day before yesterday?” Steve asked. “Did she use it on you then?”
    “No,” she said, exasperation and impatience giving the word emphasis. “It was a new jar. She had just broken the seal.”
    "Could it have been tampered with in some way?” Richard asked.
    “I don’t see how,” Clay answered, eyeing the seal that still lay on the table.
    “And I don’t see why,” Liana said. “Look, it was an allergic reaction, plain and simple. Sometimes it just happens.”
    “Maybe something went wrong at the factory with the batch,” Steve said.
    Clay nodded. “I know a chemist I can send this to for an analysis. I’ll take it into town right now and get it off to him. ”
    “Fine. Do what you want. But I’m going to the hospital and see about Rosalyn.”
    Richard caught up with her just inside the massive front doors of SwanSea and grabbed her upper arm. “Wait a minute. You shouldn’t go just yet. ”
    She looked down at his hand on her arm, and he immediately released her. “Rosalyn is my friend, Richard. We’ve worked together for quite some time, and I want to be there for her.”
    “I understand that, but I also can see how shaken you are.”
    She wrapped her arms around herself. “It was an awful thing to watch happen.”
    “It would have been even worse to have it happen to you.”
    “Hearing that isn’t helping me, Richard.”
    “Okay, okay. All I’m saying is that you should give yourself some time before you drive into town.”
    She had thought all hope long dead in her, but she found herself saying, “It almost sounds as if you’re concerned about me. ”
    He stiffened; his voice mocked. “I just want to make sure you stay in one piece until we go to bed together. ”
    Anger and hurt whipped color into her cheeks. “It’s not going to happen.”
    “It has to, Liana.”
    She felt a cold shiver that affected her like heat. “Look, believe whatever you like, but I have to see about Rosalyn now.’”
    “Then, I’ll let you go. For now.”

Five
    The designer gown arched through the air, a beautiful streamer of shiny sequins and orange and gold chiffon.
    Sara caught the gown, her eyes wide with astonishment.
    Liana’s mouth twisted wryly, knowing what the younger girl was thinking. Anything less than careful handling for such a gown would be called sacrilege by some. “Sorry. Clay took so long with that last shot. I’d begun to feel like the dress