She took a step toward him. “I fell in love, Trent. With you.”

He turned his back and shoved his hands into his pockets. He stared out over the still lake. Not a breath of air stirred. It was suffocatingly muggy. Crickets whirred from the trees lining the lake and bullfrogs croaked from cool, muddy hideouts. The music from the party seemed even farther away than it was, as though it couldn’t quite penetrate the heavy air.

“What has that got to do with anything?” he asked after a tense, lengthy silence.

“Everything. You said you love me. Me,” she stressed, pressing her hand over her breasts. “Well, this is a part of me. Up until a few months ago it was a vital part.”

“How do I know your love for me isn’t as phony as the rest of you?” He came around to face her again.

His accusing glare made her angry. “What was phony about Ana Ramsey?”

“Her name, for one thing,” he said, punctuating his outburst with a jabbing finger.

“You assumed my name was Ana because you saw ‘Ana R.’ on the paintings. That’s Rana spelled backward, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Very clever,” he said snidely. “Why didn’t you correct me?”

She knotted her fingers together at her waist. “I was still afraid of discovery. I didn’t have it all sorted out yet. I needed more time.”

“You’ve had time since then. Plenty of time.”

“But when would it have been right to tell you, Trent? You were falling in love with me, and I wanted you to.” A tear rolled down her cheek. It didn’t spoil her beauty. It was as crystal-clear and sparkling as the jewels that dangled from her ears. “You were the first person in my life to like me, then to love me, for what I was, not for what I looked like. I couldn’t bring myself to risk losing that. Forgive me for deceiving you.”

She shuddered as she drew in an unsteady breath. “You’re angry, and you have every reason to be. I knew you would be, when I came here tonight. But I never intended to make a fool of you. I didn’t enjoy tricking you all those weeks. There were times I wanted to tell you, but you said you loved me because I was different. I wasn’t certain you’d love Rana as you did Ana.”

She blotted the tears off her cheeks and laughed softly. “After our first night together, I wanted to put on makeup, to dress up. I wanted to be beautiful for you, just as any woman wants to be beautiful in the eyes of her lover. But the things you said to me, your touch, made me feel beautiful. More beautiful than I’ve ever felt. And it had nothing to do with what I looked like.

“For you to understand my motives, you would have to know the loneliness this face”-she pointed a finger toward her chin-”has caused me all my life. I won’t belabor the point, because you might think, ‘What is she complaining about? Her face has made her a fortune. She’s beautiful.’ But I’ve known the same kind of cruel discrimination an unattractive woman is subjected to. Prejudice, rejection, alienation, hurt, no matter what the reason.”

She moved to stand close to him and bravely laid her hand on his chest. “You loved Ana in spite of her plainness. I’m the same woman, Trent. Can you love me-more than that, can you accept me-if I wear this face?”

His eyes were embarrassingly moist, and he blinked in an effort not to disgrace himself. “You are so beautiful,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t… I don’t know you. You’re like something out of mythology, a goddess.”

“But I’m not, Trent. Talk to me,” she pleaded. “Touch me. Kiss me and you’ll know I’m the very same.”

She met him more than halfway. He didn’t do much more than incline his head toward her before she flung her arms around him. She rested her head on his chest and held him close.

“I missed you,” she whispered, nuzzling her face in the opening of his shirt. Her breath feathered through his chest hair. She kissed his tanned skin. “I missed you.”

He groaned softly and pulled the familiar body closer to him. His fingers sank into her hair, and he tilted her head back for his kiss. But a second before their lips met, he hesitated.

She gripped handfuls of his hair and pulled him down nearer. “Don’t you dare become a coward now. Don’t you dare be afraid to mess me up. Kiss me just as you always have.”

That invitation was the only one he needed. His lips slanted hard and hungrily over hers. They parted eagerly. He thrust his tongue inside her mouth and made fervent love to it. Her arms locked around his neck possessively. She arched up against him, adjusting her body to complement his.

Then he knew. She was his. He was home.

“What did Aunt Ruby think?”

“Poor dear. For once, she was speechless.”

“She recognized Rana?”

“Oh, yes. You know her and her fashion magazines. She had heard my mother call me Rana and-”

“Your mother? When?”

“I had a surprise visit from her. I found out that Morey-”

“Who’s Morey?”

“My agent. My friend who died.”

“The one you thought was a suicide?”

“Yes, because that was what my mother had led me to believe.”

“What a bitch.”

“Yes, well…”

“I’m sorry for the interruptions. Go ahead. This is all so confusing.”

“I’ll fill in the blanks later. Suffice it to say that Mother came to see me and it wasn’t a happy reunion.” Her voice took on a sad tone. “I hope that someday she and I will reach an understanding and feel some affection for each other.”

Trent kissed her temple gently. “I hope so, too, but only for your sake. Anyway, back to Aunt Ruby.”

“She had actually heard two people call me Rana, but apparently the name didn’t sink in. When I came downstairs tonight, she just stared and started sputtering. I told her I’d explain everything later.”

“It seems that you’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Miss Ramsey,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger.

“Yes. But as I said… later.”

He pulled her over him and laced his fingers together on the back of her head. Their kiss was lengthy and intimate and erotic.

They hadn’t stayed at the party long after their reconciliation. After some tempestuous kissing in the gazebo, they had repaired their clothes and retrieved Rana’s shoes before returning to the house. Tom met them on the patio, looking worried and confused.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

They invited him to join them as they went through the sumptuous buffet line. Over supper they gave him a brief rundown of the facts. Tom shook his head in aggravation. “I might have known that Gamblin, my buddy the superstud, would end up with the most gorgeous woman in the whole U.S. of A.,” he grumbled.

“Are you really a ‘superstud’?” Rana asked him now, latching onto his earlobe with her teeth. They were lying entwined, naked, in his king-size bed. After a cursory tour of his house and a terse good night to the hovering housekeeper, Trent had taken her straight to bed.

“Complaining?” He cupped her hips with his hard, strong fingers and held her in place.

“Uh-uh.” She sighed, rocking against him. “But I’m a monogamous creature, Trent.”

His eyes locked with hers. “So am I. Now.”

She traced his mouth with her fingertip. “Do we have a future together?”

“We do if you’ll have a broken-down football player for a husband.”

She lifted his right hand to her mouth and kissed the crooked fingers. “I want you for my husband more than anything in the world. But you’re far from broken down.”

“I’m serious, Rana.” The name came easily to him now. “This season I might get out there on the field and make a laughingstock of myself from Green Bay to Miami.”

“You won’t,” she whispered fiercely. “But if you don’t win a single game, it won’t be the end of the world. Don’t you know by now what a tremendous success you are?”

“I am?”

“At the things that are really important.”