In Serena's Web by Kay Hooper

eye on the hotel.”
    Brian kept hearing the words
I fell in love with you
over and over in his mind, but tried not tothink about them. He rose to his feet slowly. “It’s more serious than you told me, isn’t it?”
    “It wasn’t … I didn’t think it was serious when I told you. Daddy and Josh think it’s serious now.” She sighed, aware that her control was minimal at best. “Why don’t you—talk to Josh about it, if you want to know more.” She glanced at her watch again. “He’s probably downstairs in the bar.” With a sudden, soft laugh she added, “There’s a lovely blond pianist who plays there every night.”
    “I’ll talk to him.” Remembering, abruptly, Brian added, “After I apologize to him.”
    Serena blinked. “For what?”
    “For slugging him,” he said with a growl, and stalked from the room.
        Josh Long was in the dimly lit bar, as Serena had suspected he might be. The blond pianist was playing for a half-dozen or so late-night guests.
    Brian spotted Josh immediately, and went directly to where the other man was seated alone in a booth. “I want to apologize,” he said.
    “Think nothing of it,” Josh responded instantly. “Join me? I’ll buy you a drink.” If there was a slight swelling in his jaw, only Brian’s guilty conscience could see it. Josh, at least, didn’t appear to be aware of it, or in pain.
    Brian slid into the booth across from the dark younger man, but said, “I’ll buy. I owe you that, at least.” He thought privately that he owed considerably more.
    Josh smiled, but said nothing. He studiously avoided looking up at the brunette cocktail waitress while he gave his order and listened to Brian’s, then he said dryly, “I’ve been caught in a few of Serena’s plots before now. Believe me, you reacted naturally.”
    “Has she
always
done things like this?” Brian asked incredulously.
    Josh pulled a gold cigarette case from his inside pocket, not answering until his cigarette was lighted. Then, with a chuckle, he said, “I think the first plot involved saving four homeless puppies. In fact she got a neighborhood animal shelter established—which is still operating to this day. Rena was seven at the time.”
    Brian thought about that. “Remarkable. But still … A plot like this one. You knew … I mean—”
    “Knew she wanted to marry you?” Josh nodded. “I knew. Sorry about my part in all this, by the way, even if it was only window dressing. Serena’s always been able to wrap me around her little finger, I’m afraid. There’s usually no danger in that.” He looked at Brian from hooded eyes. “She has an innate ability to make most people happy. Tricks and all.”
    Brian avoided the look, sipping his drink slowly. He couldn’t fight his own curiosity, and he couldn’t stop his sharp mind from working. “Control,” he said suddenly. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
    Josh followed the thought unerringly. “Control. It probably wouldn’t have become so much a part of her personality, except for Mother’s death.”
    Brian met that hooded gaze steadily. “But your mother was killed.”
    Nodding slowly Josh said, “Under very difficult circumstances. Serena was ten; there was no way to keep the truth from her. She learned, long before she should have, that there were cruel,malevolent people in the world. People who were willing to destroy to get what they wanted. It wasn’t a—very nice lesson. It was a lesson never forgotten.”
    It chilled Brian to think of a ten-year-old little girl’s tragically shocking realization that people could be unspeakably cruel, impersonally vicious.
    Softly he said, “Ten years old. She could have withdrawn, become possessive of those she loved. She could have learned to mistrust, to be wary and frightened. It would have been completely natural, even expected.”
    Josh nodded. “Instead she became even more softhearted and—I think—even more innocent. She’s complex, layers and layers to her,