‘Shanna—’
She touched his cheek mockingly. ‘Tomorrow, Henry. And I shall expect a full explanation.’
‘But—’
‘A full explanation,’ she repeated determinedly.
‘I’m beginning to wonder who’s the eldest in this family,’ he muttered before moving away to join his wife, as a couple of the guests were taking their leave.
‘A good question,’ drawled an amused voice from behind her, an unmistakable voice of honey and gravel. Shanna spun round, wondering just how long Rick Dalmont had been listening to her conversation with her brother.
‘You really shouldn’t pressurise Henry, honey,’ he mocked. ‘Now me, you wouldn’t have to pressurise at all.’
‘I told you—’
‘You wouldn’t even have to be persuasive,’ he cut in softly. ‘Let me take you home and I’ll tell you all.’
She stiffened at the intimate warmth of his gaze. ‘I have my car here.’
He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Then you drive me home—I came by cab.’
‘I’d rather not,’ she refused distantly.
Anger flashed in the dark eyes. ‘No wonder your husband turned to other women!’ he rasped.
Shanna went deathly pale. ‘What did you say?’
‘When a man is frozen out of his own bed it’s inevitable that he’ll turn to other women for physical satisfaction,’ he scorned.
‘Are you saying that’s what Perry did?’
‘It’s public knowledge,’ he shrugged again.
‘Is it?’
‘Was he still sleeping with you before he died?’
‘Our sleeping arrangements have nothing to do with—Oh!’ she gave a painful gasp as her wrist was grasped and her arm twisted up behind her back, her body brought dangerously close to the hard-muscled flesh of Rick Dalmont. ‘Let me go,’ she ordered between gritted teeth.
‘Smile,’ he instructed curtly, his teeth showing white against his dark complexion. ‘I said smile, damn it,’ he bit out savagely at her lack of response to his order.
She looked about them desperately, amazed that no one could see what this man was doing to her. And then she realised that several people who had come here alone were now in rather close clinches with a man or woman they had met here tonight. Janice would be shocked to know that some of these couples whom she had only just introduced would even be in bed together later tonight.
But not Rick Dalmont and herself. And he was still hurting her, his hold on her arm brutal. ‘How can I smile when you’re breaking my arm?’ she groaned.
He lightened his grip slightly, although the relaxation made her body curve more intimately against him. ‘I’m sorry,’ but he didn’t look very repentant. ‘Now answer my question,’ he ground out.
‘I’ve forgotten what it was,’ she muttered.!
‘Liar!’
She blinked at the vehemence of his tone. ‘I won’t discuss my marriage to Perry with you!’
Rick sighed, releasing her completely at the inflexibility of her tone. ‘Even in the face of danger you choose to defy me.’
‘Danger?’ She raised black brows.
‘So cool,’ he shook his head. ‘It isn’t natural. Your eyes speak of fire, of all you have to give a man—’
‘Not you!’
‘Me,’ his eyes glittered furiously. ‘I’m getting tired of waiting for you, Shanna—’
‘What is it, Mr Dalmont?’ She refused to rub her aching wrist and arm; she wouldn’t show any weakness to this man, ever. ‘Did you think that because I’ve been widowed for the last six months I would fall into your arms like an over-ripe plum? Did you think I would be so sexually frustrated that you would have no trouble at all getting me into bed with you?’ Her voice rose angrily.
‘Maybe you’re sexually cold,’ he dismissed.
‘Oh, that’s usually the next insult!’ she scorned. ‘Then I’m supposed to sleep with you just to prove that I’m not cold at all. I’ve been through it all before, Mr Dalmont. I must say, I’m disappointed in you—I expected more sophistication from you.’
His mouth tightened. ‘Why do you have to fight me?’ he asked quietly, impatiently. ‘I’ve asked you out so many times over the last two weeks that I’ve lost count.’
‘Then give up!’
‘I want you, Shanna,’ he told her forcefully, pinning her to the spot with the intensity of his gaze. ‘And I never give up on something I want as badly as I want you. I’ve left a trail of broken people behind me who could tell you that.’
She had gone very pale, believing his threat. ‘That was business—’
‘Business or personal, it doesn’t matter,’ he shrugged. ‘I always win in the end.’
She had heard of his ruthless business dealings, of the people he had ruined in his desire to add to the Dalmont coffers, but she had never heard of this singlemindedness with a woman before. Although perhaps he had never been turned down before! ‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘Not this time you won’t,’ she told him with quiet conviction.
‘You loved your husband, is that it?’
She couldn’t help flinching at the scorn of his tone. ‘Yes,’ her voice was husky, her head bent.
‘You still love him?’ he grated.
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t believe it!’
Her head went back proudly, her eyes flashing. ‘It’s the truth,’ she snapped.
‘And the parties almost every night, the men who pay you attention—that’s mourning him, is it?’ Rick derided harshly.
‘He wouldn’t want me to stay at home.’
‘I would!’ he bit out fiercely, his eyes jet-black. ‘I’d want you to lock yourself away until you died too.’
His intensity took her breath away, and she swallowed hard. ‘Maybe that’s what I am doing, waiting to die,’ she said softly.
‘At parties every night?’ he scorned.
She looked at him with steady green eyes. ‘Maybe I just don’t want to be alone when I die.’
Rick Dalmont looked as if she had physically hit him, paling slightly beneath his olive complexion. ‘Shanna…?’
She sighed, shaking off his hand. ‘Selina seems anxious for you to return to her side,’ she drawled. ‘I’m sure she’ll be much more—amenable than I could ever be.’
‘I don’t want Selina,’ he rasped.
‘Poor Selina,’ she murmured, her cool façade back in place. ‘She’s very attractive.’
‘She doesn’t have black hair and green eyes.’
‘I’m sure there are thousands of willing women who do.’
‘With emphasis on the willing, hmm?’ he taunted.
‘Exactly.’ She gave him a saccharine-sweet smile.
He shook his head. ‘It’s still you I want, Shanna.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I really believe you are,’ he frowned at her quiet sincerity.
‘Yes,’ she nodded.
‘I can’t work you out.’ Rick shook his head dazedly.
‘Don’t even try,’ she advised. ‘Just don’t become involved with me—’
‘I want to go to bed with you, not become involved!’
Her smile was genuine this time. ‘And one precludes the other with you?’
‘Yes,’ he bit out tautly at her mockery.
‘Goodnight, Mr Dalmont. We’ll meet again?’ she drawled.
‘You can bet on it!’
‘I’m not usually a betting woman, but I’m sure that if I were I would win that bet.’
‘Little tease!’ he rasped.
Her humour faded as quickly as it had begun. ‘That’s one thing I’m not, Mr Dalmont. I’ve told you bluntly to leave me alone, you’ve chosen not to take that advice. You would be doing us both a favour, and saving yourself a lot of time, if you gave up on me now.’
‘Because you’ll never give in to me?’
‘No.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m not prepared to give up on you yet. I’ll be seeing you, Shanna.’ He
ran a fingertip lightly down her cheek, lingering against her mouth, nodding confidently before going over to Henry and Janice to take his leave.
Shanna wasn’t altogether surprised at his departure from the party; he knew there was no point in pursuing her any further tonight, not when she had made her feelings more than plain. And she didn’t want to stay here any longer herself now; the verbal encounter with Rick Dalmont had opened up wounds that she knew would never get the chance to heal.
‘What did you do to him?’ Henry demanded when she joined him. ‘I’ve never known Rick to leave a party at eleven o’clock before!’
She shrugged. ‘There has to be a first time for everything.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘It may have escaped your notice,’ she taunted, ‘but Selina has gone too.’
‘She left with Gary,’ her brother dismissed. ‘She gave up once Rick returned to you. She decided it’s Gary’s lucky night instead.’
‘Bitchy!’ she smiled.
Henry grimaced. ‘Selina picks up a different man every time she comes here. I’ll have to tell Janice not to invite her again.’
‘A snob too!’ Shanna mocked.
‘Stop changing the subject,’ he scowled. ‘What did you do to make Rick leave?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing?’ Henry frowned.
‘Exactly that,’ she nodded. ‘And I intend to continue doing nothing. Don’t forget to tell Janice I’ll be here for lunch tomorrow,’ she reminded lightly, intending to show him she had far from forgotten the talk she wanted to have with him.
‘She always cooks enough for an army,’ he answered vaguely.
Her brother’s air of distraction did nothing to reassure Shanna. Henry always knew what he was doing, had been a more than competent successor to their father as head of the family newspaper and magazine empire.
Poor little rich girl, Rick Dalmont had called her. He didn’t know anything about her. Until her marriage to Perry four years ago, perhaps that description would have fitted her, but marriage had matured her far beyond the spoilt girl she had been at twenty-one.
She had married Perry against her father’s wishes, something that had been hard to do considering her closeness to her single parent, her mother having died years ago. Her father had been completely against her marrying a man who risked his life for a living. But the marriage had been a success, and it had perhaps been Perry’s constant brushes with death that had speeded the process of her maturity and cherishing of the deep love they had for each other. Whatever the reason, her father had been assured of her happiness before he died two years ago. At least she had given her beloved father that, and he had been spared the pain she was still suffering, the pain of losing Perry.
No one knew or could understand the loss she felt at Perry’s death, not even those closest to her. And no one knew how she feared death for herself…
* * *
She breakfasted alone the next morning, as she had for the last six months, before tidying the apartment. Not that it needed much of that, one person didn’t make much mess, and because she and Perry had spent most of their marriage living out of suitcases she had learnt not to have too many personal possessions, so the apartment was bare of all personal imprint.
It was a new apartment since Perry’s death, the one they had used as their home-base when in London had been on the other side of town. But photographs of Perry were prominent in every room, photographs of him racing, of him winning, of the two of them together. Most of them were from before Perry’s first accident, the one that had precipitated the end of his career. A serious back injury meant the end of his career as a top racing car driver six months before his death, and she knew it had been a blow Perry had never fully recovered from. Racing had been his life, his career, and for a time he had gone wild.
Damn Rick Dalmont! She knew he was the reason for the memories. What else could she do but remember when he had pointed out so forcibly that all had not been well between Perry and herself at the time of the fatal accident? But he had been right about one thing, the fault in the marriage had been hers, not Perry’s. It was true that when a man couldn’t find satisfaction in his own bed he turned elsewhere for solace. Perry had done just that.
None of her sleepless night showed as Janice opened the door to her shortly before twelve, her expression coolly composed, looking elegant in a dress the same green of her eyes, its long-sleeved, high-necked style more provocative than a more seductive style could be.
‘I’ll never know how you do it,’ said a harassed-looking Janice, her blonde curls in disarray, a smudge of flour on her nose. ‘You always look like a fashion-plate, and I—Well, I look what I am, I suppose, a housewife.’
‘A beautiful housewife,’ Shanna smiled, kissing her sister-in-law affectionately on the cheek. ‘And I look this way because I go out to lunch,’ she laughed.
‘Hm,’ Janice acknowledged wryly. ‘Although that doesn’t explain how you still look this way when we come to your apartment for dinner too.’
‘Caterers,’ she taunted dryly.
‘You know you’re a fantastic cook,’ Janice dismissed with a sigh. ‘Well, I’d better not keep you from Peter and Susan any longer. They’re waiting for you in the lounge.’
The next few minutes were taken up with the ecstatic greetings of her young niece and nephew, although Shanna had time to realise that there was no sign in the spotlessly clean lounge of the smoky party of the night before.
Peter and Susan were five and six respectively, as alike as if they had been twins, both fair-haired and blue-eyed like their mother, although they had their father’s height and were both inclined to be serious like Henry too. But they were lovely children, and Shanna greeted them as enthusiastically as they did her.
Henry sat back in his favourite armchair and watched them with an indulgent smile on his lips, puffing away on his favourite pipe; an affectation he believed gave him a look of distinction. It just made him more endearing to Shanna. She and Henry had always been close, despite the difference in their natures, but as the time for lunch neared and Henry still made no effort to bring up the subject of Rick Dalmont she decided to broach the subject herself.
‘Henry—’
‘Lunch is ready,’ Janice came through to announce.
Henry gave a pleased smile as he stood up. ‘Thank you, darling.’
‘I’ll give you thank you!’ Shanna muttered as she accompanied her brother through to the dining-room. ‘You won’t get away so easily after lunch.’
He turned to grin at her. ‘But at least then I’ll have a full stomach!’
‘It won’t help you,’ she warned.
‘Maybe not, but you’ll seem less fierce once I’ve eaten.’
‘Fierce, Henry?’ she spluttered. ‘I’ve never been fierce in my life!’
He shook his head. ‘Sometimes you remind me so much of Dad it’s incredible.’
‘Dad was a lovely old man, despite his crustiness; I can’t see the resemblance at all,’ Shanna smiled.
‘Oh, it’s there. I’ve seen it in your handling of Rick Dal—’
‘—Mont,’ she finished triumphantly. ‘I’m so glad you haven’t forgotten about him, Henry.’
‘No,’ he mumbled. ‘But lunch first, hmm?’
‘But no longer,’ she warned. ‘My patience is wearing a little thin, Henry.’
‘I didn’t know you had any!’
Shanna grinned at his woebegone expression, and her good humour lasted all through the delicious Sunday lunch Janice had prepared. Peter and Susan helped her with the washing-up afterwards, then she carried through a tray of tea to her brother and Janice, arching her brows at Henry as he seemed settled in front of the television.
‘Henry and I will take our tea through to the study,’ she announced firmly. ‘Won’t we, Henry?’ She looked at him steadily.
‘Will we?’ He sighed at her stubborn expression. ‘I suppose we will.’ He stood up reluctantly.
‘I won’t keep him long, Janice,’ she promised.
‘Oh, I think you will,’ her sister-in-law said knowingly. ‘Good luck, Henry.’
‘She sounded as if she thought you might need it,’ Shanna questioned as she sat opposite her brother in his study.
‘I might,’ he nodded.
She frowned. ‘Tell me, Henry,’ she said quietly, ‘what business do you and Rick Dalmont have?’
‘You won’t like it,’ he warned.
‘I have a feeling not,’ she acknowledged heavily.
He stood up to pace the room. ‘You see, the newspaper hasn’t been doing too well lately, and I needed a cash flow for a while.’
‘Yes?’
‘I’ve been trying to get this deal together with Rick for months, and when he came over to England two weeks ago it was an ideal opportunity to further the talks. We finalised the deal on Friday, that’s partly what the party was about last night.’
‘Yes?’ Shanna was very wary now, Henry deliberately avoiding her gaze.
‘Well, that’s it,’ he shrugged.
‘No, that isn’t it at all, Henry,’ she refuted softly. ‘You haven’t told me anything I didn’t already know. What’s the deal you’ve made with Rick Dalmont? Has he come in as your partner or just with a financial loan?’
‘Neither.’ Henry wetted his lips nervously.
Shanna’s unease began to deepen. It wasn’t like Henry to be so evasive. ‘Then what is the deal?’
‘Look, when Dad died he left all the publishing business to me. Maybe he shouldn’t have done, but you were happily married to Perry at the time, and Dad did leave you financially secure.’
‘I never wanted any of the business, Henry, you know that,’ she dismissed. ‘You’re entitled to make whatever deals you want. I just want to know where I come into it, because I do, don’t I?’
‘Yes,’ her brother sighed heavily. ‘It’s Fashion Lady.’
‘What about it?’ she gasped.
Henry shrugged. ‘As of Friday it belongs to Rick Dalmont. You now work for him.’
CHAPTER TWO
SHANNA’s breath left her in a hiss. Fashion Lady now belonged to Rick Dalmont! She couldn’t believe it. Fashion Lady had become her lifeline the last year, had given her something worthwhile to do after Perry’s death six months ago. And Fashion Lady had continued to thrive under her control, her natural flair for what was fashionable and what would interest the fashion-conscious woman of today increasing the magazine’s circulation considerably.
Undying Love Page 2