by Diana Palmer
There was a long, heartfelt sigh. “All right,” came the grudging promise, “I’ll keep quiet. But you do care for him, don’t you?”
The dark eyes fell. “Yes,” she admitted quietly. If caring could be described as a passionate obsession that hadn’t waned in almost six years, then, yes, it was definitely caring.
“And King?” Jenna prodded.
She shrugged. “Who knows what he thinks? It doesn’t matter now, anyway. He’s always believed the worst of me, and now here’s Bruce to feed him some of the most delicious lies he’s ever tasted. He’ll be overjoyed.”
“Stop that,” Jenna said sternly. “If King feels something for you himself, what makes you think he’s going to believe Bruce? He’s intelligent enough to know pique and hurt masculine pride when he sees them. If Bruce is just out for revenge, he’ll see that, too.”
“Will he?” Teddi said and shrugged. “Let’s go and make some sandwiches. I imagine we’ll have hungry mouths to feed any minute.”
“Might as well, I suppose.” Jenna looked worriedly toward Blakely and her mother. “Oh, Mother, we’re going to make lunch!”
“Can I help?” Mary offered.
“No, dear, you talk to Blakely,” Jenna encouraged, with a pointed look at Blakely, who reddened slightly. “It will only take a few minutes.”
“What’s going on back there?” Teddi whispered when they were out of earshot.
Jenna took a deep breath. “Blakely’s going to ask her advice about how to deal with King. He...he wants to marry me,” she added, faltering. Her eyes closed blissfully. “Teddi, he wants to marry me!” She looked as if she had every single blessing in the world as she said it.
If Teddi had any doubts about her friend’s emotional involvement with Blakely, that settled them.
“Can I help?” she asked her friend.
“I may have to call on every single friend I have in the world and all my acquaintances to get around King,” Jenna said miserably. “He’ll say I’m too young, that Blakely won’t be able to give me what I want, that I won’t settle...”
All of which was just what King had told Teddi, and she had to look away to keep her best friend from reading it in her expressive face.
“I love him,” Jenna said stubbornly. “If I have to draw water from a well and make my own clothes, I’ll do it, as long as I can live with him. That’s all I want in the world. And I’ll get it,” she added with a stubborn set to her jaw. “You just watch me!”
“I believe you,” Teddi assured her with a laugh. She was a lot like King, and if anybody had a chance of holding out against him, it was Jenna.
* * *
The men ate their sandwiches in the study, so Teddi was spared a confrontation. But when they sat down to dinner that night, it was as close to civilized warfare as Teddi had ever come.
Bruce sat across from her, his eyes resting appreciatively on the soft white shirtwaist dress she’d donned. King glared at her from the head of the table, his eyes as cold as winter. She felt like a human sacrifice, and Jenna’s evident amusement didn’t help a bit. Mary, blissfully oblivious of the undercurrents around her, chatted enthusiastically about an upcoming art exhibit in Calgary.
“I thought you’d be working this summer, Teddi,” Bruce murmured when there was a pause in the conversation. “I asked for a local assignment in New York for that reason.”
Teddi met his eyes coolly. “Did you?” she muttered, hating him for what he’d done to her fragile relationship with King. “I thought I’d made it quite clear that I didn’t have time for a lot of nightlife.”
“Pull the other one, honey,” he laughed, his eyes calculating as he measured King’s interest. “I’ve seen you in nightclubs all over New York.”
Teddi’s eyes dilated. “You most certainly have not!” she cried.
“Sure, if that’s the way you want it,” he agreed, making it sound as if he was covering up for her. “It doesn’t matter, you know,” he added in a demoralized tone. “I know I couldn’t compete with the kind of money your escorts had. I’m just a working man.”
Teddi’s fingers clenched on her fork, and just for one wild second, she contemplated the effect of throwing her plate across the table at him. His eyes were laughing at her. He knew what he was doing, and she realized all at once that her first impression had been right. He was going to crucify her for the blow she’d dealt his masculine pride. If he couldn’t have her, no other man was going to, especially not King.
“I don’t need to date rich men,” she bit off.
“You don’t?” Bruce asked innocently. “But, sweet, Dilly doesn’t give you a penny toward your education. You’ve got to get money somewhere.”
He was planting deadly seeds and finding fertile ground in King’s already suspicious mind.
“I make enough to support myself,” Teddi said.
“You must, if you can take the whole summer off for a vacation,” Bruce said with an insinuating look toward King. “Or are you up here on a ‘fishing’ trip?”
King’s expression was one of pure fury.
With a mighty effort, Teddi lifted her coffee cup to her lips and managed not to burst into tears. It was like having an invisible knife take the skin off an inch at a time, and nobody could see the wounds. Especially not King, who got to his feet and tossed his napkin down.
“If you’re through, Billingsly?” he asked with maddening carelessness, leading the way out of the dining room.
Teddi watched him go, aware of Bruce’s triumphant smile as he followed. The light went out of her eyes, her soul, at that moment, because she knew King had believed Bruce. All that she had kept from him was suddenly out in the open. Now King knew that she was responsible for her own educational expenses, her living expenses, that Dilly didn’t help out—and he believed one more thing, that she needed money. He would inevitably come to the conclusion that she had been trying to trap him, especially since she’d come to Gray Stag instead of going back to New York during summer vacation. He would fit those puzzle pieces together, along with what Bruce had let drop about her so-called “dates” with wealthy men—a lie if there ever was one—and her indifference to working men. And when he put all that together, he was going to have a false picture of a penniless young woman out to catch a wealthy man any way she could. The fact that she flirted with him at Easter would take on new meaning. And there was nothing, absolutely nothing she could do to convince him that he was wrong, because now he’d think she was a liar. Chances were good that he’d also doubt her innocence, think it was part of the act, part of her plan to trap him into marriage. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.
“Coffee’s hot!” she said as she put her cup down with a laugh, hoping to explain her sudden tears.
“Suppose we take the pot in there,” Jenna suggested icily, “and pour it over Mr. Billingsly’s head? What a bunch of rot! And my big, dumb brother sitting there looking as if he believed every word! Men are the stupidest...!”
“What an excellent suggestion,” Mary said, her usually kind face drawn into taut lines. “And I’ll have the daily maid put him in the green guest room. It has the lumpy mattress, remember?” she added with a malicious smile.
“Mother, you’re a jewel.” Jenna grinned.
“I think I’ll go look for a few rocks to tuck in among the lumps,” Teddi said with a wan smile. “See you later.”
She walked out, a slim, dejected figure, and two pairs of pained, sympathetic eyes followed her.
She was expecting King to confront her, and minutes later he found her in the moonlit garden behind the house and paused just in front of her.
“Bruce told me what good friends you two were,” he mocked. His darkening gray eyes cut at her as he spoke. “I never knew until today whether to believe him.”
“But this evening’s performance convinced you,” she replied.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Never mind,” she said, turning dejectedly away. “Naturally you beli
eved every word he said, it only confirmed your own sterling opinion of me.”
“Aren’t you going to deny it?” he challenged.
“No,” she replied stiffly. “I can’t see that it makes that much difference.”
He stared at her small, stiff back, his eyes doubtful, uncertain. But she didn’t turn, and she missed the expression that crossed his hard face.
“Think how fortunate you were to have been saved from me in the nick of time,” she said over her shoulder as she started toward the house. “Good old Bruce, he’s a knight, he is.”
“How much of that innocence was an act?” he asked coldly.
She’d known that question would come, and she was ready for it. If he wanted to believe lies, she’d give him some more, the beast! “All of it, darling,” she taunted, batting her eyelashes at him, while her heart splintered in her chest. “That’s what you believe, isn’t it, and Kingston Devereaux never makes mistakes about women,” she reminded him, using his own words.
She walked away and left him standing there. What good would it have done to contradict Bruce, anyway? She consoled herself. The morning had only been a dream.
* * *
In the days that followed, Bruce dogged her every step. The only good thing about it was that King kept his nose to the grindstone, with a single-mindedness that raised Jenna’s pale eyebrows.
The time inevitably came when she and Bruce confronted each other, unexpectedly one morning when Jenna and Blakely had invited Teddi to go for a swim. She’d rushed to get away from Bruce’s hot eyes and King’s cold ones, hurriedly donning her pale yellow two-piece suit and throwing a sundress over it.
A long whistle met her as she came down the staircase to find Bruce lounging against the study door, watching her.
“You get lovelier by the day,” he told her. “Teddi, when are you going to stop avoiding me?”
“Never,” she told him bluntly. “Look, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’ve told you until I’m blue in the face that I don’t feel that way about you! Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Because I learned young that a man can get anything he wants if he keeps after it long enough,” he replied confidently.
“Not people,” she replied. “Not ever people. You can’t force people to love, Bruce.”
The grin widened. “Who’s talking about love?” he murmured, eyeing her body.
She stiffened. “I’m not ready for that kind of relationship with any man.”
“So you said,” he murmured, “but there’s fire under all that ice, I’d bet my right arm on it. I could make you change your mind. There’s never been a woman I couldn’t get,” he added with hateful confidence.
“Meet number one,” she hurled back, tired of arguing. “I don’t want you. Can’t you get that through your thick skull!”
“Who do you want, the cattle baron?” he growled. “It won’t work, Teddi. I’m not handing you over to him without a fight. I saw you first.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve told King things about you,” he said huskily. “None of it very flattering, but he believed it. I can make it even worse if you don’t play ball. You’re my girl, and I’m not giving you up.”
“Look, will you just leave me alone?” she burst out, feeling her control snap.
“I can’t,” he murmured. His eyes leered at her. “You’re a knockout, do you know? You drive me wild,” he concluded, and his desire found expression in his eyes as he moved forward. He caught her before she could react and dragged her into his arms, emotion clouding his eyes as he forced her to be still, despite her struggles.
“Turn me loose,” she ground out, trying to find enough space to kick his shin.
“Not on your life,” he grumbled, bruising her with his tight hold. “You threw me over at Easter. You tore my pride to shreds. Wouldn’t even let me get close, give me a chance to get to know you. Well, here I am and here you are, and this time you’re going to spend some time with me or I’ll ruin you with your rich friends. I didn’t have old Mr. Murray send me out here to do King’s books for nothing...”
“Think so?” she asked. She dipped suddenly and brought her foot down sharply on his instep.
He cried out, and she tore away from him, breathing hard, her hair and eyes wild.
It was at that moment that King came in the door. His sharp eyes went from Teddi’s disheveled appearance to his accountant’s pained expression. Immediately, he jumped to his own conclusions.
“I’ll remind you that you’re working on my time,” King told Bruce with barely controlled anger. “That doesn’t allow you the luxury of flirting with Teddi. Clear?”
Bruce shrugged, shooting a lightning glance at Teddi. “Whatever you say, Mr. Devereaux. My fault. I shouldn’t have let myself be tempted,” he added damningly as he turned and went back into the study.
“Leave him alone,” King told her coldly, his eyes contemptuous as they ran the length of her body. “I should have followed my instincts and let you go to New York in the first place. We’re a small community here, with old-fashioned moral values. If I catch you playing around with your boyfriend under my roof, you’ll both go out on your ears.”
And before she could voice the furious reply her mind was forming, he followed Bruce into the study and slammed the door in her face.
Minutes later, she was fuming in the cold, clear water of the river.
“King again?” Jenna asked as soon as Blakely left them to dress in the secluded shade of some nearby bushes.
“However did you guess?” Teddi asked with a weary sigh.
“Oh, I’m getting quite good at mind reading,” came the amused reply. “He’s giving you a rough time about Bruce, huh? The idiot. He’s just impossible lately. Ever since Bruce came, in fact.” She glanced at Teddi. “Doesn’t he act jealous, though?” she mused.
Teddi’s face was suffused with color. “King? Jealous of me?”
“Why don’t you tell him the truth?” Jenna asked as they climbed out of the water. She paused and turned to face her friend. “Teddi, what have you got to lose?”
“My self-respect, my pride, my—”
“You can do without those. But can you do without King?”
Teddi let her eyes drop to the ground, where the sun shining through the leaves was making shadow patterns. “I’ve done very well without him for almost six years,” she murmured.
“He feels something,” Jenna said quietly. “We both know that. But unless you make him see the truth, he’s very likely to wall his emotions up for good where you’re concerned.”
That was possible. And he had felt something, Teddi knew that better than her friend did, remembering the hunger of his hard mouth, the urgency of his body against hers that magic morning in the woods. King had dashed her pride to slivers once—could she take it if he did that again? On the other hand, no one achieved anything worthwhile without courage. There were no great rewards without great risks.
She took a deep breath. “Well, I can’t look any worse in his eyes than I already do, can I?” she asked with a whimsical smile.
“He was going out to check the stock this morning after he finished with Bruce,” Jenna murmured. “You might find him in the stables.”
“What a smelly place to chase a man,” Teddi grumbled.
“At least it’s private,” Jenna laughed. “Uh, Blakely and I discovered that early on. Now, get out there and fight. Just remember one thing—you catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.”
Teddi sighed. “There’s just one thing wrong with that philosophy.”
“What’s that?”
Teddi gave her a mischievous glance. “Who’s going to hold King while I smear honey on him?”
Jenna simply threw up her hands.
* * *
The walk to the stables was the longest Teddi ever remembered making. Several times she almost decided to turn and go back to the house. The “what-ifs” dro
ve her wild. What if he didn’t believe her? What if she told him how much she loved him, and he laughed at her? What if she threw her arms around him, and he pushed her away? It was insane, this idea of Jenna’s. She felt a sense of foreboding. There was still time, she could turn back. But what if she did, and King turned away from her forever?
Resolutely she forced herself not to worry about her still-damp hair, about her bareness under the sundress. In her haste, she had thrown on the dress, leaving her wet bathing suit with Jenna.
She entered the dimly lit barn, blinking her eyes to adjust them to the darkness inside. Her gaze lit on a shadow that moved into view out of one of the neat hay-filled stalls.
It was King, denim-clad and powerful looking, and as unyielding as the walls.
“Looking for your lover?” he asked in a mocking tone.
“No, actually I was looking for you,” she said before her courage deserted her.
He lifted his head, looking down at her with his lips slightly pursed, studying her slender young body, which was only barely covered by the yellow-and-white gingham dress. It was a seductive little coverup, held over her breasts by a narrow band of elastic, elasticized at the waist, barely brushing her knees at the hem. Her feet were encased in strappy little white sandals. The picture she made was one of sunny innocence, joyful youth.
A glimmer of passion appeared in King’s hard face as he looked at her, and that tiny chink in his armor gave her enough nerve to approach him. He wasn’t indifferent to her, that was certain enough. And all her small doubts were instantly erased when she pressed her hands against his damp shirt front and moved close. His heart was beating too hard, his broad chest rising and falling much too rapidly for a calm man. The tautness of his body gave her answers to questions she wouldn’t have dared ask.
“Now will you listen to me?” she asked, looking up into darkening, stormy eyes. Her hands flattened against his shirt, faintly caressing. “Bruce is just getting even with me. Earlier this year, he wanted to date me and I wouldn’t go out with him. It hurt his pride, and now he’s out for revenge. I don’t want Bruce. I...I want you, King,” she breathed, going on tiptoe to brush her lips against his throat, his chin, the corner of his mouth. Bold with new confidence, feeling for the first time like a whole woman instead of a frightened girl, she reached up to lock her fingers in his thick hair and pressed her hungry lips against his hard, unyielding mouth.