“But it wasn’t enough for you.”
“No,” she said in a low whisper, “it wasn’t enough.” She paused, remembering the ache of loneliness. Shaking off the regret that would always haunt her, she added, “And then Tony died. A heart attack. It happened suddenly. Neither of us knew he had a heart problem. All that rich living was too much for him, I guess.”
“I’m sorry,” Granger said again.
Corie straightened her back. “I had to go through his papers after his death. That was when I discovered that for the last three years of his life he’d been having an affair. I knew the woman. She was his secretary, and I never even suspected. I had trusted him implicitly, and loved him too much to see what was going on right under my nose.”
For a long moment there was complete silence between them. Then Granger said softly, “You must have loved him very much.”
Corie shrugged, unable to answer for a moment.
“He was a very stupid man,” Granger said. “Had I been blessed with such a love, I would never have let you go.”
She managed a tremulous smile. “That’s sweet. Thank you.” She didn’t know how he had managed to get past her defenses. She hadn’t spoken to anyone about Tony’s affair, though she had soon become aware of how many people already knew what she had been too blind to see.
Seeing the quiet sympathy in Granger’s eyes, she was glad she had told him. For now she could look back rationally, and without the pain that had once cost her many a night’s sleep.
Deciding it was time to change the subject, she remembered her intention to question him. This seemed like a very good time.
“You said your memory was returning,” she began, watching his gaze grow wary. “What have you remembered so far?”
He shrugged. “Not a lot. Mostly brief flashes of scenes.”
“You don’t remember anything about your past life? Your family, for instance? I would think they would be the first people you would think about.”
Granger reached for his fork and started twirling it around in his strong fingers. “I don’t think I have any family. At least I don’t remember. I must have had parents at some time, of course. I seem to remember they died, though I don’t know how.”
“Who brought you up, then?”
“I grew up in a home of some kind. A military school, I think.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You were in the military?”
“Yes,” Granger said slowly. “The army.”
Corie’s heart speeded up again. “Do you know what happened to you? The accident?”
He shook his head, his fingers twirling the stem of the wineglass. “I’m afraid that’s still a blank.”
She couldn’t make up her mind whether the fact that Granger was in the military incriminated him more, or whether his line of work could be a motive for his capture by the scientists.
“There must be someone out there anxious about your whereabouts. What about a wife, and children?” Damn the wine, she thought. She hadn’t intended to ask that.
“As I said before, no wife or children. I’m certain of that.”
So he didn’t have a wife, after all. She couldn’t help wondering why he wasn’t married. He was a very attractive man. That inner strength she could sense beneath all the confusion in his mind was very appealing.
She had the feeling that he could take charge of any situation and see it through. The kind of man who wouldn’t let anyone get the better of him. A man who would stand up for what he believed in, and refuse to be intimidated by convention or popular belief. A man who would not give his heart lightly, but once he did, would honor the commitment to his dying day.
As much as he desperately needed information, he was concerned that she not take risks for him. And she couldn’t forget his statement that had he loved a woman, he would know it.
Damn it, she couldn’t believe that he was anything but an honest, respectable, innocent man who’d had the bad luck to stumble into something evil through no fault of his own.
But if that was so, that meant she was working for some kind of criminals. It was up to her to discover exactly what was going on at the lab. Even if she had to take risks to find out.
Chapter 6
“I want to help you,” Corie said, making up her mind. She rose from the table, her plate in her hand. “I believe you’re the victim of something corrupt.”
Granger got slowly to his feet, and the sudden heat in his eyes took her breath away. “I don’t want you to get into trouble on my behalf. You have taken enough risks already. From now on I’ll handle this myself.”
She could feel her heart speeding up as she met his determined gaze. “I work at that place. I have a right to know what I’m involved in.”
“Not if it means trouble for you. I won’t allow you to do that.”
“You can’t stop me.”
Through the long pause that followed, Corie could hear someone’s radio playing across the street. She was only half conscious of the sound. All she could think about was the intense longing she saw in Granger’s warm gray eyes.
“Corie,” he said huskily, breaking the tense silence. “I appreciate your trust, and your willingness to risk your own well-being in order to help me. But I beg you, leave this alone. You don’t know what you are dealing with.”
Her lips felt dry, and she ran the tip of her tongue over them. “And you do?”
“I think so. Don’t ask me to tell you, I can’t right now. I’m having a tough time believing it myself. And it’s better that you don’t know.”
He leaned forward, resting his hands on the table. “Trust me a little further, if you can. I swear that I will tell you just as soon as I have it all straight in my mind.”
She nodded, her heart pounding so hard she could hardly breathe. “Are we in danger?”
“Not at the moment. At least, you are not all the time you don’t know the truth.”
Once more she could feel herself being drawn under the spell of his intense gaze. She put the plate down, and steadied herself with her hands on the table as she leaned closer to him.
“I want to know the truth,” she whispered. “I want to help you.”
Very slowly, he lifted his hand and drew his fingers down her cheek. His touch gently grazed her skin—the touch of a man who knew what it was to work with his hands. She shivered inside, a pulse hammering in her throat as she thought about those fingers caressing her body.
Cupping her chin in his hand, Granger said softly, “You are a gracious and lovely lady. How I wish that things were different.”
His words shimmered in her mind like precious gems. Somewhere in the midst of that bemused haze the warning voice made itself heard. She tensed, drawing away from him.
For a moment his grasp on her chin tightened, then he said quietly, “Perhaps it is just as well, Corie. I could not be satisfied with one kiss. Once I tasted your lips I would want more, and that wouldn’t be fair to you.”
Shocked by her reaction to that statement, she jerked away from him. His face was full of regret as he dropped his hand. “I’m going to take your suggestion and go for a walk,” he said, moving away from her. “I need time to think.”
Her confusion was momentarily forgotten in her alarm. “Granger, please be careful. If they are looking for you—”
“I’ll be careful.” He paused at the door and looked back at her, the sorrow on his face tugging at her heart. “Thank you for the wonderful meal.”
“You’re welcome.” She summoned a smile from somewhere. “Don’t be too long, or I’ll worry.”
Once more his hot gaze seared her skin. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“Wait.” She hurried into the living room and found a piece of paper. After scribbling her telephone number down she handed it to him. “Just in case something happens,” she said unsteadily. “If you get lost or something. Just dial zero for the operator and when a voice answers, ask for that number. Tell them you want to call coll
ect. And here’s the key to the front door, just in case I’m in bed when you get back.”
He stared down at the scrap of paper in his hand. “They have telephones on the street?”
She nodded, her throat tight. “You’ll see them. If not, ask someone.”
She hated to let him go out there where anything could happen to him. But she understood his need to be out in the fresh air, alone with his thoughts. She needed time to think herself. “Just be careful,” she repeated.
He gave her a slight nod, then turned and made his way down the path to the gate.
She closed the door, leaving it open just a crack to watch him until he had turned the corner. Then she made herself go back to take care of the dishes. There was nothing more she could do for him right now.
But tomorrow, she vowed, no matter what Granger said, she was determined to find out just why a bunch of so-called respected scientists had done such a terrible thing as to mess with an innocent man’s mind.
And when she did find out the truth, she was going to see that the people involved paid for it, no matter who they were. Even if it did go all the way up to the head office in Philadelphia. Whatever the consequences might be.
* * *
Granger stood at the edge of the water on the darkened beach, watching the silver-tipped waves curl and crash into a foaming cloud of spray before spreading gently out to reach his feet.
He wanted Corie Trenton. He wanted her so badly his body caught fire every time he looked at her. How he longed to take her in his arms and know the fascinating pleasures of her naked form.
He must have known women before. He could not have reached this age without satisfying himself with a warm, willing body. Yet he could not remember the cool, smooth touch of flesh against flesh, or the heat of sinking himself into the very core of passion.
He wanted to know. He wanted to taste the thrill of what he instinctively knew had to be the most intoxicating sensation known to man, the mating of two willing and passionate human beings.
Lifting his burning face to the star-sprinkled sky, he uttered a soft groan. He certainly knew what it was to feel the hunger of that need. And he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he wanted to relive that experience with only one woman. Corie.
She had risked so much for him that day, without really knowing why she was doing so. He had thought of women as soft creatures, helpless and in need of protection. Corie had a fierce independence that he greatly admired, a strength and determination equalled by any man.
Yet he knew that deep inside her she was hiding pain, a deep hurt that had not been resolved. He could see it in her eyes when she looked at him, wanting what he needed so badly to give her, yet afraid to trust, afraid to reveal her thoughts and follow her feelings.
He wanted to erase that pain. He wanted to see her eyes fill with passion to match his own. Yet he could not. He could not offer her anything more than the moment, and he knew that for a woman like Corie, it would not be enough. He had no wish to add to her pain.
A rush of water swept over his feet, snapping him out of his tormenting thoughts. Turning his back on the restless ocean, he trudged across the sand toward the lights of the town. There was still so much he couldn’t remember. So many gaps he couldn’t fill in, so much he had to relearn about himself.
He wasn’t at all sure he wanted to know all of it. There didn’t seem much he could do about it, anyway. It looked very much as if he were destined to run for the rest of his life, always looking over his shoulder. And he could not subject Corie to that kind of danger much longer.
Reaching the boardwalk, Granger turned in the direction of Corie’s house. The street lamps cast shadows ahead of him, spilling dark shapes that lengthened as he left the glow behind him. The breeze played across his back, cooling his heated skin beneath the knit shirt.
He had made a bargain with her and he would keep it. Once the work had been done, he would leave. And if, for any reason, he felt that his presence created an immediate danger, he would leave before the work was finished.
Her safety was the most important consideration. He could not involve her further in his problem, and she would surely become involved if it was discovered that she had given him shelter. He had no idea where he would go or how he would survive. But he would not stay and endanger her life, too.
Turning the corner, he glanced up at the window he knew to be her bedroom. A light glowed behind the drawn curtains, telling him she was still awake. His heart ached at the thought of leaving her. How he longed to go to her now, slip into her warm bed, and blot out all his troubles with the touch of her body beneath his.
He reached the gate and stood for a last, long moment, until the cool, salty breeze chilled his skin. Only then, did he let himself into the house and climb the stairs to his bedroom.
Corie heard him pass her landing, her body tense, her mind hovering somewhere between relief at his safe return and a tingling expectation that she knew was foolish.
She didn’t want him to make any moves. Sure, she fantasized about him, but that’s all it was, fantasy. It had been a long time, after all. She knew, only too well, the futility of falling for a man. Especially one as unconventional as Granger Deene.
Not only did she not know much about him, he didn’t know much about himself. What kind of security was that? The only thing she did know was that he was mixed up in something very strange and possibly dangerous.
So no matter how much her hormones told her that he was an appealing, provocative male with the most seductive eyes she’d ever seen, she would simply have to ignore her feelings. Period.
Turning on her side, she buried her face in her pillow to smother her groan. It wasn’t easy, knowing that he lay in bed directly above her, knowing how he looked with the sheet tangled around his naked hips.
“Grow up, Corie,” she whispered into the pillow. A man like that was not for her. She was better off on her own.
She lay awake a long time, chasing her thoughts away every time they dwelled on the man upstairs. When she finally dozed off her mind refused to rest. She dreamed of a man without a face, pursuing her relentlessly through swirling fog and treacherous swamps.
She awoke with a start, aware of a strange noise somewhere outside her room. Granger was once more shouting in his sleep. He sounded urgent, desperate, his voice harsh and commanding.
This might be a chance to learn more about his past, she thought, slipping out of bed. The street lamp cast enough light to find her robe and she quickly wrapped it around her, then crept from the room.
Once more she climbed the stairs, jumping with every creak. Granger had stopped shouting now, but she could still hear his muttering from inside the room.
Shivering on the landing, Corie leaned closer to the door, straining to hear the muffled voice. Only a word or two here and there was audible, and she couldn’t tell what he was talking about.
Giving up, she was about to turn away when his voice rose. She could feel her scalp tingling as she heard the words quite clearly now.
“The rebels have us surrounded! We can’t let them take the hill!”
Briefly she closed her eyes. It had to be Vietnam. She’d heard so many stories about the mental anguish of men who survived that terrible war. Apparently his most painful memories were the first ones to surface.
She made her way down the stairs again, her heart aching for the tormented man. How sad that out of all his life, the things he remembered most clearly were the dreadful experiences he must have gone through more than twenty years ago.
More determined than ever to help him now, she looked forward to the next day, when she could do something more concrete than lying in bed worrying about him.
Granger was still in bed when she left for work the next morning, apparently exhausted from his nightmares of the night before.
Corie spent the morning catching up on all her reports, so that she could have the afternoon free without fear of interruption. The date on the receipt f
or the prescription drug had been a week earlier, and she wanted to monitor all the events that had happened that day.
After feverishly working at the computer all morning, she finally had the last report finished and sent to the labs. After a quick lunch, which she brought back to her desk, she sat down in front of the computer again and brought up the files she’d worked on the week earlier.
Her scan of the labels didn’t seem to suggest anything unusual. Two reports on climatic activity in the Western Hemisphere, a series of calculations on the lineup of the planets, and a report on the whereabouts of Specturne.
Corie frowned, staring at the screen. She checked the date next to the label again. There was no mistake. Her original file on Specturne had been opened a week ago. Yet she had not worked on the star project for months, until the day before, when she’d opened a new file. Someone had pulled up the data on her screen and altered it for some reason.
Reaching for the top drawer of her desk, Corie pulled it open. Regulations required her to keep a backup copy of her work. The floppy disks were kept in the main bank vault, along with other important records from the labs.
But according to Corie’s philosophy, she could never be too careful. She always made her own personal copy of her work, and kept it on a floppy disk in the back of her drawer.
Sliding the disk into the computer, she brought up the files. After printing a hard copy off the original Specturne file, she ran the opened file again from the hard disk. It took a matter of moments to discover that the calculations had been altered.
Staring at the two sets of figures, Corie’s mind worked furiously. Who would go to all the trouble of altering her files? Obviously someone who didn’t want her in possession of the correct calculations for some reason.
But why didn’t they just erase the information if it was classed as top secret? Probably because they didn’t want her to know there was any special significance to the project.
So Little Time Page 10