by Diana Palmer
“I suppose I’d better. Stockbrokers sure as hell don’t have time to waste.”
She looked up as he turned to leave. “Stockbroker?” she murmured incredulously.
He glanced down at her from his formidable height with an expression she couldn’t decipher. “I’m a businessman,” he reminded her. “I do have the odd investment to look after.”
“Yes, I know,” she said quickly. “I just thought—”
“That because I was out all night, it was with a woman—and that I was meeting her for a leisurely lunch?” he suggested in a menacing tone.
She turned back to her work, trying to ignore him. It wasn’t easy when he loomed over her that way.
“The reasons I stayed away might shock you, city girl,” he said after a minute.
“I don’t doubt it for a minute,” she muttered.
“And that wasn’t what I meant. It might have something to do with you.”
The careless remark brought her eyes up, and he held them relentlessly for so long that she felt currents singing through her body.
“I didn’t expect you to start trembling the minute I put my hands on you,” he said in a harsh undertone. “Not after all these years. We’ve been enemies.”
“We still are,” she said in what she hoped was a convincing tone, while humiliation stuck like bile in her throat.
“Dead right,” he said coldly. “And it’s going to stay that way. I don’t want complications during this holiday.”
“Ditto,” she said curtly. “And don’t go around flattering your ego too much, Egan,” she added. “I was half asleep at the time!”
His darkened eyes searched hers in the stillness that followed, and she was aware of him in a way she’d never been aware of a man before. Of his height and strength, of the devastating effect he had on her senses.
“Saving your pride, Kati?” he asked quietly.
She studied her long fingernails. “I like my life as it is,” she said. “I’m on the go too much for relationships of any kind. And what you’d have in mind…!” she began.
“Now who’s flattering their ego?” he asked shortly, glaring down at her. “My God, I don’t mind experience in my women, but I draw the line at promiscuity!”
She scrambled to her feet and was ready to swing when the dark look on his face worked some kind of witchcraft and left her standing helplessly with her fists clenched.
“You slapped me once and got away with it,” he said quietly. “If you do it again now, we’ll wind up in bed together.”
She felt her body tremble at the words. “No,” she bit off.
“Yes.” His chest rose and fell heavily, and his eyes cut into hers. “Don’t you realize that the way we react to each other is like flint and steel? All it would take is a kiss. Just that. And we’d burn each other alive. I’ve known that from the very beginning.”
She hadn’t, and the thought of Egan as a lover made her face burn. She had to smother a gasp as she turned away with her arms folded protectively around her slender body.
“Don’t worry. You’re safe, city girl,” he said in a mocking tone. “I’m not that desperate. Just don’t push me too far.”
She couldn’t even face what he was insinuating. Egan was the enemy. He was going to stay that way too, if she had to bite her tongue in two. She stared blankly out the window.
“And it’s Ada that’s auditioning for acting jobs,” he commented sarcastically. “Playing innocent?”
She didn’t have to play, but he’d never believe it. He’d just shocked her to her nylon-clad feet, and she was lost for words. It was a little frightening to be threatened with a man’s bed, just for provoking him. She hadn’t been aware that she was provoking him until now. Which automatically led to her asking why she did it, and that was frightening as well.
“Kati,” he called softly.
She stiffened. “Will your stockbroker wait?” she asked quietly.
He frowned at her stiff back. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“You threaten me with sex and then ask me what’s wrong?” she burst out, staring at him nervously over one shoulder.
He blinked, as if she’d shocked him. “It wasn’t a threat.”
She flushed and walked away.
“Will you stop doing your Lady Innocent act and look at me?” he growled.
She walked into her bedroom and slammed the door. On an afterthought, she locked it, too. There was a string of unprintable curses from the vicinity of the living room before the front door slammed violently and the room became quiet.
It wasn’t going to be possible to stay in the same apartment with Egan after this, she thought miserably. She’d just have to check into a hotel until he left. Having to put up with his incessant verbal aggression was bad enough; but when he started threatening to make it physical, that was the end. The very end.
The conceited beast—to accuse her of being so vulnerable that she’d jump into his bed at the first opportunity. She groaned as she recalled the touch of his hands on her hips, the wild tremors that had run through her untried body. She gritted her teeth. She’d have to get away from him. Because what if he did that again? The real problem was telling Ada she was leaving without spoiling the poor girl’s Christmas.
Chapter Four
Kati had half her clothes in her suitcase by the time Ada came home from her tryout. She still hadn’t decided what she was going to do, beyond checking into a hotel down the street. She knew for certain that she couldn’t take one more night of Egan.
“What are you doing?” Ada asked hesitantly, pausing in the doorway of Kati’s room.
“Cleaning out my drawers,” came the terse reply.
Ada cleared her throat. “Where are you taking what was in them?”
“To a hotel.”
Ada leaned back against the doorjamb wearily. “Egan came home.”
“How did you ever guess?” Kati asked pleasantly. She closed the lid of the suitcase.
“You’re adults,” Ada argued. “Surely you should be able to get along just during Christmas holidays? Peace on earth?”
“There is no peace where your brother is,” Kati said vehemently. She tossed back a strand of hair and glared across the room. “I find it no less than miraculous that he can get people to work for him at all!”
The other woman sighed. “Amazingly enough, most of the hands have been with him for years. He has hardly any turnover.” She glanced at Kati. “And he gets along wonderfully with women, as a rule. Polite, courteous, attentive—”
“We are talking about the same man?” Kati had to ask. “The big ugly one who’s been staying here for two days and one night?”
Ada shook her head, laughing. “Oh, Kati. Kati.” She moved out into the hall. “You win. I’ll pack, too. We’ll let Egan have the apartment and we’ll both go to a hotel.”
“Now hold on,” Kati protested. “It’s Christmas, and he’s your brother, and the whole point of asking him here—”
“Was not to ruin your Christmas, believe it or not,” Ada said gently. “You’re like a sister to me. How can I let you leave alone?”
Kati bit her lower lip and stared helplessly at the suitcase. She didn’t know what to do anymore.
“Maybe if you pretend he’s not here?” Ada suggested softly.
Kati looked up. “He won’t let me. He keeps making horrible remarks, he says…” Her face flushed, and she couldn’t meet the curious look in her friend’s eyes. “He has this strange idea about where I get material for my books.”
“Suppose I talk to him?”
“That would make it worse.” She moved the suitcase aside and sat down heavily. “I’ll stay. I can’t come between the two of you, not at Christmas.”
“You’re a doll.” Ada grinned.
“I wish I were. Maybe then he’d let me alone,” came the muttered reply.
“Just treat him like someone you’ve never met before,” Ada suggested.
“That�
�s an idea.”
“Anything’s worth trying once.”
“Yes. Where do you keep the arsenic?”
“Shame on you! It’s Christmas!”
“All right, I’m easy,” Kati agreed. “Where’s the holly stake?”
Ada threw up her hands and left the room.
It was late that evening when Egan came in, looking disheveled and out of sorts. He glared at Kati as if every ill in the world could be laid at her feet.
“We, uh, saved you some supper, Egan,” Ada said.
“I’m not hungry,” he returned gruffly, but his eyes still didn’t leave Kati.
“I’ll bring you some coffee,” Kati said pleasantly and with a polite smile.
Egan stared after her blankly. “Concussion?” he asked Ada.
Ada laughed, going to help her friend in the kitchen.
“It’s working,” she whispered as they filled a tray. “He thinks you’re sick.”
“When hasn’t he?” Kati muttered. She sliced some pound cake, added some dessert plates, forks and napkins to their coffee service, and carried the loaded tray into the living room.
Egan was sprawled in the big armchair that he’d appropriated since his arrival. He glared up from its depths as Kati put the tray down on the coffee table.
“I said I wasn’t hungry,” he repeated.
“Oh, the cake isn’t for you,” Kati said sweetly. “It’s for Ada and me.”
That seemed to make him worse. He sat up and took the cup of black coffee Kati poured him, sipping it. He seemed to brighten all at once. “Too weak,” he said, staring at her.
She ignored the challenge. “Is it?” She tasted hers. “Yes,” she lied, “it certainly is. I’ll make some more.”
“Don’t bother,” he returned curtly, leaning back with the cup and saucer held on the palm of one large, lean hand. “It’ll do.”
She nibbled at her cake and idly watched television. The program they had chosen was a romantic comedy about detectives.
“Isn’t he dashing?” Ada sighed as the leading man came into view.
“Oh, rather,” Kati said theatrically. “So handsome.” She glanced at Egan with a lifted eyebrow.
Egan glanced back at her with hard eyes. But he didn’t say a word.
“Did you settle that business with our stockbroker?” Ada asked when the commercial came on.
“Yes,” Egan replied curtly. He finished his coffee and stood up. “I think I’ll get some sleep. It’s been a trying day. Good night.” He walked out without a word to Kati.
“It’s barely nine,” Ada murmured, scowling after him. “Egan never goes to bed this early.”
“Maybe it’s his conscience bothering him,” Kati suggested. “About the abominable way he’s been treating me?”
“Dream on, my best friend” came the sighing reply.
The phone rang and Ada dragged herself over to answer it, brightening when she heard the caller. “It’s Marshal!” she whispered to Kati.
Kati grinned. Ada’s boyfriend had been away for several weeks, and the joy of homecoming was in her eyes. She moved the phone into the hall while Kati finished watching television.
“He wants us to double up tomorrow night at the Rainbow Grill. Want to ask Jack?” Ada asked.
“I’d love to, but Jack’s still out of town. How about Friday night?”
“Fine! I’ll make sure it’s okay with Marshal.”
“You’ll make sure what’s okay?” Egan asked, stopping in the doorway with his tie in his hand and his shirt unbuttoned over his broad chest.
“A date, Friday night,” Ada volunteered. “Want to come along? I’ve got a super girlfriend—”
“I can get my own women,” he said with a tilt of his mouth. “Friday? I’ll ask Jennie. What time?”
Kati’s heart sank, and it showed in her eyes. Egan happened to look her way; he smiled with pure malice.
“What’s the matter, honey, will I cramp your style if I come along?” he asked her.
Kati remembered almost too late the role she’d chosen to play. Polite hostess. No personalities. No hostilities. Christmas. Good cheer.
She gritted her teeth. “You’re welcome, of course,” she said with a frozen smile.
Egan’s heavy eyebrows lifted. “My God, get a doctor,” he told Ada.
Kati smiled even brighter. “Now, I think I’ll say good night, too. I have this headache…”
“But it’s only nine,” Ada wailed. “Don’t both of you go to bed and leave me alone.”
“Don’t you want peace and quiet?” Egan asked his sister.
Ada glanced from one to the other of them and sighed. “Well, I think I’ll come, too. I need my beauty sleep, I guess.”
“Some of us might benefit from it,” Kati muttered, glaring up at Egan.
He chuckled softly. “Think I’m ugly?”
She flushed. Her eyes involuntarily ran over the craggy contours, the broken nose, the hard, cruel mouth. For some odd reason, she couldn’t quite look away. His eyes caught and held hers, and they stood staring at each other in a silence that blazed with new tensions.
“Excuse me,” Ada murmured, trying to hide a grin as she edged past Kati’s frozen form and into her own bedroom. “Good night!”
Egan’s chest was rising and falling roughly as he stared down at Kati. “Do you?” he asked in an odd tone.
She swallowed. Her throat felt as if it were full of cactus. Her lips parted, and Egan watched them hungrily. She realized all at once that he hadn’t just been making threats earlier in the day. He wanted her!
“I…I’m tired,” she managed, starting to move.
One long, hard arm came out, barring her path. “I wasn’t threatening you this afternoon,” he said tautly. “I was telling you how it would be. You can’t be blind enough not to see how we are with each other, Kati,” he added half under his breath.
She moved gingerly away from that long arm. “I…have a boyfriend…whom I like very much,” she said shakily.
He eased forward, just enough to let her feel the warm strength of his body, the heat of his breath against her reddish gold hair. “Liking isn’t enough.”
Her eyes came up to meet his. “Isn’t it?”
His fingertips touched her throat like a breath, feeling its silky texture, stroking it sensuously. “You smell of roses,” he said in a husky whisper.
Her fingers caught his, trembling coldly against their warm strength as she tried to lift them away from her throat.
He caught her hand and moved it to his chest—easing it under the fabric and against thick hair and warm muscle—and her breath jerked in her throat. He felt as solid as a wall, and the wiry pelt of hair tickled her fingers as he flattened them against him. His expensive cologne filled her nostrils, drowning her in its masculine scent.
“Forgotten what to do, Kati?” he murmured roughly. “Shall I refresh your memory?”
She lifted her eyes dazedly to his, and they were wide and curious as they met his glittering gaze.
His head bent so that his hard face filled the world. “‘She tore his shirt out of the way,’” he quoted huskily, “‘and ran her fingers, trembling, over his hard, male…’!”
“No!” Recognizing the passage, she flushed hotly. Immediately, she dragged her hand away and shrank from him as if he’d burned her.
He laughed, but there was an odd sound to it, and his eyes blazed as she reached behind her for the doorknob to her room.
“Doesn’t your reporter friend like having you do that to him?” he asked huskily. “Or does he prefer what comes later?”
She whirled on a sob, pushing open the door. She started to slam it, but he caught it with a powerful hand and she couldn’t budge it.
“I hate you,” she breathed shakily, frantic that Ada might hear them.
“So you keep telling me,” he replied. “You’re the one with no scruples, honey, so stop flying at me when I throw them back at you.”
“I’m not wh
at you think I am,” she cried.
“No kidding?” he murmured insolently, letting his eyes punctuate the insult.
“You go to hell, you ugly cowboy!” she said furiously.
He studied her flushed face and black eyes amusedly. “Ada used to talk about her sweet-tempered, easygoing friend. Before I ever met you, I imagined a retiring little violet. You were a shock, honey.”
“What do you think you were?” she returned.
He laughed softly. “No woman’s ever pulled the wool over my eyes. It didn’t take reading your books to tell me what kind of woman you were. All I had to do was watch you in action.”
“The car broke down,” she reminded him. “Richard and I had to walk for miles…!”
“Aren’t you tired of lying about it? I told you,” he added, letting his eyes narrow sensuously, “experienced women turn me on.”
“Then why don’t you go out and find the friend you spent the night with?” she retorted hotly.
His eyebrows went up and he grinned. “Did that bother you?”
She brought her heel down hard on his instep, without warning; and while he was off balance, she slammed the door and locked it.
“Kati!” he growled furiously.
“Go ahead, break it down!” she dared him. “I’ll be screaming out the window until the police come!”
There was a muffled curse; a door opening; Ada’s voice, almost hysterical; and Egan’s, angry but conciliatory. Minutes later, two doors slammed almost simultaneously. With an angry sigh, Kati started stripping off her clothes and heading toward the shower. She was furious enough not to mind that the water was ice-cold.
Chapter Five
Egan was gone, blessedly, when Kati woke up late the next morning. Jack called to say he was back in town and asked Kati out for dinner. Grateful for the respite, she was waiting for him on pins and needles at six that afternoon.
Ada had been sympathetic about her brother’s strange behavior, adding that he had a sore foot and it served him right. It was the first time Kati ever heard Ada say anything against Egan.
“Do you think I’m scandalous?” Kati asked unexpectedly when she and Jack were relaxing over coffee after a satisfying steak.