Champagne Girl

by Diana Palmer

  She could hardly find enough breath to answer him. “What do you want from me?”

  “Lots of things,” he murmured, letting his eyes wander down her soft, slender body.

  “Things you can’t get from Layne?” she asked angrily.

  He pursed his lips and studied her. “Layne isn’t a virgin,” he said.

  Her face flamed with anger and embarrassment. She glared at him over the back of the chair. “How sad for you,” she burst out. “Just don’t think I’m going to take her place.”

  “That would be difficult,” he agreed. He grinned at her. “Speaking of Layne, I’d better get moving. She’s expecting me.”

  “By all means, don’t let me hold you up.”

  “You look as if someone needs to,” he observed, moving toward the door. “Want me to pour you a brandy before I go, honey?” he added wickedly.

  “You were the one who needed fortifying a minute ago,” she returned with an odd sense of pride.

  “So I was.” He lifted the cigarette to his mouth and watched her through slitted eyes. “We’d have to make love on asbestos sheets, Kit, or we’d set fires.”

  She picked up a book from his desk and prepared to heave it at him, but he was out the door, laughing, before she could lift it over her head.

  Chapter Six

  Hal showed up about supper time, all smiles. Matt had phoned the office just before quitting time to have Angel relay the message that he was going to be in Dallas for several days. That information had made Catherine see red; she was sure he was spending more time with the mysterious Layne than he was on business.

  She’d come home in a flap and hadn’t come out of it until Hal breezed in the door, bearing a bouquet of exquisite daisies and mums and baby’s breath.

  “For you,” he said with a grin. “There’s a flower shop at the airport. I couldn’t resist them.”

  “Oh, Hal, how beautiful!” She lifted the bouquet to her nose, inhaling its beautiful fragrance. “You’re a nice man.”

  He grinned at her with a smile that was too much like Matt’s. “My pleasure. Where’s old steely eyes?”

  “If you mean Matt, dear, he’s in Dallas,” Betty volunteered as she gestured them into the dining room, where Annie was putting dishes of food on the set table. “He won’t be back for several days, didn’t he say, Catherine?”

  “That’s right,” she agreed tightly, letting Hal seat her across from Betty. “Several days.”

  “Aha.” Hal glanced speculatively at Catherine before he turned and sat down. “The lovely Layne again, no doubt,” he added with soft malice, pinning Catherine with his eyes as he said it, seeing the flicker of her eyelids. “Have you heard about her?”

  “Angel said she calls him a lot.”

  “That isn’t all she does,” Hal murmured. “From what I hear, she has a way with men.”

  “Have you met her?” Catherine had to know.

  “You know how possessive Matt is about his women, sweet,” he said nonchalantly. “He doesn’t like competition, so I’ve never been introduced.”

  “As if you could compete with Matt, darling,” Betty teased.

  Hal’s face hardened, but he didn’t fire back. He helped himself to smothered steak and held out his cup for Annie to fill with freshly brewed black coffee.

  “They don’t usually last long,” Catherine pointed out. She toyed with her carrots. “Matt’s women,” she emphasized.

  “Layne’s been around for some time,” Hal told her. He savored a piece of steak. “She has staying power, I suppose. You know how determined those successful real estate agents are. They keep going until they get what they want.” He lifted his coffee cup and pointedly glanced over the rim at Catherine. “He sent her a barrel of roses on her birthday. I saw the bill. I could have lived on that amount for a month, even the way I spend money.”

  Catherine felt her body going taut. So she’d been right about Layne and right about Matt’s lack of commitment. He’d only been playing with her. She was something to fill in the time when he wasn’t with Layne. Well, two could play that game.

  “How about riding over to Fort Worth with me tomorrow?” Hal asked her. “I have to see a man about a sports car I’m thinking of buying.”

  “I’d love to,” Catherine said shortly.

  “But, darling, don’t you have to work on Matt’s sale?” Betty asked, her voice hesitant.

  “I’m entitled to a few hours off,” Catherine replied. “I’ll get it done in time, don’t worry. What time do you want to leave?” she asked Hal.

  He smiled coolly. “About nine. We’ll make a day of it.”

  “I’ll look forward to it,” Catherine assured him.

  Betty lingered over her dessert, shooting worried glances at Catherine until Catherine couldn’t take it any longer and went up to bed.

  * * *

  Fort Worth was big and sprawling, and Catherine loved the variety of shops it offered, but Hal was far more interested in seeing his sports car than in watching his cousin shop for clothes.

  “We’ll stop by one of the malls on the way back if we have time,” he said, placating her.

  She didn’t argue. After all, it was his trip, not hers. She leaned back with a sigh in the seat of his Ferrari. “Why do you want a new one?” she asked curiously, savoring the leather luxury of the year-old automobile.

  “Are you kidding? It’s last year’s,” he said, as if she were asking why he wanted to trade in a moth-eaten suit. “I travel first class, kid.”

  She studied him quietly as he drove, comparing him with Matt. Matt never minded driving one of the pickup trucks. He kept the Lincoln for business, but she’d seen him borrow a friend’s Volkswagen and rave about it to the owner. Matt didn’t have his head in the clouds. He was a down-to-earth man with no illusions about being better because he had money. Of course, there was this problem he had with women.…

  She shifted restlessly. “Are you going to get another Ferrari?” she asked conversationally.

  “Sure. Why not?” He grinned.

  She sighed. “Well, it’s sure beyond my pocket,” she said with a smile. “I’m lucky to be able to afford a VW, especially since Matt’s cut off my allowance.” She’d so allowed herself to be charmed by Matt that she’d forgotten that villainous action, but she wasn’t admitting that to Hal. How desperately she’d been charmed was something she wanted only to forget!

  Hal glanced at her as he took a corner on two wheels. “It’s beyond my pocket, too, honey, but as long as I’ve got brother Matt to cosign, I can buy anything I like.”

  “Matt’s cosigning with you?” she gasped.

  “Not exactly,” he admitted. “But what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” His face darkened and he scowled. “God knows, I never get anything unless I fight him. I get tired of begging for what’s mine.”

  She could feel his bitterness, but she kept thinking about how hard Matt had worked to build up the family’s holdings to make it possible for Hal to buy expensive sports cars. Matt hardly ever took any time off, and Hal never did anything except spend. It seemed a little one-sided to her.

  She almost said so, but she curbed her temper. After all, Matt wasn’t in her good graces at the moment, either. He was off with his Layne, probably having a ball.

  “Why don’t you take a job with the company, Hal?” she asked gently. “It’s what Matt really wants. That’s why he makes it so hard for you.”

  “I don’t want a job with the company, Catherine,” Hal muttered. He pushed the accelerator a little harder as they sped out onto the highway. “I want to race cars. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but I can’t make Matt understand that I’m not cut out to be a minor executive.”

  “Have you tried talking to him?” she persisted.

  “Talk to Matt?” he burst out, taking his eyes off the road to fix her with an astonished stare. “When did he ever listen? He just turns around and walks off. You know how he is.”

  “Why don’t you turn ar
ound and follow him?”

  “Because the last time I did that, he hauled back and slugged me,” he grumbled. “Nobody could ever accuse big brother of being a wimp, that’s for sure.”

  “You could leave home, Hal, and do it on your own,” she reminded him.

  “That’s a laugh,” he told her flatly, and pushed the sports car even harder. “How could I get a job driving without the money to buy my way in?”

  “Other people manage.”

  “I’m not other people,” he replied. He took a sharp curve without slowing at all, the tires screeching wildly. “And I’m not giving up my inheritance, not even to get one-up on Matt.”

  “Hal, hadn’t you better slow down?” she asked, apprehension in her voice as she tried to hang on to the dash. And as she spoke, from behind them came the sound of a siren. She turned in the seat to find a state patrol car in hot pursuit. “Oh, Lord!” she cried. “Now we’re in for it.”

  Hal let out a word she rarely heard, and glared in the rearview mirror. “Just my luck,” he muttered. “I might just be able to outrun them.…”

  Before she could react, he’d stomped down on the accelerator. “Hal, no!” she cried, but he wasn’t listening.

  “If they catch me speeding and Matt hears about it, I’ll never get my new car,” he said sharply. “So they aren’t catching me. Hold on, honey!”

  Hal was hopeless. Like the other members of the family, she wondered sometimes if he would ever grow up. She grabbed the dash and held on for dear life as Hal turned the car in the middle of the superhighway and sped back the other way, passing the state patrol car.

  Catherine had never before been so afraid. She knew Hal had a wild streak, and she’d voluntarily gone with him. Matt would kill them both, starting with his brother. Inevitably, the police would get him. Hadn’t Hal learned that much?

  The car careened wildly as Hal crossed center lines, passed on blind curves and took corners on two wheels. There were two patrol cars in pursuit now, and Catherine knew there would be others farther down the road. Hal had to be crazy! The patrol car was so close behind that they’d have the tag number by now. With a quick check they’d know Hal owned it. They’d have his name and address, and would only have to come to the house and arrest him.

  She half turned in the seat to tell Hal so, just as his face froze, and his eyes widened.

  “Oh, damm!” he burst out.

  A trouble light had suddenly popped into view and Hal hit the wheel to avoid the hole in the road under the light. The car barreled across the shoulder and down an embankment, then came to a sudden, sickening stop against a telephone pole, the sound of shattering glass and ripping metal loud in Catherine’s ears.

  If they hadn’t been wearing seat belts, something Catherine had been angrily persistent about, they’d have been killed. As it was, Hal’s nose had hit the steering wheel and was bleeding profusely.

  Catherine was all right, except for a wrist that had been wrenched when she’d frantically braced herself against the dash.

  “You okay?” Hal asked her quickly as he reached for a handkerchief to hold against his nose.

  “I think so,” she said falteringly.

  Suddenly sirens were everywhere. Tires screeched. A door opened and closed angrily, and then a uniformed state trooper looked in through the open top and sighed as he surveyed the two occupants.

  “You’re both damned lucky,” he told Hal. “If you’d rolled it, no power on earth would have saved you. Can you walk?”

  “Sure,” Hal said, dabbing at his nose with the handkerchief.

  “Are you all right, miss?” the officer asked, studying Catherine, whose face was as white as cornmeal.

  “I think so,” she said in a ghostly tone. She grimaced as she moved her hand. “Except for my wrist. I must have…have wrenched it.”

  “Sit tight,” the officer advised gently. “There’ll be an ambulance along in a minute or two. The E.M.T.s will know what to do.”

  She nodded and leaned back in the seat, grateful to be alive. And while Hal went along with the uniformed officer to answer some pointed questions, Catherine wondered how Hal was going to explain his way out of this one. Matt would be a wild man when he found out. Especially when he found out that she had been with Hal, because Matt had told her not to go off with his brother.

  Well, she excused herself, he’d gone off with Layne, hadn’t he? What right did he have to dictate to her? And then she looked at the mess she was in and decided that maybe, just maybe, he’d been right to forbid her Hal’s company. Hal was definitely not the ideal driving companion.

  They were taken to the nearest hospital, where Catherine’s wrist was bandaged. Only bruised, they told her, and fortunately the soreness would soon be gone.

  Hal was scratched, and his nose had taken a beating, but he was fine. At least, he was fine until he had to call Betty to ask her to find a bail bondsman. He’d been arrested on five counts of reckless driving and faced several days in jail unless someone posted bail.

  Catherine didn’t even feel sorry for him. As they were driven to police headquarters, he was still raving about his monumental bad luck and wasn’t showing a shred of guilt for what he’d done. Through her anger, Catherine wondered vaguely why Matt didn’t let Hal do what he really wanted to—race cars. That had been the dream of Hal’s life, but Matt never listened. He talked only about the company. That was to be Hal’s future.

  Betty arrived an hour later, nervous and uneasy. She turned over documents and spoke to the police sergeant at the desk while Catherine sat nervously and quietly on a bench in the waiting area along with a scattering of drunks and prostitutes who were waiting to be booked. Minutes later, Catherine and Hal were released, and Betty took them home.

  “Those people.” Betty shuddered as she drove. “How terrible to have to wait alone in a place like that,” she murmured, glancing at Catherine in the front seat beside her. “Darling, I’m so sorry!”

  “It was all right. I was too numb to notice,” Catherine replied. She glanced in the backseat. Hal was sound asleep!

  “Is he awake?” Betty asked softly.

  “He’s snoring.” Catherine laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, Lord, Matt will kill us both!”

  “No doubt. And I’m afraid he’ll be at the house by the time I get back with you two,” Betty added grimly. “He called seconds after you hung up. I had to tell him.”

  Catherine felt her face going bloodless. “He was coming home?”

  “He said he’d meet us at the house.” Betty peered ahead into the darkness. “Why did Hal do it?” she moaned.

  “He was afraid of a speeding ticket,” Catherine answered.

  “So he tried for a few reckless-driving charges instead.”

  “That’s about the size of it.” It was getting dark quickly. Feeling limp with relief that it was finally over, Catherine closed her eyes. “I hope his life insurance is paid up.” The thought of facing Matt didn’t relax her one bit. She could picture his face in her mind.

  And when they got home, his face looked exactly as she’d imagined it. He was pacing the porch with a lit cigarette in his hand, waiting.

  Matt whirled as they came slowly up the steps, his black eyes riveted on Catherine as if she were a ghost.

  “Are you all right?” he asked immediately, his gaze missing nothing as it flashed over her. He was frozen in place now, motionless. Catherine noticed he was still wearing his suit slacks and dress shirt, although he’d long since removed the tie and jacket.

  “Just a sore wrist,” she told him. She stood beside Hal, feeling dragged out, and wondered at the emotion in Matt’s hard face as he faced his brother.

  “And you?” he asked Hal curtly.

  “I’ll live,” Hal said coldly. “Just my damned luck to get busted when I was on my way to trade cars.”

  “You could have killed Catherine and yourself,” Matt said; the look in his eyes would have melted steel.

  Hal shrugged. “I guess so. I d
idn’t expect them to catch us.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that the highway isn’t a racetrack?” Matt shot at him, his voice deepening in anger.

  “Then why the hell won’t you let me get off the highways and onto a racetrack?” Hal returned. “I have every right in the world to do what I want with my own life!”

  “And when you inherit the trust, you can,” Matt agreed. “But until then, I’ll do what I promised Mother, and that means you’re going to learn the real estate business. Whether or not it kills us both.”

  “Mother’s dead, Matt!”

  For an instant, he only stared at Hal. Then, dismissing him, he turned to Catherine, letting his dark eyes reveal his concern. “What about that wrist?”

  Hal muttered something and went inside, slamming the door furiously behind him.

  “My wrist is all right,” Catherine said. She looked up at Matt, and found him closer than she’d expected.

  “Why won’t you let him go?” she added gently. “He’s right, you know. He’ll never be a company man.”

  “You, too?” he growled. “For God’s sake, this is none of your business!”

  That wasn’t the familiar Matt. It was the stranger again, the cold, hard man who seemed to turn up at the most unexpected times. She stared at him quietly, trying to comprehend the change.

  “You’re like your father, aren’t you?” she asked absently. “There’s the wrong way and your way and no in-between. Can’t you see what you’re doing to Hal?”

  “I’m trying to make a man of him,” he replied, lifting the cigarette to his mouth. “Despite interference from you.”

  “Hal’s my friend,” she said. “And your brother. If you wouldn’t push him so hard, Matt…”

  “I was pushed hard,” he reminded her. “It didn’t hurt me.”

  “Didn’t it?” She studied his hard features, his dark eyes. “You were raised in a military fashion, with rules and regulations instead of pampering. You never knew tenderness because your mother, in her way, was as hard as your father. But it was different for Hal.”