by Jayne Castle
"Josh, please," she begged softly, turning her face into the fabric of his jacket. "Let's not talk about that. I behaved like a fool!"
"I haven't told you what last night meant to me," he
said deeply, lowering his head to kiss the back of her neck which was exposed by her upswept hair. "It was all I had been dreaming about for the past four months and more. Did you know that, sweetheart? Did you realize how my heart was pounding as I lay there listening to you come closer and closer to my bed?" His hand slid warmly down her back, coming to rest at the base of her spine, and he deliberately pressed her lower body against his thighs. Reva trembled slightly as she felt the hard, male swelling there. He felt her reaction and used his other hand to tilt her face upward.
"Oh, Josh," she breathed helplessly as his mouth came down on hers. Then, telling herself she was safe out here in the open, Reva let herself respond to the compelling, demanding fire of his kiss. This man never did anything by halves, she thought fleetingly. When he kissed her he brought to bear all the reserves housed in a man's arsenal. She was made to know the range and depth of his need as he exposed her to every point of the spectrum of his methods for getting what he wanted.
Again she shivered as his mouth fully involved hers, now challenging, now pleading, now demanding, and now taking. She felt her hands sliding inside the warmth of his jacket almost against her will. But, then, she didn't seem to have much will when Josh took her into his arms.
At the touch of her hands on his back a tremor seemed to go through Josh. Reva felt it along the length of her body pressed so close to his, and his kiss deepened. His tongue forged briefly into her mouth and then he caught her lower lip between his teeth and bit with a gentle violence that seemed to stoke the fire in her nerve endings.
"Take me home, Reva," he urged huskily, straining her against him. "Take me home and let me make love to you the way I did last night. I want you!"
Reva heard herself cry out in a small whimper of pleasure-pain as his mouth moved along the line of her jaw to her earlobe and continued its punishment. He heard the cry and instantly his tongue came forth to soothe the area his teeth had been erotically savaging. As soon as she relaxed once more against him he resumed the delicate, merciless attack until Reva thought she would collapse in a dizzying world of sensation. His coercive lovemaking emboldened an underlying desire to retaliate in kind and Reva began to return the tender assault.
With deliberate wantonness she sank her nails into the skin of his back, the material of his shirt providing little protection, and when he groaned hoarsely in response she parted her lips and nipped lightly along the length of his throat.
"Reva!" he growled thickly. "I can't take much more of this. You're driving me out of my mind, witch!"
"I thought," she whispered daringly, feeling very much the witch he had labeled her, "that you could take almost anything, Josh. Aren't you the man who gets sent in to handle what others can't? Aren't you the one who kept me alive for three days in the middle of a revolution?" She moved against him deliberately, safe in the knowledge that they were in a public spot and that no matter how much she tempted him or he tempted her nothing could come of it. "Don't tell me there's anything you can't deal with, Josh Corbett," she taunted, wondering at her own courage.
"You're very brave tonight," he said quite silkily. "Why is that, I wonder? Do you want to see how far you can push me?" His hands slid lower on her hips, melding her against him in an audacious way that made her catch her breath. "Go ahead, little Reva. See how close you can play to the edge...." He inhaled the fragrance of her hair as
he spoke. "Since I've returned I've allowed you to take the final initiative. I've played the part of supplicant, asking for you, pleading for you, but not taking you until you finally asked me to last night. But I could try other approaches, Reva, my sweet. Approaches that would have you shivering helplessly in my arms whether or not you wanted it that way!" There was faint humor beneath the warning timbre of his voice but it didn't disguise the intent in him. Reva abruptly realized she was, indeed, playing a very dangerous game.
Prudently she began to pull away from him, smiling as she did so to show she wasn't genuinely frightened. Her sea eyes sparkled up at him from behind the safety of her lenses and she knew she was still caught up a bit in the excitement and tantalization of the moment.
"That's enough!" she whispered on the top of a smothered laugh. "I'm quite terrified, Josh. I wouldn't dream of trying your patience too far."
"I don't mind," he assured her, gazing down at her with eyes that still held the fire of a moment before. "I only felt duty bound to let you know there were limits."
"Are there truly?" she mocked softly, smiling at him.
"Yes," he said simply.
"Ah, well," she sighed, twisting out of his arms and starting back up the steps. "So much for a lovely evening."
He took the steps two at a time and reached out to snag her hand, holding it firmly as they continued on toward the apartment. "Did you really enjoy it, Reva?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes," she said honestly, "I did."
"You see?" he grinned, a slashing, buccaneering grin, "I can fake my way through a social engagement when called upon to do so."
"Were you faking, Josh?" she asked softly, thinking
how the conversation had flowed easily between them at dinner. He was an intelligent man who had seen a great deal of the world and she had to admit she had found their first real dinner out together fascinating.
"No," he told her just as softly, the fingers holding her hand squeezing slightly tighter, "I was enjoying myself courting the woman I'm going to marry."
"So it's become a courtship now instead of a seduction?" she couldn't help retorting.
"Same thing,'' he said with that familiar, massive shrug. "Tomorrow night I'm going to amaze and confound you with my culinary talents. Think how pleasant it will be to walk in the door after work and find dinner waiting for you along with a drink."
Reva took a breath. "I can't tomorrow night, Josh. I have a date." She didn't look at him as she spoke. Instantly the atmosphere between them chilled.
"Tanner?" he asked in an enigmatic tone.
"We're attending a social function being given by a business club to which he belongs," she explained, wondering in confusion how she wanted him to react to the news. What was wrong with her? she thought irritably.
There was a long, drawn-out silence and then Josh said very calmly, "I can't let you do that, Reva. It was hard enough on Sunday night when I knew you'd be returning home and I'd be waiting to make sure he didn't try to claim you. I can't go through it again." He wasn't looking at her, focusing instead on the pattern of lights visible in the windows of her building.
"I'm sorry, Josh, but I can't cancel the engagement. And . . . you don't own me," she concluded in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes," he said briefly, "I do."
"Don't talk like that," she ordered quickly, glancing
warily up at his rough-hewn face. They were in the lobby now, heading for the elevators. "You know it's not true!"
He said nothing, just looked at her. And in that look was all the masculine promise in the world. It blazed out at her from the depths of the catlike eyes, telling her without words that Josh had claimed her for his own, that she would deny that claim only at her peril. The soft magic of the evening dissolved in a flash and beneath it she once again saw the hard, unrelenting pursuer intent on possession. But something in her refused to back away from the challenge.
"Good night, Josh," she said quietly as they stepped from the elevator. "And thank you for dinner."
"Reva . . ." he began, and then bit off his own words with a low growl. "What's the point of talking?" He caught hold of her shoulders and hauled her against him, locking her mouth to his in a short, savage kiss that echoed the primitive gleam in his eyes. Then he set her aside, opened her door, and pushed her into the darkened hall of her apartment. Without a word
he closed the door in her face. A moment later she heard him letting himself into Sandy and Tom's apartment. She'd just had, instinct told her, something of a narrow escape.
It was the delightful cooking odors seeping out from under her door that alerted Reva the next evening as she returned home from work. There was only one person in the world who would have the gall to use her kitchen without permission, she told herself morosely as she let herself inside.
"In here, Reva!" Josh's voice came cheerfully from the direction of the kitchen.
"Sandy and Tom aren't feeding you well enough?" she inquired blandly, coming to lean with crossed arms in the doorway. He was busily checking something which sim-
mered appealingly in a large oven pot. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and a towel was tucked into his belt as an apron. She wanted to smile at the picture he made and didn't dare. Josh, as usual, was up to mischief. It only remained to be seen what sort.
"Sandy and Tom," he corrected, glancing up with a smile, "have fed me most graciously. I'm having them over tonight."
"I see," she nodded, one brow lifting as she peered suspiciously at him through her glasses. "Felt like doing a little entertaining, is that it?"
"That's it." He straightened, closing the oven door and twisting around behind him to pick up a glass off the counter. "Here you go. As promised, a welcome-home drink." He pushed it toward her and Reva found herself having to take it.
"How did you get into the apartment, Josh?" she demanded in the most casual of voices, ignoring Xavier, who was strapping himself slowly, languidly around her ankles. He didn't mind being ignored. His main attention was focused on Josh's cooking.
"With the key you gave to Tom and Sandy, naturally," he said, appearing surprised at her slow thinking. "I used it yesterday to get Xavier."
She nodded, taking a small sip of her drink while she tried to think through the various possibilities in the situation. "Smells good," she commented dryly.
"My one perfected party dish," he grinned. "Stew." He was engaged in pulling dishes out of the cupboard.
"Stew?"
"Well, in some places it's called boeuf Bourguignon," he admitted, "but I've always thought of it as stew."
"Do you, uh, entertain a great deal?" she couldn't resist asking.
"Not much. Hence the development of only one dish," he chuckled. "You're welcome to join us, Reva," he said, looking very much as if he was afraid she might be feeling left out.
Reva wanted to laugh at the innocent expression on his face. Josh was not good at innocent expressions, but she was beginning to feel mildly alarmed.
"Thank you, but as you may recall, I have other plans," she reminded him pointedly, stirring the ice in her drink with a fingertip.
"Ah, yes," he nodded as if he'd forgotten. "What time is Tanner picking you up?" He carried his stack of dishes past her to the dining table which occupied a special end of the living room.
"In about half an hour." And then Reva smiled very kindly, unable to resist the next remark. "But you needn't worry about him interrupting your entertaining. I've told him to buzz me from the lobby intercom and I'd come on down to meet him." That, she had told herself during the day, had been a stroke of genius. She didn't really believe that even Josh would do something terribly drastic if he encountered Bruce in the hall outside her door, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"No problem," he told her, hovering about the dining-room table as he adjusted the silverware and dishes. "Thanks for letting me use your place, by the way."
"Think nothing of it," she grumbled. "Make yourself right at home!" As soon as she said the words she could have bitten her tongue.
"Thank you. I will." No inflection at all in the deep voice.
There was no adequate response to that, so Reva took herself off to her bedroom to change. Half an hour later she was again standing in the kitchen
doorway, this time wearing a white wool skirt and black velvet blazer, and counting the seconds until the intercom would announce Bruce's presence in the lobby. She was watching Josh put the finishing touches on his salad when a knock came at the door. Startled, Reva turned, wondering if Bruce had forgotten the arrangement. What a fiasco that would be, she thought gloomily, imagining herself trying to explain Josh in her kitchen.
"I'll get it," Josh said immediately, moving ahead of her. "That will be Tom and Sandy. They were due a couple of minutes ago."
Reva relaxed slightly and then frowned, glancing at her watch. Bruce was normally very much on time. Perhaps she should go on down to the lobby and wait for him. And then a gray chill washed through her as she heard Josh's voice at the door.
"Hello, Tanner. I'm afraid Reva can't come out and play tonight. Or any other night, for that matter." His tone was cold, smooth, and deliberately taunting. "I know you want her but it's too late. She already belongs to me and has for the past four months!"
"Josh!" Reva gasped, horrified. She hurried toward the door on legs that felt suddenly weak around the knees. "How dare you..." She was forced to come to an abrupt halt because he was blocking the entrance with his body. She had a vague glimpse of Bruce Tanner's astonished and angry face just before the younger man spoke.
"Reva! What the hell is going on here? You told me your guest was well and had moved out!" The narrowing blue eyes went quickly from Josh's coolly uncompromising expression to Reva's stunned face.
"Bruce, don't listen to him! He's only trying to create trouble."
Josh moved, forcing Bruce back into the hall without
touching him. "The bit about being sick was something of a small ruse, I'm afraid," he said in bland apology. "I needed a reason to spend the weekend, you see." He was still advancing on a slowly, angrily retreating Bruce. Josh made no overt move to menace the other man, but the slow, casual pacing was violence incarnate. Reva began to panic, at a loss to know how to deal with the situation.
"Josh, stop it this minute!" she ordered. "Bruce, go on downstairs. I'll be right behind you!"
But Bruce wasn't listening to her. His handsome features were twisting into the resentful expression of a man who feels himself badly humiliated.
"I don't know what you think you're doing, Corbett," he announced grandly, coming to a halt and looking very much as if he intended to stand his ground. "But you're not going to get away with it!"
"Reva's mine," Josh said very softly. "Whose arms do you think she slept in that night after you brought her home from the concert? And that's not the first time."
Reva gave into the urge to panic. This was beyond her. She needed the help of another man. Unthinkingly she pounded on Tom and Sandy's door. The sound of Bruce and Josh's voices grew increasingly dangerous and when Tom answered the door in his wheelchair Reva nearly collapsed into his lap.
"Tom," she begged desperately. "You've got to do something! They're going to fight! Josh has gone crazy and . . ."
Tom glanced beyond her to the two men standing near the elevator. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully and then he gestured for Reva to get out of the way. She stepped aside as Sandy came into the hall, a worried look on her face.
"Reva! What is it? What's going on?"
"There isn't time to explain," Reva began, watching as
Tom approached the other two men and then halted his chair. "Josh is behaving like . . . like an animal and poor Bruce . . ."
At that moment Bruce Tanner clearly appeared to have taken enough of Josh's goading intimidation. The sight of other witnesses to his humiliation must have pushed him over the brink.
As Reva and her neighbors watched, stunned, the younger man swore violently and swung his clenched fist in an arcing curve.
"My God!" Reva heard herself say in a terrified whisper, "Josh will kill him!" She started forward but Sandy caught her arm and then they watched as the blow connected with the edge of Josh's jaw.
Bruce looked quite as startled as the others when Josh collapsed to the hallway carpet with a groan.
For a moment t
he entire group seemed frozen in a tableau and then Reva broke the spell, racing forward to where Josh lay very still on the floor.
"Josh!" she cried, sinking to her knees beside him. There was blood on his mouth. "Josh! Are you all right?" There was no answer and the lion eyes remained closed. But he stirred vaguely.
"How long did you think you could play me for the fool, Reva?" Bruce finally found his tongue to ask, straightening his jacket and tie with a new arrogance. "You can only push a man so far," he told her grimly. "I suggest you think twice before you try playing two men off against each other again!" Turning, he stabbed the elevator button with great force. Fortunately for the grand exit he seemed intent on making, the elevator responded almost immediately. The doors slid open, Bruce stepped inside, and they closed on his expression of masculine hauteur. It was an
expression Reva had never seen on his face before and she could only stare at the closing elevator doors in shock.
At that moment another apartment door farther down the hall opened and the lawyer who lived in 18C stuck his silver head out. "Trouble?" he inquired blandly, taking in the sight of the others.
"Nothing we can't handle, Harold, thank you," Tom retorted, moving his chair forward with great authority and reaching over the side to grasp Josh's arm. "Reva," Tom continued, flicking a stern glance at her still-stunned face. "Go with Sandy. I'll get Josh taken care of."
Reva's gratitude showed in her eyes as she got shakily to her feet and stumbled toward the waiting Sandy. Behind her she heard Tom speaking to a now groaning Josh.
"Come on, hero. Let's get you cleaned up!"
With a firm hand on her upper arm Sandy hauled Reva into the apartment while Tom guided Josh into Reva's.
"Calm down, Reva," Sandy crooned soothingly, leading her friend into the living room and pushing her gently onto the couch. "Everything's going to be fine. Tom will get your man back into shape and we can all sit down to a nice dinner."
"I have never been so appalled in my life, Sandy," Reva interrupted, shaking her head from side to side in disbelief. "How could he have allowed such a thing to happen?"