Because of the Ring

by Stella Bagwell

  “I put it on to honor my grandmother on what would have been her eighty-first birthday,” she answered, then shrugged. “After all, I was pretty sure the ring didn’t possess any sort of powers. Not since I’d learned my lesson with Tony.” Her eyes were full of agony as she looked over at him. “But I didn’t know—I never dreamed anything like this would happen.”

  “Anything like this?” he prodded.

  Claudia’s breathing grew shallow as his eyes probed her face.

  “The visions,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “The ring makes me have visions. Of you.”

  He wanted to laugh. He needed to laugh so that she could see how inane her statement sounded to him. Yet he couldn’t force even one little chuckle past his lips.

  “You actually expect me to believe that?”

  His quietly spoken question was full of accusation and Claudia realized with a heavy heart that the two of them were going around in a useless circle.

  “Not really. But you asked for the truth and the story behind the ring. I warned you that you weren’t going to like it.”

  “I don’t,” he clipped. Ice tinkled as he tossed back the last of his drink, then set his glass on a low table to the right of his chair. “I don’t like having someone insult my intelligence. Especially a woman.”

  She sighed. “I knew it was a mistake to come here with you,” she muttered. “But I thought you’d changed your mind. I thought you’d decided…well, that you actually wanted to help.”

  The disappointment ringing through her voice only irritated Hayden even more. Saundra had been good at concocting stories and expecting him to be sucker enough to believe them. She’d also been good at acting hurt and offended. It bothered him, more than he cared to admit, that Claudia was trying to pull the same thing with him.

  Yet she sounded so truthful, he thought, so troubled, that he wanted to believe her. Damn it all.

  “Have you stopped to ask yourself how all this sounds?” he asked. “The Roswell incident back in 1947 is more believable than this stuff you’re trying to heap on me.”

  Agitation pushed Claudia to her feet and she quickly walked to one end of the screened enclosure. Staring out at the night shadows, she said, “I’m sorry I don’t have any sort of documented proof to give you. My grandmother is dead and the ring can’t talk. So that just leaves me and it’s obvious I’m not a very convincing person.”

  She heard him leave the chair and her body tensed with anticipation as he came to stand behind her left shoulder.

  “Look, Claudia, if you have some romantic notion—though God only knows why you would—that this ring led you to me, you’d best go home and forget it. I’ve already had one marriage partner. I’m not looking for another one. In fact, I don’t have plans to have a woman in my future for any reason.”

  His arrogant assumption inflamed her and she whirled on him. “Evidently you haven’t been listening to a thing I’ve been telling you! I have no romantic notions anymore! Not about you. Not about any man.”

  “You came to San Antonio—”

  The remainder of his sentence was interrupted as she poked a finger in the middle of his broad chest.

  “Do I look like a woman who’s so desperate she has to fly hundreds of miles just to find a man to give her romantic attention?”

  “Not exactly, but—”

  “For your information there are men in Fort Worth who find me attractive,” she practically yelled. “Some of them would probably even consider proposing marriage to me. But marrying one of them doesn’t interest me any more than marrying you does. I came to San Antonio to find out why that damn ring makes me see you! And that’s the only reason.”

  She was seething and the fire in her eyes lit her whole face with angry passion. As Hayden’s gaze settled on her trembling lips, he realized he’d never wanted to kiss any woman the way he wanted to kiss Claudia at this moment.

  “So you say.”

  The huskily spoken taunt momentarily blinded her with fury and she didn’t notice the downward descent of his head until it was too late. Before she could step aside, his hands were gripping her shoulders and his lips were moving hungrily over hers.

  Instantly Claudia shouted at herself to pull away from him, to show him that his touch, his words, meant nothing to her. But something overcame her. Something hot and wild and impossible to resist.

  Her hands fluttered against his chest, her mouth opened against the rough insistence of his lips. The next thing she knew his tongue was inside, stroking, daring her to give in to him and the pleasure he was giving her.

  A helpless moan sounded in her throat and her fingers curled into the front of his shirt. Sensing her surrender, Hayden circled one arm around her waist and the other across her back. By the time her body was crushed up against his, he was totally lost, completely intoxicated by the taste of her lips, the heat of her soft curves.

  Mindless to everything but him, Claudia slid her arms upward to circle his neck. The movement thrust the mounds of her breasts into his chest and positioned the juncture of her legs directly against the already aching mound in his jeans.

  The intimate contact shocked him with intense pleasure and he gripped her hips with his hands and buried his lips in the side of her throat.

  “Claudia,” he whispered thickly, “what are you doing to me?”

  The desire in his voice stunned Claudia. Almost as much as the raging need she felt to get closer to this man. This wasn’t supposed to be happening, she thought wildly. Wanting to make love to this man wasn’t a part of her plans!

  “Hayden! This is…” Sweet sensations rippled through her as his lips nibbled at her throat. “I didn’t come here for this.”

  “No,” he murmured as he kissed his way back to her lips, “but something is telling me that this is exactly what we’re intended to do.”

  The ring! It was causing them to fall into each other’s arms this way. She couldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t let it push her into another heartbreaking mistake.

  “No, Hayden!”

  With a desperate little moan, she managed to twist herself out of his arms and put a marginal space between them.

  Still gripped with desire, Hayden stared at her in confusion. “Claudia—”

  When he started toward her, she immediately stepped back. “Give me that ring,” she ordered hoarsely.

  “What?”

  “The ring. Take it off and give it to me so that I can throw it away!”

  He looked blank for a moment, then down at the ring that was encircling the first joint of his little finger. “You don’t think—oh, Claudia, come on,” he said with disbelief. “You don’t think this ring had anything to do with us, do you?”

  “If you’re talking about what just happened between us, then yes, I do! And I’m going to get rid of it before anything else can happen!”

  She held out her hand, but he made no move to give her the ring. Instead he pulled it off his finger and tossed it toward the table where he’d left his whiskey glass. Claudia watched as the ring missed the piece of furniture and clattered across the dark floor.

  “You naive little thing! A man doesn’t need a charm piece to induce him to make love to a woman! And now that the damn thing is out of the way, I think you need to learn just that!”

  Not daring to trust herself or her theories about the ring, she took several more steps back from him. “No. I know what’s causing all of this. Even if you don’t.”

  His eyes glinted back at her and for a moment she likened the light to the iridescent glow of Betty Fay’s opal.

  “If you’re so sure, then you shouldn’t be afraid to put it to the test,” he taunted.

  At this moment Claudia wasn’t certain of anything. Except that she had to get away from this man and tomorrow morning wouldn’t be any too soon.

  “I’m not afraid,” she said stiffly. “I’m just being practical.”

  He stepped toward her and, even though she knew if he touched her she wo
uld melt like a piece of chocolate candy, she steeled herself to hold her ground.

  “Practical,” he repeated with sarcasm. “I think we’ve just discovered the cause of your man problem, Claudia. And all this time you’ve been trying to hide it behind a little ring.”

  He couldn’t have said anything that would have hurt her more. Tony had accused her of being frigid and unromantic. And when she’d refused to go to bed with him, he’d turned to other women. Now Hayden was accusing her of the same thing.

  Her lips began to tremble as tears gathered at the backs of her eyes. “Maybe you’re right, Hayden,” she said in a low, choked voice. “Maybe I’m not woman enough to…to make love to any man!”

  Before he could react, she fled past him and into the house.

  Cursing, Hayden went after a flashlight to search for the ring.

  Chapter Five

  Early the next morning Hayden stood at the cookstove as he gave the eggs one last stir, then ladled them from the skillet onto a warm plate that was already filled with several slices of bacon and toast. After loading the plate on a tray, he completed the meal with a glass of orange juice, a cup of coffee and a tiny pitcher of cream. He didn’t go so far as to place a fresh flower on the tray. But he did lay the opal ring atop a folded napkin in one corner.

  At her bedroom door, he knocked lightly and called, “Claudia, are you awake?”

  Immediately the door opened and Hayden was surprised to see that she’d already gotten out of bed and showered. Her brown hair was wet and slicked straight back from her face. A pale pink chenille robe was wrapped around her slender curves. As she tightened the sash at her waist, her brown eyes wavered suspectingly from his face to the tray in his hands.

  “I made you a little breakfast,” he said, feeling more awkward than he could ever remember.

  “I see,” she said coolly.

  She made no move to accept the tray or to invite him in and a part of Hayden didn’t blame her. He’d behaved like a jackass last night. In fact, he was still wondering what had come over him. He wasn’t a man who went around pressuring a woman. Especially since Saundra had just about chilled all his sexual desire. But last night he’d suddenly gotten this feeling that he’d known Claudia all of his life and that he wanted her with every fiber of his being. He’d never felt such an instant, all-consuming urge in his life. If she hadn’t stopped the embrace, he would have ended up carrying her straight to his bed. And if he didn’t know better, he would almost believe that damn ring of hers had done something strange to him.

  “Uh, are you hungry?”

  Nodding, she opened the door wider for him to enter the room.

  “You didn’t have to go to the trouble of bringing the meal to me. I was about to get dressed and come to the kitchen,” she told him.

  “It’s no trouble,” he said, but he didn’t add that he’d never served anyone this way. He wasn’t exactly sure why he was doing it for her, except that he wanted to make up for any hurt he might have caused her last night.

  “Where would you like to eat. In bed? Or maybe out on the patio?”

  Claudia glanced at the bed with its wrinkled covers. She’d already spent too much of the night fighting images of Hayden Bedford. No way was she going to get back into that bed with him in the room with her.

  “The patio would be nice,” she said, and quickly crossed the room to open the French doors.

  Outside, a paving of red brick led to a low wooden deck shaded by a giant weeping willow. Claudia was instantly enchanted to discover a white wrought-iron table positioned in one corner. Two matching chairs were pushed beneath the glass top.

  He placed her food on the table, then pulled out both chairs. After she was seated, he joined her on the opposite side.

  “What time do you have to be at work?” she asked as she stirred cream into her coffee. “Do I need to eat quickly?”

  He studied the subtle colors and soft, smooth textures of her clean face. If possible, she was even more beautiful this morning, he thought. And he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to lie with her head pillowed next to his, to see her face flushed with passion.

  “There’s no hurry,” he answered as he tried to fix his thoughts elsewhere. “Lottie will keep things calm until I get there. Besides, I didn’t think you’d be leaving this morning.”

  She lifted her head to stare at him in total disbelief. “You didn’t think I’d be staying, did you? I told you yesterday I would stay for one night. And you seemed to think that would give us plenty of time.”

  “I was wrong.”

  His admission clearly disconcerted her. She fumbled with her fork before she finally managed to lift a bite of eggs to her lips.

  “I was wrong, too,” she admitted after a moment. “To ever come here. Or to think you really—”

  “Please don’t start throwing those accusations at me again, Claudia. I already feel bad enough as it is.” Actually, Hayden felt like hell and once he got to the office, he figured Lottie would tell him he looked like it, too. But what did he expect? he wondered ruefully. After spending most of the night rolling restlessly from one side of the mattress to the other, he’d probably done well to get three hours of sleep.

  Surprise widened her eyes and formed her lips into a perfect little circle. “You do?”

  He grimaced. “Why wouldn’t I? I know I behaved like a jerk last night. Ring or no ring, I said some awful things to you. And for what it’s worth I don’t go around coming on to women the way—well, I never meant for things to get so out of control between us.”

  Disturbed by his attempt at an apology, her gaze dropped to her plate. The sight of the food made her realize just how much trouble he’d taken to prepare her breakfast. The coffee was smooth, the bacon fried to a perfect golden crisp. The eggs were moist and light, and half of the buttered toast was spread with strawberry jam.

  She’d never had a man do anything like this for her before and in a way the gesture seemed almost as intimate as his kiss. The idea sent a blush of heat across her cheeks as she murmured, “I’m sure you didn’t mean for it to happen. You just couldn’t help yourself.”

  The frown on his face deepened. “Why? Because you think I’m lecherous?”

  Lifting her head, she met his gaze with hard resolution. “No. Because of the ring.”

  He groaned in protest. “Oh, Claudia, haven’t you ever taken a look at yourself in the mirror?”

  “Everyday before I go to school. I’m an average, normal-looking woman. Not a Hollywood siren.” And she definitely wasn’t the sort that made men lose their heads with passion. That rueful thought had her covertly studying his strong face and the powerful body attached to it. This morning he was dressed in a classic Oxford shirt of pale yellow and dark, western-cut slacks. A bola tie fashioned from silver and green malachite and black cowboy boots told her he had his own style and standards. In short, he was the epitome of a tough Texas businessman and there was no doubt in her mind that women turned to look at him as she was looking now.

  “For your information, Claudia, there are some men in this world that aren’t attracted to sirens. They’re drawn to quieter, gentler beauty.”

  Claudia was trying to decipher that remark when her straying eyes caught sight of the ring at the corner of the breakfast tray. In the shaded morning light it seemed like a harmless piece of jewelry. In fact, it seemed ludicrous that she’d formed such farfetched notions about the opal. Yet she knew with all her heart that the visions were real and she had only to slip the ring back on to experience another one.

  “I thought you threw that thing away,” she said, gesturing to the ring.

  Hayden’s expression turned sheepish. “I thought I had. I searched the back porch for the better part of an hour before I finally found it between a crack in the floorboards.”

  The idea of him spending so much time looking for the ring totally dismayed Claudia. He didn’t believe in its powers. “Why did you bother? I’m going home this morn
ing and we’re both going to forget this whole thing.”

  Hayden watched her bite into a piece of toast as if she was dismissing the matter completely. And if he had any common sense at all, he told himself, he’d get up and dance a jig of relief. But something had happened to him since she’d walked into his office. In some unexplainable way, his life had changed. It was as if she’d come along and brought him out of a deep sleep and now that he was awake again, he was seeing the world in a whole different light. He had to find out why.

  “You can’t.”

  A frown marred her face as she chewed the toast. “I’m damn well going to try.”

  “What happened to the woman who wanted answers? You traveled all the way to south Texas to find me, now you’re going to give up after one day?”

  “And night,” she reminded him ruefully.

  Leaning toward her, he folded his forearms across the tabletop. “Is that why you want to leave?” he asked softly. “Because of last night—the way we were together?”

  The movement of his body dragged her eyes once again to his broad shoulders and deep chest. She wanted to touch him again, she realized, and kiss him in the same reckless way she had last night. The idea caused her to shiver inwardly.

  “We were—under some sort of spell.”

  “You don’t believe in spells and neither do I,” he said.

  “Then what would you call it? Lust?”

  For a split second Hayden was inclined to agree with her. Blaming their little interlude on lust was the easy, sensible way to reason it away. But he couldn’t honestly admit, at least to himself, that physical desire was all he’d been feeling for Claudia. There’d been some intangible force drawing him to her and Hayden was half afraid that same force was making him want to keep her here.

  Rising to his feet, he jammed his hands into his pockets and looked down at her. “A temporary lapse of sanity. And if you’re worried it will happen again, it won’t.”

  Why should she worry? she wondered glumly. He might consider her pretty, but underneath it all he believed she was a cool, practical woman. One not nearly fiery enough for a man like him.