by Diana Palmer
With the pole in hand, Merlyn leaned back against the warm boards, hoping Cameron would indeed stay away. The sun felt good, and the only sounds were of birds and crickets and the wind. She felt the warm breeze over her face and sighed with pure delight.
The sudden tug on the line caught her unawares, and she felt the fishing pole being dragged out of her fingers. “Oh, no, you don’t, you sneaky fish!”
She made a grab for the pole, but it was dragged off the pier, obviously being tugged away by something with scales and a smug look on its fishy face.
Impulsively, she jumped into the lake after it, swimming smoothly toward the pole with the graceful style she’d been taught in her youth. She grabbed the pole and dog-paddled toward shore with it firmly under one arm.
“You got it, Merlyn!” Amanda squealed, jumping up and down. “You got it!”
Lila was grinning, too, clapping her hands in amusement.
“Stupid fish,” Merlyn muttered as she got to the bank and collapsed on it. The water had been cold, but she hadn’t even noticed. The pole was still being tugged, so she dragged herself to her feet and put all her remaining strength into fighting whatever was on the end of the line.
“Try to get away from me, will you?” she muttered. She was no novice at pulling in fighting fish. She frequently went deep-sea fishing with her father in the Gulf of Mexico. Huffing and puffing, she matched pull with tug, until with one quick, sharp jerk, she flipped the fish out of the water…and right into Cameron Thorpe’s face as he walked toward her down the slight hill.
Chapter Four
She heard a harsh curse as she turned around.
“Oops,” she said, glancing toward Lila and Amanda, who were in tears, they were laughing so hard.
“Why the hell did you do that?” Cameron growled, dabbing with his handkerchief at the expensive tan vested suit he was wearing. “My God, this suit cost a small fortune, and now it smells like a bad seafood restaurant.”
Merlyn moved closer and picked up her wriggling fish, which lay in the dirt next to Cameron’s expensive shoes. She held it up with a sigh. It was a carp, not even a terribly big one. And it was making pitiful little noises. With a wistful glance, she heaved it back into the lake.
“You got it all dirty,” she said, glowering at Cameron. “And it will probably lose every friend it’s got when they get a good whiff of it.”
He stared at her with wide, uncomprehending eyes.
“Why do you wear that horrible stuff, anyway?” she asked. “British Sterling is so much more impressive, and it doesn’t smell like a dead animal.”
One corner of his mouth lifted, as if he were tempted to smile. His dark eyes wandered down to her wet tube top and lingered on the outline of her high breasts. Something stirred in his face, and she knew that he was remembering how she looked without her clothes. She might as well be topless; the top was so thin that everything showed. Involuntarily, her arms crossed over it and she took a step backward.
“Are you cold?” he asked quietly. His eyes moved back up to hers, and it was like getting an electric shock. “Or do I excite you, Miss Forrest?”
She knew exactly what he meant, and her face flushed. “Now, now, Mr. Rochester,” she murmured, “let’s not get personal.”
One corner of that hard mouth curled up. “Are you sure you don’t want to? You might be enough to tempt me, after all.”
She glared at him. “I need to change.”
“Not on my account,” he murmured for her ears alone as the others came toward them. “You have exquisite breasts.”
She clenched her fingers and caught her breath, feeling murderous urges. Her glittering green eyes met his at point-blank range, and he gave a soft, predatory laugh.
Hard, she’d called him. Cold and stiff and as romantic as a crab. And now here he was throwing her off balance, when it should have been the reverse. She turned away.
“How very odd—that Merlyn goes fishing and you get the catch,” Lila murmured to her son, looking amused.
“It all depends on what you’re fishing for, I suppose,” he replied.
“All I’ve caught is a chill.” Merlyn laughed nervously. “I’d better put on something dry.”
“Yes, dear, we don’t want you getting sick.”
“I’ll come and help,” Amanda volunteered, and followed Merlyn into the house.
***
Cameron was rapidly becoming an unknown quantity. He watched Merlyn blatantly over the supper table, and it was all she could do to eat.
“Will Delle and her mother be back any time soon?” Lila asked her son.
He glanced at her, toying with his wineglass. “Next weekend. I’m giving a party, by the way. We’ll want a caterer and a band.”
“A party,” Lila repeated enthusiastically. “How lovely.”
“You’ll come, of course, Miss Forrest,” he added with a dark, intent stare. “We wouldn’t want you to feel left out.”
“But I’m only a humble employee, sir,” she said, holding on to her sense of humor. He was up to something, but she wasn’t going to give him any openings. “And perfectly content to sit among the cinders.”
“It will be formal,” he continued, with a pointed glance at the outfit she was wearing. “And something conservative, please,” he added in a long-suffering tone.
“Like the uniform you wear?” she returned sweetly, noting the suit he’d changed into.
He frowned. “What?”
“Gray suit, white shirt, gray tie,” she replied. “It’s always the same shirt, always a tie the same color as the suit—always the same suit in fascinating shades of gray or brown or blue. Don’t you like plaids and stripes and florals, Mr. Thorpe?”
“I’m not a woman,” he returned.
She sighed, leaning her chin dreamily on her clasped hands, and stared at him. “No, sir, you sure aren’t,” she murmured huskily.
His dark eyes narrowed. “You’ll have to wear an evening gown, or at least a cocktail dress,” he continued.
She shrugged. “In that case,” she replied, “I suppose I’ll have to go shopping. I didn’t come prepared for a ball.”
“There’s a lovely little shop in the mall,” Lila told her.
“Yes, I saw it,” Merlyn sighed. “They had some pretty gowns.”
“You can have an advance on your salary, if you need it,” Cameron said pleasantly.
She glared at him. “How odd. I had the feeling that you didn’t think I was worth the salary I was already getting.”
One dark eyebrow lifted. “I wonder what made you say that?” he countered, glancing in Lila’s direction.
Merlyn could have gone through the floor. No, she couldn’t let Lila take the blame. “I was outside the door, actually,” she lied smoothly.
“Eavesdropping?” he muttered.
“Well, I thought you might be about to confess undying love for me,” Merlyn said outrageously. “And I know that you’re basically a shy man.…”
Lila burst out laughing, and Amanda looked delighted.
Cameron only stared at her. His dark, graceful fingers seemed to caress the wineglass. “Are you propositioning me, Miss Forrest?” he asked pleasantly.
The counterattack was unexpected. Merlyn fought to keep from overreacting. “Why, no, sir,” she said fervently. “I’m an old-fashioned girl, you see, and what I had in mind was that you would seek my hand in—do I dare mention it—marriage.”
He chuckled softly, amusedly. “Touché.”
Merlyn smiled at him over her coffee. It was becoming a contest between them, to see who could score off the other first. The cold, hard man of her first meeting was slowly but surely coming out of his shell. But at what cost to Merlyn’s shredded nerves!
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” he told Merlyn suavely, “but you’re not my type.”
“Too much woman for you, hmm?” She grinned.
He burst out laughing. “Too little.”
That rankled, but she wouldn’t let it show
. She raised her coffee cup in a mock salute and drained it. “I’ll be kind and let that barb pass me by.”
“How is the research progressing?” he asked his mother.
“Very well, indeed. We’ve settled on a pattern for a character and a period of time for the setting.”
“Which?” he asked.
“Early Tudor,” Merlyn replied.
“Henry Tudor?” he asked with an arched brow. “You needn’t look so shocked, Miss Forrest, I minored in history.”
“Your period?”
“Ancient Greece.”
She sighed. “Pericles…Herodotus…Socrates…Plato…”
“Ah, a student.”
“An eternal student,” she agreed. “I enjoyed the ruins, especially the site of Troy. You read about Heinrich Schliemann, of course? Amazing, how he used the ancient texts to…”
“You enjoyed the ruins?” He pounced on that, his eyes emphasizing his obvious contention that she couldn’t afford a raft to float to Greece on.
“In the books I borrowed from the library, of course,” she said quickly. “No, Mr. Thorpe, I could hardly afford a leisurely cruise to the Mediterranean, as you’ve reminded me so often.”
“Stop baiting me,” he said. “What did you most enjoy studying?”
“The kings of England. The royal family fascinates me,” she confessed. “And the founding of the Tudor line was a particularly romantic period.”
“Yes, romance does seem to play an important part in your life,” he observed with a curt laugh. “How many times have you read Jane Eyre?”
“A dozen,” she replied. “It’s a lovely book. And you did rather appear out of the dark looking like Edward Rochester that night.”
“I wasn’t riding a horse, and I didn’t have a dog at my heels,” he reminded her.
“Mere details.”
“Well, what character are you doing?” he asked Lila, going back to his original subject.
“A character loosely based on Jasper Tudor,” she told him.
“Can you get enough information?”
“Merlyn already has,” Lila told him. “She’s a wonder. I’ve never seen the like of the books she brought with her.”
“Rob a bank?” he asked Merlyn pleasantly. “Or are they library books?”
“They were presents,” she mumbled. “From my father.”
Which was true. And they had cost a mint—some of them were out-of-print editions. She’d have to keep them out of his sight, or he might start making embarrassing connections.
After that, the conversation turned to politics, and Merlyn found herself caught up in it. It was a subject she knew a bit about, having helped friends of her father campaign from time to time. Cameron had a sharp, quick mind and inevitably they argued on issues. But he made valid points, and she enjoyed the heated exchanges. Lila only watched, a secretive smile playing around her lips.
“I have to confess, I’d forgotten what a challenge an educated mind could be,” Cameron said eventually, his eyes thoughtful as they studied Merlyn.
“Delle isn’t college educated?” Lila asked.
He glared at his mother. “Delle’s mind is quite sharp enough to suit me,” he said.
“But Merlyn can fish,” Amanda said shyly, joining the conversation for the first time.
Cameron glanced at his daughter. “So she can,” he said. Amazingly, he smiled. “Were you fishing, too?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
He glanced at Merlyn, then back at his daughter. “I thought you didn’t like to handle the worms, Amanda.”
“Merlyn did it for me,” the child volunteered smugly.
“Barbaric,” Cameron commented.
“It’s not barbaric,” Merlyn told him with a flash of green eyes. “The worms obviously had nothing left to live for. I was simply helping them into the next world.”
“And the fish?”
“Same difference,” she returned. “The whole thing is quite humane, you see.”
“What a bright idea,” Lila said. “I’ve wondered for years how to rationalize that cruel sport.”
“Mother would spare every wild creature on earth if she had her way,” Cameron said darkly. “She belongs to a dozen societies for the preservation of animals that no one ever heard of.”
“You think conservation is an unworthy cause, Mr. Thorpe?” Merlyn asked. She leaned her chin on her hands and glared at him. “If there are no more trees, there won’t be any more oxygen. They take in carbon dioxide and return oxygen into the atmosphere. If we don’t preserve the wildlife habitats, there won’t be wildlife. If we kill off the predators, we’ll be overrun with rodents. If we let the seas die, every single living thing goes the way of them. Do, please, give me your views on the joys of pollution.”
“My God, another one,” he groaned.
“Merlyn! I’m delighted!” Lila said enthusiastically. “You must attend the next meeting of the conservation society with me.”
“I already belong to a dozen,” she replied, glaring across the table at Cameron. “And I’ve marched in rallies and written nasty letters, and once I organized a fund-raiser to help stop the spraying of a potentially dangerous insecticide.”
“A radical,” Cameron accused. “A card-carrying radical.”
“You bet,” she replied. “And proud of it.”
“You’d probably like to make all the wild off-limits to man. But you do enjoy your creature comforts, don’t you?” he persisted. “The lipstick you’re wearing has a petroleum base. So, probably, does that polyester and cotton top. Petroleum comes from off-shore drilling, which often causes pollution. The food you’re eating was cooked on an electric stove, and electricity comes from the harnessing and development of rivers. The chair you’re sitting on is made of wood, which means that a tree died to provide you with it. Now look smug.”
Merlyn tossed down her napkin and measured the distance between his head and her coffee cup.
He got to his feet with a mocking bow. “That’s why I don’t contribute to every preservation society that asks for a donation. Good evening.”
She slammed the table with her hand and let out an angry breath. “He’s incorrigible!” she told the coffee cup.
Lila laughed. “Yes. But despite his apparent opposition to environmental causes, he contributes heavily to the Cousteau Society and Greenpeace, among others,” she confided. “I happened to see the check stubs. He’d hidden them in the safe.”
“Daddy keeps his causes to himself,” Amanda added. “He was just leading you along, Merlyn. He’s a fanatic, too.”
***
The thought kept Merlyn awake half the night. Cameron was turning out to be so different from what she’d assumed. He was almost frighteningly intelligent. He was involved and he cared. But he kept all that hidden behind a mask of indifferent hauteur, which apparently no one but family was allowed close enough to penetrate. She doubted if Delle had ever been privileged to see the real man.
And yet he was contemplating marriage with the young woman. A merger, he’d said. Two companies. Nothing more. But he was obviously a passionate man. Did he desire Delle? Did he care for her? Merlyn seriously doubted it. But he’d as much as admitted that she herself could attract him that way. She flushed at the memory of his deep voice drawling it. He was dangerous, all right, and she had no intention of getting involved with him. But, physically, he made her tingle and burn. And she didn’t like that at all. She was tempted to give up the job and go home. But that wouldn’t be fair to Lila. And she couldn’t just let her father win. She sighed. Well, she’d just avoid Cameron. That would be the best way to cope.
***
On Monday Cameron went back to Charleston, and the women went back to work. By the end of the week, Merlyn got to read the first few chapters of Lila’s book as the writing started in earnest. She was fascinated by the amount of work the elderly woman could get through in a day, by the number of pages she produced.
“Ah, but it’s not as if I�
��m doing it by myself,” Lila said when they set to work. The morning was overcast so they were sitting in the library. “I just sit at the computer and inspiration comes. I can’t really take credit for what I do.”
Merlyn grinned at her. “It must be wonderful.”
“It’s a gift. One I never take for granted,” Lila confided. She turned on the computer and sighed. “I don’t know how in the world I managed with that old electric typewriter. It seems utterly archaic compared with this computer.”
“Dad makes those,” Merlyn blurted out and instantly regretted it.
“Computers?” Lila asked.
“The, uh, kit form, I meant.”
“Oh,” Lila said with a grin. “I couldn’t do that to save my life. He must be very smart.”
“He’s that,” Merlyn agreed. Several million dollars in the bank attested to her father’s brilliance in computers and components.
“Well, what do you think?” Lila asked, nodding toward the manuscript in Merlyn’s lap.
“It’s marvelous,” Merlyn said sincerely. “I love it! I’m so proud to have even a little part in the project.”
“You’ve got quite a large part, actually,” the older woman said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’d have dared undertake it without you.”
“Undertake?” Cameron asked as he joined them, with Amanda at his side. “An odd choice of words, isn’t it, Mother?”
He was wearing white that morning. White slacks and a white and red patterned shirt. He looked dark and dangerous and good enough to eat, and something in Merlyn reacted wildly to his presence, even though she’d heard his car drive up the night before. It was Saturday morning, but it felt like the beginning of a new lifetime, and she tingled all over just from looking at him. She deliberately avoided his eyes.
Lila smiled. “You look nice this morning, Cam.”
“The Radners come today, had you forgotten?”
I was trying to, Merlyn thought wickedly.
“No, dear, of course not,” Lila said. “Everything’s quite organized for tonight. Merlyn contacted the band for me. It seems that she knows one of the members.”
Those dark, intent eyes fixed on her. “Does she?”