by Kay Hooper
TWO
“DAMMIT, BETH, WILL you call off this brute of yours—” The man’s voice broke off abruptly.
Kelsey, drowning in sensation, didn’t want to hold his head above the water. And the woman in his arms seemed utterly unconcerned about having an audience. He heard the sound of footsteps, a jerky feminine exclamation, and a startled giggle from Ami. He also heard a vicious, suppressed sound from a man.
Slowly, he lifted his head, staring down into Beth’s vivid eyes and wondering distantly if he looked as dazed as she did. Probably. He didn’t give a damn about it, though. And then he heard Ami’s innocent voice.
“That’s Kelsey, Blaine. He came to see Beth.”
And Kelsey heard a deep growling sound, along with the visitor’s voice, distracted but still vicious.
“Somebody call off this damned—”
“Lobo,” Kelsey murmured, allowing one hand to leave Elizabeth and fall to his side. Almost immediately, he felt the thick ruff of the dog beneath his hand. And he didn’t know if it was sheer, primitive male instinct that had made him show his mastery over the dog to the other man. Probably.
Elizabeth was drawing slowly away from him, a wave of faint color sweeping up her throat. She looked shocked, confused, and he touched her cheek with gentle fingers before he allowed her to leave his arms. It was up to her now.
In a soft voice she said, “I didn’t expect you, Blaine.” She was still gazing at Kelsey.
“Obviously!” Blaine snapped.
She blinked, but seemed unconcerned by his anger. “Blaine, this is—Kelsey. Kelsey, Blaine Mallory.”
Kelsey turned slowly to face the other man. He saw a man about his own height but a good twenty pounds lighter. A strikingly handsome man somewhere in his thirties with jet black hair, a lean face, and an obvious habit of dressing well. A man with chilly blue eyes and a face whose muscles were tightly held in anger. Still absently petting Lobo, Kelsey said casually, “Hello. A friend of the family?”
Blaine’s nostrils flared slightly, then he seemed to dismiss Kelsey as if he were less than human. “Beth, I want to talk to you,” he said sharply.
In a polite tone, Kelsey said, “We’re about to sit down to supper, you know. Much better if you come back later. And call first next time, will you?”
“I’ll show you out, Blaine,” Ami said brightly, sending Kelsey a quick look brimming with satisfaction.
Blaine opened his mouth to speak, but when Kelsey put an arm around Elizabeth and she came to him as if she belonged at his side, his mouth closed with a snap and he turned on his heel to stalk back through the house with Ami helpfully following.
Kelsey looked at the other sister, who was staring at him with her mouth open. She was a typical teenager, her clothes too tight and her makeup lavishly applied with a less than expert hand. She was also a pretty girl with a discontented expression and sulky blue-green eyes, and Kelsey guessed shrewdly that she was less surprised at his presence than displeased to find her sister in the arms of any man.
“Hello. You must be Meg,” he said casually. “Why don’t you and Ami wait for us in the dining room, okay?”
“I—” Meg turned abruptly and left the room.
Elizabeth pulled away from him again. “I—I don’t understand.” Her voice was shaking.
Kelsey knew only too well that she was fighting to resurrect her barriers, shocked by him and by herself, quite literally knocked out of kilter by what had happened. And no wonder, considering all she must have been through before today. He took her hand gently, pulling her around to face him again, and his free hand lifted to touch her hot cheek.
“I know. I also know,” he added with intentional dryness, “that you probably would have slapped my face under ordinary circumstances. But the circumstances aren’t normal for you, are they? You’re tired and tense, and undoubtedly scared—and I took advantage of that. I’m sorry, Elizabeth. Not for kissing you. I could never be sorry about that. Just for the timing, that’s all.”
She was looking up at him, baffled and uncertain. Not yet balanced enough to be embarrassed. “You … you acted like you wanted Blaine to think—”
“Yes, I did. I wanted him to think I was interested in you. Maybe even that I had a prior claim. That is what he has in mind, isn’t it?”
In a low voice, she said, “He wants me to marry him. His persistence is like water dropping on a stone.”
“Is he threatening Jo to blackmail you?” Kelsey asked bluntly.
She winced, but shook her head. “No. He doesn’t think he has to be underhanded or ruthless about it. He thinks he can—can have me any time he really tries.”
Kelsey was a fairly even-tempered man, not given to emotional outbursts and certainly trained and experienced enough to control what he did feel. He was a little surprised at himself that he should feel a definitely savage urge to go after Blaine Mallory and beat the hell out of him. But he leashed those emotions, aware that Elizabeth couldn’t take much more, at least not today. Cheerfully, he said, “Well, then. I’ll just be your buffer.”
She had regained some of her control, and looked at him with misgivings. “And what will I be?” she asked warily, drawing her hand from his as if she had just noticed.
Honestly, he said, “You’ll be a buffer for me. A reason for me to be here, unconnected with Meditron.” And so much more, so much that he hadn’t planned on.
Elizabeth turned away and began automatically to transfer the food from cooking pots to serving dishes. “I don’t know what to believe,” she murmured. “I can’t trust you. I just can’t!”
“Yes, you can,” he insisted quietly, beginning to help her. “You have to, Elizabeth. If you don’t want to tell me about your sister yet, then we’ll wait on that; we have a little time, I think. Mallory isn’t suspicious of me, and won’t be if we get our story straight—”
“What story?”
He saw her hands shaking, and gently took a serving dish from her. Forcing his voice to remain casual and cheerful, he said, “The story of how we met, of course. Mallory has to believe I came out here to court you, and he’s bound to ask you questions. So we’ll come up with something to satisfy his curiosity—and Meg’s, since I could see she didn’t think much of me. Ami will be easy, I believe.”
Elizabeth almost smiled. “She likes you. Meg … Meg is going through a rough period right now. She’s rebelling. Both of them missed having a father.…” Her voice trailed into silence.
“Well, maybe they can use a big brother,” he observed in the same light tone. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Her face closed down suddenly. “No,” she said evenly, “don’t do that. It’ll be worse for them when you’re gone.”
Kelsey watched her for a moment as she piled warm rolls into a linen-lined wicker basket. “Where could we have met?” he asked, thinking it wiser to change the subject. And he almost held his breath, hoping either that Mallory had become too insistent for her to feel confident about fighting him, or else that she realized she really needed his help in this situation. Whatever. As long as she accepted him.
She was silent for a moment, then shrugged jerkily. “Charleston, I suppose. I go there sometimes. Shopping and just to get away.”
“Charleston it is, then. I’ll take those.” He took two of the dishes from her, then followed as she led the way to the dining room, more relieved by her response than he had expected. Damn Hagen, he thought distractedly. Intentionally or not, it looked as if his boss had borrowed Cupid’s bow again. The man really ought to abandon his federal machinations and open up a dating service.
“Just who the hell are you?” Meg demanded angrily the moment he came into the small dining room.
Kelsey ignored the faint sound of protest from Elizabeth. He pulled her chair out for her, then took one for himself and smiled easily across the table at the angry girl. “I’m Kelsey, and I came to Pinnacle to visit your sister,” he told her calmly.
“It’s funny we never he
ard of you before,” Meg said suspiciously, her sulky eyes narrowed.
Ami opened her mouth, then intercepted a look from Kelsey and shut it, addressing herself to the meal.
Cheerful, Kelsey said, “Maybe she didn’t think I was worth mentioning. I came out here to prove her wrong, though.”
“Meg, please,” Elizabeth said in a low voice.
Kelsey could hear the strain, and the smile he sent Meg then was underlaid with steel. “We won’t talk about it right now,” he said gently.
Meg glared at him, but nonetheless began eating without further comment. And after a gleeful look at Kelsey, Ami began talking casually about the events of the previous school week. She fetched more ice tea from the kitchen when it was needed, even pouring some for Meg with the long-suffering look that only a fourteen-year-old could perfect. And Ami kept talking lightly, seeming not to notice Elizabeth’s silence or the frequent glances Kelsey directed to her bent head.
When Kelsey realized that Elizabeth was just going to keep shoving the food around on her plate without eating much of it, he pushed back his chair and went around to hers. “Come on,” he said softly. “We’ll go sit on the porch swing for a while. The girls can clean up.”
“I have a call—” Meg began to wail, but Ami’s sharp kick under the table silenced her.
“Of course we will. You go on, Beth.” Ami smiled sunnily.
Silently, Elizabeth allowed Kelsey to pull out her chair, and she led the way from the house and onto the front porch. She sat down in the swing, stiffening slightly when Kelsey joined her, but not looking at him.
After a moment, Kelsey said, “The FBI got that call over a week ago. How long has it been, Elizabeth? How long have you been under this kind of pressure?” And, when she didn’t respond, he sighed. “Long enough. You haven’t had a decent night’s sleep or a good meal in too long.”
Elizabeth stiffened even more when he put an arm around her and drew her head to rest on his shoulder. But his voice was inexpressibly soothing when he murmured, “Sleep, Elizabeth. You’re not alone now. I’ll keep the villains at bay with my trusty sword, I promise.”
She almost smiled. He was moving the swing gently, creating a soft breeze and a soothing motion, and his hard body was a curiously comfortable resting place. Too tired to think anymore, she gradually relaxed, and soon her eyelids became too heavy to hold open. Finally, she slept.
Kelsey held her gently, moving the swing automatically and gazing off into the deepening twilight. It had all just caught up with her today, he realized. He had seen too much strength in the angry woman of this morning to believe that she was knocked off balance very often, or for very long. He doubted it was in her nature to lean on someone else and certainly not on a stranger. He guessed that tomorrow would be very different.
So, being Kelsey, he tried to marshal his arguments now. Though it was, he conceded, damned difficult to think at all with her warm body pressed to his side. He rested his cheek against her soft hair, scowling ferociously in an effort to stop thinking about that. And he was successful. Barely.
So. What would he say to her tomorrow? The pieces he had put together in talking to her still gave him very little in the way of a completed picture. He was certain that Meditron—meaning Blaine Mallory—was doing something shady, perhaps highly illegal, and very likely dangerous. He was also certain that Elizabeth’s sister Jo was somehow involved; she was obviously being used as a lever to keep Elizabeth silent, but why? Had she somehow found out what was going on at Meditron?
Ami had definitely been the one to call the FBI; he had recognized her voice immediately. And one thing that frightened young voice had said on the tape was branded in his mind: “They’ve got my sister.” Such a lost voice, desperate with fear and worry.
He didn’t know how much Elizabeth knew, but did know that it would take time for her to trust him enough to talk about it. If they had that time. And if she didn’t build new walls against him after what had happened between them in the kitchen.
What had happened between them? He thought he knew—but did she? Would she recognize the emotion he was increasingly certain of? Or would she, hounded by Mallory, who, Kelsey thought, would hardly be subtle or gentle, decide that he was merely the lesser of two evils, the attraction purely physical with no demanding emotional issues?
“Damn,” Kelsey murmured, rubbing his cheek half-consciously against her soft hair. For a fleeting moment he wondered if Elizabeth had already given in at least partially to Mallory, and he felt something inside him knot painfully. No, no, of course she hadn’t. She hadn’t slept with the man. She wouldn’t give in even physically to a man endangering her sister.
What about before? He tried to ignore the question, but it wouldn’t go away. According to his research, Blaine Mallory had been in charge of Meditron for years, and he’d lived in Pinnacle all his life. Like Elizabeth. And she was so beautiful, of course the bastard would have tried.…
Kelsey wanted to break something. Mallory’s neck, he decided, would fit the bill nicely. He wished he could laugh at himself for this unaccustomed savagery, but it didn’t feel very amusing.
The very nature of his job had allowed little time for romance, no room at all for commitment, and precious little energy for either; he wasn’t used to dealing with feelings like these. Even so, the thought of a rival had never disturbed him, even when one had existed. He had shrugged away desire and moved on, uninterested in fighting for what he wanted. And God knew he had never worried about a woman’s past or possible lovers, rightly deciding it was none of his business.
And it wasn’t his business now, except that he had the strong feeling that if he discovered Mallory was the kind of rotten scum who could sleep with a woman and then deliberately endanger and use her sister, he would quite certainly break the bastard into tiny pieces and scatter him to the winds.
“Is she asleep?” Ami had come out onto the porch, hovering uncertainly.
“Yes,” Kelsey murmured, pulling his mind from violent thoughts and smiling a little.
Ami eased into a ladder-back rocking chair near the swing, and in the faint light from the living room window, her young face was serious. “She’s tired. We had a rough winter; a late freeze damaged some of our peach trees, and that’s worried her.” Her voice was soft. “And, lately, Blaine’s been pestering her. He’s been after her since before she graduated from high school, but she never cared about him. But he’s always coming around now, smiling and sweet-talking, those cold eyes of his looking at her until I want to hit him—”
“It’s all right, Ami.” More than all right, because she had told him something he needed badly to know. “I won’t let him hurt Elizabeth anymore.”
A tremulous smile curved Ami’s lips. “Gosh, does it happen that fast? I mean—well, you must lo—care about her?”
Very conscious of the woman sleeping in his arms, he said softly, “Very much. So I guess it does happen that fast.” And something in him shook on its foundations suddenly in a warning rumble that baffled him. He didn’t know what it was, that feeling of foreboding, but his arm tightened around Elizabeth almost compulsively.
Ami tilted her head to one side. “But you want everyone to think you’ve known her for longer than a day?”
He pulled his mind back to the conversation. “That’s very perceptive of you, little fawn. And quite right. So don’t talk about it, all right? It’ll be our secret.”
Ami nodded and stood up, then looked a bit startled. “What was that you called me?”
“Little fawn.”
“But why?”
“It’s what you remind me of. A little fawn, shy and delicate, all legs and sometimes awkward. With big eyes and a face that’ll break hearts someday.”
Ami drew a deep breath. “Really? You aren’t just saying that to be kind?”
He laughed almost soundlessly. “No, honey, not to be kind. You’re growing so fast that your skin can’t keep up with those lovely bones—but it’ll cat
ch up. And when those high school prom queens look into mirrors and realize all the beauty is behind them, you’ll just be blooming.”
Ami made an inarticulate little sound and rushed from the porch, surprising him.
Elizabeth raised her head and pulled gently away from him just then. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “You convinced her when I’ve been unable to. She thinks she’s ugly, and it’s hard for her to believe she’ll be lovely one day.”
“Was she crying—?”
“Yes, but don’t worry. You don’t know it, but you just won yourself a devoted little sister.” Elizabeth sighed softly, her gaze skittering away from his.
Steadily, Kelsey said, “No matter what happens between us, Ami has a friend in me as long as she needs me.” And he wondered why he questioned a possible future when a large part of him was so very sure.
Although she hadn’t slept very long, it seemed the nap had restored Elizabeth’s balance somewhat. She gave him a very direct look. Both of them were clearly visible to the other in the light from the living room window. “Nothing is going to happen between us.”
He hesitated, then said quietly, “Something already has, and we both know it.”
Her lips firmed stubbornly. “No. You said yourself that you took advantage of—”
“That’s how it began,” he interrupted. “But it turned into something else. Elizabeth, I didn’t come here planning on romance. And if I had a choice, I’d sure as hell pick another time, because when my business and romance clash, there’s apt to be quite an explosion. But I don’t have a choice. And I don’t think you do either.”
Elizabeth looked at the big, quiet man gazing at her so steadily, and felt her heart lurch. Oh, damn, how had this happened? Why couldn’t she tell him with sure belief that it was his imagination, that of course there was nothing between them. That she would never think of getting involved in any way with a stranger, much less a stranger who had appeared abruptly in her life claiming that he wanted to help her? A stranger with heaven only knew what kind of past.
