"Where's Hank? He saw Bob at the bank and invited him to lunch," the woman, a striking brunette, announced flatly. "Didn't he say he'd be back by this time, Bob?" she asked the much older, slightly balding man beside her. He looked pale and unhealthy, and he shrugged, as if he didn't much care. He glanced at Dana with an apologetic smile, but he seemed sapped of energy, even of speech.
"I don't know where he is. I just got home," Dana said. She was very conscious of her appearance. She was wearing jeans and boots and a dusty shirt, because she'd been down to her own place to check on her small herd of cattle. She smelled of horses and her hair wasn't as neat in its braid as it had started out.
"And who are you, the stable girl?" the woman asked with a mocking smile.
Dana didn't like the woman's attitude, her overpolished look, or the reek of her expensive perfume that she must have bathed in.
"I'm Mrs. Hayden Grant," she replied with curt formality. "And just who do you think you are, to come into my home and insult me?" she added for good measure, with sparks in her blue eyes.
The woman was shocked, not only by the name she'd been given, but by that quick hostility.
She fumbled her words. "I'm Betty Grant. I mean, Betty Collins," she amended, rattled and flushed. "I didn't know Hank... had remarried! He didn't say anything about it."
"We've known each other for years, but we've only been married a few weeks," Dana replied, furious at Hank for putting her in this position so unexpectedly. He hadn't said anything about his ex-wife paying a visit. "Tilly, show them into the living room," she told the thin housekeeper. "I'm sure Hank will be along," she added curtly. "If you'll excuse me, I have things to do." She spared the man a smile, because he hadn't been impolite, but she said nothing to Betty. Her feelings had been lacerated by the woman's harsh question.
She walked to the staircase and mounted it without a backward glance.
"She isn't very welcoming," Betty told her husband with a cold glance toward the staircase.
"She wasn't expecting you," Tilly said with irritation. She'd never liked the ex-Mrs. Grant and she liked her even less now. "If you'd like to wait in here, I'll bring coffee when Mr. Grant comes."
Betty gave the housekeeper a narrow-eyed look. "You never liked me, did you, Tilly?"
"I work for Mr. Grant, madam," she replied with dignity. "My likes and dislikes are of concern only to him. And to Mrs. Grant, of course," she added pointedly.
As the blood was seeping into Betty's cheeks, the housekeeper swept out of the room and closed the door. She went down the hall to the kitchen and almost collided with Hayden, who'd come in the back door.
"Whoa, there," he said, righting her. "What's got you so fired up?"
"Your ex-wife just slithered in, with her husband," she said grimly, noticing the pained look the statement brought to his face. "She's already had a bite of Mrs. Grant, which she got back, with interest," she added with a smile.
He sucked in his breath. "Good Lord, I forgot to phone and tell Dana I'd invited them. Is she very upset?"
"Well, sir," Tilly chuckled, "she's got a temper. Never raised her voice or said a bad word, but she set Betty right on her heels. Betty asked if she was the stable girl."
His face grew cold and hard. "How does she look?"
"Dana?"
He shook his head. "Betty."
"She looks very rich, very haughty and very pretty, just as she used to." She frowned. "Sir, you aren't going to let her knock you off-balance again, are you?"
He couldn't answer that. The memory of Betty in his bed had tormented him ever since the divorce, despite the ecstasy Dana had given him that one night they'd had together.
"No," he said belatedly. "Certainly I'm not going to give her any rope to hang me with."
"Might think about telling Dana that," Tilly mused. "She won't take kindly to the kind of shock she just got. Especially considering the sleeping arrangements around here."
He opened his mouth to reply hotly, but she was already through the door and into the kitchen. He glared after her. Tilly's outspokenness was irritating at times. She was right, which didn't help the situation.
"Bring a tray of coffee to the living room," he bellowed after her.
There was no reply, but he assumed that she heard him. So, probably, had half the county.
He strolled into the living room, trying not to think about how it was going to affect him to see Betty. He wasn't as prepared as he'd thought. It was an utter shock. She'd been twenty when she left him, a flighty girl who liked to flirt and have men buy her pretty things. Ten years had gone by. That would make her thirty now, and she was as pretty as ever, more mature, much more sensuous. The years rolled away and he was hungry for this woman who'd teased him and then taken him over completely.
She saw his reaction and smiled at him with her whole body. "Well, Hank, how are you?" she asked, going close.
With her husband watching, she reached up and kissed him full on the mouth, taking her time about it. She laughed softly when he didn't draw back. She could feel the tension in him, and it wasn't rejection.
He hated having her know how he felt, but he couldn't resist the urge to kiss her back. He did, thoroughly. His skill must have surprised her, because he felt her gasp just before he lifted his head.
"My, you've changed, lover!" she exclaimed with a husky laugh.
He searched her eyes, looking for emotion, love. But it wasn't there. It never had been. Whatever he felt for her, Betty had never been able to return. Her victorious smile brought him partially back to his senses. Ten years was a long time. He'd changed, so had she. He mustn't lose sight of the fact that despite her exquisite body and seductive kisses, she'd left him for a richer man. And now Hank was married. Dana was his wife, in every sense of the word.
He blinked. For the space of seconds he'd kissed his ex-wife, Dana had gone right out of his mind. He felt guilty.
"You look well," he told Betty. His eyes shifted from her to his friend Bob in the distance. He held out his hand. "How are you, Bob?" he asked, but without the warmth he could have given the man before the divorce.
Bob knew it and his smile was strained as he shook the proffered hand. "I'm doing all right, I guess," he said. "Slowing down a little, but it's time I did. How've you been?"
"Prosperous," Hayden replied with a faint, mocking smile.
"So I've seen," the older man said congenially. "You've made quite a stir among breeders, and I hear one of your two-year-olds will debut this year at the track."
"That's the long and short of it. How's the poultry business?"
"I've divested myself of most of my holdings," Bob said. He grimaced. "I was so busy traveling that I didn't realize I'd lost control until there was a proxy fight and I lost it," he added, without looking at Betty. "Then I had a minor stroke, and even my shares weren't worth the trouble. We're living comfortably on dividends from various sources."
"Comfortably is hardly the word," Betty scoffed. "But we've got one prize possession left that may put us in the black again. That's one reason we're here today." She smiled flirtatiously at Hank, who looked very uncomfortable, and deliberately leaned back against his desk in a seductive pose. "When did you get married, Hank? When you heard we were moving back here?"
His face hardened. "That's hardly a motive to get married."
“I wonder. Your new bride is frightfully young, and she seems to prefer the great outdoors to being a hostess. She wasn't very friendly. Is she the little farm girl whose father just died? She's not even in your league, socially, is she?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," came a voice from the doorway.
Hank turned his attention to his wife and didn't recognize her. Her blond hair was down around her shoulders, clean and bright, and she was wearing a silk sundress that even made Bob stare.
She was wearing just enough makeup, just enough perfume. Hank's eyes went down to her long, elegant legs and he felt his whole body go rigid as he remembered how it fe
lt to kiss her. His face reflected the memory, to Betty's dismay.
Dana walked in, her body swaying gracefully, and took Hank possessively by the arm. She was delighted that she'd bought this designer dress to wear for Hank. The occasion hadn't arisen before, so she'd saved it. "I thought you'd forgotten the invitation," she said idly, glancing at Betty. "We're so newly married, you see," she added with indulgent affection.
Betty's face had flushed again with temper. She crossed her legs as she leaned back further into the desk. Her eyes narrowed. "Very newly married, we hear. I was just asking Hank why the rush."
Dana smiled demurely and her hand flattened on her stomach. "Well, I'm sure you know how impetuous he is," she murmured huskily, and didn't look up.
The gesture was enough. Betty looked as if she might choke.
Hank was surprised at his wife's immediate grasp of the situation, and her protective instincts. He'd been horrible to her, and here she was saving his pride. He'd been set to go right over the edge with Betty again, and here was Dana to draw him back to safety. Considering his coolness to her since their marriage, and springing this surprise on her today, it was damned decent of her.
His arm contracted around her waist and he smiled down at her with genuine appreciation. “A child was our first priority, but we sort of jumped the gun," he added, lying through his teeth as he helped things along. "We're hoping for a son."
Bob looked wistful while Betty fumed. "I'd have liked a child," he told them. "It wasn't on the cards for us, though."
"Children are a nuisance," Betty murmured. "Little irritations that grow."
"Aren't you lucky that your mother didn't have that opinion?" Dana returned smoothly.
Betty stood up. She'd been expecting a pushover, and she was getting one until the venomous child bride walked in and upset her cart. Things weren't going at all according to her plan. "Has Bob asked you about the racehorse? He hoped you might be willing to come down to Corpus Christi with us and take a look at him, Hank," she said, getting straight to the point. "He's a proven winner, with good bloodlines, and we won't rob you. We'll make you a good price."
Why hadn't he realized that Betty might have had an ulterior motive when Bob had all but invited himself and Betty for lunch? He'd thought she'd put Bob up to it because she wanted to see him again, perhaps because she'd regretted the divorce. But it was just like old times. She was after money and saw him as a way to feather her nest—and Bob's. Her body had blinded him again. Angrily he drew Dana closer. "I don't think Dana would feel up to traveling right now," Hank replied, continuing with the fiction of pregnancy.
"We don't have to take her with us," Betty said curtly.
Bob laughed. "Betty, they're newlyweds," he said with noticeable embarrassment. "What are you trying to do?"
"That would have been my next question, Mr. Collins," Dana replied quietly. "Although I'll tell you right now that my husband doesn't travel without me." She caught his hand in hers, and he was surprised at how cold it was, and how possessive.
“Oh, you don't surely think I'm after your husband," Betty scoffed. "I...we...only want to see our racehorse placed in good hands. Nobody knows thoroughbred horses like Hank." She shifted her posture, for effect. She had a perfect figure and she didn't mind letting it show whenever possible, if it was to her benefit. "You must be very insecure in your marriage, dear, if you don't trust your husband out of your sight with a married woman and her husband. And that's rather a sad statement about your relationship."
Dana flushed. She could tell that Hank was suddenly suspicious. He looked down at her with narrowed eyes, as if he'd taken Betty's taunt to heart. And his hand was dead in hers, as if he felt nothing when he touched her.
Dana felt his withdrawal. She drew her fingers away. So much for the pretense, she decided. "Hank and I have only been married for two weeks," she said.
"Yes, dear, but if you're pregnant, it hardly means you've only been sleeping together since you married, or can't I count?" she asked pointedly.
Which put Dana between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't admit that she and Hank had only slept together since their wedding, unless she wanted to make herself a liar about the pregnancy. She glanced at Hank, who'd started the fabrication, but he wasn't helping her now. In fact, he looked as if he hated being tied to her when Betty was within his grasp. Her husband didn't seem to be jealous at all. It was a frightening thought to a woman in love with a husband whose motives for the marriage had been suspect from the start, and who had admitted that he still felt something powerful for his ex-wife. He'd said, too, that he had no love to offer Dana; only affection.
"Besides, it isn't as if I'm trying to break up your marriage," Betty continued. "Bob and I are in terrible financial shape. That's one reason we're having to give up our holdings all over Texas and our racehorse. Even if Hank doesn't want to buy the horse, he might be able to help us find someone who'll want him. Surely you don't begrudge us a little advice, for old times' sake? It's only Corpus Christi, after all, not some foreign country. It would only mean a night away from home."
Hank was wavering, so Betty advanced on Bob and draped herself against him with a seductive smile, as if she was making him an offer. "Tell him, honey," she drawled seductively.
Bob's face burned with color as he looked at her and he shifted restlessly. "Come on, Hank," he said. "The stable where this horse is kept is right down the road, about ten miles from where we live. We've got plenty of room. You can spend the night and come back tomorrow." He smiled weakly. "We really can't afford to wait any longer. I've had some health problems, so I have to get this settled now. We were good friends once, Hank."
You 're being suckered, Dana wanted to scream. She's using him to get to you, she's bribing him with her body to coax you down to Corpus Christi so she can seduce you into buying that horse.
Hank felt Dana's tension. His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her and recognized the jealousy, the distrust. He was feeling much too threatened already by Betty, and he was puzzled by the stormy indecision his own feelings brewed inside him. He felt trapped between two women, one whom he wanted to the point of madness and the other who'd discarded his heart and now seemed to want him again—despite her husband.
He glanced from Dana's set, angry face to Betty's coaxing one and felt himself wavering.
"Your wife doesn't have you on a leash or something, does she?" Betty asked pointedly.
That did it.
Chapter 5
Male pride asserted itself. "I can spare a day or two," Hayden told Bob with a meaningful glare down into Dana's flushed face. "After all, we're civilized people. And the divorce was years ago. It's stupid to hold a grudge."
Betty beamed. She'd won and she knew it. "What a nice thing to say, Hank. But you always were sweet."
Dana felt left out. The other two took over the conversation, and in no time they were recalling old times and talking about people Dana had never met. She poured the coffee that a disgruntled Tilly had brought on a tray, with cake, and served it to the guests. But she might have been invisible, for all the attention Hank paid her. After a few minutes she excused herself and left the room, with out being realy sure that he'd even noticed her absence.
Tilly was headed toward the kitchen with her tray right ahead of Dana's retreat, muttering to herself about men who couldn't see their own noses. Normally Tilly amused Dana by talking to herself, but she was far too preoccupied today to notice.
She went up the stairs to tie room she occupied alone and began to pack. If Hank was going away, so was she. She'd had enough of being an extra person in his life, in his house. If she'd had any hopes that he might one day learn to love her, they'd been killed stone dead with the arrival of his ex-wife. Anyone could see how he still felt about her. He was so besotted that he hadn't even noticed Dana once Betty flashed that false smile at him. Well, let him leave with his ex-wife, on whatever pretext he liked, and good luck to him!
It took
her ten minutes to pack. She threw off the sundress and put on jeans and a knit top and her boots. She braided her hair and looked in the mirror. Yes, that was more like it. She might have been a society girl once, but now she was just a poor rancher. She could look the part if she liked, and Hank surely wouldn't miss her if she left, not when Betty was ready, willing and able.
Apparently it didn't matter at all to Hank that Betty was still married, avaricious, and only using Hank to make a profit on that horse. God knew he could afford to buy it, and the woman looked as if she wouldn't mind coming across with a little payment in kind to reimburse him.
She was going through drawers to make sure she hadn't left anything when the door opened and Hank walked in.
He'd expected to find her crying. She had a sensitive nature and he'd been unkind to her, especially downstairs in front of their guests. Betty's remarks had made him feel like a possession of Dana's, and he'd reacted instinctively by shutting Dana out. Now he was sorry. His conscience had nipped him when she walked out with such quiet dignity, without even looking at him, and he'd come to find her, to comfort her, to apologize for making her feel unwelcome. But apparently it was going to take a little more than an apology, if those suitcases were any indication of her intentions.
"Going somewhere?" he asked politely, and without a smile.
"I'm going home," she said with quiet pride. "You and I both know that this was a mistake. You can get a divorce whenever you like. The will only required a paper marriage. The property is now mine and I promise you that I won't sell it to any enterprise that might threaten your horses."
He hadn't been prepared for this. He stared at her with mixed feelings.
"It's a big house," he said, because he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"You and Tilly won't miss me. She's busy with domestic things and you're never here, anyway." She didn't meet his eyes as she said that, because she didn't want him to see how much his frequent absences had made her feel unwanted. "I thought I might get a dog."
Books By Diana Palmer Page 142
