Undying Love

by Carole Mortimer

  He had more than handled it okay, and he knew it! He had been so charming, so easygoing and assured, that there had been none of the uncertainty and resentment that usually initially went along with a take-over like this. Most of the staff she had spoken to had reacted with the same untroubled acceptance that Jane had.

  But Rick’s lazily drawled words now had aroused Henry’s suspicions, and she could see him mentally adding up the situation—and arriving at the right answer!

  ‘We’ll be round at ten in the morning, Shanna,’ Henry told her curtly, ‘when I’ll give Rick the official introduction to the staff that he deserves.’

  It took a lot to anger her usually even-tempered brother, but she could see that her method of dealing with Rick Dalmont over his acquisition of Fashion Lady had far from met with Henry’s approval. It had backfired on her anyway. Rick’s arrogant assurance was such that nothing unsettled him.

  ‘We’ll be ready,’ she told her brother softly, a plea for understanding in her eyes. He gave her an impatient look, shaking his head in silent reproach. She turned away, her mouth tight.

  ‘I think I’ve already had the introduction to the staff of Fashion Lady that Shanna thinks I deserve,’ Rick drawled tauntingly, enjoying her discomfort.

  She turned blazing green eyes on him. She didn’t mind that he mocked her, and if they were alone she would probably have given back as good as he was giving. But as he was five years her senior, and the only close family she had left, she valued Henry’s liking and respect for her as a businesswoman as well as his sister. He had taken a chance on her with Fashion Lady, a chance that had, luckily, paid off. Her behaviour this morning might have been petty and spiteful, but she didn’t appreciate Rick telling Henry about it; the argument between the two of them was strictly private!

  ‘I shall be honoured to show you round the magazine tomorrow, Rick,’ she told him coolly. ‘There really isn’t any need to bother Henry.’

  ‘I’ll be there,’ her brother told her grimly. ‘It’s only protocol that the previous owner should introduce the new one.’ He gave her another disapproving glare.

  ‘Shanna wants to leave,’ Rick spoke smoothly. ‘So we’ll say goodbye now.’

  She seethed inside all the time they were making their farewells to Steven and Alice, wrenching out of his grasp as soon as they were outside, the cool evening air making her huddle down in her velvet jacket. ‘That was the most despicable, rotten—’

  ‘I know, I know,’ Rick interrupted her tirade impatiently. ‘But what you did this morning wasn’t according to the rules of the game.’ He held her in front of him, his eyes very dark in the light flowing from the house behind them. ‘I like to keep business and pleasure completely separate, but this morning you crossed over that line.’

  ‘Because you’d already done so!’ She was taut with tension. ‘You did so the moment you included me in your contract with Henry.’

  ‘I’ve been making the arrangements to buy Fashion Lady for months.’

  ‘And two weeks ago you suddenly decided I should be included in it!’

  His mouth tightened. ‘Henry has a big mouth,’ he ground out.

  ‘He’s my brother!’

  ‘He’s also a businessman!’

  Her mouth twisted with scorn. ‘You may be able to separate your priorities into such denned categories, Mr Dalmont,’ she ignored the warning narrowing of his eyes at her formality, ‘but I can’t—and neither, thank God, can Henry.’

  There seemed to be a mental battle going on behind the dark eyes, until finally Rick sighed. ‘I warned you there would be retribution for this morning, so now we’re even,’ he shrugged dismissively.

  ‘No, we are not even,’ she bit out in a controlled voice. ‘I don’t want to be even with you, I don’t want to be anything with you. What I did this morning you deserved, what you’ve done, making me work for you, invading my life like you did tonight, I’ve done nothing to deserve.’

  ‘You’re too damned beautiful,’ he rasped.

  Her eyes widened. ‘I have to be punished for that?’

  ‘Working for me won’t be a punishment!’ His expression softened from anger. ‘It could be very—rewarding, if you would let it be.’

  Shanna drew in an angry breath. ‘I believe this is sexual harassment, and I have a right to—’

  ‘Sexual harassment!’ he exploded, his eyes black his mouth grim. ‘I’ve never had to harass a woman into bed with me!’

  ‘Then you’re giving a very good impression of it!’

  Black eyes warred with green for several long tension-filled minutes, until Rick finally sighed his exasperation with her. ‘I don’t intend arguing out here with you,’ he reasoned. ‘For one thing it’s too damned public, and for another it’s too cold. The dampness of the weather here gets into my bones,’ he grimaced. ‘We can talk in the car. Which one is yours?’ There were almost two dozen cars parked down the driveway.

  ‘Mine?’ she echoed sharply. ‘But you—’

  ‘I told you, I came with Henry and Janice, and I meant that literally. I took a cab to their place and drove here with them.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Which is your car, Shanna?’ he rasped impatiently. ‘Before we both freeze to death!’

  ‘The brown Mercedes sports car. But—’

  He took the car keys out of her hand, striding purposefully over to her car to unlock the door, and sliding in behind the wheel. Shanna stood indignantly beside the car, glaring down at him as he switched on the engine.

  ‘Well, get in,’ Rick indicated the passenger door he had opened for her.

  ‘You’re in my seat,’ she ground out.

  He relaxed back against the leather. ‘I never allow a woman to drive me,’ he drawled. ‘Not since my mother told me she always thinks out the day’s menus as she drives.’

  ‘Well, I don’t. And I—’

  ‘No, you probably organise the layout for the readers’ letters while you drive,’ he taunted. ‘It’s just a question of differing values.’

  Shanna knew she was occasionally guilty of letting her mind wander as she drove, but she was sure it wasn’t a practice limited to women as Rick seemed to imply it was! ‘And you probably think of the next woman you’re going to bed!’ she snapped waspishly, getting into the car beside him, only just managing to fasten her safety belt before he put the Mercedes in gear and drove off.

  He turned to give her a confident smile. ‘You’re never far from my mind, Shanna,’ he mocked.

  She turned away, her mouth tight, deciding to end the intimacy of that conversation. ‘I don’t remember ever offering to drive you home.’

  ‘But you aren’t—I’m driving you.’

  And very capably too. Perry had been a good driver, but his skill on the race-track, his enjoyment of speed, had occasionally spilt over during his normal driving, and that didn’t make for an enjoyable drive. Rick Dalmont drove with ease and the minimum of effort, instilling confidence in his passengers. But she shouldn’t have been the passenger, damn him!

  ‘Would you mind?’ A gold cigarette case appeared in her vision, and she looked up to see Rick was holding it out to her. ‘Could you get me a cheroot out—please?’ he added in a cajoling voice as he saw the hardening of her mouth.

  She did so with little grace, watching as he put the dark cheroot between his teeth.

  ‘Could you light it for me too?’ He handed her a lighter that matched the cigarette case he was now sliding back into the breast pocket of his jacket.

  She sat forward to click the lighter to a flame beneath the cheroot, her mouth unsmiling as she gave it back to him to put away.

  ‘Of course I could have done it myself,’ he told her conversationally a few seconds later, ‘but I’m desperate enough to want you to perform any little intimate task for me.’ He glanced at her sideways. ‘And there’s something very intimate about what you just did.’

  ‘Really?’ she drawled uninterestedly, burning inside with indignati
on.

  ‘Yes,’ he mocked softly. ‘Admit it, Shanna, you liked me a little better tonight.’

  ‘I’ll admit nothing of the sort! You’re a manoeuvring, arrogant bast—’

  ‘Do you usually call your boss a bastard?’ he rasped.

  ‘I’ve only ever had one other boss, and I know for a fact that Henry is legitimate.’

  ‘He’s also given you too much freedom,’ Rick snapped. ‘I would hazard a guess that most of the men in your life have allowed you too much of your own way. First your father and brother, then your husband. And now there’s me.’

  ‘You certainly couldn’t be accused of being indulgent!’ There were two bright spots of angry colour in her cheeks.

  ‘I can be—at the right time, in the right place,’ Rick taunted. ‘Now we’re in the right place, I just have to persuade you it’s the right time.’

  He had halted the car outside one of London’s quietly exclusive hotels and was already getting out from behind the wheel, coming round to open her door for her.

  Shanna stood next to him on the pavement. ‘If you’ll just give me my car keys…’

  ‘I thought we could have a drink before you leave.’

  ‘No, thank you.’ She held out her hand for the keys.

  Rick made a point of putting them in his trouser pocket. ‘Just one drink?’

  ‘No!’ She met the challenge in his dark eyes, seeing he wasn’t about to give in. ‘I’ll get a taxi home,’ she decided tautly.

  ‘Good idea.’ He took the steps two at a time to the glass doors that led into the hotel, pausing to turn and look at her. ‘I’ll bring your car to the Fashion Lady offices in the morning when I meet Henry. Of course he could be curious as to how I come to have your car, but I’m sure I can come up with some viable explanation for that.’ He was whistling tunelessly beneath his breath as he allowed the doorman to open the door for him, cheerfully nodding his thanks as he went inside.

  Shanna watched him go with a feeling of a trap closing about her. Rick Dalmont was a manipulating swine, but at the moment he held all the top cards.

  Her heels clicked angrily as she ran up the stairs to find the door already being held open for her; the man’s expression was deadpan, telling her that he had overheard most if not all of the conversation between Rick and herself. Her head went back defensively as she saw Rick leaning against the lift door to keep it open for her.

  ‘Relax, Shanna,’ he drawled as she reached his side. ‘This is a hotel, not an apartment. We can even have that drink in the lounge if you like.’ He stepped into the lift, pressing the hold button as she made no effort to join him. ‘The lounge and bar are upstairs,’ he mocked.

  She stepped in beside him silently, her face averted as she felt his taunting gaze on her.

  ‘One drink and then you can have your keys back,’ he told her softly as the lift doors opened and he stepped out.

  Shanna followed him down the carpeted corridor. The luxury of the hotel meant nothing to her; she and Perry had stayed in plenty of them during their tours of the race circuit.

  Rick unlocked the door to a room, gently pushing her inside before switching on the lights. It was obviously a hotel suite and not a public lounge at all.

  She turned to him accusingly. ‘You said—’

  ‘I said a lounge and a bar,’ he held up his hands defensively. ‘This is the lounge of my suite, and over there is the bar,’ he pointed to the extensive bar in the corner of the room.

  ‘You lied by omission,’ she said tautly.

  ‘I didn’t lie at all,’ he told her slowly. ‘I’ve been honest with you from the beginning—about everything. Now, what would you like to drink?’

  ‘Nothing. I’d like my car keys so that I can leave.’ She stood in the middle of the room, the dark green velvet jacket she wore darkening her hair to the same black as her dress, her eyes a deep glowing green.

  ‘No drink?’ Rick took a step towards her.

  She stood her ground, proudly erect. ‘Just the keys.’

  ‘You can have them back—’ he stood only inches away from her now, his warmth reaching out to her, the tangy smell of his aftershave and the faint aroma of the cheroots he smoked discernible to her—‘if you’ll give me one kiss first,’ he prompted softly.

  ‘No,’ she scorned.

  ‘Then no keys,’ he shrugged.

  ‘Mr Dalmont—’

  ‘Shanna,’ he mocked.

  ‘This is blackmail,’ she snapped.

  ‘You see what you’ve made me resort to,’ he groaned.

  ‘I think I’d rather get a taxi and let Henry make his own assumption about why you have my car,’ she turned away.

  ‘No!’ Rick pulled her round roughly. ‘No, Shanna, I can’t let you go…’ His head bent down and his mouth captured hers.

  She knew that fighting him would do no good as soon as she felt the steel of his body in front of her and the strength of his arms about her. The only alternative was to limply accept the assault on her mouth by his, to offer no resistance as he probed her lips to search her mouth, drinking deeply of the warm recesses.

  ‘Kiss me back, damn you,’ he raised his head enough to rasp, a wild light of recklessness in his black eyes. ‘I’ve got you this far, you aren’t going to leave now!’ His mouth claimed hers once again, ravaging her softness, desperately trying to evoke a response from her.

  And she couldn’t give him one, wouldn’t give him one. This man was taking, he wasn’t giving, and she wouldn’t give to him either.

  ‘Damn you!’ he finally thrust her away from him, turning his back on her. ‘Go if you want to!’

  ‘I want to.’ Shanna straightened the smoothness of her silky hair, moistening her lips, already feeling their tenderness from his onslaught. ‘My keys,’ she reminded him.

  He thrust his hand into his pocket, throwing the keys at her. ‘Drive carefully,’ he muttered as she walked towards the door.

  His concern stopped her in her tracks, and she looked at him dazedly. ‘Rick…?’

  He turned, taking a deep breath, running a hand through his hair and ruffling its darkness. ‘I’m trying to be a good loser,’ he told her ruefully. ‘It just isn’t a role I’m used to,’ he said without conceit.

  His lack of apology was enough to break the tension between them, and her mouth quirked into a smile of amusement. ‘Humility certainly doesn’t become you!’

  ‘No,’ he sighed. ‘Neither does sexual disappointment. I need a cold shower.’

  Shanna was smiling openly now. ‘Does that really work?’

  Rick grimaced. ‘I’ll know that later.’

  ‘Having no previous experience, hmm?’

  ‘None,’ he drawled.

  ‘No one could ever accuse you of being modest,’ she taunted.

  Rick shrugged. ‘No one has ever wanted to.’

  ‘You’re incredible!’ she gasped.

  ‘Incredible as in amazing, or incredible as in arrogant? No, don’t answer that, I can guess.’ He shook his head. ‘You do nothing for my ego, Shanna.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound as if your ego needs anything doing for it. There are millions of women out there,’ she indicated the rest of the world. ‘Go after one of them, Rick. Please!’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘You can! There must be—’

  ‘I can’t, Shanna,’ he repeated softly. ‘My reputation is going to suffer, you know,’ he added lightly as he sensed her tension rising once again. ‘My ladies don’t usually leave ten minutes after they arrive.’

  ‘Maybe they weren’t really ladies,’ she said curtly.

  ‘Maybe not,’ he conceded. ‘Come on, I’ll walk down to the car with you.’ He grasped her elbow, taking her to the door.

  She shook her head. ‘That isn’t necessary.’

  ‘My mama would never forgive me for not seeing a lady to her car,’ he derided.

  She shrugged acceptance, knowing that to argue with him would do no good; this man was a law unto hi
mself. ‘I didn’t realise your mother was still alive,’ she told him as they went down in the lift.

  ‘Both my parents are,’ he nodded. ‘Dad retired fifteen years ago to spend more time with Mama. She has a heart complaint,’ he frowned. ‘My father is almost twenty years older then her; she was only eighteen when they got married, and yet Mama is probably going to die first. I don’t think my father ever expected that.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Yes, so am I,’ his voice had hardened, too intent on his own thoughts to notice how much she had paled. ‘They’ve been in love almost forty years, I don’t know what Dad will do when he’s on his own.’ His expression became closed as they walked across the foyer and out to her car. ‘I didn’t mean to bore you with my family history,’ he said as he opened her door for her.

  ‘You didn’t bore me,’ she said slowly.

  ‘No?’ he grimaced at her air of preoccupation. ‘You’re giving a good impression of it.’

  ‘No, I—’ She broke off, biting her lip. ‘I’d better go,’ she told him lightly. ‘My new boss is coming to the office tomorrow; I have to be fresh and alert for him.’

  Rick returned her smile. ‘I’d rather you were soft and kittenish, maybe a little sleepy, after a night in my bed.’

  He made the statement in the form of a question, and for her answer Shanna switched on the ignition. ‘I’ll see you in the morning, Mr Dalmont.’

  ‘Ten o’clock—Mrs Logan,’ he taunted, stepping away from the car.

  Rick would have been right in his assessment of her mind not being on her driving as she went home—it was far removed from that! After the way Rick had kissed her, forced his passion on her, she had been ready to walk out of his hotel room hating him more than ever, but listening to him talking about his parents, his obvious concern for his mother, somehow made him seem less the arrogant Rick Dalmont and more Ricardo, the son of Teresa. And that could be dangerous for her, could break down all the defences she had built up this last year, the defences she needed to get her through the rest of her life.

  * * *

  Henry’s telephone call to her office at five past nine the next morning wasn’t exactly unexpected. ‘What you did yesterday was childish, Shanna,’ he told her crossly. ‘It was also unprofessional.’