by Janet Dailey
"Don't." Her breath was coming in tiny gasps of tormented pleasure.
His hands were sliding down her shoulders and spine, applying pressure to bring her closer. Her forearms remained stiff in resistance, but her elbows started bending, forcing her hands up the muscled flatness of his stomach to the rock-ribbed wall of his chest.
"Why did you have to come here?" Glenna protested weakly.
"I stayed away as long as I could." Jett dragged his mouth over her lips, his warm breath mingling intimately with hers. "I wanted to give you time to get over the hurt. You don't know how I dreaded telling you and Orin that I was powerless to help. I didn't want to be the one to put that forsaken look in your eyes."
His strong teeth took gentle love bites of her lips, separating them. She was defenseless against this form of attack. Her fingers curled into the material of his shirt, clinging to it to avoid clinging to him.
"When I turned the merger down, I still had hope that I could keep you out of it. I thought if I made it clear that it was strictly business that I could later persuade you to keep on seeing me," he continued while his hands impelled her hips to rest against the powerful columns of his thighs, turning her bones to water. "Then you came to my room late that night."
"Please, I don't want to remember." She tried to elude his mouth, but it followed her.
"I knew that as soon as you realized your attempt to change my mind was hopeless, you would be sickened by what you were doing." His accurate assessment of her reaction drew a gasp from her throat. "And I knew you wouldn't want to face me after that. That's when I decided that if I was going to lose you, I was going to have that evening to remember…until I realized how much you would hate me for it. I couldn't risk that no matter how much I wanted you. I haven't stopped wanting you, Glenna."
She was helplessly confused by his uncanny perception of her behavior. Drawing her head back, she tried to wade through her dazed senses to study him.
"But how could you know that was how I felt?" This was what she didn't understand.
"You can't successfully run a company the size of mine without knowing what motivates people," Jett explained, letting the short distance remain between them while the compelling possession of his gaze roamed over her face. "I had a chance to find out a little bit about you as a person before that night. I wasn't wrong in my conclusion, was I?"
"No," Glenna admitted with aching relief.
It required no encouragement to persuade her to meet him halfway. His demanding kiss exorcised the guilt from her conscience and replaced it with self-respect. With her worth restored, she could meet him on common ground again. There was no longer any need to hide her face from him. Jett wouldn't have permitted it if she had tried, and Glenna didn't try. There was too much wondrous rapture to be found in his kiss.
"I want to keep on seeing you." His voice was muffled against her throat.
"I want to see you, too," she whispered, because she didn't ever want to stop seeing him. The certainty of that knowledge left her a little giddy.
Jett lifted his head and ran a hand over her cheek before tangling his fingers in the thick mane of her hair. "Where are you moving? How far is it from here?"
The trembling roughness of his voice and the implied possession of his touch convinced Glenna that Jett was equally disturbed by her nearness. It gave her a fleeting sensation of power.
"The new house is only a few miles away," she told him.
The velvet blackness of his gaze became shadowed by a raw regret. "Do you know how impossible it is for me to commute back and forth between here and Huntington even with a helicopter at my disposal? My schedule fills a sixteen-hour day. I would barely arrive here before it was time to leave."
"I know." Glenna felt his frustration ripping through her, leaving behind an awareness of how precious each moment was.
"Move to the city," he urged. "At least there we can spend more time together and I won't be wasting so much traveling time to and from. You don't need to worry about work. I have some connections at one of the newspapers. I can arrange for you to be hired as a reporter."
"It isn't that easy," She shook her head in a reluctant protest. "We've signed a year's lease on the house. Besides, dad wants to live in the country. I can't walk off and leave him, not in his condition. Don't ask me to do something like that, Jett."
"I'm not going to be content to see you only a couple of times a month, Glenna," he warned. "It's been too long now."
Glenna agreed wholeheartedly with the last, but she was plagued by a sense of lost time. "Why didn't you come sooner? You should have told me how you felt before now instead of letting me imagine what you were thinking," she protested.
"You wouldn't have believed me. You were too caught up in your own self-guilt to listen," Jett replied wisely.
"It's been such an agonizing two months," she admitted and traced the outline of his cheek with her fingertips. "If it hadn't been for Bruce and dad, I think I would have crawled in a hole and buried myself."
A muscle flexed along his jaw, tightening its line with grimness. His attention shifted to a lock of curling auburn hair, the hardness of regret darkening his eyes. Glenna swayed toward him, needing the reassurance of his kiss that everything was all right now.
The slamming of the front door stopped her while the sound of her father's voice reversed her direction out of Jett's arms. "Fred is backing the pickup truck to the door so we can load these boxes, Bruce. Did you ask Glenna about that helicopter outside?"
As she turned toward the doorway to the foyer, she saw Bruce frozen within its framework. His very stillness indicated that he had been standing there for several seconds, if not several minutes. Glenna could tell by the numbed look of disbelief in his face that he had seen and heard enough to know what had been going on prior to his arrival. The atmosphere in the room became electric when his gaze met Jett's in silent confrontation.
Her father's appearance on the scene kept it from becoming volatile. Glenna was standing freely beside Jett when her father paused in the doorway. The instant he saw Jett a broad smile spread across his face.
"Jett!" He greeted him with obvious delight and came striding across the room, a picture of health. "What brings you here? I saw the helicopter outside, but I didn't get a good look at the insignia."
"You're definitely looking better, Orin," Jett shook hands with him.
"Thank you, Jett. I'm feeling better, too," her father stated with a decisive nod, then turned to invite the third man to participate in the conversation. "Bruce, come here. I want you to meet Jett Coulson. Bruce Hawkins was my engineer and manager at the mine," he explained to Jett.
Bruce walked stiff-legged across the room like a challenger about to do battle. "I've heard a great deal about you, Mr. Coulson." He measured him with a firm handshake.
"Orin has mentioned to me what an asset you were to him," Jett returned as he sized the sandy-haired man up with a sweeping look. Neither made a reference to Glenna. Yet, when the introduction was over, Bruce assumed a protective position at her side.
In the interim her father ran a quick eye over Glenna. Astutely he noted the glowing flush in her cheeks and the kiss-swollen softness of her lips despite the slightly uncomfortable atmosphere that prevailed.
"What brings you here, Jett?" her father questioned with a smile of benign interest. "Is this a social call or business?"
"A little of both," Jett admitted, sending a glance at Glenna to indicate the social side of his visit. "I stopped by to let you know we've negotiated a contract to manage your mine."
"My ex-mine," her father corrected without bitterness. "Congratulations. I'm glad to hear it's going to be in competent hands. When will you be reopening it?"
"Soon. Naturally we'll have to make the necessary changes to pass the safety inspection before we can go into production. But first I want to find myself a good man to put in charge." Jett took a cigarette from his pack and lighted it, studying her father over the flame. "You immediately came to
mind. Would you be interested?"
"Oh, no, you don't!" her father laughed. "I just got that elephant off my back."
"I would like you to seriously consider it," Jett persisted. "The responsibilities would be considerably fewer this time around. You have all the qualifications and experience I'm looking for, plus a knowledge of this particular mine's characteristics."
"I'm flattered that you should offer me the position, but I'm not interested," her father refused as Glenna had guessed he would. "But if that's what you're looking for, Bruce fits the description. He may be a little shy on the experience side, but I'd recommend him. I happen to know he's looking for a position that would keep him in this same general area. Isn't that right, Bruce?"
Before he answered Bruce slid a look at Glenna. The glance confirmed she was the reason he didn't want to move away. It was a message no one in the group missed, including Jett. Glenna felt the penetrating study of his gaze. At this point she couldn't reassure Jett that her relationship with Bruce was still very platonic, on her part.
"That's true, sir," Bruce replied to her father's question.
"Would you be interested in the job?" Jett inquired in that brisk yet smooth business tone Glenna knew so well.
"I might be." Bruce didn't reject it. "It would depend on the terms of employment."
"Come by the mine office tomorrow morning at ten and ask for Dan Stockard. I'll tell him to expect you," Jett stated.
"I'll be there," Bruce nodded, committing himself to no more than a job interview.
A knock at the front door interrupted the conversation. "I'll answer it," her father volunteered. "It's probably Fred checking to see if we're ready to load the boxes."
But it was the copter pilot instead. "Sorry, Mr. Coulson," he apologized for his intrusion. "But we're already going to be ten minutes late for your next meeting. I thought I should remind you."
Impatience rippled through Jett's expression before he moved toward the foyer. "I'm ready to leave." He paused to let his gaze encompass the three of them. "Goodbye." But he looked directly at Glenna when he said, "I'll see you."
"Take care," she murmured and was warmed by the silent promise of his words and the brief flash of his smile.
As Jett left by the front door his departure carried her to the doorway opening to the foyer. Glenna was only half-aware that Bruce followed her until her side vision noticed him standing by her elbow. Self-consciously she turned her head to meet his look.
"It was more than just a mild flirtation that weekend, wasn't it?" His question didn't expect an answer, and the faint rise of color in her cheeks was the only one he needed. He moved past Glenna to the door where Jett had just exited the house. "I'll see if Fred is ready to load this stuff," he mumbled.
When the door closed behind him, her father raised an eyebrow and sent her a wry smile. "It sounds like Bruce walked in on a private moment."
"You could say that," Glenna agreed and listened to the sound of the helicopter taking off.
"In that case would it be fair to assume that you and Jett have straightened out your problems?" The knowing glint in his eyes twinkled at her.
"I think we have," she admitted, then eyed him suspiciously. "But why did you make that remark to Jett about Bruce?"
"You mean about Bruce wanting to find a job in the area? It's true," he shrugged.
"Yes, but you implied it was because he wanted to be near me. You know very well that Bruce and I are just friends," she reminded him. "But you deliberately planted a different idea in Jett's mind."
"I can't help the conclusion he reached," her father asserted his innocence with a beaming smile. "Besides, it won't hurt Jett to wonder whether he might have a little competition."
"Dad," she sighed and shook her head.
A voice echoed through the empty rooms of the house. "Can I come out of the kitchen now?" Hannah called with terse impatience.
"Hannah. I forgot her," Glenna realized with a laughing gasp. The statement immediately demanded an explanation, which Glenna made. Her father found it all very amusing, but the housekeeper's sense of humor didn't match his when she arrived on the scene.
BY THE END OF THE WEEK Glenna still hadn't completely settled into their new house. Except for the day they had actually moved she had worked the rest of the week, which left the bulk of the unpacking to be done in the evenings.
After the Friday evening meal she was in the kitchen unpacking the boxes containing the good china and crystal that had been among their family's possessions for generations. They had been among the few things they had not sold.
Glenna was on her knees unwrapping the tissue from the dinner plates when someone knocked at the back screen door. A lingering sunset silhouetted the figure outside, but she recognized him at a glance.
"Come in, Bruce," she called without getting up.
"I saw Orin out at the workshop. He's like a kid with a new toy," he remarked as he entered the kitchen.
"He spends nearly all his time out there," she agreed.
"Do you want some help with this?" Bruce knelt down beside her.
"Sure." Glenna handed him a plate with its tissue-paper covering.
Bruce unwrapped it and added it to the stack on the counter, announcing almost casually, "I start work Monday morning at the mine." Outside of that one remark he'd made when Jett had left, Bruce hadn't referred to him since.
Glenna sat back on her heels to look at him. "They offered you the position of manager."
"Yes."
"And you accepted it?"
"Yes."
"Why?" That question was too blunt. She quickly tempered it with an explanation. "I thought you were going to take a couple months off before starting another job."
"I discovered I had too much idle time on my hands with no way to pass it. Plus, the offer was a good one." He concentrated on his task, not looking up as he named his reasons. "And I liked the idea of going back to your father's mine. I feel as though I left a job half done and I need to finish it. Are you sorry I accepted it?"
"No." Glenna shook her head, auburn hair swaying at the movement. "As long as you didn't take it for the wrong reason." Which was to stay near her.
"I don't think I did."
With the last of the dinner plates out of the box, Glenna stood up and positioned the step stool in front of the cupboard. Climbing it, she opened the door to the top shelf where the china was being stored.
"Would you hand me the plates, Bruce?" She half turned to take the plates he passed up to her a few at a time. The phone rang when he gave her the last. "Will you answer it? It's probably for dad."
"Sure." Bruce walked to the extension phone on the wall. "Reynolds residence, this is Bruce Hawkins. Yes, just a moment." As she climbed down the step stool, he extended the receiver toward her. "It's for you. Jett Coulson."
Her heart flipped over, and her hand was unsteady as she reached for the phone. "Hello?" Glenna had been half expecting to hear from him before the weekend, but now that the moment had arrived, she was disturbed by it.
"Hello. I guess I don't need to ask whether you have company." There was a thin thread of grimness in his tone.
"No." She couldn't elaborate, not with Bruce able to overhear her side of the conversation. He was kneeling beside the box on the kitchen floor, unpacking the china sauce dishes.
"Did I interrupt anything?" His question was slightly challenging.
"No. I was unpacking the last of the boxes, trying to get the last of our things put away," Glenna explained. The suspicion of jealousy in his voice was a little gratifying even if it was unjustified. At tiffs point it was a difficult thing to let him know.
"Did Hawkins tell you he's going to work for my company?"
"Yes."
"You aren't very talkative," Jett accused. "What's wrong? Is he listening?"
"Yes." She wound her fingers in the coil of the telephone cord.
"In that case I might as well come straight to the point," he sighed with a
trace of disgust. "I can't get away this weekend to see you."
"Oh." That one small word was filled with disappointment.
"I have no doubt that Hawkins will do his best to keep you entertained," he inserted dryly and continued without giving Glenna a chance to comment. "I should be able to adjust my schedule to have an afternoon and evening free one day next week. I should know by Monday afternoon whether it will be Wednesday or Thursday. I'll call you then."
"Don't forget I work until four-thirty," she reminded him.
"I'll pick you up after work."
"All right."
"I'll talk to you Monday. Hopefully there won't be anyone listening then and you'll be more communicative." It was a clipped statement that betrayed his impatience. "Goodbye, Glenna."
"Goodbye, Jett." She waited until she heard the disconnecting click on his end of the line before she hung up the receiver. When she turned, Bruce was quietly studying her.
"Are you in love with him, Glenna?" he asked.
She hesitated, then rubbed her arms, remembering how it felt when Jett touched her. "Yes, I think so," she admitted on a warmly confident note.
"Is he in love with you?" was Bruce's next question.
That required a more cautious answer. "I don't know. I'm not sure." Glenna bit at her lower lip, positive that it couldn't all be one-sided. "I think so."
Bruce straightened and walked to the step stool. "Where do you want these sauce dishes? On the same shelf with the plates?" The subject was changed, not to be raised again by him.
Chapter Eleven
ON MONDAY, Glenna left the printing office early to make some deliveries for the company on her way home. Although she knew most of the customers where she stopped, she didn't stay to chat. Jett had said he would call her today. She wanted no delays that might make her miss the phone call.
That was the reason for the gleam in her gray green eyes and the smile that hovered, on her lips. Even the mountain air seemed electric with anticipation as she turned into the driveway. She wasn't quite used to the small home where she lived, but it was the last thought in her mind when she stopped the car.
