by Jayne Castle
"I have to hear the question first."
He smiled beguilingly, making her supremely conscious of the unaccountable attraction he seemed to hold for her. She was suddenly aware of an answering shiver of response. It made no sense, but it nevertheless caused the glass in her hand to quiver ever so slightly.
"Will you let me kiss you tonight before you leave?"
Kendra blinked and then lowered her lashes, not out of false modesty but rather out of confusion. She told herself she hadn't been expecting this, and in a way she was right. A part of her hadn't expected him to ask for the kiss. She
had anticipated that he would take it. But he was deliberately making her accept responsibility for the action, and that was confusing.
"I don't think that would be very wise," she said quietly, taking a sip of the brandy and letting its fire counteract the faint trembling. My God! What was she doing here, dining with a man who ran a casino? A man who employed people like Wolf Higgins. It was time she got out of this strange fantasy, Kendra thought resolutely, setting down her glass.
"May I have the receipt now?" she inquired politely, getting to her feet.
"You didn't answer my question," he reminded her, gliding up lazily to stand beside her.
She shook her head bemusedly. "This has been a most unusual evening," she began politely.
"Meaning you don't normally have dinner with men who have a bit of an unsavory element about them." He chuckled. "But it's not your fault, remember. I blackmailed you into it, as I recall."
"So you did." She nodded purposefully. "And now that I've paid the ransom, don't you think it's time you concluded your end of the deal?"
"If you're not going to'give me a direct no in response to my simple question, it can only mean one thing," he whispered in a voice that deepened to a husky, sexy drawl. Deliberately he put out his hand and gently cupped her chin. "It can only mean yes."
Kendra didn't move, curiously mesmerized by the sensual electricity that was flowing around her. She felt almost trapped in the illusory cocoon he had spun around them both tonight, unable to turn her head aside as he lowered his to take her lips.
If he had forced the kiss, her response would have been unequivocal. She would have refused it with equal force, and the violence would have shattered the spell in the
room. But he was far too wise for such an action, she realized as his mouth covered hers.
The kiss was slow, warm, questing, and it began subtly, almost experimentally. At first Case made no move to draw her more securely into his arms, content, it seemed, to taste her essence and let her experience his.
Kendra was vividly aware of his body heat as he stood so close, touching her only with one hand. She had an almost instinctive desire to lessen the small space between them. His fingers moved delicately, sensitively along her throat, shaping the curve of her jaw and sliding down warmly to the collar of the red silk dress.
His lips moved sensuously over hers, coaxing, persuading, exploring. At her sides, her nails suddenly turned inward against her palms, and she felt a faint, stifled moan at the back of her throat.
As if that were a signal for which he had been waiting, Case reached out with his other hand, curving it around her waist and pulling her slowly against him.
"You have the most delightful scent," he rasped against her lips. "Clean, fresh, warm, sweet . . . like an island breeze. ..."
She lifted her hands automatically, spreading her fingertips across the hardness of his shoulders. She felt the masculine solidity of his body, and luxuriated in it unthinkingly. She was almost thirty years old, and she had been kissed often enough during those years, but never quite like this, her mind whispered seductively, never with quite this tender, probing persuasiveness.
Somewhere a faint warning bell was ringing, but for the moment Kendra told herself she could safely ignore it. Soon she would leave and never see this man or his casino again. Knowing that she would be safe enough shortly was a kind of incentive to enjoy this stolen hour with a man she would normally have never allowed into her world.
But he hadn't broached her environment, she thought
vaguely. It was she who had invaded his tonight. And the temptation to let the kiss linger for a little longer was overwhelming. "Kendra . . . ?"
Her name was uttered in a deep, hoarse voice as his hand tightened around her slender waist. She heard the soft rustle of her red silk dress as his fingers found the shape of her.
"Kendra, you intrigue me. Do you realize that?" he asked in a muffled groan.
"I think I'd better be going," she managed hesitantly, knowing she should withdraw herself from this strange
world.
But he ignored the words, taking advantage of her parted lips to abruptly deepen the kiss. She felt the seductive assault of his tongue, and she trembled slightly. She knew the small movement communicated itself to him, because of the way he shifted his hold to mold her more completely against him.
Without thinking about it Kendra lifted her hands to the darkness of his hair, her fingertips finding the band of the velvet patch before exploring further to bury themselves at the back of his neck'.
"Ah," she breathed as the dangerous, warm languor stole over her, arousing something faint and exciting deep within her body.
His hands slid down to the small of her back, pressing, urging, and kneading with growing arousal.
"At least you're not going to remain a total mystery tonight," he growled as he reluctantly pulled back from her mouth and began a trail of tiny, glowing kisses along the line of her cheek, just below her eye. "But don't you realize that every question you answer only raises a thousand more?"
"They're questions that don't need answering," she
whispered, turning her lips against the sun-browned length of his throat.
"I disagree, but we can argue about it later."
His hands cupped her hips, arching her against his lower body, making her aware of the rising passion in him. It stirred a response in her, heightened the light-headed recklessness that was beginning to take hold. The warning bell still sounded, and still she ignored it.
"I want you," he said with heavy bluntness, his male desire plain. "You must know that by now. Will you stay with me tonight, mystery woman?"
In spite of herself Kendra sucked in her breath at the straightforward, uncompromising question.
"No," she finally said softly, closing her eyes against the feel of his lips on the nape of her neck. "That's impossible."
"Nothing is impossible."
"What you ask is," she returned flatly, but making no move to pull away from his warmth and hardness. He was using his tongue and then his teeth on the ultrasensitive skin at the back of her neck as she pressed her face into his shoulder. The sensation was an exquisite little torment that made her cling to him with tiny claws.
"Do you know that I wanted to ask you to spend the night the moment I looked up and saw you across the casino?" he murmured. "There was something between us from the first instant of eye contact. Do you deny it?"
"There was only a matter of business between us," she protested softly.
"No. There is more . .. much more. Aren't you curious to stay and find out?"
"I won't be staying, Case. That's very, very final."
"I can tell from the tone of your voice," he agreed broodingly. He curled his fingers into the softness of her. "Will you ever be back?"
"No."
"Not even to pay off the last half of Donna's debt?"
"By then she'll be able to do it herself."
"I see. You really don't approve of me, do you?"
"My approval hardly matters, Case."
"So I keep telling myself," he retorted dryly.
He shifted his weight, pulling her down onto the couch beside him and gathering her back into his arms. For a long moment there were no more words, but his hands began to rove over her, caressing the shape of one thigh, the silk of her dress rustling gently.
&n
bsp; Kendra didn't try to restrict his hand until she felt his palm flatten on her stomach and glide upward to a point just beneath her breasts. Then, at last, she began to listen to the warnings in her mind.
Unwillingly she began to ease away, a rueful smile shaping her mouth as her lashes fluttered open. She met his heated gaze and started to say something witty and conclusive. But before the clever words could form into a sentence, he put his hand on her breast.
"Case!"
His name was a reflexive little cry compounded of protest and the need he had stirred in her. She knew she was trembling again, and when his fingers sought the nipple through the silk, she wanted to slap his hand aside. But somehow she couldn't do it. Not yet. And he saw the ambivalence in her eyes.
"You can't deny your own response, my little mystery woman," he said in deep satisfaction as the tip of her breast hardened beneath his touch.
"Please don't touch me like that," Kendra said huskily.
"Will you touch me?" he countered whimsically, taking his hand away from her soft curves and lifting her fingertips to the side of his cheek. When she touched him, he turned his mouth against the skin of her palm and kissed her with a passion that seemed all the more intense for being so well leashed.
Kendra breathed in the musky, intoxicating scent of his vibrant maleness and took a firm grip on her senses. Her fantasy night had gone far enough. It was time to escape to reality.
"I want to leave now, Case," she said very quietly, very resolutely. "May I please have Donna's receipt?"
He dropped another lingering caress against her wrist, and then slowly lowered her hand. "You're really going?"
"Yes."
He stared at her for another long second, and she could feel the will in him growing. He was deliberately exerting it, she realized, trying to make her change her mind. But that, as she had told him, was impossible. Half smiling, she shook her head in silent response.
The bizarre interlude had held a temptation she would never have expected to encounter, but it was time to end it. She had no intention of getting involved with-this strange, enigmatic man whose world was so far removed from her own.
"The receipt?" she prompted gently, certain that she would get it. It may not have been a totally rational certainty, given who and what he undoubtedly was. But after the evening they had just shared, Kendra felt confident she could trust him that much. He'd told her he would let her have it. She'd believed him.
"Nothing I can say or do will make you reconsider?" he asked slowly.
Again she shook her head, the faint smile still quirking her lips.
"The receipt is my only hold on you," he pointed out, stroking the veins of her small wrist with a circling thumb. The small, erotic touch was sending sparks throughout her body.
"But you won't use it," Kendra stated positively. "You gave me your word I could have it after dinner."
"Did you enjoy dinner?" he asked with a wry expression.
"Very much," she said honestly.
"Very gracious of you," he applauded, "given that I rather coerced you into it." He stood up, tossed a last, speculative glance down at her, and then walked across the room. "I'll get your receipt."
She watched him disappear down a hallway, and then concentrated her attention on the still-falling snow outside the huge window. What an evening this had evolved into, she thought. Somehow she didn't think she would ever forget it. And she had the good sense not to try and repeat it!
"This will ease Donna's mind," Case said a few minutes later as he came back into the living room, a note with his signature on it in his hand. He held it out, and Kendra took it, folding it and stuffing it into the white muff.
"My coat?" she said politely. It had been left in his office.
"We can get it on the way out," he told her, opening a bamboo-trimmed closet and reaching for an overcoat.
"There's no need to see me back to the hotel," she said quickly, forestalling him as she awakened to his intention.
"Of course there is," he disagreed coolly.
"Case, I don't want you taking me back."
He must have heard the steel in her words, because he stopped in the process of shrugging into the coat and stared at her. Once again there was a short but intense battle of wills, and once again Case backed down.
"You want everything to end right here, don't you?" he said with sudden understanding. His gaze hardened.
"It's the only way."
"Why?" he asked "starkly.
"Case, I've already spent far more time with you than I had ever intended. I want to conclude our business and leave. Alone."
He surveyed her rigid, determined stance, and then turned to replace the wool coat in the closet. "You will allow me to at least see you to the front door of the casino?" he drawled.
It occurred to her that she had annoyed him, and Kendra relaxed, moving toward the door. "If you insist," she murmured.
"The soul of gracious femininity," he muttered, opening the door for her.
"Are you going to turn surly at this stage?" she inquired humorously, quite confident now.
For an instant there was a look of warning in the darkness of his eye, and an almost infinitesimal flicker of fear coursed along her spine. It was over almost before it had begun, but not before it had served to remind Kendra that everything she knew about this man indicated a potential for danger. She could take care of herself, but it was foolish to play too long with fire. It was stupid to go looking for unnecessary trouble, even if it would be satisfying to prove to herself that she could handle it now.
And then he was smiling; a cold, polite smile that barely changed the shape of his hard mouth. "I shall try to behave as far as the front entrance," he told her.
The ride down in the elevator to the first level was accomplished in silence. In silence, too, her coat was retrieved, and in silence she was walked to the front door.
Wolf Higgins glanced interestedly but politely at his boss and then at Kendra.
"Do you want me to get the car, Case?"
"No," Kendra interrupted. "I'll take one of the cabs out front."
Wolf smiled at her but waited for Case's instructions.
"I'm afraid she means it," Case informed the other man with a wry smile. "A very determined woman, our Miss Loring." He swung around to face Kendra. "Good night, Kendra."
She thought he was going to kiss her, and to make certain that it didn't happen, Kendra stepped away.
"Good night, Case . . . Wolf."
Without a word Wolf stepped through the decorated glass door and hailed a waiting cab. She thanked him with a smile and, getting inside, settled back for the short drive. The smile lingered on her mouth as she gazed out at the cold, snowy night. After the warmth of Case's tropical island it was a shock to come back out into it. But she understood his fantasy retreat, she realized suddenly, surprised to find she had anything at all in common with such a man. She understood his home, because she had deliberately constructed such a gracious retreat for herself. True, her choice of home surroundings had taken a slightly different twist—Kendra's smile widened as she remembered her gracious French decor—but the principle was the same in some ways. It was as if they both had created the world they wanted around them in so far as it was possible. Life, Kendra thought, repeating her personal philosophy, was what you made it. A person had to decide what he or she wanted and then make it happen. Instinctively she felt Case would understand that philosophy.
She got out of the cab at the wrong hotel, intending to walk to hers. It would be simple for Wolf to question the cab driver when he returned to the club. There were several people out on the streets, moving cheerfully from one brightly lit casino to the next, in search of better luck. Kendra felt the ebb and flow around her but paid little attention as she walked briskly.
She hadn't wanted Case to escort her back tonight for several reasons, not the least of which was that it seemed safest not to allow him to find out anything more about her than he already
had.
She could take some pride in having fended off his gently persistent questioning during dinner. He had hidden his frustration well, but she'd sensed it.
Had that been why he had kissed her? To make her more amenable to questioning? But why should he really care about her background? She supposed she had been a minor curiosity in his world. An amusing interlude. Would he check out the hotel where she'd gotten out of the cab? Would he be a little upset to find she'd left a false trail?
An amusing interlude, she repeated. That was exactly how she would view the evening. A stopover in a different world. Strange, but the past few hours had been the most interesting she had spent in the past two years!
She was almost at the entrance of her hotel when she caught sight of a dark figure behind her, reflected in the neon-lit glass. Kendra frowned. She had seen that figure earlier, shortly after she'd alighted from the cab.
Her mouth tightened ominously. Had Case followed her, after all? She glanced over her shoulder, half in annoyance. The dark figure disappeared.
Would Case act so craftily? It didn't seem like him somehow. She could imagine him deciding to follow her out of curiosity, but she didn't think he'd duck behind a wall or slip into an open doorway if he thought she'd seen him.
Kendra smiled again. Chances were she would never have seen him in the first place if he'd decided to trail her back to the hotel. He struck her as being much too competent to be that sloppy.
No, she had made a mistake, she decided, standing aside as a surge of people poured out the hotel door. Then she made her way inside, walking straight past the slot machines and diving into the milling crowd surrounding the acres of gambling tables. If someone was following her, she'd lose him here in this chaos.
When she finally made her way to the elevator lobby, there was no one around. Everyone was out participating in the lively nightlife, which had lured people there in the
first place. A famous singer was appearing in the lounge, and those who weren't paying a fortune to hear him were spending fortunes at the tables. She had the plush elevator to herself when she finally headed for her room.
