Affair Of Risk

by Jayne Castle

"I will say one thing about San Franciscans," Case said, grinning, half an hour later as they were seated in the posh, dimly lit bar of the waterfront restaurant. "They know how to dress well and eat well!"

  "We have our priorities," Kendra murmured demurely as she turned to gaze out at the night-darkened sweep of San Francisco Bay. There was an unconscious satisfaction in her response that served to broaden Case's smile.

  She turned her head and encountered his warm look. "You seem to know some of our best places, though," she admitted, referring to the expensive restaurant, replete with old-style West Coast opulence.

  "I cheated," he confessed with a wry grin. "I know the owner."

  "Ah." She sipped her glass of wine and favored him with a calculating smile.

  "Don't say it," he begged dryly.

  "Would I be so gauche as to question your association with the owner of this place? I'm sure it's an entirely professional relationship. Which brings us to the business of how you obtained Donna's phone number," she concluded smoothly.

  "Could we," he asked very steadily, "talk about something else this evening?"

  "Such as?"

  "Such as us?" His next words came with an appallingly

  stark clarity. "I want you, Kendra Loring. I wanted you the moment I saw you. And I don't mean for a few nights or an occasional fling here in San Francisco. I want you to come live with me."

  The wine in Kendra's glass sloshed perilously close to the rim as she tried desperately to recover her fragmented poise. She could only stare speechlessly at him, unable to fully grasp the implication of what he was saying but knowing her whole life was threatening to come undone.

  Case's mouth quirked whimsically, and he touched his fingers to the fine fabric of her burgundy dress. "You have everything, haven't you? A beautiful home, designer clothes, good jewelry, an excellent career. And I would like very much to take you away from all that."

  "Take me where, Case? To a casino?" she managed faintly, still trying to work out a response. She felt literally staggered.

  "No, to an island. An island in the South Seas."

  "Your fantasy island?" she breathed.

  "I'm buying a hotel there, Kendra. There's no casino attached. It's a small place, but very, very beautiful. The whole island is something out of a dream: Palm trees, sparkling water, endless beaches, friendly people, and enough wealthy tourists to make the hotel a paying proposition. Will you come and share it with me, Kendra?"

  "Case, I—I don't know what to say. I'm stunned. I had no idea—" She broke off, awash in confusion. Her common sense said everything should be simple. The obvious answer was an unqualified no. But she'd never been asked to share a dream before. And she would never have imagined that a man like this would ask her to do so. Her dreams and goals had always been private.

  He leaned forward, his hand covering one of hers. "Relax, honey." He shook his head. "I seem to say that to you a lot, don't I? But it's still good advice. Relax and stop trying to find a polite way to say no. I wouldn't accept

  it, anyway. We'll come back to the subject another time. I just wanted you to know where we're heading."

  She fought for a semblance of cool control, seizing at the suggestion of a change of subject. She needed time to recover!

  "If you've been wanting to run an island hotel, how did you wind up with a Nevada casino?"

  "I sort of inherited it a few years ago," he explained, lifting one shoulder dismissively.

  "A—a relative left it to you?"

  "No, a friend. Someone for whom I worked and for whom I once did a favor."

  "It must have been some favor!"

  "I saved his life a long time ago. He took a liking to me; gave me a job. I think he began to think of me as the son he'd never had. And I know he definitely became something like a father to me. My parents died when I was very young. He was quite a man. I'll tell you about him someday."

  "But not tonight?" she guessed perceptively.

  "No, not tonight. He would have liked you, though. He liked people who have courage." Case smiled again with a strange, reminiscent look.

  "Do you think I have courage?" she asked neutrally.

  "By the truckload. I know I put a dent in your self-confidence the other night, but you'll get over that. It didn't affect your courage one bit. I know that much about you," he went on slowly. "I also know you've surrounded yourself with your own particular brand of fantasy. Where did you acquire a taste for eighteenth-century drawing-room furniture? How does that fit with training yourself in an erotic form of self-defense? And where did you learn that trick of pulling yourself in on yourself the way you did that night in Tahoe when you thought I was going to hurt you? You scared the hell out of me," he admitted. "I

  could feel you slipping away. . . ." His face hardened in recollection.

  Kendra watched him for a moment, knowing she wanted to talk to him and at the same time telling herself she shouldn't give in to the temptation. But she couldn't resist.

  "I've been on my own a long time," she began distantly. "My parents died in a car accident when I was in high school. I went to live with Donna's folks until I left for college, but although Donna and I grew close, I always felt like a guest in her parents' house. Somewhere along the line it struck me that I had only myself to depend on in life. Ultimately that's all any of us has, I suppose. Whatever I wanted I was going to have to create for myself."

  Case nodded and she knew he understood.

  "It seemed to me that there was no reason not to fill my life with whatever satisfied me. I discovered a love of coming back from work to a home that took me into another era. I liked the feeling of wearing good clothes. I liked having control over my work environment."

  "So you simply went out and made what you wanted out of life." Case eyed her admiringly. "Don't you realize what sort of courage that takes? You're amazing!"

  Kendra blinked, a little surprised. She'd never considered it amazing.

  "What happened two years ago didn't break you," Case went on coolly. "You realized that one of the things you wanted from life was being able to live it without fear, so you went out and learned how not to be a victim."

  "Some people would say I lost something important in the process . . ."

  "You mean the ability to enjoy a normal, loving relationship? No, you didn't lose it. You simply put it under wraps for a while, waiting, I like to think, for the -right man to come along and unwrap it again."

  Kendra told herself she would have given a great deal

  to wipe that look of smug male satisfaction off his smiling face, but she didn't quite know how.

  "We belong together, Kendra Loring. We understand each other on a very fundamental level. We have a lot in common, even if it isn't obvious on the surface. We have basic views of life that are almost identical. It's what you make of it. We've come a long way on our own. Together we could do anything we wanted."

  Kendra could find nothing to say to that. Unwillingly she remembered that flash of recognition she had experienced the first time she had seen him. Was that what it had been? A sense of finding a kindred spirit? No, that was too fantastic to credit. . . .

  He danced with her after dinner, holding her close in an embrace that was simultaneously sensual and tender but which conveyed utterly his deep desire for her. She let herself be melded to the hard strength in him and wondered irrationally how a man like this could have such an instinctive knowledge of passion and gentleness when he took a woman in his arms.

  Later he walked her through the bustle that was Fisherman's Wharf at night, people watching with her and seeming to enjoy the chaotic array of curio shops, hot-dog stands, restaurants of every description, and endless piles of crabs waiting for the cooking pot.

  "It reminds me of a cleaned-up version of some of the places I used to know in the Far East," he told her at one point, chuckling. "Much safer, though."

  She felt a pang as his words reminded her of the knife fight in Singapore, when he'd lost h
is left eye. She shivered.

  When he drove her back to the flat in his black-and-silver Porsche, Kendra prepared herself to bid him a polite but firm good night. She needed time to think; time to sort through all the emotions he had drawn from her this evening.

  But as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Case denied her the time. When she turned on her doorstep it was too late. He crowded her gently into the room, shutting the door behind him and reaching for her before she could find the words to stop him.

  "I know, I know," he consoled wryly as he unbelted the coat and slipped it off her shoulders. "If I were a gentleman, I would wait for an invitation. But I don't feel like arguing tonight, sweetheart. I want you too badly."

  "Case, I need time to think . . ." she began urgently, appealingly, but she knew it was hopeless. Already she could feel his spell extending outward, binding her to him. It was getting easier for him, she reflected, her mind whirling as he dragged her against him and buried his hands in her hair, pulling it loose.

  He didn't answer, swinging her high into his arms as her hair cascaded down. She met the lambent fire of his gaze and was unable to prevent the rising tide of her own response. It had been ebbing and flowing all evening, and now it was reaching its peak.

  Her senses swam in a dazzling haze as he undressed her with long, sensual movements, and she found herself returning the beginning of the loveplay. She felt his fingers tremble with the force of his desire as he cupped her breast, and it made her moan thickly in response as she sank against his bare chest.

  "You're going to have to come live with me on my island, Kendra," he growled, settling her onto the fur and lowering his weight beside her. "I can't do without you now!"

  "Oh, Case .

  He sealed her mouth with a kiss that grew steadily more demanding, more enticing, more beguiling, as she responded. After a moment Kendra put all thoughts of the future out of her head once more and gave herself up to the need in both of them.

  He made love to her as if he were unwrapping treasure, kissing her from her ankles to her ears, burying his face in the softness of her hair. Her body began to burn as he touched her everywhere until she could bear it no longer, but she knew she must give him the same pleasure in return.

  He looked at her with such flaming need and longing when she levered herself up beside him and began exploring his body with her lips that Kendra could have wept. Nothing mattered here in the darkness but satisfying his desire.

  She scorched kisses down his throat, her fingers threading through the hair of his chest. And then her tongue was tasting the skin of his stomach and thighs. The masculine roughness of him excited her, and he groaned deeply in his chest as she dampened him with her mouth.

  Kendra felt his hands in her long hair, tugging her gently up the length of his body until she lay stretched out on top of him.

  "Make love to me," he ordered huskily as he pulled her to him. "Put out this fire you've started. . . ."

  She came to him, her softness flowing over him in a wave. His elemental pleasure in her was intoxicating to Kendra, and she wondered how she could be so certain making love would never be like this with any other man. Alone here with him on the soft fur it was easy to believe her imagination when it told her this man was the missing factor in her life.

  He held her fiercely as the tide of their lovemaking reached its zenith, and she heard his half-stifled cry of satisfaction just as she herself was shaken by the small convulsion. They clung together, drifting in a world that held only themselves.

  It was later, much later, just before she fell asleep in his arms, that Kendra felt Case stir vaguely and yawn.

  "I almost forgot to tell you," he mumbled, folding her

  closer. "We're meeting Donna and her son for dinner tomorrow night down in Chinatown. I think I've got things worked out."

  "You did get her number and call her today, didn't you?" Kendra whispered.

  "Yes."

  She said nothing as he went to sleep beside her. But she thought about her cousin and how men always wanted to protect her. She lay awake quite a while thinking about it.

  That memory was still in Kendra's mind the next evening as Case escorted her through the crowds on Grant Avenue. On every side shops featuring exotic wares from fine lacquered Oriental furniture to fantastic dragon kites drew tourists and locals like a magnet. The lantern streetlights, Oriental architectural trim on the buildings, and bustling shops and restaurants constituted the public face of a Chinese community numbering over thirty-six thousand people within its confines. Kendra knew only too well that much of the wealth generated from the tourist trade never managed to trickle down to the bulk of the district's population.

  But Chinatown was still Chinatown, a gaudy, exciting, glittering slice of another world. And the food could border on the fabulous.

  "I told Donna to take a cab to this address. She and Jason should be here by now," Case remarked, guiding Kendra up a flight of stairs to a poorly marked restaurant on the second floor of a building.

  "Case, I wish you would tell me exactly what you're planning," Kendra told him for the hundredth time that day. She was a bundle of nerves this evening, she realized. She knew he was taking over, and she didn't know how to stop him.

  "I will. Over dinner. Ah-hah! That must be Jason." Kendra looked up to find a smiling, relaxed-looking

  Donna waiting in the small restaurant lobby, Jason bouncing impatiently by her side. The little boy stopped bouncing to stare in open-mouthed fascination at Case's black velvet patch. Case gave him a slow, buccaneerish grin, and Jason became an instant admirer. Kendra had a fleeting thought that with his black hair, the little boy could have passed for Case's own son.

  Jason leaped to his feet and rushed forward to stand gazing up at his new hero. His mother smiled ruefully as her son asked with great interest, "Are you the one who's going to take Mom and me to Lake Tahoe?"

  Kendra turned stunned eyes on her cousin as Case dropped to his haunches and ruffled the little boy's hair.

  "Would you like that?" he said to the child.

  Jason's vigorous glee was answer enough. "Can I play in the snow? I've never seen snow!"

  "I don't see why not."

  "What's going on?" Kendra said evenly, glancing from Case to Donna in chilled anxiety.

  "Let's go and eat," Case told her, straightening. "We'll explain it all to you over dinner. I'm starved." He gave her a level look that warned very plainly against making a scene.

  Half an hour later Donna looked up from her plate of beef in black bean sauce and smiled at her cousin. "So you see, Kendra, this plan of Case's should solve everything nicely. It will get Jason and me out of your hair, and it should cool Austin's enthusiasm to come looking for us once he knows we've got—friends." The last word came out a little lamely, and Donna's eyes flew briefly to Case's wry gaze.

  "You mean protection." Kendra used her chopsticks very deftly on her cod in ginger sauce. She avoided looking at either of the other two. "You're going to call Austin when you arrive and let him know you're still going

  through with the divorce and that you're no longer vulnerable, is that it?" she summarized.

  "That's it," Case agreed meaningfully, munching his stir-fried rice noodles. "Any objections?" he added chal-lengingly.

  Kendra sighed and shook her head. "It's Donna's decision," she stated quietly.

  "Once he knows where I am he won't send people like Phelps after you," Donna pointed out enthusiastically, and then she suddenly sobered abruptly as Kendra continued to focus on her food. "Or—or were you secretly hoping he would come looking in person, Kendra?"

  Kendra glanced up sharply, pinning her anxious-looking cousin with a cold hazel glare. "No."

  The tension around the table seemed to erupt in full force, stilling everyone's movements, even Jason's. The little boy looked uncomprehendingly at his elders, and then went very quietly back to his noodles.

  "I'm sorry, Kendra," Donna whispered apologeticall
y. "I didn't mean that—"

  "What's this all about?" Case interrupted in a deadly tone that neither woman could ignore.

  "I don't wish to discuss it," Kendra tried grimly, knowing it was hopeless.

  Case turned a cold, pointed glance on Donna, who wilted immediately.

  "Before Kendra introduced me to Austin the two of them were seeing a—great deal of each other," she explained carefully. "He came to San Francisco often."

  "Donna, please . . . !"

  But under Case's forceful prompting, Donna kept talking, the apology in her voice quite clear. "Austin took one look at me and swept me off my feet. At the time I felt guilty for taking him away from Kendra. But I was in love, or so I thought. Later I realized he'd only married me for the inheritance. He needs the money to shore up

  a flagging business, you see. I've told Kendra she should be grateful she didn't marry him, but sometimes—"

  "Enough! We'll talk about it later," Case gritted.

  Kendra shivered at the unleashed savagery in his voice. She had an almost overwhelming urge to explain everything, but there was no way. Not then.

  It was Jason who pulled the three stricken adults back to the present. He licked his fingers and reached for a fortune cookie.

  "Kendra's been teaching me tricks," he announced to Case. "Do you know any tricks?"

  Case looked at Kendra, and she could feel the waves of his jealousy lapping dangerously at her body. "What kind of tricks?"

  "Tricks for bashing people," Jason explained cheerfully. "Like on TV." He turned to Kendra. "Will you teach me another one tonight when we go home?"

  Kendra looked steadily at the dark, threatening man across the table.

  "Why don't you ask Case to teach you some of his tricks," she said very deliberately to the boy. "He knows more than I do."

  Jason's opinion of Case obviously ascended another couple of notches as his green eyes sparkled. "Do you? More tricks than Kendra, even?"

  Case drew in his breath, wrenching his gaze away from Kendra's taut features and turning back to the child. "I know some different ones," he said slowly. "And I've had a little more experience."