by Janet Dailey
It was her apartment, but the key wouldn't work in the lock. She doubled-checked to be sure she had the right key. She did.
Puzzled, she retraced her steps to the front part of the building where the resident manager lived. She knocked at the door. It opened a crack, a safety chain keeping it from opening all the way. Gina smiled politely at the housecoated woman peering at her.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Powell, but I can't seem to get my key to work. Could you use your passkey to let me into my apartment?" she requested.
The chain remained in place while the woman tipped back her head to peer at Gina through the half-moon lenses of her glasses, as if trying to place her. The pinched lines around her mouth softened slightly in recognition.
"Of course your key won't work," the elderly woman declared. "The man's already come to change the lock."
A winged brow arched briefly in surprise. Then Gina sighed. She supposed the notice had been slipped in her mailbox, but she hadn't checked it in several days. The only time she ever received mail of any importance was the first of the month when the bills arrived.
She had had no close family since her grandfather died, and correspondence with her school friends had long since ended. The locks had probably been as a precaution of some sort.
"Could I have the new set of keys?" she asked patiently.
"Why?" the woman wanted to know, straightening her hunched shoulders slightly.
"To get into my apartment, of course," Gina replied, exhaling a disbelieving laugh at the question.
"T'wouldn't be any reason to give 'em to you. There's nothin' in it that belongs to you," Mrs. Powell declared.
"What?" An open frown of bewilderment covered Gina's face as she tried to fathom this mysterious conversation.
"Everything's packed and gone. There's nothin' left there that's yours," the woman repeated in a louder tone, as if Gina were deaf.
"Gone where?" Gina demanded.
"Well, dearie, you're the one who should know where. It's not my business," the woman nodded.
"Well, I don't know where," Gina answered, her patience receding. "If somebody has taken my things, then it was without my permission. Would you mind letting me come in, Mrs. Powell, so I can phone the police?"
"The police? Why should you want to call them?" The woman frowned. "There was nothin' stolen. Your husband supervised the packin' of nearly everything himself."
"My husband?" Gina breathed in sharply. It all became suddenly very clear.
"Yes, your husband. You don't think I'd just let anybody into your apartment and take your things?" Mrs. Powell sniffed indignantly.
"Of course not," Gina acknowledged grudgingly, her lips compressed in anger.
All her well-laid plans were nothing. Rhyder had been so confident that he had moved her out lock, stock, and barrel. A slow anger set in.
"I explained to your husband that you still had four months left on your lease and a month's notice was required before vacating," the woman continued. "He paid for the rest of the lease and added another month's rent in lieu of notice. He took care of everything for you."
"Yes, I can see that," Gina nodded grimly.
"If there's nothing else…" There was a pregnant pause as the woman silently indicated that Gina was taking up her time needlessly.
"No. No, nothing else," Gina agreed after a second's hesitation. "I'm sorry to have troubled you, Mrs. Powell."
"That's quite all right." The door started to close, the chain slackening. It straightened again as the manageress added as an afterthought, "And congratulations, too. You have a fine man there."
Gina didn't respond to that as she turned on her heel, her temper simmering. She was saving the scalding fury of her anger for Rhyder. Its impetus carried her swiftly to her car.
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Chapter Nine
COLD RAGE FILLED HER as Gina paused in front of Rhyder's apartment door. Her sharp, impatient knock echoed the pounding of her heart against her ribs. Within seconds the door swung open and Rhyder was facing her. A smile of lazy beguilement spread across the rugged planes of his tanned features.
"It's about time you got here," he declared warmly, reaching out to grasp the rigid muscles of her arms and draw her inside. "I was about to send out a search party for you."
Closing the door, he started to pull her the rest of the way into his embrace. Stiffly Gina resisted, her seething temper keeping her immune to his possessive touch.
"Just where did you think I might go?" The question came out in a low rush of harsh accusation that slowly straightened the curve of his mouth. "You made certain I had nowhere else!"
A smiling gleam remained in the brilliant blue of his eyes, crinkling at the corners as he gazed deeply into her green ones. The hands gripping her shoulders didn't force her nearer, nor did they let her go.
"The last time I saw the ocean look that way, it was building to a storm," Rhyder commented, referring to the turbulent shade of green in her eyes. "Did you have a rough day?"
Gina breathed in sharply, enraged that he could pretend to be so dense that he didn't know. He wasn't fooling her for a second. He knew very well why she was angry.
"I want to know where the things are from my apartment," she demanded.
"Your clothes are in the bedroom. There are some boxes of things in the spare room that I wasn't sure what you wanted to do with, and the odds and ends of furniture I had stored for the time being," Rhyder answered with leisurely ease.
"Who gave you the right to do anything with my things?" Gina challenged, incensed that he could so calmly admit to what he had done.
"So that's what you're so upset about." He smiled softly as he understood the cause of her anger. His hands began slowly massaging her shoulders and arms with a caressively stroking motion while his gaze ran possessively over her face, a smoldering light of banked desire in the look. "I probably should have let you know," he conceded, "but I wanted to surprise you."
"Surprise me!" Gina choked on the audacity of the bland claim.
"It's been my experience that women take an eternity of time sorting and packing to move and repeat practically the whole process when it's time to unpack. Experience gained from observing my mother and sister," he added, as if to assure her he had helped no other woman to move. "I decided that if I told you I was having a moving company come, you'd be there fussing around and it would take twice as long. Now it's all done and you don't have to be concerned about it."
"Well, you can just call up your precious moving company and have everything moved back!" she stormed.
His gaze narrowed, a quietness stealing over him, "Were you planning to maintain a separate residence?"
"A residence permanently separated from you!" Gina declared, and pulled away from his touch to further enforce her determination to have no part of him or his life.
Rhyder didn't try to reestablish physical contact with her, yet there remained a coiled watchfulness about him, indicating that any moment he could change his mind and strike. The air was charged between them, lightning tongues of tension licking her spine.
"I think you'd better explain that remark," he said in that dangerously quiet voice.
"I don't see what there is to explain," she retorted defiantly. "I thought it was perfectly clear. I am going to live in my apartment and you are going to live wherever else you choose. Your high-handed tactics of canceling my lease and moving my things out simply aren't going to work."
"I told you—" a muscle was flexing in his neck "—I was trying to be considerate. I wanted us to have time together instead of spending half of it moving you here."
Gina tossed her head in arrogant challenge. "When did I ever say that I wanted to live with you?"
His expression hardened. "You didn't in so many words," he admitted, "but last night your actions spoke for themselves."
"You assumed wrong!" she flashed.
"Are you going to try to convince me now that you didn't want to stay with me
last night? That I forced you to?" His lips curled in a cynical jeer.
Her cheeks reddened as she replied angrily, "No, I'm not! But I never indicated that I wanted it to be a permanent arrangement!"
"You are my wife!" Rhyder snapped. "You belong to me!"
"I am Gina Gaynes and I belong to no one but myself!" His arrogant claim of possession incited her to deny that any part of her belonged to him, even though she knew she had given him her heart.
"Damn it," he muttered beneath his breath, "I knew I should never have let you leave this morning."
The words were barely out before his hand snaked forward to grip her wrist with the striking swiftness of a cobra. Her reaction was too slow to elude him. Violently Rhyder yanked her toward him. In defense, Gina's arm swung, the fiat of her hand connecting with his cheek. The hard contact sent shock waves of pain rolling through her arm.
Instantly the striking hand was seized and twisted with the other behind her back to crush her against the granite wall of his chest. His expression was dark with anger as he glared at her whitened face.
"How many times do you think you can slap my face without receiving retribution," he snarled.
Gina strained and twisted to break free, fearing his manner of punishment. He shifted his grip, a single, iron band pinning her to him while his fingers twisted into her raven hair, pulling at the tender roots until the pain forced Gina to be still. The pain had barely eased in her scalp when her lips were ground against her teeth by his vengeful mouth.
Reeling under his punitive assault, Gina tried to struggle, but it only served to feed his wrath. The air was soon crushed from her lungs by the constricting band of his arm. His smothering kiss refused to let her draw new breath. Blackness swirled behind her tightly closed eyes. The rigidity of her body, which was her only remaining gesture of resistance, wilted with her ebbing strength.
With the last bastion of her resistance conquered, Rhyder set out to taste the spoils of his victory, searching relentlessly for the sweetness of her lips, plundering their softness. The ravaging fire of his kiss sparked the quivering beginnings of a response.
The fingers curling through her hair were no longer inflicting pain. Before Gina found herself surrending to his hungry demand for passion, she valiantly twisted away from the hard male lips.
"Let me go!" Gulping in air, her voice was breathy and low. "Or do you intend to exercise your husbandly rights by raping me?" Her face was turned far to the side away from him.
"Damn you, Gina." The savage groan was breathed against the arching curve of her neck. "You always seem to manage to make me despise myself for the way l feel, and half the time I'm only responding to your invitations."
"Let me go," she repeated, aware that he spoke the truth.
Her senses were clamoring from the musky male scent enveloping her and the hard feel of his body pressed against hers. Rhyder lifted his head slightly to study her averted profile, the moist warmth of his breath caressing her cheek and the sensitive skin along her neck.
"How, Gina?" he demanded in a husky pitch. "How do I let you go? I can't. Not yet."
No, her heart cried in pain, he couldn't let her go until he had accomplished his objective of buying the property on his terms, not Justin's. For that, he needed her. In the meantime he would use her to satisfy the lust she aroused in him. And that wasn't enough. To settle for that would literally break her.
Extreme tiredness washed through her. Gina fought it as she fought the emotional upsurge of her love for Rhyder. Both could too easily be turned into weapons against her. She strained against his arms.
"You can't hold me prisoner," she declared in a low voice to hide her weariness.
"Why not?" he mocked with a sardonic inflection. "For nine years, your memory kept me its prisoner. Now I'm holding the real thing. I can feel the beat of your heart, the heat of your body, the softness of your flesh against mine. Why should I only remember when I can hold what's mine?"
"I am not yours and I never will be," Gina continued to protest, deafening her ears to his seductive words. "So let me go!"
Rhyder allowed her to move a foot away, retaining a firm hold on her arms to prevent her from escaping altogether. The metallic hardness of his gaze was like a steel bit boring into her.
"I'm not letting you. Not until we've talked this out." The qualification was the first sign that her adamancy was gaining her ground.
"There's nothing to talk out," she stated. "The only thing I want from you is to have my belongings returned to my apartment and to be left alone, so there's nothing to discuss."
"Yes, there is," returned Rhyder in a voice that was positive and unrelenting in its purpose. "We're going to talk about the way you've changed from what you were this morning and last night to the way you are now."
"It would be pointless." Exhaustion was setting in again. She was tired of constantly having to struggle to protect herself, mentally as well as physically.
"I disagree," he denied flatly, indicating that he would accept no other conditions for her release.
Her wan complexion came from her inner weariness of fighting. Her eyes, a faintly haunted green, beseeched him silently not to put her through this, although her pride would not let her verbalize her plea.
The male line of his lips tightened. The creases on either side of his mouth were carved deeper as his searching gaze narrowed on her face and its brief expression of vulnerability and hurt. A slight frown creased his forehead.
"Gina…" Rhyder began, vaguely questioning, his hands tightening on her as if to draw her to him and show her the comfort of his strong arms.
A knock at the apartment door checked his movement. His frown changed to one of irritation at the interruption. The second knock drew his impatient glance, and Gina was released from his compelling gaze, gaining the respite she needed to reestablish the firmness of her stand. Rhyder sensed the change immediately, the line of his jaw hardening.
He let his hands drop to his sides. "We aren't finished," he stated sharply. It was more of a threat than a warning as he left Gina to walk to the door.
A silent sigh of apprehension quivered through her. Her skin felt chilled where his hands had held her. She wondered how much more she could endure without breaking up.
While her mind was wondering about that, her senses were following Rhyder, listening to his footsteps and the opening of the door. The blood froze in her veins when she heard him greet the caller.
"Hello, Justin. What is it you want?" The clipped demand by Rhyder made it plain that Justin wasn't welcome.
Gina pivoted slowly toward the door. Her harrowed eyes met the harshly accusing look Justin gave her over Rhyder's shoulder. He exhibited not the slightest surprise at seeing her there. The remaining color drained from her cheeks.
"I was told," Justin stated coldly, his gaze slicing to Rhyder, "that I could find Gina here."
Seconds ticked by in silence, the tension heightening to a charged level as Rhyder stood in the doorway, blocking Justin's entrance. Slowly, like an uncoiling spring, Rhyder appeared to relax as he stepped to the side.
"Yes, she's here," he agreed, stating the obvious since he knew Justin could see Gina standing in the foyer of the living room. "Would you like to speak to her?"
'"Please," Justin answered stiffly, and walked into the apartment.
As Rhyder closed the door behind him, his gaze slid to Gina's white face, then returned to Justin, whose attention was darting between the two. Rhyder's mouth curved into an aloofly courteous smile.
"I was about to fix Gina a drink. Would you like one, Justin?" he inquired.
Justin was on the point of refusing when he glanced at Gina and changed his mind. "Scotch and water," he said, accepting the offer.
Gina stared numbly at Rhyder, surprised that he had invited Justin in and offered him a drink. An inner sense told her that initially Rhyder had wanted to get rid of Justin as soon as he could, not welcoming the interruption from a man he possibly rega
rded as a rival.
Her gaze searched his impassive expression for a reason, but Rhyder barely glanced at her as he walked by her into the living room and to the small bar located at the far end.
Her attention was forced to refocus on Justin. With her nerves stretched thin, Gina made a futile attempt to smile, seeking to pretend the situation was natural.
"I've been trying to reach you all day." The low volume of Justin's voice didn't lessen the accusation in the statement.
"Yes, I know," Gina admitted, adding in false apology, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to return your calls, but I was tied up most of the day."
His brown eyes glowered their disbelief. "I see," Justin said grimly. "You were so busy you couldn't even spare five minutes to return my calls, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes." Rigidly clinging to her lie, Gina turned to enter the beige living room.
Her step faltered at Justin's angrily low and demanding, "Aren't you going to ask how I found out you were here?"
Perhaps it was his unjustified anger or his willingness to believe that things were as they seemed that turned Gina against him. Any thought of looking on him as an ally to stand beside her against Rhyder vanished at his silent condemnation.
"How did you find out, Justin?" Gina asked the question he had prompted with icy calm.
"I went to your apartment to find you and the woman that manages the building told me you'd moved out. Your husband—" he underlined the word "—had moved your things."
"I thought that was how you learned I was here," she responded evenly.
"I couldn't believe it was true," Justin muttered in a bitter breath. "I kept telling myself that the stupid old woman had got it wrong. I had to come to see for myself if you'd gone back to him."
"And now you're here." Gina lifted her chin, pale and proud, as she prompted him to say what was in his expression.
"And I see." His mouth tightened.
Gina knew that she had deliberately let him believe she had gone back to Rhyder, both by her words and her actions. But she couldn't let him go on thinking that way.
"Appearances are deceptive." She began her explanation stiffy. "I know how it seems to you, Justin, but it isn't true."
