Because of the Ring

by Stella Bagwell

  “I’d be the first one to admit it sounds farfetched, but I can’t dispute the facts. No ring, no visions,” Claudia told her.

  “Hmm. Could be coincidental.”

  Now it was Claudia’s turn to frown. “What is this? You sound like you don’t want me to be cured.”

  “It’s not that. I’m just wondering—aren’t you the teeniest bit curious as to why this ring makes you see things? Looks to me like you’re just avoiding the problem. Not curing it.”

  Claudia groaned loudly. “Oh, brother! Why should a person go around asking for trouble? School has just ended. I have the summer ahead to relax. I don’t want to spend it having some strange man pop up in my vision at any given moment.”

  “It was only two weeks ago that you were telling me that as a science teacher you liked to have reasons and explanations. Well? Don’t you want them now?”

  Claudia glanced at the pool of cool, glittering water. “No. I—I’m perfectly content to let things be. The visions were…” She swallowed and glanced back at her friend. “Frankly, they were too disturbing, Liz. There was something—oh, I don’t know—intimate about the whole thing. I kept getting the feeling that this man knows me. In here.” She tapped the middle of her chest, then shook her head. “It was eerie. I—I’ve decided the best thing for me to do is to get rid of the ring. So far it’s brought nothing but misery to my life.” Liz gasped. “Oh, no, Claudia! It’s a precious memento of your grandmother’s. Besides, without it you might never figure out any of this.”

  “Figure it out?” Claudia repeated in disbelief. “I just want to forget it!”

  “Coward!”

  “I’m not!”

  “Prove it,” Liz dared.

  San Antonio. It wasn’t exactly Cancun, but for now Claudia considered it as a first step on her quest to find the man who’d been plaguing her waking hours ever since she’d returned the opal to her finger.

  From her third-floor hotel room, she stared down at the Paseo del Rio winding its way through the city. Eighty-degree weather was mild for early June in south Texas and Claudia wished she could enjoy it with a boat ride or a drink at one of the outside cafés on the river walk. She wished she could do anything besides meet with a man she’d never laid eyes on. Especially when she had no idea how to explain the reasons that had prompted her to make this search. But she hadn’t come to San Antonio on a pleasure trip and the sooner she got this job over with, the better she would feel.

  Claudia found the office building in the old downtown part of the city a few blocks away from the famous Alamo. Mr. Hayden Bedford. He owned a roustabout company and from what she gathered from the plush complex of offices, a very profitable one. But then, most businesses that had anything to do with the oil field were money-makers. With the right man at the helm, she corrected herself.

  Apparently Mr. Bedford knew his business. He just didn’t know Claudia Westfield. And from the tone of his secretary when Claudia had called to schedule a meeting, he didn’t want to know her. But somehow she’d managed to convince the older woman to give her an appointment anyway.

  Now that the time was here, Claudia realized her mouth was dry and her heart was thud, thud, thudding at an unhealthy speed. Which was totally out of character. She wasn’t a nervous person. Until now. And the suspicious, almost dour looks Mr. Bedford’s secretary was throwing her way didn’t help matters.

  Damn it, Gran. This ring of yours is ruining me!

  “All right, Ms. Westfield. Mr. Bedford can see you now.”

  Rising from her seat, Claudia brushed at the wrinkles in her skirt then headed toward a wooden door with a gold nameplate attached at eye level.

  After knocking lightly, she stepped inside.

  “Just a moment. I’ve got to get this damn light off my desk.”

  The deep male voice was coming from a man standing at the window, his back to her. At the moment he was adjusting the blinds so that the glaring afternoon sun tilted toward the ceiling rather than at him and the massive oak desk.

  Claudia stood in the middle of the room, waiting for him to turn around. As the seconds ticked by she noticed he was dressed as a rancher rather than a businessman. Starched jeans. White tailored shirt, sleeves rolled back against his forearms. A dark leather belt studded with Texas lone stars. His dark wavy hair told her he was still young and his big, muscular body told her that he didn’t always sit behind a desk.

  “There. That’s better,” he said, then turned to face her.

  Claudia stared and wondered if she was going to faint. Her knees were turning to sponges and there was a faint buzzing in her ears.

  “You!” she said weakly.

  Baffled by her reaction, he stepped around the desk, all the while keeping a careful eye on her pale face. “I’m Hayden Bedford,” he introduced himself. “Are you Ms. Westfield?”

  She nodded and attempted to lick her dry lips. “Yes. Yes, I am,” she said, then offered him her hand. “I’m sorry. I’m sure I must look like a fool, but I…wasn’t expecting to recognize you.”

  He took her hand in his, but rather than shake it, he simply held it firmly as his gaze scanned her face.

  Hysteria rose up in Claudia as heat seemed to arc from his fingers to hers. Those were the same blue eyes, she thought frantically. The same square jaw and chin, the same hollow cheeks. Seeing her vision in the flesh was incredible—and terrifying.

  “I think I should be the one to apologize,” he said. “Because I can’t say that I remember meeting you.”

  Hearing his voice seemed to help her pull herself together. Hoping she appeared far more normal than she felt, she said, “You haven’t.”

  The marginal widening of his eyes had her quickly adding, “I mean…I’m pretty sure we’ve never met before.”

  “Are you feeling up to this interview, Ms. Westfield? You look a little pale.”

  In fact, Hayden was fairly certain he’d seen dead people with more color in their cheeks. But in spite of her paleness, she was an attractive woman. A little plain to suit his taste, but then, she wasn’t here to supply him with female diversion, he reminded himself.

  She was dressed in a white linen sheath and her light brown hair was pulled back at her nape and fastened with a white clasp. Her eyes were a soft brown and her skin was tanned. And suddenly he had the image of biting into a warm, golden marshmallow.

  “I’m…I’ll be all right,” she replied. “And I’ll try not to take up too much of your time, Mr. Bedford. Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice.”

  Still holding her hand, he cupped her elbow with his free hand and led her over to a leather chair that was angled toward the front of his desk.

  “There now,” he said as she sank onto the cushion. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what it is you wanted to see me about. It’s pretty obvious you’re not here to contract a roustabout crew.”

  She tried to swallow, but her throat was so dry it refused to work. “No. I don’t dabble in oil or gas wells, Mr. Bedford. I’m here because—I’m looking for a man.”

  Surprise flickered across his face. Then folding his arms across his chest, he shot her an amused smile. “There aren’t any available men where you come from, Ms. Westfield?”

  Claudia was so rattled it took her a moment to digest his meaning. When it did finally register, her spine stiffened to a prim line. Her chin jutted forward. “Fort Worth has plenty of men. I’m looking for one certain one.”

  Still amused, he said, “Hmm. I’m intrigued that your search brought you here. I wasn’t aware that I’d made any bachelor lists.”

  Somehow his arrogance angered her enough to get her shocked juices going again. Color blossomed in her face and her eyes darkened. “I’m not aware of it, either, Mr. Bedford,” she said in a clipped tone. “In fact, I know nothing about your marital status. I found you because of a number. Or maybe I should say, a number on a boat.”

  A puzzled frown pulled his dark brows together and Claudia realized that,
as the man in her vision, this man was by no means handsome, yet there was a rough masculinity about his craggy face and sinewy body that made his appearance totally unforgettable.

  “I’ve got to admit I’ve had some odd encounters with women over the years. But I’ve never had one go to this length to meet me.”

  She silently groaned with impatience. “I’m not here to meet you, Mr. Bedford!”

  “You’re not here to hire roustabout services and you’re not here to meet me. If that’s the case, then it looks as though you’re taking up my valuable time, Ms. Westfield.”

  She bolted to her feet. “And frankly, Mr. Bedford, your assumptions are downright insulting! For your information, I’m not on the prowl for a sugar daddy!”

  He shot her a wry look. “I’m not old enough to be your sugar daddy.”

  Claudia’s nostrils flared as she breathed deeply and tried to clamp a hold on her rising temper. Which in itself was a new task for her. She wasn’t a woman who let herself get angry about anything. Until now.

  “I don’t care how old you are, mister!” She pushed the words through gritted teeth. “The only—and let me repeat—the only reason I’m here is because your name and address matches the number on the boat registration.”

  Her outburst seemed to get through to him and his eyes narrowed as he studied her with new regard. “What boat are you talking about?”

  She slashed a hand through the air. “I’m not sure what kind of boat it is. Except that it has sails and I think the name written on the bow was something like Stardust or Skydust.”

  “Stardust,” he informed her. “And what has my boat got to do with you? She’s not for sale.”

  Claudia met his cool blue gaze and tried not to shiver from the contact. “I’m not interested in buying your boat. It just happened to be the only clue I had to start with.”

  His expression suddenly wary, he stepped toward her. “Start what? Digging into my personal affairs? Are you with some insurance company? Because if you are, I’ll personally toss your little butt right out of here.”

  To her horror, her hand was suddenly itching to slap his face. She, a person who wouldn’t even step on a spider, wanted to inflict bodily pain on another human being! This man was doing something to her and whatever it was had to be bad.

  “I am not with any sort of insurance company. I’m a high school science teacher and I’m here because—” She sucked in a fierce breath, then heaved out the next words. “Because you’re the man I—I can’t get out of my mind!”

  Chapter Two

  The man had the nerve to laugh.

  “Oh, honey, come on, you got some mixed signals somewhere. I never did think I was God’s gift to women. And you shouldn’t, either. In fact, the opposite sex seems to want to take me in small doses. You probably will, too.”

  “I can certainly see why,” Claudia intoned, then stomped toward the door.

  Suddenly he was blocking her path and she teetered back on her heels to keep from plowing into him.

  “Where are you going?”

  Her jaw rigid, she folded her arms across her breasts. “Goodbye, Mr. Bedford. I can’t really say it’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

  His head swung back and forth in a menacing way and Claudia found her gaze sliding from his thick shoulders and wide chest to his long, muscular legs. She’d been around strong, athletic men before, but this man was different. There was something blatantly masculine about him. Something that made her think of procreation rather than recreation.

  Dear heaven, it was time she got out of here, Claudia thought. The last thing she needed was to add sexual fantasies to her visions of the man.

  “No,” he corrected in a voice too smooth to be nice. “You’re not going anywhere just yet. We haven’t gotten this matter straightened out.”

  She arched a haughty brow at him. “There is no matter. I—I found what I was looking for. And that’s the end to it.”

  Wrinkles furrowed his forehead. “You wanted to find me and now that you have, that’s it? You’re going to leave?”

  “That’s about the size of it.”

  “Just a minute,” he muttered, then opening the door, he said to his secretary, “Hold all my calls, Lottie, and radio Vince to let him know I’ll be late getting out to the site.”

  Claudia stood her ground and tried to gather herself together as she waited for him to shut the door. When he finally turned back to her, she said, “I think it’s you who are wasting my time now, Mr. Bedford. I have no intentions of discussing anything else with you! You’re arrogant and assuming and—”

  His features tight, he took her by the arm and this time led her to a long leather couch positioned against one wall of the office.

  “You’re the one who made an appointment to see me,” he reminded her as she sat. “And you’re the one who barged in here and started spouting nonsense.”

  “‘Nonsense’!” she echoed with outrage, then jumped to her feet.

  Immediately, he caught her by the shoulder and pushed her back down to the couch.

  “Stay put!”

  Claudia bounced right back up in his face. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m leaving! Now step out of my way!”

  Ruefully he shook his head. “I didn’t want to have to do this,” he told her. “But it looks like I don’t have any other choice.”

  Air whooshed from her lungs as she suddenly found herself flattened against his hard chest.

  “What—”

  The question was literally smothered beneath his lips. Unprepared for such an intimate onslaught, she stood paralyzed. Then her mind began to spin and she felt herself going hot and cold, then hot again.

  Her hands formed two fists and she raised them to whack at his shoulders, but they never reached their destinations. Before she could fight back, he pulled his mouth away from hers and grinned down at her.

  “Feel better now?”

  He needed his foot stomped, but she realized she just didn’t have the strength to do it. Kissing this man had left her weak and quivering.

  “I’ve never been so insulted in my life!”

  “Sorry, I’m out of practice.” He lowered his mouth toward hers. “Maybe I should try again.”

  Ducking away from him, Claudia collapsed onto the couch and gulped in several breaths of air. “You’ll do nothing of the sort!”

  He’d been wrong a few moments ago, Hayden realized as he looked down at her. She wasn’t a plain woman. Now that he’d kissed her, every nuance of her soft features had come alive. Fire blazed in her brown eyes, heat burned brightly in her cheeks and passion had pouted her rosy lips to an enchanting curve.

  It would be nice to taste her again, he thought. But he was a busy man and didn’t have time for such pleasantries. Besides, he’d not flirted in years. Not since he was a teenager. A few kisses now would lead his body straight toward the main course. Now that he thought about it, he was already straying in that direction. Why had he kissed her like that? He usually waited until he’d dated the woman! And yet, there was something about this particular woman….

  “All right. Then maybe you’re in the mood for talking,” he said as he took a seat a few inches away from her.

  She scooted to her left to put an even safer distance between them. “I—I don’t think it would do any good to talk now, Mr. Bedford. We’d both be wasting our time.”

  He studied her for a moment as though he was weighing whether this meeting between them actually held any importance. “Perhaps you’re right. But I would like to know one thing. What did you mean when you said you couldn’t get me out of your mind? You don’t know me.”

  Before he could see the bewilderment in her eyes, her gaze dropped to a spot on the hardwood floor. “I suppose I didn’t phrase that quite right. You’re not exactly ‘in my mind.’ I just see you—at odd times.”

  His expression said he was completely confused and Claudia couldn’t blame him. She’d been confused for days now.

 
; “What does this mean, you see me?”

  She made a palms-up gesture with her hands. “I see you. For no reason at all. Your face comes to me out of nowhere.”

  Baffled, his head swung back and forth. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you first walked into this office, you told me we’d never met.”

  “That’s true. We haven’t.”

  “Then how…how did you know what I looked like? You had a picture? Where did you get it?”

  “I didn’t have any idea what Hayden Bedford looked like until I walked into this office! Look, Mr. Bedford, this isn’t…some crazy infatuation and I’m not stalking you. It’s nothing like that. I’ve been—well, I’ve been very worried and confused because this problem has been going on with me for two or three weeks now and frankly, I want to know why.”

  “Are you—” He rubbed the heels of his palms against his thighs, then rose to his feet and glanced down at her. “Are you suggesting that you’ve been seeing me in some sort of—vision?”

  She passed a shaky hand over her forehead. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you.”

  He chuckled. Shook his head. Then chuckled again. “Really, Ms. Westfield. This is San Antonio, not the Twilight Zone.”

  “You don’t have to tell me where I am, Mr. Bedford,” she said primly.

  His blue eyes were full of suspicion as they raked her from head to toe. “How could a vision lead you here? How did you know my name? Am I supposed to believe that I talk to you, too?”

  She sighed. This is exactly what she’d been dreading, she thought. Questions for which she had no answers. “No. So far you haven’t said anything to me. But I picked up on things in the background. Like your boat. And then it finally dawned on me to trace the numbers through registrations. I can tell you that I was pretty shocked when I found out there was such a boat and an actual person owned it.”

  “I keep that boat docked down on the coast at Port O’Connor. You were obviously there and copied the numbers,” he accused.

  Sadly, she shook her head. “I wish that were true. That would prove I might not be going crazy. But now, after seeing you—seeing that you’re the man—I really don’t know what to think.”