by Janet Dailey
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Chapter Fourteen
"WERE YOU LOOKING for these?" Eyes as gray and cold as the shadowy clefts of an iceberg glared at Casey as Flint extended his hand which held the missing beach items. He wasn't an apparition. He was really standing there in front of her.
"How…how did you get here?" Breathlessly she drew her scattered thoughts together and tried to still the trembling in her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Keeping track of irresponsible females!" he spat out angrily.
An engulfing wave of heat saturated her skin as his gaze raked over her scanty attire. The exposure of so much of her bare flesh had never bothered her until now when he made her feel so cheap and indecent. Her hand moved involuntarily to cover the vee of her top.
"Put this on," Flint ordered, tossing the ochre gold robe to her.
Casey shrugged into it willingly, clutching the front together tightly. At least her skin didn't burn from his glance. Her eyes were held captive by his until the very intensity of his gaze forced her to look away.
"I'd better get back to the cabin," Casey murmured, turning away from him toward the cabin. "Gabbie will be getting worried."
"Worried!" Flint covered the distance between them before Casey could even begin to move away. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently, unmoved by her wide frightened eyes. "You idiotic female! What do you think I'm here for? Gabbie's half out of her mind from worry!"
"You're…you're hurting me!" Casey gasped, her teeth nearly rattling out of her head, even while her senses were keenly tuned to his touch.
"I'd like to do a lot more than that!" The shaking stopped, but she remained firmly in his grip. His eyes bored into her. "When I think of what you've put Gabbie through, I could cheerfully throttle you."
Casey tried to push away from him, but he jerked her nearer. She was fighting more than the hands biting into her shoulders. She was fighting the desire to be in his arms, to turn her face up to his and invoke the physical response she knew she was capable of creating. All she wanted to do was put her arms around him and have him hold her and never let her go. She swallowed hard to gain control, to force her body to obey her mind and not her heart.
"I know I'm late," Casey asserted calmly, "It was unavoidable. The wind died down and there wasn't enough breeze for the sails. Sean had to paddle most of the way back and it really took a long time."
"Oh, Sean did, did he? How gallant," Flint sneered, his contemptuous gaze causing more pain. "That's just about as convenient as running out of gas, isn't it?"
Her temper exploded with white-hot intensity as her hand lashed out and connected with his cheek. The stinging of her hand didn't really tell her what she had done. It was the red mark on Flint's cheek that showed her. His reaction was just as swift. Before she could struggle, he had both of her hands pinned behind her back at the same time that he lifted her off her feet and carried her to the trunk of a fallen tree. Effortlessly he pushed her over his knee, ignoring her kicking feet, and began paddling her rear end with hard, stinging slaps. Her cries of pain and anger went unheeded. At last he released her, standing her on the ground and studying the trickle of angry tears down her face. Casey couldn't avoid rubbing the injured portion of her body even as she stared up at him angrily.
"Do you want to try that again?" Flint stood in front of her, his hands on his hips, the bold light of challenge in his eyes. "Because if you do, I'll be happy to oblige you again."
"I hate you." Her voice was incredibly husky. "I hate you!"
"Is that supposed to surprise me?" he mocked.
"I don't particularly care!" Her brown eyes snapped fiercely at him. "I'm tired of you constantly treating me like a child. I'm twenty-one. All I want you to do is stay out of my life." It was impossible to ask him to stay out of her heart.
"I'm looking forward to the day I can wash my hands of you, don't worry. Right now all I want to do is deliver you safely back to Gabbie." Flint reached out and grasped her wrist, dragging her behind him through the trees where the chrome of his car winked through the leaves.
He shoved her into the front seat, tossing her belongings in after her, and then climbed behind the wheel himself. He glanced at her once as if to make sure she wasn't trying to escape. Casey sat stiffly against the door, determinedly keeping her gaze riveted to the outside. The pain in the lower portion of her body was hard to ignore, especially with the heat of the sun warming the upholstery of the seat. Flint inserted the keys in the ignition, then paused before starting the motor. She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to meet them.
"Casey, I want you to promise me something," Flint stated grimly.
She turned her belligerent brown eyes on him. "Don't you get tired of bossing people around?"
"I want you to promise that you will never go off like that again without telling Gabbie where you're going." Flint completely ignored her gibe, although his eyes did narrow a trifle menacingly.
"Why don't you make it an order?" A bittersweet smile matched the glare in her eyes. "After all, you are the big boss man" She spat out the words.
"We could trade insults all day," Flint drawled. He was trying to keep his temper under control and Casey was trying desperately to rile him. "All I want from you is your word that you won't send Gabbie off on another wild goose chase like this, worrying herself sick since nine o'clock this morning. I'm asking for her sake, not my own."
"This morning?" Casey echoed. A frown creased her forehead. "Why should she be looking for me then? I never come back from the beach until around noon. She always works in the morning."
"Because I called this morning and wanted to talk to you. Why I called is immaterial right now. She went down to the beach to look for you and couldn't find a trace, except for your things lying on the sand. The natural assumption was that you went swimming. And since she couldn't see you in the water, she was afraid you'd drowned. Thank goodness Gabbie isn't the type to panic. Instead of calling the rescue unit and have them drag the lake for your body, she called me and saved us a lot of embarrassment since you were out all morning with your Scandinavian boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend." Casey retorted savagely, still stunned by the news that she had been the object of a search since nine o'clock that morning.
"It's none of my business what he is," Flint answered just as sharply, "whether he's your cousin, boyfriend or lover!"
He didn't give her an opportunity to reply, immediately turning the ignition and gunning the motor so that any words Casey might have wanted to say would have been drowned out by the noise. She bit her lip tightly to keep the tears back until the taste of blood in her mouth made her aware of what she was doing. But she knew she would have preferred Gabbie calling the rescue squad and enduring that and the explanations that followed, rather than face this inquisition with Flint.
Gabbie was on the veranda when they returned, her bright, blue green eyes taking in the tension between the two. If Casey had been less wrapped up in her own emotions, she might have noted that there was a remarkable lack of anxiety on Gabbie's face.
"Casey, are you all right?" Gabbie rushed forward to embrace her lightly. "You gave us a terrible scare. Where were you?"
"I went sailing," Casey inserted before Flint could put in a sarcastic remark she was sure was waiting on the edge of his tongue. "I'm afraid I didn't keep track of the time."
"No doubt she was too enthralled with the company she was keeping." Flint glared at her briefly.
"Company?" Gabbie echoed, looking to Casey for an explanation.
Casey gritted her teeth and explained, aware of the piercing gaze of the gray eyes. "I met this boy who works at one of the resorts here. He offered to take me sailing and I accepted."
An incredibly uncomfortable silence followed her words. The crushing lack of sound seemed to have been ordered by Flint so that the full foolishness of her actions could sink in.
"Gabbie, get us something cold to drink."
Flint's gaze never strayed from Casey as he barked out his command.
Gabbie raised a dark eyebrow at Casey before gliding quietly off the veranda. The heat of the afternoon sun suddenly became oppressive, and Casey found the atmosphere on the veranda unbearably stifling. She moved closer to the railing, gazing out to the lake and the promise of cool refreshing water. She glanced hesitantly back at Flint, her stomach unwillingly turning over at the very sight of his tanned face and auburn-tinted hair.
"What do you mean 'you met this boy'?" he asked ominously.
"Just what I said." She turned her back to him and leaned her hands against the wooden railing around the veranda. Her fingers gripped the boards until her knuckles were white.
"When did you meet him?" Flint continued his cross-examination. The sudden racing of her heart indicated that he was moving closer and the shadow on the board floor confirmed it.
"Today," she replied in a light and deliberately uncaring voice.
"Do you mean you met some stranger today and went sailing with him?" There was no mistaking the anger in his voice. An invisible hand wrapped itself around her heart and squeezed until Casey wanted to cry out from the pain. "You let a complete stranger pick you up! You can't be that naive?"
"Stop making a federal case out of it!" Casey lashed out. His criticism of her was unbearable. He would never believe how supremely innocent the morning had been. "Sean was a very nice young man who had nothing more on his mind than sharing a boat ride."
Flint spun her around, pushing her beach robe over her shoulders until it pinned her arms at her sides like a straitjacket. Her brief bikini was exposed to his censorious gaze. "With you dressed like that, he just thought about a boat ride. Oh, he thought about a ride all right, but not that kind!"
"What's the matter?" Casey taunted, fire darting out of her brown eyes as she stared defiantly into his. "Are you regretting not seducing me when you had the chance?"
She could feel the incredible tenseness in his body transferring itself from his grip on her shoulders to her. His gaze fastened on her trembling lips and a coursing flood of heat raced through her body. Her lips parted in anticipation of his kiss, wanting, desiring it with every part of her body. She could see the answering flash of desire in his eyes. Flint had started to draw her toward him when the screen door from the house to the veranda slid open.
"Whoops! Bad timing. I'll go get some cookies," Gabbie called gaily at the sight of the couple. She turned around swiftly to go back into the house.
"Don't bother," Flint said, releasing Casey and walking swiftly toward the umbrella-topped table. "You didn't interrupt a thing."
"My mistake." Gabbie smiled widely. "I thought I had."
Casey joined them a little more slowly, needing time to gain control of herself and her emotions. The silence at the table could have been cut with a knife and served in generous portions. Her hand trembled too badly to hold a glass, so she sat very still in her chair and studied a loose thread on the sleeve of her robe. The scraping of Flint's chair brought her tear-bright gaze upward. She was imprisoned by the fired, defeated look on his face. For a moment, she could have sworn that his eyes were pleading with her and she swallowed convulsively. But just as quickly, they hardened into steel, austere and inflexible.
"I have to get back to the ranch," Flint uttered harshly. "Do you have enough manners to walk me to the car, Casey?"
Somehow she managed to stand on her weak legs while Gabbie murmured that she would take care of the cleaning up. How she wished Gabbie would have gone with her. Then Flint wouldn't have been able to subject her to any more of his barbed remarks. Flint waited with cold politeness for Casey to precede him. Her composure was stiff and unnatural and the irritated expression on his face told her he noticed it. "I'm sorry you made this trip needlessly," Casey said once they reached the pickup truck. "I wish I could have made it worthwhile for you by drowning."
"Even if you were dead," Flint sighed heavily, his gaze roaming over her intense face, "I believe you'd come back to haunt me." He opened the door and crawled into the cab, then stared at her with disconcerting blandness. "It's useless to suggest that you shouldn't see that boy again, I suppose."
"Yes," Casey answered calmly, because she had no intention or desire to see Sean again.
"I don't think you plan to see him again." One corner of his mouth lifted with mocking amusement as he studied her face. "But you wouldn't want to give me the satisfaction of knowing that."
Damn his perception, Casey cursed silently while she cocked her head to one side in a gesture of defiance. "I might have a date with him tonight for all you know."
"You might." Flint's mouth twitched and his eyes glittered humorously. "But somehow I just don't think you do."
"I've walked you to your truck, Mr. McCallister. It's time you left." His total sureness that he was right irked her beyond words.
"You're still the same innocent prickle poppy trying to lodge your thorns into anybody who comes too close to you, aren't you, Casey?" Flint mocked, starting the motor and reversing the gears.
"Only when it's the wrong person." She turned on her heel and retreated toward the cabin, the sound of the truck's tires moving over gravel, interspersed with muted laughter from the driver, following her.
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Chapter Fifteen
"AND THIS IS MY FATHER, Lucas McCallister." Gabbie wrapped her arm affectionately around the tall man who bore such an uncanny resemblance to Flint.
Casey had difficulty looking into the light gray eyes so similar to Flint's when he was in a teasing mood. The incredibly charming smile was the same, one corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other, but his father's hair was a darker shade of brown, almost black, with a very distinguishing touch of gray at the temples. He was still an imposing figure of a man who was considerably attractive for his advanced years.
"How do you do, Casey Gilmore." His hand clasped hers warmly, the resonant timbre of his voice chasing away some of her nervousness. She gazed hesitantly into his eyes, basking in the warm glow that looked back. "We've been looking forward to meeting you."
Lucas McCallister glanced affectionately at the slender, auburn-haired woman at his side. Jade green eyes smiled welcomingly at Casey, enhanced strangely by the laughter lines that edged them. She couldn't help smiling back at them.
"We've heard so much about you, Casey, that you seem part of the family." The older woman's smile was genuine. It lifted some of the dread that Casey had been feeling.
"That's very kind of you, Mrs. McCallister," Casey returned.
In the last few days she had been hoping that Flint's parents would be cold, snobbish people so that her love for him wouldn't extend to them. Now that she had actually met them, their open-armed friendliness was shattering that hopeful illusion. Except they were drawing her into the circle of their love.
"Call me Meg," Flint's mother insisted, squeezing Casey's hand affectionately. "We're hardly a formal family."
"You two run along out to the veranda. Casey and I will bring the lemonade and glasses," Gabbie ordered, flashing a proud smile toward Casey.
She had to assure her mother that she didn't need her help before the pair finally made their exit, leaving Gabbie alone with Casey. She turned her radiant face towards her.
"I'm terribly prejudiced, but I think I've got the greatest parents."
"They seem very youthful and fun," Casey acknowledged, staring after the retreating pair. Their warmth reminded her of her own family which she was beginning to miss.
Gabbie sighed, her eyes rounding as she followed Casey's gaze. "My father could turn the heart of any woman. Is it any wonder with four brothers and a father that looks like that the men I meet seldom measure up? I'll probably be doomed to spinsterhood."
"I doubt that," Casey laughed, looking back at the attractive dark-haired girl.
But from Casey's point of view it wasn't a laughable observation. Not when she was faced with a futu
re of comparing the men she might meet with Flint. She had the terribly empty feeling that she was one of those women who only loved once in their lifetime. And for her, that love was Flint. Only she wasn't destined to possess his love—a knowledge that didn't make the future look too happy.
She accepted the tray of glasses Gabbie handed her and started toward the outdoor veranda. As she passed the mirror in the living room, Casey was surprised by the composed reflection that looked back at her. The haltered sundress she was wearing was a vivid red that cast a rosy glow to her cheeks. Only a bit of the torment, she felt, was visible in the haunted shadow of her eyes. Otherwise she looked like any other normal healthy girl of her age.
"How's your father?" Lucas McCallister inquired when Casey entered the veranda and placed the tray she was carrying on the table where he was seated.
"He's much better. Just beginning to champ at the bit to get back to the ranch," Casey replied.
"A very good sign in a rancher," he chuckled.
"Which usually means they should stay in bed for at least another week," Meg inserted with a knowing gleam in her eye when she looked at her husband and then back to Casey.
"My mother would agree with you," Casey laughed, "but then I'm a bit like Dad—anxious to get things back to the status quo." A fervent wish that Casey knew secretly would never come true.
"Of course, it will be some time before your father can get around like he used to. He'll have to be content to do some armchair managing for a while." Gray eyes twinkled at her. "But then my son has told me of your assertion that you could run the ranch quite adequately."
"Women's work isn't restricted to the household anymore." The sharpness in her voice was more for the absent Flint than for his father.
"Still, it's a heavy responsibility for a slip of a girl," Lucas smiled, glancing at his wife. "Country gals are pretty tough, but there's nothing wrong in having a man around that you can lean on when the occasion warrants it." He winked boldly at Casey. "And even when it doesn't." Casey's cheeks flamed red hot as the teasing voice subtly linked her with Flint. "How are things at the ranch?"
