Power and Seduction

by Joan Hohl

  “You two back already?” Beth smiled in surprise when Tina was practically flung into the living room by a less than gentle shove at the back of her waist.

  “We decided to come home for dinner,” Dirk informed the older woman tersely.

  Beth’s smile vanished. “Oh, dear! I’ve already cleared everything away—not that there was all that much to clear away.” Her shoulders moved in a helpless shrug. “I wasn’t very hungry.” Laying aside the large lap rug she was knitting, Beth moved to get to her feet.

  “Don’t get up.” Dirk’s gently voiced order arrested Beth’s movement. “We can help ourselves. Can’t we, Ms. Merritt?” He slanted a warning glance at Tina.

  “Yes, of course,” Tina responded, somehow managing a smile for the other woman. “Is there any of that soup left from lunch?”

  “Yes, it’s in the plastic container on the top shelf of the fridge.” Beth frowned. “Oh, Miss Merritt,” she murmured reproachfully, “why didn’t you tell me who you were?” Before Tina could reply, she moaned, “And I charged you rent!”

  Tina shot a glance of sheer rage at Dirk before crossing the room to Beth. “I guess I was too surprised,” she admitted candidly. “I expected to find the house empty.” As Beth continued to frown, Tina added softly, “I might add that receiving such a warm welcome was a very pleasant surprise ... and I’m still Tina,” she chided gently.

  “Of course she’s still Tina,” Dirk drawled from right behind her, his nearness causing a tremor along her spine. “And now Tina and I are going to raid the fridge.” Curling his arm around her waist, he drew her close to his hard, warm length. “Come on, kid, let’s dump some food into you.” Tina smothered a gasp as he slid his hand over her hip. “We’ve got to fatten this gal up, Beth,” he tossed over his shoulder as he led Tina toward the kitchen. “She feels like a bag of Tinkertoys.”

  “We’ll do our best, Dirk.” Beth’s delighted laughter followed them out of the room.

  Tina wasn’t laughing; she was hanging on to her temper by sheer willpower. The instant they were out of Beth’s sight and hearing, Tina pulled away from Dirk’s encircling hold.

  “Tinkertoys?” Tina hissed, swinging away. “You—”

  “Can it, honey.” Dirk cut her off with a chuckle. “You’re skinny, kid. It’s as simple as that.”

  On the point of opening the refrigerator door, Tina spun to glare at him. “I am not skinny,” she snapped, planting her hands on her hips aggressively. “I’m svelte.”

  Dirk’s chuckle grew into full-throated laughter. “Call it what you will.” Walking to her, he brushed her hands from her hips and grasped them with his own. “You still feel skinny to me.” Although Tina stiffened with resistance, he drew her rigid body into contact with the angular contours of his. “Very exciting,” he whispered, his smile fading. “I actually like the sensation of being prodded by your pelvic bones.”

  Against her will, against her simmering anger, against all common sense, Tina’s heartbeat kicked into high gear. Her sense of self-preservation urged her to protest this intimacy, to step away from him and ridicule the fire of passion flaring in his eyes. Staring into the heat of that passion, Tina’s breathing became shallow as she slipped beyond protest. Feeling her skin grow warm from the blaze in his eyes, she watched, mesmerized, as Dirk lowered his head to hers.

  * * *

  Chapter 3

  Dirk’s kiss was everything Tina remembered—and much, much more.

  Drowning in the sweetness of his persuasive mouth, Tina sighed and parted her lips to the searing probe of his tongue. As she softened against him, Dirk slid his hands from her hips to imprison her within the tight circle of his arms, crushing her to his chest with a growl in his throat.

  “Tina.”

  Tina felt more than heard the aching sound of her name groaned into her mouth and, at the same time, felt a liquid flame race wildly through her veins. Oh, Lord, she wanted him. And the wanting was as much of heaven as she ever hoped to know, and more of hell than she ever wished to experience.

  Tina knew, somewhere deep inside, that she had to stop him, and she would, soon ... but first, she had to taste him, just this once.

  Curling her arms around Dirk’s strong neck, she drank as greedily from his mouth as he did from hers, thrilling to the shudder of responsive need that shook his long body. Clinging to him a moment longer, Tina parried the urgent thrust of his tongue, then dipped daintily with her own. When the restless movement of his hands brushed the outer curve of her breasts, Tina broke free of his arms and ran for the safety of the stairs and her room.

  Locking the door behind her, Tina slumped back against it, dragging deep, sobbing breaths into her chest. Slowly, testingly, she glided the tip of her tongue over her kiss-bruised lips, yearning for more of him.

  “Tina.” Dirk’s soft call from the other side of the door sent a chill to mingle with the heat in her veins. “Open the door, love. We’ve got to talk.”

  No. No. Moving her head back and forth on the solid barrier between them, Tina closed her eyes and mind to the entreaty in his voice. Dirk’s use of that particular endearment again quenched the blaze his kiss had ignited.

  “Tina!” Though still soft, Dirk’s tone had taken on the edge of impatience. “Open this door.”

  “No.” This time Tina said the word aloud, if in a strained whisper.

  Even so, Dirk heard her. Cursing softly, he rattled the doorknob. “Honey, come on! You haven’t eaten. Come have supper with me.”

  Supper? Sure. He wanted her for supper! Biting her lip, Tina shook her head more fiercely. “I’m not hungry,” she declared truthfully. “Go away, Dirk. I’m not going to unlock the door.” Pushing herself away from the door, she straightened her shoulders. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow ... maybe,”

  “What do you mean, maybe?” Dirk snapped angrily. “You can’t hide in your room forever, Tina.” There was a pause. Then, his voice menacing, he warned, “And don’t even think of running back to New York during the night, because this time I’ll come after you.” He paused again. “I mean it, Tina. If you run I’ll find you, wherever you go to hide. You’re not a kid anymore.” Dirk lowered his voice, pitching it so she could hear him while Beth, downstairs, could not. “I want you, and I’m going to have you. Even if it means following you straight to hell.”

  Beginning to shiver, Tina clasped her upper arms, hugging herself as she stared at the door. After a moment, cursing again, Dirk strode purposefully down the hall.

  This time I’ll come after you. Hearing his promise reverberate inside her head, Tina walked to the window and sank onto the brightly patterned cushion on the white wicker chair placed to one side of it.

  You ‘re not a kid anymore. A kid. Tina swallowed in an attempt to dislodge the lump of emotion in her throat. It seemed like forever since she’d been a kid. Closing her eyes, she conjured a picture of the kid she’d been—the kid Dirk had indulged more than he ever had his own younger sister.

  Tina could hardly remember a time when Dirk had not been around. Yet she knew that he’d first come onto her scene the summer she was five years old and he was fourteen. Tina had fallen into a very bad case of hero worship that summer. Her hero had been Dirk. She had never really fallen out of it.

  Smiling sadly, Tina sent her mind skipping down memory lane in much the same manner she had skipped along that summer she was five. In point of fact, she’d been skipping around the kitchen table as her mother prepared lunch when her father entered the room, a tall, gangly, towheaded boy trailing at his heels.

  “Here’s Dirk ... finally, Pam.” George Holden drew the youth forward to meet his wife.

  Eyes wide with awe, Tina stared up at the young man who, at least to her eyes, looked like the Prince Charming in her picture book.

  “How do you do, Mrs. Holden?” Dirk said very formally, sticking out a bony right hand to grasp hers.

  A gentle smile played on Pam’s lips. “I’m very well, thank you,” she replied softly. �
��And delighted to, as George correctly put it, finally meet you.” Her smile grew wide. “I’ve heard many good things about you, Dirk.”

  “And you’re as beautiful as Mr. Holden claimed!” Dirk blurted, a red stain flushing his cheeks. “Ah, I mean ...”

  “Don’t be embarrassed.” Pam laughed softly. “It’s very nice to hear that George still thinks I’m attractive after all these years.”

  “I think you’ll always be beautiful,” Dirk responded with quiet dignity.

  “Didn’t I tell you this boy was something else?” George laughed heartily. “And this little imp here”—he reached out to draw Tina to his side—”is our Tina.” Parental pride was evident in his tone.

  “Hello, Tina,” Dirk said soberly, shaking her little hand as formally as he had Pam’s.

  It was at that moment that Tina had fallen in love.

  Dirk was invited to lunch and accepted readily. Pulling out the chair next to Tina’s, he kidded, “I’ll sit beside scrawny here.”

  At Tina’s stricken face, Pam consoled, “Don’t fret love, you’re merely growing faster than your weight can keep up with. I’m sure Dirk was only teasing.” Lifting her hand, Pam smoothed her palm over Tula’s one long braid. “You’re going to be a real beauty someday.”

  “And then I’ll marry you.” Grinning boyishly, Dirk yanked on her braid.

  The terribly heartbreaking thing was, Tina had believed him.

  From that day on Dirk seemed to become a permanent fixture around Tina’s home, at least during the summer months. From the Saturday before Memorial Day until the day after Labor Day, he spent more time at the Holden house than he did at his own parents’ summer home a block and a half away. For Tina, Dirk became friend, brother, protector, and knight in shining armor all wrapped up in one tall, lanky frame.

  That first summer, his already broad hand holding the padded seat securely, Dirk taught Tina how to balance and ride a two wheeler without training wheels. Subsequent summers brought lessons in swimming, body-surfing, sailing, kite-flying, and fishing from a pier and from a deep-sea boat.

  The rest of the year, except for Christmas, which always arrived with a gift under the tree for her from him, Tina heard nothing from Dirk—not a card, not a note, not a telephone call. When, during the course of that first winter, Tina became moody because of Dirk’s lack of communication, her father had drawn her onto his lap, stroking her hair as he explained the circumstances of Dirk’s life.

  “You probably won’t understand all this,” George began, correctly. “You see, honey, Dirk’s winter months are very busy and full, much more so than an average boy of his age.”

  Being a normal five and a half, Tina had gazed up at him owlishly. “Why?” she demanded sulkily.

  “Well, for one, he attends a private school instead of a public school like most of the children you know.” George tickled her under her chin in an attempt to tease her out of the blue devils. “He is very bright, you know.”

  Well, of course, Tina had known that. Her hero was the smartest person in her world ... at least she thought he was. Tina nodded solemnly.

  “His daddy owns a bank in Wilmington and, even at the age of fourteen, Dirk is being trained to take over for his father someday.” At that point George smiled in a way that meant nothing to Tina, but would have conveyed empathy to a more mature person. “Summertime is the only time Dirk has to be young,” he continued with a sigh. “And I know he wanted very badly to play football,” he’d gone on softly, before smiling down at her. “Oh, well, I’m sure Dirk’s father knows what he’s doing.”

  “Indeed!”

  It was the unusual acerbic note in Pam’s tone that drew Tina’s glance to her mother, not the meaning behind the single word she’d spoken. There would be many years after that January evening before Tina would come to understand the brief conversation that had followed between her parents.

  “Now, Pam,” George cautioned mildly. “Howard Tanger is a fine man, and he’s been a very good friend to me, as you well know.” His smile was tender, as it always was for Pam. “Where do you think I’d be today if it hadn’t been for Howard?”

  “Really, George,” Pam scolded gently, “I know and understand the esteem you have for Howard. And your loyalty is commendable, but—

  “But—without Howard, I’d still be working for someone else,” George interrupted gently.

  Pam sighed. “All right, yes, the man was the only banker with enough faith in your idea to approve a loan for you to start your own business, but I will not accept the premise that you would be a failure today if it weren’t for him!” She held up a dainty hand when he would have interrupted again. “No, dear, let me finish. It might have taken you longer without Howard, but you would eventually have found a way to start the business. As to Dirk”—Pam sighed more deeply—”he’s everything you wanted in a son.” Her voice trailed to a faint whisper. “The son I couldn’t give you.”

  “Darling, don’t.” George would have jumped to his feet to go to her had he not been holding Tina. “You know I wouldn’t have traded you for half a dozen sons.”

  “Yes, I do know.” Pam smiled brightly. “And now you have Dirk, at least from June until the beginning of September. It simply saddens me that the boy has only three short months every year to be a boy. Childhood is such a short period of time as it is, and he’s missing it!”

  As nothing her parents were talking about made any sense at all to Tina, she had chosen that moment to fall asleep on her father’s lap, still missing her new friend Dirk.

  Winter wore on, but as summer always does, it came again to the seaside town, and with it came Dirk, a little taller but as gangly as before. And so the years of their childhood spun out, more quickly for Dirk than for Tina. And with each successive summer, the changes were noted as to wintertime-acquired height and filling out, again more quickly for Dirk than Tina.

  For Tina, the memories of summer were precious gems to be hoarded more greedily than any miser ever hoarded his gold—for Tina the memories were pure gold.

  Gold! The noise Tina made deep in her throat was part sob, part derisive snort. On closer inspection, the gold proved to be cheap spray paint that had chipped away badly over the last four years, Tina thought tiredly.

  Shivering with a chill that had more to do with her mental sojourn than the wind rising outside the window, Tina stood up stiffly, then froze. The footsteps coming along the polished hardwood hallway were not really heavy, yet not light enough to be those of Beth Harkness. In the seconds the steps paused outside her door, Tina ceased to breathe. The ragged breath that eased past her lips when the steps resumed again hurt her chest, and her heart. At the soft click of a door closing across the hall, Tina sighed and switched on her bedside lamp. It was safe for her to get ready for bed now: Dirk had retired for the night. Scooping her nightgown from the foot of the bed and her robe from the narrow closet, she inched open her door, then crept along the hall to the bathroom. Five minutes later she scurried back into her room, locked the door, and dove under the covers, switching the light off even as she burrowed into the warmth of the down-filled comforter that covered the bed.

  By the time Tina finally fell into a fitful slumber hours later, the comforter was a tangled mass around her slender body, and her eyelashes fanned over smudges of exhaustion under her eyes.

  Sometime during the morning a ringing phone drew Tina partially from the depths of the deep sleep she’d drifted into after bouts of lighter, dream-disturbed rest. For some time after the ringing stopped, she hovered in that dark tunnel between wakefulness and sleep. She was sinking into the arms of peace again when she dreamed she felt gentle fingers smoothing errant strands of tousled hair from her temple and brow and heard a soft, familiar voice close to her ear.

  “Don’t run away. Please, wait for me, love,” the dream voice pleaded. “This time, wait for me.”

  When Tina woke fully, it was on the heavy side of mid-morning. Her eyes still closed sleepily, she frowne
d. There was a strangeness here, but what was it? The muted, mournful cry of a sea gull turned the frown to a wistful smile; she was home, not in the apartment above the crowded streets of New York City.

  Dirk.

  The smile faded and Tina closed her eyes again. She would have to leave, go back to the city and the shop; she simply could not deal with Dirk in the state she was in.

  But would Dirk let her go? The question nagged at the edge of Tina’s mind as she pushed herself from the tangled comforter and made her way to the bathroom.

  As she bathed, Tina recalled Dirk’s warning the night before. A prickling sensation ran down her spine as her mind replayed the low, intense sound of his voice.

  I want you, and I’m going to have you. Even if it means following you straight to hell

  Dirk had meant what he’d said, and Tina knew he’d meant it. She also knew precisely what he’d meant by it.

  Beginning to shiver, she stepped out of the old-fashioned tub, firmly assuring herself the tremor coursing through her was caused by revulsion and not anticipation.

  Catching sight of her reflection in the medicine-cabinet mirror, Tina frowned at the shimmer of excitement flaring in her sherry-brown eyes.

  “Grow up, you fool!”

  The reflection blinked at the scathing sound of the advice she muttered aloud.

  “If you want to commit emotional suicide, there has got to be a better way to do it than through Dirk Tanger!”

  Tearing her gaze from the mirror, Tina quickly dried herself, shrugged into her robe, and after carefully scanning the hallway, dashed back to the relative safety of her room.

  Tina was midway to the bed where she’d laid out her clothes when she stopped short, a puzzled expression stealing over her face. The day had progressed to within striking distance of noon ... why was the house so very quiet? Was she alone in the house?

  Her curiosity aroused, Tina dressed in lacy underwear, a deep pink, cowl-necked sweater that should have clashed with her dark red hair but didn’t, and jeans. After putting on her boots, she punished her unruly mane with a brush; then, her face free of makeup, she descended the curving staircase slowly, warily searching for Dirk.