by Janet Dailey
“That’s what you say.” He showed his skepticism.
“I came back,” Angie reminded him. “Doesn’t it prove anything to you that I’m here?”
“But for how long?” Deke was practically shouting.
“What do I have to do to get through to you that I’m sincere?” she cried helplessly. “I’ve already given up my career, my home, everything I’ve worked for all these years. Now the whole neighborhood—probably the whole town—knows that I’m living here as your mistress. So I’ve even sacrificed my pride and self-respect. What more do you want me to give up?”
“Yourself!” He swung away as if unable to contain all that raging energy any longer and went striding out of the room.
White with shock, Angie watched him disappear and winced when she heard the stair door violently slammed shut. A minute later she heard the revving motor of his car and the squeal of tires as it shot out of the drive.
The evening meal she had prepared was never eaten. In bed, Angie tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Flashbacks of other conversations kept running through her mind. They were dominated by Ted’s warning that Deke was just using her, dangling the promise of Lindy in front of her, but always out of reach. She didn’t want to believe it of him, but it was becoming blatantly obvious by his actions.
The next morning, Angie didn’t bother with breakfast. She dressed, got in her car and drove straight to the elementary school Lindy attended. Bells rang for morning recess as she entered the building. When she neared the second-grade classroom, her gaze scanned the children filing out. Lindy’s teacher, Mrs. Gonzales, brought up the rear.
“Mrs. Gonzales!” Angie hurried to catch up to the young teacher who paused at the sound of her name. “I’m not sure if you remember me,” she began.
“Yes, you were here about a month ago,” the brunette smiled. “I thought you were on your vacation.”
“I was,” Angie admitted but didn’t explain. “I came to see Lindy Blackwood.”
“She isn’t here,” the teacher shook her head and tried not to show her curiosity for Angie’s sake.
“You mean, she’s not in school today?” Angie frowned, because it didn’t make sense that Deke would still be keeping her home.
“No, I meant she doesn’t go to school here anymore,” Mrs. Gonzales clarified her answer. “I’m really not too surprised. Deke Blackwood can certainly afford to send his daughter to a private school. It’s odd that he transferred her in mid-term though.”
“A private school.” Angie felt her heart sinking. “Do you know which one?”
“No, I’m afraid I don’t.” The teacher grimaced apologetically.
“Is there any way I could find out?”
The brunette was puzzled by the urgent tone in Angie’s voice. “You could check at the principal’s office. They might know,” she suggested without promising anything.
“Thank you.” Angie hurried away.
The same plump receptionist was on duty. She greeted Angie with a friendly smile when she entered the principal’s office.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“Yes. I’d like some information about a second-grade student who was enrolled here—a Miss Lindy Blackwood.” Angie tried to sound very businesslike. “Would you check your records and tell me what school she is attending now?”
“I’m sorry.” The receptionist didn’t even bother to look. “I’m afraid we don’t have that information. You see, Mr. Blackwood obtained a transcript of his daughter’s school record when he signed her out, so it wouldn’t be necessary for her new school to contact us.”
Angie started to leave, then thought of another question. “Can you tell me approximately how long ago she changed schools?”
“It’s been more than a month ago, I’m sure,” the receptionist answered.
“I see,” Angie murmured and turned away.
Leaving the school lot, she drove back to the house on the Key. She wasn’t willing to give up her search yet. She went straight to the phone in the kitchen and opened the telephone directory to the list of private schools in the area. She called every one, but none had a student registered under the name of Lindy Blackwood, and all claimed no child had transferred to their school in the recent past.
Faced with another dead end, Angie slid onto a counter stool and chewed on a fingernail. It was possible Deke had sent Lindy to a boarding school some distance away. But where? And how could she find out? There was one person who could tell her. Marissa had proved to be her ally once. She might be again? Angie reached for the phone and dialed the number. If Deke answered, she could pretend she had been calling him.
“This is the Blackwood Ranch.” The phone was answered by a woman, but Angie didn’t recognize her voice.
“Who am I speaking to?” she asked.
“This is Jessie. I’m the housekeeper,” the woman identified herself.
“May I talk to Marissa, please?”
“I’m sorry. She isn’t here.”
“Oh. When will she be back?”
“I don’t know, ma’m,” the housekeeper replied.
“She’ll be there this evening, won’t she?” Angie inquired.
“No. She isn’t living here right now,” the woman explained.
Stunned, Angie raked her fingers through her hair, combing it severely away from her face. She couldn’t believe Deke could be so callous as to turn Marissa out of her own home. Then she realized Marissa had to be with Lindy. Deke hadn’t sent her away to boarding school at such a young age.
“Can you tell me how I can get in touch with Marissa?” Angie asked. “Do you have an address or a phone number where she can be reached?”
“I don’t, but Deke could give it to you,” the housekeeper replied.
Angie held her breath, suddenly wary. “Is he there?”
“Not right now, but he will be a little later. Shall I have him call you?” the woman suggested helpfully.
“No, that’s all right.” Angie shook her head in slight relief. “I’ll probably talk to him later this evening. Thank you.”
A cold hand closed around her heart and squeezed it as she hung up the phone. She felt betrayed by Deke. He’d led her to believe that Lindy was still here, that she was still at the ranch. And all the time he’d sent her away. And Marissa had gone with her.
There wasn’t any way Marissa could have let her know. Deke had seen to that, too. Angie was certain that Marissa had no idea she was living in their summer house. She wouldn’t know how to contact her. Even Ted had told her that when he called the motel in Goliad, they had informed him she’d left without a forwarding address.
How many times had Deke congratulated himself for being so clever. She shut her eyes when she thought of all the times he must have been secretly laughing at her for being so naive. And she had never guessed. She had been so in love with him that she never once suspected.
Why had he done this to her? Did he hate her that much? How could she still love him? But there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to its existence.
Angie was lost, cut adrift with nothing to cling to and nowhere to go. Deke had probably planned on that, too. She hadn’t realized he could be so ruthless. Ted had seen it, but she had been blinded by her love.
Chapter Eleven
Curled in a tight ball in a chair with her arms hugged about her knees, Angie heard a vehicle pull into the drive. It sounded like a truck. She tensed, a rawness licking through her nerves, at the slam of a door. It wasn’t five o’clock yet, still she knew it was Deke, even though it hadn’t been his car.
Her wary gaze centered on the door. There were footsteps on the stairs, taking them two at a time. Angie hadn’t seen Deke since he’d stormed out of the house the night before. She steeled herself for this meeting.
When he reached the top of the stairs and saw her, there was the slightest hesitation in his stride before Deke entered the living room. There was a tired, dusty look about him from his faded, work-stained Levis and t
he rundown heels of his boots to the dried perspiration marks of his chambray shirt. Usually he showered and changed into clean clothes before coming to see her, but this time he’d come straight off the ranch. He carried the markings of a long day, yet it gave him a rough vigor. His hard, sinewy frame was resilient, imbued with a potency that quickened her pulse.
Deke took off his dusty hat and dropped it on an empty chair seat. “You called the ranch today.” It was a statement that had no hint of doubt as she came under the attention of his steel gray eyes.
What did he think she was going to do? Deny it and lie? Or meekly apologize? Although her behavior might have given him the impression she was submissive, Angie knew that wasn’t her nature. And she wasn’t going to sit there while he towered over her like some all-righteous god either.
Unclasping her hands, she swung her legs to the floor and stood up. She tucked her trembling fingers inside the hip pockets of her white jeans and adopted a pose of non-chalence as she wandered out of his range of domination.
“Yes, I called the ranch,“ Angie admitted in a voice that was tight but otherwise steady. “I wanted to talk to Marissa.”
“You went to the school today, too.” Again his flat statement was a positive accusation.
Angle didn’t bother to ask how he knew that. He had probably gotten suspicious after the housekeeper had told him about the phone call and checked with the principal’s office. After that, it had been a simple matter of adding two and two.
“Yes,” she admitted that, too, and tunned to level her own accusation at him. “They told me Lindy had been transferred to another school.”
His mouth thinned into a cold line. “I wondered how long it would be before you went behind my back.”
“Is that your justification for lying to me?” Angie didn’t try to contain her hurt anger. She let it flame and sent it out to burn him. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, Deke! I didn’t go behind your back! I just didn’t wait for your permission to see my daughter! I don’t give a damn what any words say on a piece of paper! You don’t have any God-given right to keep me away from my daughter!”
“Don’t preach to me about rights!” Deke snapped. “You gave up yours seven years ago!”
“And you’re never going to forget that, are you?” she realized. “Where is she? Where have you taken Lindy?”
“Do you really think I’ll tell you?” he taunted and raked her with a look.
Everything male about him challenged her. Angie wanted to lash out at him—to strike him and inflict some of the pain on him. But his superior physical strength would have negated any assault by her. Angie stifled that urge with a trembling effort.
“How long, Deke?” she demanded. “I want to know how long you’ve been lying to me? When did you send Lindy away with Marissa?”
Deke seemed to consider his answer before he spoke. “They left the day you moved in here.” He watched the information wash the color from her face. Even though it confirmed the half-formed suspicion she’d had, Angie still reeled from the extent of his deception.
“And you brought me here not so I could be close to Lindy, but so Marissa wouldn’t know where to find me,” she guessed.
There was a complacent lift to the corners of his mouth. “Why do you think my sister called you at the motel that morning?”
Angie made another guess and watched his taunting smile deepen at her accuracy. “She was going to warn me about what you were planning.”
“But I intercepted the message before it could be delivered.”
Angie remembered how he had commandeered the phone that morning, so smoothly without hesitation. “You guessed that she might call me, didn’t you?” she accused, a bitter taste on her tongue.
“It was possible,” Deke acknowledged it hadn’t been unexpected.
“Is that why you stayed all night with me, Deke?” Angie felt sick. Nothing was tunning out to be the way it seemed at the time.
“You know damn well it wasn’t the only reason I stayed.” Deke was impatient with her. “There were a half dozen ways I could have prevented Marissa from contacting you that didn’t entail spending the night.”
“But none quite so convenient.” She was sweetly sarcastic to him.
“Maybe not, but it was merely a side benefit!” Deke snapped.
It was all becoming very sordid and painful. She had been used, that much was plain. There would be time to cry over that later. Now, Angie needed to know where she stood with regard to Lindy. She wasn’t going to accept any more indefinite replies.
“Let’s stop all this pretense, Deke,” Angie demanded. “You got me here by hinting that you would eventually allow me to see Lindy. I don’t want to hear any more of your lies and half-truths. Just give it to me straight for a change.”
Deke reacted aggressively to the challenge, bristling like a male animal. “You want to know where you stand, do you? You are in the same position you’ve always been in. You don’t have a chance of seeing Lindy without my say-so! You don’t know where she is. You don’t even know where to look. And you’ll never find her unless I tell you.”
“That’s kidnapping! I’ll take you to court!” Angie threatened.
“You take me to court!” he dared her. “I’ll keep that case so tied up with postponements and appeals, Lindy will be eighteen before a final verdict is ever issued!”
Fighting him was hopeless. Angie knew it and hot tears burned her eyes. “You’re a heartless bastard,” she hissed in frustration. “Now I know why I didn’t stay married to you!”
She had the satisfaction of seeing his features darken with anger. Before Angie could stalk out of the room with the last word issued by her, Deke caught her arm and roughly yanked her back. She strained against his grip, intimidated by the silver blaze in his eyes.
“If you leave this house, Angie, I swear by all that’s holy you’ll never see Lindy again!” Deke threatened.
“Why are you keeping me here?” she stormed in confusion. “You despise me! You can’t possibly be that desperate for a mistress!”
“Not anyone will do,” he denied that and caught her other arm when she tried to break away. His strong fingers curled into the tender flesh of her upper arms as he hauled her struggling body closer. “You’re the one who satisfies me. You’re here because I want you.”
“No!” She struggled wildly, hating him as passionately as she loved him, twisting and kicking, but she couldn’t escape.
His powerfully muscled arms crushed her to his length, bending her back to put her off balance. Her hands pushed ineffectively at the looming wall of his chest. Tucking her chin in, Angie tried to keep her head down, but Deke was having none of that. His large hand captured the underside of her jaw and forced her head back until she thought her neck would snap.
There was no eluding him. His mouth came down to ravage her lips plundering their softness and smothering her animal cries of protest. She was held so tightly she could hardly breathe. Each second the brutal kiss continued, it drained more of her strength. Blackness swam on the fringes of her conscious mind.
When her body stopped straining from him in stiff resistence, Deke dragged his mouth from hers and let go of her throat, placing that hand on her hip to keep her within his arms. Angie was trembling, drinking in air while her bruised lips throbbed from his roughness. Her hands remained braced against his chest in a weak attempt to keep him at a distance until she had gathered some of her strength back.
Deke took advantage of her temporary passivity. The hand on her hip made a single, smooth stroke up her waist to her breast. His hand remained there in bold possession as Angie flashed him a smouldering look.
“If there was an ounce of honesty in your body,” Deke challenged, “you’d admit that you’re here because you want me, too.”
“No,” she denied it quickly, too quickly.
“Yes,” he insisted with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “Your heart is racing and your nipple is hard in my hand.”
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“No.” She tried desperately to deny his claim, but her treacherous senses told her it was true. Angie realized that she would have fought till her last breath at any attempt to overpower her physically, but she was vulnerable to seduction, especially Deke’s brand. And he knew that the response he hadn’t obtained with sheer force could be gotten with a sensual caress.
“Yes, Angie, yes.” His arms encircled her.
When she turned her head aside to avoid his kiss, Deke raised no objections, seeking instead the sensitive curve of her neck and the evocative hollow below her ear. His roaming hands explored her body and followed the curve of her spine. He knew every place that aroused her pleasure, and he exploited that knowledge to the fullest.
Sensation buffeted her at every turn. The male scent of him enveloped her while the blood pounded in her ears. Her flesh was tingling from its contact with the unyielding contours of his body and the stimulating caress of his hands. His mouth grazed its way across her cheek and teased the corners of her lips until she turned her head to taste the warmth of his kiss. And she was lost.
The minute she was pliant in his hands, Deke lifted his head a scant inch, letting the heat of his breath fan her lips. “You want me, don’t you?” he murmured thickly, demanding her full capitulation. “Admit it.”
A little frown of dismay swept her expression as Angie closed her eyes, hating him for forcing the admission from her. “Yes, yes, yes,” she whispered in the frustration of guilt.
A second later she was swept away by his embrace, kissed deeply and passionately until she didn’t care anymore. Nothing mattered as long as he touched her and held her and loved her. Deke was doing all those things and more. She felt strangely weightless. In somewhat of a daze, Angie realized Deke was carrying her.
She had barely made that discovery when he was laying her on the bed. Numbed by a heady desire, she watched him stand by the bed and unbutton his shirt to strip it off. Suddenly it hit her that she was falling into the same trap again. Nothing had been resolved by their argument. Letting him make love to her after trying to take a stand would only compound the problem.
