Part 5 (1/2)
”I'd love to, but Jack's still out of town. How about Friday night?”
”Fine! I'll make sure it's okay with Marshal.”
”You'll make sure what's okay?” Egan asked, stopping in the doorway with his tie in his hand and his s.h.i.+rt unb.u.t.toned over his broad chest.
”A date, Friday night,” Ada volunteered. ”Want to come along? I've got a super girlfriend-”
”I can get my own women,” he said with a tilt of his mouth. ”Friday? I'll ask Jennie. What time?”
Kati's heart sank, and it showed in her eyes. Egan happened to look her way; he smiled with pure malice.
”What's the matter, honey, will I cramp your style if I come along?” he asked her.
Kati remembered almost too late the role she'd chosen to play. Polite hostess. No personalities. No hostilities. Christmas. Good cheer.
She gritted her teeth. ”You're welcome, of course,” she said with a frozen smile.
Egan's heavy eyebrows lifted. ”My G.o.d, get a doctor,” he told Ada.
Kati smiled even brighter. ”Now, I think I'll say good night, too. I have this headache...”
”But it's only nine,” Ada wailed. ”Don't both of you go to bed and leave me alone.”
”Don't you want peace and quiet?” Egan asked his sister.
Ada glanced from one to the other of them and sighed. ”Well, I think I'll come, too. I need my beauty sleep, I guess.”
”Some of us might benefit from it,” Kati muttered, glaring up at Egan.
He chuckled softly. ”Think I'm ugly?”
She flushed. Her eyes involuntarily ran over the craggy contours, the broken nose, the hard, cruel mouth. For some odd reason, she couldn't quite look away. His eyes caught and held hers, and they stood staring at each other in a silence that blazed with new tensions.
”Excuse me,” Ada murmured, trying to hide a grin as she edged past Kati's frozen form and into her own bedroom. ”Good night!”
Egan's chest was rising and falling roughly as he stared down at Kati. ”Do you?” he asked in an odd tone.
She swallowed. Her throat felt as if it were full of cactus. Her lips parted, and Egan watched them hungrily. She realized all at once that he hadn't just been making threats earlier in the day. He wanted her!
”I...I'm tired,” she managed, starting to move.
One long, hard arm came out, barring her path. ”I wasn't threatening you this afternoon,” he said tautly. ”I was telling you how it would be. You can't be blind enough not to see how we are with each other, Kati,” he added half under his breath.
She moved gingerly away from that long arm. ”I...have a boyfriend...whom I like very much,” she said shakily.
He eased forward, just enough to let her feel the warm strength of his body, the heat of his breath against her reddish gold hair. ”Liking isn't enough.”
Her eyes came up to meet his. ”Isn't it?”
His fingertips touched her throat like a breath, feeling its silky texture, stroking it sensuously. ”You smell of roses,” he said in a husky whisper.
Her fingers caught his, trembling coldly against their warm strength as she tried to lift them away from her throat.
He caught her hand and moved it to his chest-easing it under the fabric and against thick hair and warm muscle-and her breath jerked in her throat. He felt as solid as a wall, and the wiry pelt of hair tickled her fingers as he flattened them against him. His expensive cologne filled her nostrils, drowning her in its masculine scent.
”Forgotten what to do, Kati?” he murmured roughly. ”Shall I refresh your memory?”
She lifted her eyes dazedly to his, and they were wide and curious as they met his glittering gaze.
His head bent so that his hard face filled the world. ”'She tore his s.h.i.+rt out of the way,'” he quoted huskily, ”'and ran her fingers, trembling, over his hard, male...'!”
”No!” Recognizing the pa.s.sage, she flushed hotly. Immediately, she dragged her hand away and shrank from him as if he'd burned her.
He laughed, but there was an odd sound to it, and his eyes blazed as she reached behind her for the doork.n.o.b to her room.
”Doesn't your reporter friend like having you do that to him?” he asked huskily. ”Or does he prefer what comes later?”
She whirled on a sob, pus.h.i.+ng open the door. She started to slam it, but he caught it with a powerful hand and she couldn't budge it.
”I hate you,” she breathed shakily, frantic that Ada might hear them.
”So you keep telling me,” he replied. ”You're the one with no scruples, honey, so stop flying at me when I throw them back at you.”
”I'm not what you think I am,” she cried.
”No kidding?” he murmured insolently, letting his eyes punctuate the insult.
”You go to h.e.l.l, you ugly cowboy!” she said furiously.
He studied her flushed face and black eyes amusedly. ”Ada used to talk about her sweet-tempered, easygoing friend. Before I ever met you, I imagined a retiring little violet. You were a shock, honey.”
”What do you think you were?” she returned.
He laughed softly. ”No woman's ever pulled the wool over my eyes. It didn't take reading your books to tell me what kind of woman you were. All I had to do was watch you in action.”
”The car broke down,” she reminded him. ”Richard and I had to walk for miles...!”
”Aren't you tired of lying about it? I told you,” he added, letting his eyes narrow sensuously, ”experienced women turn me on.”
”Then why don't you go out and find the friend you spent the night with?” she retorted hotly.
His eyebrows went up and he grinned. ”Did that bother you?”
She brought her heel down hard on his instep, without warning; and while he was off balance, she slammed the door and locked it.
”Kati!” he growled furiously.