Chapter 2 #3
Again he didn’t immediately answer, and this time I wondered if the pause was for my benefit. With each minute that passed, I grew more aware of the way he dominated the narrow hall. “Mastery” was the word that came to mind. Peter Hathaway was definitely in control.
“I can work with him,” he said.
I was grateful for small favors. “Good.”
“Not that it’ll be easy. He doesn’t trust me.”
“Only because you’re new. But distrust is the least of Cooper’s worries.
” With the directing of my thoughts to something constructive, I found the strength to stand.
Not to move away, though. I figured I’d take it step by step.
“It’s the whole situation,” I said, trying to explain.
I leaned against the wall, hugging the telephone to my chest. “He’s furious with it.
If he had his way, good old Chad McHenry would wave his hands and say a few words to the judge and the whole thing would be over and forgotten.
But that won’t happen and, deep inside, Cooper knows it.
Deep inside, he knows you’re his best hope.
But it’s like exercising, you know? No pain, no gain.
Trouble is he’s already in pain. He doesn’t relish the thought of more. ”
“Why will it be so painful for him if I talk with people in town?” His voice seemed softer, more intimate now that my face was closer.
I took a shallow breath. “Because he’s a private—and prideful—man. He doesn’t like the idea of other people talking about him, and I can’t blame him for that. It’s a disconcerting feeling.”
“You’ve had personal experience?”
“Oh, yeah.” I thought of all the family gatherings I’d absented myself from where the topic of conversation had no doubt been my selfimposed exile.
And then there was Adam’s death. “For months after the accident, I’d walk down a street and wonder who was watching from which window feeling sorry for me.
I didn’t want pity. Neither does Cooper. ”
“I’m not looking for pity. I’m looking for information. I want to know what people around here think about what’s happened and why.”
“They’re apt to be wary, just like Cooper was,” I warned. “You’re a stranger.”
“But you’ll be with me,” he said calmly.
I blinked. “I will?”
“You’re my entree.”
I hadn’t counted on that. I’d assumed that Peter would talk with Cooper, then go about his business on his own. I was paying the bills and throwing in room and board. I hadn’t expected to be an assistant to the attorney, as well.
“This weekend?” I asked in a thin voice.
Peter nodded.
“Uh, I don’t know if I can handle that.” In more ways than one. “I’ve pretty much booked up my time.”
“With something wild and sexy?”
My pulse tripped. He’d heard what I’d said. Then again, maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he was just trying to be cute. “Actually I have work to do. I have a show coming up in a month. My sales representative wants to have a dozen new pieces by then. I’ve only got four done.”
Peter gave that some thought, but when I expected him to come up with something as cute as “wild and sexy,” he asked instead, “Where is the show?”
“New York.”
“Ah. Then you’ll be coming to the city.”
“I haven’t decided yet.” There was no harm in telling the truth. “I don’t really love going to those things. Moni—that’s the woman who handles my work—says I have to be there, but I missed the last one and it didn’t hurt sales.”
“Why don’t you like shows?”
“I don’t know.” I looked down at the phone which I held more loosely now against my chest. “Maybe I’ve gotten un-used to big crowds and wearing high heels and nursing drinks that I didn’t want in the first place.”
His voice came lower, closer. “Art shows are notorious for stunning men.”
Once I could chalk up to coincidence. Not twice.
He’d definitely heard what I’d said to Samantha.
Looking up, I found his eyes no more than a foot away from mine.
I searched them, looking for the taunting I was sure I’d heard, and indeed, hidden in their luminescent green depths was a flicker of amusement, but just a flicker.
There was also a whole lot of curiosity.
It was the curiosity that started the quivers inside me this time, because it was honest and genuine and very serious. There were things about me that had Peter Hathaway guessing.
There were parts of me that liked it that way.
I made light of his remark. “Stunning men are a dime a dozen in New York. If they want to be seen, it’s either there or L.A.”
“Or here.”
It struck me then that he wanted to discuss what he’d overheard. I knew I could put him off, but I wasn’t sure it was worth the effort. “Okay. You heard what I said to Samantha.”
He didn’t try to deny it. “You’re right. City men often do depend on material things to enhance their virility. Maybe they feel that’s the only way they’ll be noticed among the hordes. Everywhere they turn, they face competition. They lead congested lives. Sometimes the raw basics are forgotten.”
“They? Don’t you consider yourself one of them?”
He gave a slow, almost somnolent shake of his head, and though his eyes were half-lidded, there was nothing lazy about their look.
It was intense in a way that threatened to melt my thighs.
The threat increased when he said in a deep, rough-edged voice, “I don’t need designer clothes or cars or condos.
I never have. That’s not where I come from.
” Even deeper. “It’s not where I want to be. ”
I was having trouble catching my breath. A hard swallow didn’t help much. It’s not where I want to be. My voice was thready, still I couldn’t keep from asking, “Where do you want to be?”
His gaze smoldered. “Right here, on this floor, naked, with you.”
A bubble of air tripped down my wind pipes the wrong way.
I gasped, then coughed and once again pressed a hand to my heart.
In so doing, I realized that I still held the phone.
Returning it to the kitchen was as good an excuse as any for leaving the hall, which had suddenly shrunk to suffocating proportions.
I started to move—only to find that the cord went behind Peter’s back.
Keeping myself as far from him as I could while maintaining a measure of dignity, I tugged at the cord. “Excuse me. I’d better hang this up. If someone should be trying to call—”
I didn’t finish what I was saying, because Peter had hooked his elbow around my neck, grasped the spot where my ponytail was anchored to the crown of my head and gently pulled. With the tipping back of my head, I had no choice but to look at him.
“You’re frightened.”
“Of course, I’m frightened. A strange man walks into my house, which happens to sit high on an isolated bluff that would do most gothic novels proud, and informs me that right then he’d like to be on the floor, naked with me. What woman wouldn’t be frightened?”
“A woman who is honest about her sexuality.”
“No, a woman who is nuts. Where have you been? The days of sexual promiscuity are gone. Women don’t just sprawl on the floor and make love with men they don’t know.”
He was moving my ponytail in a light, caressive, undulating way. “You know me.”
“I do not,” I argued. Rays of warmth were spreading over my scalp. I fought their seduction with a spurt of anger. “Up until two hours ago, I’d never laid eyes on you.”
“But you know me,” he insisted in that same deep, confident, exquisitely male tone of voice.
“You know that I don’t jump into things with my eyes closed.
I know what I want and I know how to get it.
I’d never force you to do something you didn’t want to do.
I’d never hurt you. I wouldn’t make you pregnant, unless that was what we wanted.
” He paused for a single, chiding moment. “And I don’t have AIDS.”
He’d covered everything, yet he hadn’t allayed my fears one bit.
He was right; I knew that he wouldn’t force me, or hurt me, or give me something I didn’t want to have.
Instinct told me he was more responsible than most. But I didn’t want to become involved with him.
I didn’t want to become involved with any man.
After all Adam had done for me, I owed him my loyalty.
For the first time, that loyalty was being threatened.
That was what frightened me, and the more frightened I became, the more my insides trembled as I looked up into Peter’s handsome face.
And the more I trembled, the more I wanted to lean into his body, to take refuge in his arms from the danger that lurked.
Which was bizarre, given that he was the danger.
Uncaring that my voice shook, I said weakly, “I have to hang up the phone. Please?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, but I could feel the heat of his gaze on my face for another minute before he finally uncoupled his fingers from my hair and stepped aside. After returning the receiver to its wall cradle, I quickly scooped up the mugs from the table and set to washing them in the sink.
Peter propped a lean hip against the counter and crossed his ankles. “Cooper said that your sister wouldn’t be bothering you on the phone if it weren’t for me. Is it true?”
I continued to wash the mugs, soaping and rinsing a second, then a third time.
“They’re clean,” he said.
I ignored him.
“Is it true?” he asked. “What does your sister have against me?”
“Nothing,” I blurted out. “She thinks you’re the cat’s meow.”
He frowned. “Have I ever met her?”
“You’d have remembered if you had.” Hands dripping into the sink, I drilled him with a sharp look.
“Samantha is gorgeous. So is my sister-inlaw, who also thinks you’re terrific.
You see, their definition of terrific is wealthy and goodlooking.
Be grateful it’s not mine. If it were, you’d be fighting me off. ”
“That wouldn’t be so bad,” he said, just about the time I realized I’d asked for it. The next thing I realized was that honesty couldn’t hurt. Peter should know exactly where he stood.
“Samantha told me that I should go after you. She said that I’d be passing up a golden opportunity if I didn’t seduce you, since I have you here in my clutches for the weekend.
And she wasn’t going to stop with the weekend.
She had it all planned that I’d have you hooked by the time Monday rolled around.
She thinks we need new blood in the family.
” I snorted. “You’d think we were vampires. ”
Peter didn’t look particularly perturbed. “Is she a matchmaker?”
“No, she’s a golddigger. She has her eye on your wallet. I’m not sure who’s worse—she or Helaine.”
“Helaine?”
“My sister-in-law. She has her eye on your crotch.”
Peter cracked a crooked grin. “You Madigan women certainly know what you want.”
“And what we don’t. I don’t want your wallet, and I don’t want—” I darted a quick look at his fly. “All I want from you is the best possible legal defense for Cooper Drake. Do you think you can give me that?” I demanded in as imperious a tone as I could muster.
“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.”
“Can you give it to me without all the other—” the word momentarily eluded me “—garbage?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“Say it with conviction.”
“Sure,” he said in a more forceful voice.
I wasn’t sure I believed him, but the fact was that I couldn’t stand there wondering. If I was to guarantee my safety with Peter Hathaway under my roof for the night, I was going to have to wear him out somehow before then.
The day was waning. I had to get to it.