Battle Prize, page 4
“Sorry,” she murmured lightly, “I can’t bring myself to be suitably terrified. Any more logic?”
He studied her. “I’m serious, Rani. I’ve known Aaron Prescott for several years. He can be quite ruthless. Three years ago he hired me to find out who was leaking confidential financial information about his clients to rival firms. I found the guy and gave Prescott the details he needed to make a reasonable case for firing him. But he decided to make an example of the culprit He didn’t just fire him, he let it be known that if any other firm took on his ex-employee, he’d go to the press with publicity that would make the hiring firm look as if it had been involved in the industrial espionage. Believe me, no one employee was worth that amount of trouble to any rival firm here in the Southwest. And that wasn’t the end of it. Prescott knew the guy had a loan application in at a bank in Houston. Apparently the man had planned to build a house with some of his ill-gotten gains. One call from Prescott to the loan officer was enough to ruin his chances of getting the loan. Rani, Prescott didn’t just get rid of an employee who had been disloyal, he made it impossible for that man to continue living and working in this part of the country! Do you understand what I’m saying? He won’t allow you to get away with your revenge. He’ll punish you very thoroughly if you try it! He’ll make an example of you.”
In spite of her plans for the future, Rani felt a distinct shiver of apprehension go down her spine. “He’d go to that kind of trouble just because I refuse to come back and close the Henderson account?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that and you know it Brady might be persuaded to come back to the home front after his rebellion has cooled, but if you take the Henderson account to your next employer …” He let the sentence trail of as his full meaning dawned on Rani
“So that’s it!” she exclaimed, thoroughly amused now. “Prescott’s worried that I’ll try to buy my way into my next job with the Henderson business. What a brilliant idea! I must give it some thought!”
“And Brady?” Gage muttered dryly.
“I think you’re right about Brady,” she acknowledged with a rueful smile. “He’s got some noble aspirations, but basically his future is tied to his father’s desk and he knows it. He’ll be back sooner or later.” It was the truth. Brady Prescott was a likeable young man who had graduated from a very enlightened university business school. He had understood Rani’s situation and had disapproved of his father’s behavior more than once, but she hadn’t really expected him to do something as dramatic as walking out in protest There had been nothing more personal between her and Brady than a friendship based on their similar ages and academic backgrounds. Did Prescott realize that or was he wondering If Brady had dashed off to Albuquerque, too? Matters were becoming more interesting and amusing by the moment.
“I assume from that smile on your face that my logic isn’t making much headway,” Gage said flatly.
“I guess I’m just not in the mood for it,” she chuckled
“We’re talking about something that could affect your whole future, Rani,” he told her bluntly.
“That’s my problem, not yours.”
“Then I suggest you start worrying about it!”
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m afraid I can’t overlook the fact that your advice is generated more by your desire to do your job than to protect me,” she said sweetly. ‘Tel! me, how did you find me here in the whirlpool? Were you spying on me?”
“You’ve been gone most of the day. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t be back this evening at all,” he replied slowly.
“Have you bugged my bedroom with some of your security devices?” she goaded.
“There’s not much need, is there?” he countered. “Poor King got a rather short good night at your door a little while ago.”
“You were watching?” Indignation flared at the realization. “Of all the despicable, sneaky, underhanded things to do! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
He drew a long breath. “I had to know what the situation was between the two of you.”
“Why?” she snapped furiously. “Afraid I might drag him into the battle on my side? It wouldn’t be a bad notion. King has money and power. I wouldn’t hesitate to put him up against Aaron Prescott any day!”
“It isn’t Prescott he’ll be up against,” Gage pointed out calmly. “I’m the one he’d have to face first. And something tells me you won’t ask him to take that risk.”
“What makes you think that I wouldn’t?” She breathed tightly, knowing with sickening sureness that he was quite right.
“Because you wouldn’t ask a man to fight your battles for you unless you were prepared to commit yourself to him in return. I got the feeling from what I saw tonight that you’re a long way from committing yourself to King Tanner. Which means you’ll be fighting your own war, doesn’t it, Rani?”
“For a messenger boy you’re making a lot of assumptions!” she lashed back, infuriated at the accuracy of those assumptions.
“But I’m not just the messenger, Rani, and you know it,” he retorted steadily. “I’m the battlefield commander Prescott has selected.”
“Just how much is he paying you for this, Gage?” she taunted harshly.
There was a dangerous stillness about him as he met her eyes. “Does it matter?”
Definitely his weak spot, Rani told herself with satisfaction. Gage Fletcher didn’t want to discuss his own motivation for accepting this job. She zeroed in on that weakness with grim satisfaction.
“Just curiosity. One does wonder how much one is worth in a situation like this,” she murmured. “I must say, I’m impressed with Prescott’s ability to snap his fingers and have you at his beck and call. I was merely wondering what the going rate is for this sort of thing. Who knows? I might want to hire you myself sometime in the future. Or someone like you. If I paid you enough money, Gage, would you run and fetch for me?”
The stillness in his kneeling frame had been the quiet before the storm. Before she understood exactly what was happening, Gage seemed to explode into action. He moved, stretching out one square hand across the churning water to grasp her around the back of the neck.
Rani started to struggle, but everything happened much too quickly. She was being dragged out of the water and up onto the edge of the small spa before she could even utter a half-strangled protest.
“Gage! Stop it! What do you think you’re doing?”
Then she was on her feet and the gold towel was wrapped once around her water-slick body. Still the hand at the back of her neck gripped her as if she were a kitten, holding her in place, and then she was being hauled against Gage’s massive strength.
Stunned at the rush of events, Rani lifted her gaze In wide-eyed protest, her lips parting for the stream of abuse she intended to hurl. But the words were stopped in her throat as his mouth came down on hers.
“The fee I’d charge you for doing your running and fetching has nothing to do with money!” he grated roughly against her lips. Then his arms were around her, crushing her into his warmth while his mouth sought to dominate hers completely.
The controlled explosion of his power was translated into a kiss that was wholly unlike anything Rani had ever experienced. It seemed to pour itself into her, swamping her senses and wiping out the fleeting thought of resistance. Rani sagged beneath the shock wave of the embrace, her body leaning into Gage’s strength for support.
His mouth moved on hers with electrifying intensity, and she knew Instinctively that the initial assault was meant to stun her responses. There was a damp heat in the contact of their lips that flowed through her like lightning. Locked to him by arms of sinewy power, her senses swirling about her in the darkness, Rani let her lips flower open to admit the surging thrust of Gage’s tongue. She seemed to have no choice.
With a muffled groan he acknowledged the victory, seeking out the taste and feel of her inner warmth. Then her own tongue was located and coerced into an intimate battle that was incredibly exhilarating. She began to fight back for the sheer excitement of the skirmish. Unaware of what she was doing, her hands lifted to the broad shoulders of the man who held her so tightly, and her nails began to sink into the dark fabric of his shirt The silvered coral tint at the tips of her fingers was a savage splash of color against the garment
He must have recognized the passion he had ignited within her because his own seemed to be taking quantum jumps. Rani was certain the kiss had begun as a form of retaliation, but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were both caught up in it now.
Dear God, there hadn’t been even a fraction of this elemental excitement and need in King’s good-night embrace. Rani hadn’t known anything like this in her life! Greedily, with the overpowering hunger of a starving woman who has just been presented a banquet, Rani gave herself up to Gage’s kiss. She would sort out all the ramifications later. Right now there was only the night and this all-consuming man.
With great reluctance Gage pulled away from her lips at last, searching out the vulnerable, sensitive line of her throat. “Rani, Rani, what are you doing to me?” he muttered hoarsely.
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer. In that moment she only wanted to lose herself in the flames he had sparked. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he buried one hand in the knot of her hair and eased her head back. She shivered at the touch of his mouth against her throat, her pulses beginning to hammer. Eyes tightly closed against the thrill of the moment, she moaned softly.
Then his hands shifted again, finding the upper edge of the strapless maillot
“Gage,” she whispered, shaken, as his fingers slid beneath the tight-fitting silver-gray fabric of the swimsuit But he stopped her faint protest, drinking his name from her lips even as she spoke.
She gasped as the exciting roughness of his hands slid down the sides of her body, drawing the top half of the suit to her waist in a swift movement. The towel fell away completely to wind up in a pool of gold at their feet Then he was lifting his head, his eyes meeting hers as she looked up at him through lowered lashes. Holding her gaze, he raised his palms with tantalizing slowness up from her waist. She trembled beneath his touch, her lips parted, eyes full of passion and wondrous uncertainty.
The depths of his own desire blazed back at her from his gray eyes. And in those depths she saw as great a degree of wonder as she felt in herself. Whatever Gage Fletcher had intended when he’d begun the kiss, it was not this ensnaring desire that was claiming them both. Knowing he was as unexpectedly trapped in it as she, Rani was able to enjoy the moment Her fingertips stroked his wide shoulders and then curled deeply into the sable darkness of his hair. The crisp thickness of it was fascinating to her senses.
The warm palms at her waist had risen almost to the level of her breasts, and she could feel the shudder that went through Gage as he hesitated a fraction longer and then closed his fingers gently around the small curving
“Oh, Gage!” Rani’s breath hissed between her teeth as she shut her eyes once more and leaned into him, hiding her face against his chest. There she inhaled the earthy male scent of him and quivered again.
“Sweetheart,” he growled against the fallen array of her hair, “the feel of you is driving me out of my mind. You have the body of a cat. Slender and so damn sensuous. I can feel your nipples hardening under my hand. Do you know what it’s doing to me?”
“Tell me,” she urged breathlessly, needing to hear the exciting words.
“I want to put you down here on the grass, finish removing this damn swimsuit and then lake you so completely you would never be able to look at another man. God, woman! I want to ravish you, do you realize that?”
There was so much self-astonishment in his voice that Rani’s excitement became tinged with a feminine indulgence she had never experienced before. Gage certainly had never intended the punishing kiss to lead to this!
“Ravishment isn’t quite what I had in mind,” she whispered throatily, raising her head to meet his searing gaze. “But a few more kisses … ?” She let the words trail off invitingly, expectantly.
His reaction was not at all what she was expecting, however. The steel in him was suddenly very evident She felt it in the thighs that thrust against hers and saw it In the harsh line of his jaw. His rough palms moved with slow intent on her nipples, causing her breasts to swell and grow even more taut.
“Do you really believe I could stand here and trade a few more kisses in the moonlight and then call it quits?” he demanded raggedly, “I want to take you, Rani Cameron, not flirt with you. There’s one hell of a difference. Don’t count on me to play by the same rules of war Tanner seems willing to obey.”
She heard the masculine warning in his voice and still had enough sense left to heed it. Gage was telling her the raw truth. He wasn’t going to be content to sample a little more of this incredible excitement they had discovered. He would want it all. And God help her! He’d have her wanting the same thing. Rani told herself dazedly as she gingerly tried to put a little distance between them.
As she stepped away from him, however, her breasts were exposed fully to his gaze. The hands on her nippies fell away slowly, but the touch of his eyes was every bit as tangible. Hastily Rani reached down for the gold towel and wrapped it around herself. What had gotten into her? Less than an hour before she had been telling herself that this kind of passion probably didn’t exist for her!
“Rani!”
She looked at him, drawn by the husky sound of her name on his lips. “No, Gage. I’ll admit you took me by surprise, but I’m not going to go to bed with you. You’re my enemy, remember?” she concluded whimsically as she clutched the towel safely around her naked breasts.
He shook his head once in a sharp negative. “That’s what I want to set straight.” he said carefully. “Whatever else happens between us, this side of things isn’t involved. Do you understand?”
She stared at him. “I don’t see how it can be separated from the rest. You only want one thing from me, Gage: my agreement to go back to Dallas so that you can do your job and collect your payment. I would be a fool to let you seduce me, wouldn’t I? Business and pleasure don’t mix.”
Reaching out, he clasped his hands around her bare shoulders, holding her still. “We can and will separate it! When we go to bed together, Rani, there will be only the two of us involved. It will have nothing to do with my job or your stubbornness on other matters!”
“When we go to bed!” she repeated, outraged. “You mean if, don’t you? And it’s a very large if, I assure you!”
“I think we can say it’s a certainty,” he drawled more gently. “But whatever happens, when the time comes, remember what I’ve said. Give me your word on that, sweetheart. Please.”
He meant it, she realized. He really meant it. Gage fully intended to keep the matter of their physical attraction for each other outside the realm of the other battle in which they were engaged. Was such a thing possible? And if she told herself it was possible, could she then resist the lure of him?
Bravely she met the demand in him with her own challenge, striving to keep her voice flippant. “I’m not the one who needs to understand the ground rules. You’re the one who has to get something straight, Gage. Seducing me would not get you one step closer to achieving your goal of taking me back to Dallas. Is that very clear?”
He nodded at once, which surprised her. “I accept that. Now give me your word that you’ll let whatever happens between us personally remain just that— between us. It stays off the battlefield.”
“But of course, Gage,” Rani managed very sweetly, turning to head back toward her condominium. “I wouldn’t think of making love on a battlefield. So unromantic!”
3
It was the pounding on her front door that woke her early the next morning. Rani blinked sleepily, stirred amidst the peach-colored sheets and buried her head deeper into the pillow in an effort to pretend mat the pounding was being conducted on her neighbor’s door.
But the relentless noise continued with the sort of steady beat that said whoever was causing the racket didn’t intend to give up and disappear. With a groan, she struggled to the edge of the bed, bronze hair tumbling around her shoulders in its usual early-moming chaos. She glared in the direction of the closet until a paisley robe came into focus. Struggling out of bed, Rani reached for it, belting the comfortable, ruffle-necked, long-sleeved garment around her slender waist Sliding her feet into fluffy slippers, she headed at last for the door.
When she reached it she didn’t hesitate, throwing it open with an annoyed look on her face. “It’s six o’clock in the morning,” she began rudely. “What the hell do you want?”
Gage’s dark brows came together in an admonishing glance as he stood staring down at her sleep-softened figure. “You shouldn’t open the door until you’ve established who’s on the other side. Rani.”
“I do not need lectures on security from you at this hour of the morning, even if you are an expert. Save them for your clients,” she grumbled. “Besides, I knew it was you. No one else would have the nerve to wake me at this hour!”
“Not at your best at six in the morning?” He moved into the hall, not waiting for an invitation. Disgruntled and not at all sure how to stop him, Rani fell back in retreat
“I’m not at my best, whatever that may amount to, until after I’ve showered and had my coffee,” she declared forcefully. She continued hopefully, “Come back in a couple of hours and—”
“And you’ll be gone,” he concluded. “I talked to your sister yesterday when I couldn’t find you here and she said you were going to be managing the shop today.”
Rani slid him a probing glance, trying to determine what else Donna might have told him. Had her sister said anything about Rani buying The Miniature World in a couple of months? For some reason she couldn’t yet explain, Rani wanted to keep that bit of information in reserve. All intelligent battle commanders tried to maintain a little something in reserve, she decided. She would speak to Donna the first chance she got and ask her not to mention the impending sale of the shop.
