Cradling her forcibly against him as he leaned back into the confining corner between seat and door, Gage anchored her head with fingers laced into the loose knot of her hair. “I’ve been looking forward to this part of the evening all afternoon. You’re not going to ruin things for me now!”

  Rani tried to frame a protest, but before she could do so her mouth was suddenly captive to his and a surging excitement roared through her veins. Gage seemed intent on stamping his seal of possession on her lips, not requiring a response yet, merely surrender. Merely! Rani was instantly dazed at the impact of his kiss.

  It burned into her senses as he slowly, deliberately, deepened the heated, damp contact. His mouth slid firmly across hers, softening it, quelling the signs of defiance, forcing an obedient retreat. That goal accom­plished, he began to probe into the territory beyond, urging her lips apart with a thrusting strength that literally took away Rani’s breath.

  “Oh!” The moan was uttered deep in her throat, but he heard it and read it for what it was, an admission of growing response that she could not contain.

  Her fingertips moved like small daggers, moving over the black jacket that enveloped his shoulders and up into the midnight of his hair. She heard his groan of mounting passion and felt his body hardening under hers.

  “My God, woman! Can you feel what you’re doing to me?” he breathed into her mouth.

  “I didn’t start this,” she tried to say, but he ignored her words.

  “Yes, you did, and what’s more, you’re going to finish it.” He took his hand away from her disarrayed hair and fumbled for the door handle. “But I’m not going to let you finish it here. At our advanced age we deserve a little comfort.”

  She sensed the humor in him and wasn’t sure if she wanted to succumb to it Doing so would only be that much more of a surrender. But it was hard to resist. The warm night air was waiting to enfold them as the door swung open and Gage began easing himself out from under her light weight. “Come inside, Rani, and I’ll show you how pleasant a date I can be when I try,” he coaxed a little thickly as he caught her wrist and began pulling her out of the seat

  “You’re very arrogant tonight,” she whispered, hold­ing back as she tried to make up her mind.

  “Am I? I expect it’s because that’s the only option you’ve left me. I get the feeling that if I don’t take charge, you’re going to let your own silly arrogance push you into driving away tonight without a backward glance. Just remember you’re the one who decided to make a battle out of what should have been a very pleasant night for both of us!”

  Rani clutched at the frame of the car door, refusing to be pulled free. Her eyes glittered with challenge as she looked up at him. “I don’t think I’m going to let you manhandle me into this,” she drawled firmly. “It would be a sign of weakness on my part, and you would undoubtedly read far too much into it!”

  “A sign of weakness!” he rasped, swinging back to confront her. “Is that what you call sheer obstinate, stubborn, illogical feminine contrariness? I’ll show you a sign of weakness!”

  He moved close, and Rani resisted the urge to slide backward along the seat, knowing he would only pursue. Boldly she eyed him, her legs curled under her as she sat waiting tensely. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to do, Gage, but if—”

  “You’re intent on provoking me this evening, aren’t you? Well, wait until you see what that gets you!” His hand flashed out and in a moment he had captured both her wrists, manacling them together. Then he used the grip to pull her swiftly, lightly, from the car until she was standing in front of him.

  “Gage!” A little shocked at the unexpected roughness of the treatment, Rani was even more startled when he swooped and lifted her high into his arms.

  “This is a sign of weakness!” he informed her brusque­ly, striding for the gate. “When a man has to go to these lengths to get himself ravished after a dinner date, weak is about all you can call him, isn’t it?”

  “Gage, put me down, you idiot!” Rani was torn between laughter and outrage. And underlying both emotions was the pulsing throb of a rising intoxication. “If you’re trying to come across as the injured party, you’re not doing very well! This is hardly a sign of weakness!”

  “Ah, but it is.” He looked down at her in the moonlight as he pushed open the gate into the Japanese-style garden. “I’m weak with longing for you, my sweet battle maid. Haven’t you realized that yet?”

  Rani stared up at him, wide-eyed with wonder not untinged by a trickle of fear as she sensed the passion flowing like an electrical current between them. She knew as the iron gate clanged shut behind them that she wasn’t going to have much chance resisting this man tonight

  But what he was offering was so dangerous, she reminded herself swiftly. It was an elemental, threatening emotion that she had always told herself she didn’t want, couldn’t risk. Yet, the hunger in her had been ignited the night before, during the embrace by the whirlpool, and hunger was a hard drive to deny. It made one take risks, dare fate, break self-made rules, she was discovering.

  Gage must have sensed some sign of impending surrender to whatever the evening still held for both of them. When he set her on her feet in the serene foyer, his gaze was smoky. “The spoils of war,” he muttered huskily as he bent his head to brush a light, tantalizing little kiss against her nose.

  Rani shivered and found herself stepping back a pace. Her awareness of him was making her feel nervous and tense. “Under the circumstances that’s not the most diplomatic thing you could have said.”

  He arched one brow in mocking interest. “No? But then, I didn’t say which of us I considered as the spoils, did I? Come into my parlor, little fly, and have a glass of cognac. Now that you’re this far, I’m willing to declare a truce.”

  With one hand planted at the small of her back he guided her through the living room with its tranquil and sophisticated Oriental-inspired design. The furniture was low and modern and quietly masculine. Low ebony tables and chairs were upholstered in austere, exotic patterns. A pair of Asian bronze lions guarded the fireplace, and a beautifully painted coromandel screen stood in one corner. There was a set of antique swords mounted over the low couch, and the bookcases along one wall were filled with books on military history. The floor-to-ceiling windows opened on the garden, which was softly illuminated. The room was rather like its master, Rani thought: restrained, fascinating and not easily classified.

  He seated her amid the dark cushions of the couch and went to a teak cabinet to pour cognac into snifters. She watched him, trying to read the nuances of his move­ments, sense the direction of his thoughts. Her own simmering excitement was ringed with a strange ambiva­lence, and for a moment, as he poured the cognac, she attempted to analyze it.

  The yearning in her was a tangible force, but it was tempered with the restraints imposed by years of caution and self-protection. It was as if this man might somehow be asking too much of her too soon. Rani wanted time to understand this new element in her life. There was no denying the power of the emotions rippling between them, but that very factor made her tense and wary. She had told herself for so long that she wanted serenity and calm in a relationship, yet here she was becoming involved in one that was just the opposite. She needed time.

  There was so much they did not yet know about each other, Rani reminded herself. Much still stood between them. It would be wiser not to allow the seduction of the night to influence her.

  He turned away from the teak cabinet, a balloon glass in each hand, and across the room their eyes collided and locked. He thinks he has me, Rani realized abruptly, swallowing a wave of nervousness that sprang to life from nowhere. He thinks all he has to do now is reach out and take my hand and lead me off to bed. Was that the way it was? Was that the way she wanted it?

  Without a word he closed the distance between them, handing her one of the glasses. But instead of sitting down beside her, he remained standing, sipping from the cognac snifter in a small salute, his eyes poring over her intently. Then he swung around and paced to the window and stood for a long moment staring out into the shadowy garden. The tension began to heighten in Rani’s body as she waited for the next move.

  This was ridiculous! She was a thirty-two-year-old woman who was fully capable of diplomatically guiding such man-woman scenes. What was the matter with her tonight? Why was she allowing this man to shake her composure? If she didn’t want the drama to go any further, all she had to do was rise, excuse herself politely and drive home! Yet, there she sat, like a captive Sabine waiting for her new master to enjoy her at his leisure. Rani took another sip of the aromatic cognac, mentally stiffening her resolve. Yes, she was going to have to get control of this situation while she could still do so.

  But before she could find the words to gently but firmly bring a close to the evening, Gage spoke quietly, his broad back still to her as he gazed into the garden.

  “There’s something we should have out in the open, Rani.”

  Startled, her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at the dark mass of his body. “More arguments on behalf of Prescott Services?” she tried to ask lightly.

  The hand holding his snifter shifted in a small, impa­tient movement. “This has nothing to do with Prescott—only you and me.” She could have sworn he drew a determined breath before going on. “If you stay with me tonight, Rani, everything changes,” he finally announced evenly.

  The glass in Rani’s fingers trembled a little at the intensity of his words. “I don’t quite understand, Gage.”

  He turned slowly to look at her, and the very careful­ness of the movement put her on edge as nothing else could have done. It emphasized clearly how serious he was when he went on to explain his meaning.

  “I want you,” he began, each word a link in a chain he was forging; a chain with which he meant to bind her. “I’ve been wanting you since I first saw you preparing to fight the Battle of Hastings. When I kissed you last night, I knew you wanted me, too, at least a little. I’ve already told you that whatever happens between us has nothing to do with Prescott Services, Incorporated. But what I haven’t told you is that I’m not interested in a one-night stand.”

  Rani lowered her lashes to conceal the wariness in her tawny eyes. “That’s always reassuring to hear, of course.”

  “I’m glad you find it so,” he replied immediately. “But I wonder if you realize exactly what I’m trying to say. Rani, if you stay tonight, you’ll belong to me by morning. There will be no going back to Tanner or Brady or any other man who catches your eye. I’m a possessive man, and it would be foolish and perhaps dangerous for either of us to pretend otherwise. If you stay with me tonight, you will be starting an affair, a full-fledged affair, not a one-night stand. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? I won’t share you with any other man. For as long as our arrangement lasts, you will be totally faithful. You will not treat it as a casual fling!”

  Rani caught her breath. “I didn’t think you believed in love affairs, Gage.”

  His eyes grew smokier. “This has nothing to do with love. This has to do with a whole lot of much more basic and realistic emotions. Possessiveness and sheer male pride, for starters. I want a woman I can trust, one I know belongs to me.”

  “And when the arrangement ends?” she whispered tautly, a flicker of fear sizzling through her veins.

  He hesitated a fraction too long, and Rani realized he hadn’t really thought about it. He’d probably been too busy worrying about how to tell her he expected com­plete fidelity! “When it ends it will be by mutual agreement—everything honest and aboveboard. There will be no sneaking around behind each other’s back, trying to line up a new partner before taking the step of ending our relationship. But I see no reason why our arrangement shouldn’t last for a long time, Rani,” he added. “I think you and I are rather well suited.”

  “That’s a rather sweeping judgment to make, isn’t it? Given the fact that we’ve only known each other a short time and still have a somewhat unresolved matter of business between us?” She didn’t know why she felt the urge to provoke him that night Perhaps it was the arrogance of his words, coupled with the way he as­sumed he could move back and forth between the business and the personal aspects of their relationship. Personally she didn’t find the shuttle so easy. Nor did she care for the high-handed way he was setting down rules. Gage Fletcher was assuming the role of the victorious general a bit too quickly for her liking. He needed to learn that his opponent wasn’t equally content to play the part of defeated victim. Spoils of war indeed!

  He surveyed her as she sat on his couch, her slender body curled there with a kind of cool tension. “The judgment may be sweeping, but I’d stake my honor on the accuracy of it I’m sure we’re well suited, Rani. What I’m not sure of is that you realize it yet. You’re still confusing the business and personal angles. Forget the Prescott Services side of this tonight. Concentrate on the two of us,” he urged gently.

  “Even if I do that, I find I still have some reservations,” she murmured dryly, lifting her glass to her lips. “You’re asking for a great deal on such short acquaintance, Gage. I’m not at all sure I’m ready to make the sort of commitment you’re requiring for the sake of your mascu­line ego.”

  She saw the tendons in his wrist tighten as he gripped the stem of his glass. Was he growing annoyed with her? Her own recklessness grew at the thought “Do you want only a one-night fling, then, Rani?” he challenged.

  At once she shook her head, mouth curving in wry amusement “No. I’m no more interested in that kind of thing than you seem to be.”

  “Then there’s really no alternative, is there?” he pounced. “By staying tonight, you’ll be committing yourself to an affair with me. If you don’t want the one, you must want the other.”

  She shook her head once in denial. “You seem to be forgetting that there’s a third alternative.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I don’t have to stay tonight Very simple.” Resolutely she rose to her feet, gracefully depositing the empty snifter on the low table in front of the couch. Straighten­ing, her gaze clashed abruptly with his and she knew a shiver of apprehension. “I’m not nearly as sure of what I want yet as you seem to be, Gage. You’re trying to push me tonight, and I don’t think I want to be pushed. The best answer is to provide myself with a little more time. I’m going home Alone. I hope you enjoyed the eve­ning.” Her decision made at last, Rani gave him her most brilliant smile and made for the door.

  “No!” She hadn’t gotten five steps before he was on her, reaching out to snag her wrist and jolt her to a stop. “Rani, you’re not going anywhere tonight. Stop playing games with me, woman!”

  His eyes blazed down at her, and the hard line of his mouth was set in grim resolve. It was becoming increas­ingly difficult to defy him, she realized uneasily. And a part of her seemed to be thriving on having elicited this dangerous response in him. What was the matter with her? He was right. She was too old to be playing games like this. On the other hand, she’d never had the desire or the opportunity to play them before. They seemed somehow a part of the reckless passion he created in her.

  But I’m not playing games, she told herself in the next breath, and then she repeated it aloud for his benefit. “I’m not playing games, Gage. I mean it. I think both of us need more time. Everything’s happening too fast and I won’t be pushed into this … this arrangement you seem to want.”

  “It’s too late. You’re already involved in it,” he grated softly, fingers tightening around the small bones of her wrist as he drew her inexorably close. “I didn’t go to the effort of carrying you in here tonight just to watch you walk back out the door!”

  He set his glass down absently and lifted his hand to touch the taut line of her throat. Rani trembled as his excitingly rough fingertip traced a path down to the point where the collar of her black dress opened. Instinctively she tried to step back, but the tip of his probing finger never lost contact with her skin.

  “Gage, we both know you won’t force yourself on me,” she whispered.

  “Do we?”

  “Now you’re the one who’s playing games. Arrogant male games. And I don’t like them.”

  His head moved once in a crisp negative response. “Why are you fighting me? You want this as much as I do.”

  “I’m not sure yet what I want,” she protested.

  “Then I’ll help you make up your mind!” He dragged her against his chest, his hands sliding upward to spear into her hair and hold her head still for his kiss. Rani opened her mouth in a small exclamation of refusal, but the words were lost in the depths of his throat as he sealed her lips with his own.

  She felt the willpower in him as the purely masculine urge to dominate lapped at her, seeking to innundate her senses. She’d aroused something else in him besides desire, something that bordered on the dangerous. For the first time in her life the knowledge that she was ultimately in control began to slip from her grasp. She began to perceive where her strange recklessness had led her that night, and she wasn’t able to analyze her own emotions far enough to decide whether or not to resist Gage held her forcefully but without hurting her, his mouth feeding on the honeyed depths behind her lips. His tongue surged inward, circling the delicate skin just inside her mouth and then probing the barrier of her teeth.

  In a small gesture of defiance she nipped at the invading force of his tongue and was instantly punished when he withdrew it to close his teeth wamingly on her lower lip.

  “Oh!” Her gasp was a combination of pain that wasn’t quite pain and anger that wasn’t quite anger. What was the matter with her? She clutched at his shoulders, her nails sinking into the fabric of his jacket as he once again took control of her mouth. When she shivered in his grasp, he groaned in husky satisfaction, and then his hands slid heavily down to the curve of her shoulders, kneading the skin just inside the rakish collar.

 

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