Corporate Affair Part 3

"Fishing?"

She laughed. "Hardly!"

"My plans for us tomorrow night?" he suggested hopefully.

Her laughter died at once. "I'm afraid that's out of the question, Rand. I won't be seeing you tomorrow night."

He went very still beside her and she bit her Hp in vexation. But it was the truth and there was no sense letting him think she would be free tomorrow night.

"Tonight's our last evening together?" he asked quietly.

"Yes."

"But you'll be here in town tomorrow night?"

She said nothing. Why was she letting him push her like this? It couldn't be that subconsciously she wanted to tell him the truth, could it? That she needed to talk to someone? She had always been so self-possessed, so confident But she had doubts about what was going to happen tomorrow night when she confronted David. She'd had doubts all along. And that wasn't like her.

"So that's it," he growled softly.

"What?" She swung her neat head around to look at him, saw the cool fire in his eyes and wished she hadn't taken her gaze off the lake. She felt abruptly trapped by the power in him.

"You're here to meet a man." The words dropped like stones out on the lake.

Kalinda didn't move. "It's business," she finally said coldly, struggling to break the bonds he'd placed on her. "Personal, private business."

"You're not looking for a fling with me because you're here to have an affair with another man."

"Rand! Stop it! You know nothing about the matter!" Dear Lord! What was wrong with her to have let him guess so close to the mark? She must be crazy! Or secretly desperate to talk it over with someone, she added grimly to herself.

"Don't you mink it might be just a tad dangerous to amuse yourself with me while you wait for Mr. Wonderful to arrive? What if he hits town early and finds you've spent the time flirting with a local shopkeeper?"

"Of all the ridiculous things to say! I am not flirting with you!"

"I'd call it flirting if I arrived at a rendezvous and found my woman had spent a couple of evenings with another man while waiting for me to show up!" he rasped bitterly. "And what happened on my couch -last night definitely does not come under the category of casual acquaintance!"

She realized he was angry, furiously so.

"That's the only category it could come under," she grated feelingly. "All we have is a casual acquaintance!"

"If that's how you treat your fleeting friendships, I'd like to see what happens after you've known a man a couple of weeks!"

She flinched, pulling her eyes away from his condemning glare. He still hadn't shifted from the sprawled position he'd taken, one jeaned leg drawn up as he rested on his elbow. Nevertheless, she had the distinct impression he was sorely tempted to wrap his fingers around her throat. Could she blame him?

"I'm not here to have an affair with anyone," she muttered, setting down the remains of her sandwich as her appet.i.te vanished. She couldn't meet his eyes at all now.

"But you're meeting a man tomorrow night?" he prodded tightly.

Kalinda said nothing, letting her own silence tell the tale.

"Want to tell me about it?"

That brought her head back around with a snap to stare in astonishment The wholly new tone in his dark voice took her completely by surprise. She had been prepared for belligerence; male outrage at her callous treatment of him, perhaps. But she certainly hadn't been expecting this sudden, soothing, calming offer! Where was the anger he'd been holding in check?

"You can, you know," he went on, mouth twisted beguilingly. "You can tell me the whole story."

"How do you know there's a story to tell?" she challenged carefully, uncertain of her own weakening reaction.

"Instinct. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really do have fairly sound instincts about people and what makes them tick."

"I know," she whispered. "You're also good at using mat knowledge to manipulate people!"

The edge of his mouth hardened. "You don't seem to lack much in the way of perception, yourself!"

"I've learned to recognize a few things," she half-smiled dismissingly. "But I've had on-the-job training in the business world. With you I think it must be instinctive, just as you said. Something you were born with!"

"Are you going to tell me about tomorrow night?"

"I'm not sure. The fact that I've let you push me this close to the subject makes me think I might," she said quite honestly. "But if I do, I shall probably be killing my chance at another trout dinner tonight!" She managed the last with an almost sad flippancy.

"It's steak this evening, not trout," he quipped. "And I promise I won't rescind the offer."

"Even if I admit I'm here to meet a man?" she dared softly.

"I already know that much."

She waited before saying very coolly, very remotely, "You're not going to talk me out of it, you know. I've come this far, I'm going to go through with it"

"That remains to be seen."

Kalinda rested her arms on her drawn-up knees and shook her head with grave determination. "No one could talk me out of it at this stage. A woman seldom gets this kind of opportunity. I'd be a fool to throw it away."

"Exactly what sort of opportunity are we talking about, Kalinda?" he demanded in a low voice mat betrayed nothing of his feelings.

"Revenge," she said simply.

"Revenge!"

He sat up, reaching out to catch her chin and force her around to face him. "My G.o.d! You really mean it, don't you?" he breathed, searching her intent, determined features. "Who is this man you're going to have your revenge on, Kalinda Brady?"

"My ex-fiance." The words sounded stark, even to her own ears. "He dropped me two years ago when my father was killed and it was discovered the firm was in bad shape. David Hutton, it turned out, was marrying me because he wanted my father's company."

"And now he wants you back?"

Kalinda smiled grimly. "I've let him think I'm interested. I've agreed to meet him up here for the sake of what we once had, as they say."

"Why did you agree to rendezvous here? Why not Denver?"

"Oh, we couldn't do that," she explained acidly. "David's married now, you see."

"You little fool," he breathed. "You crazy little fool. Exactly what are you going to do tomorrow night when he shows up expecting you to throw yourself into his arms?"

"I'm going to throw his offer in his face, naturally. I'm going to let David Hutton beg me for another chance, listen to him offer to divorce his wife, and then I'm going to laugh and tell him exactly what I think of him! The one thing David can't stand is to be laughed at."

3.

Rand stared at her for a long, taut moment, his expression hard and unreadable.

"You can't go through with it," he finally said flatly. "It's too d.a.m.n dangerous."

"Dangerous!" Kalinda almost smiled at that "David's not the physical type. He wouldn't..."

"Rape you? Don't be a fool. Any man could be dangerous in a situation such as you're planning! And you've already misjudged him once, haven't you?"

She winced at his pointed comment "That was two years ago. I've learned a lot since then. I know him for what he is."

He shook his head. "What makes you think that?"

"I learned everything I needed to know about the man when he came to me after my father's funeral and said he was breaking off the engagement!"

"All you learned at that point was that he'd wanted to marry you in order to gain control of what he'd a.s.sumed was a successful company. You discovered he was no longer interested in you or the company when its financial status had been revealed. But you didn't learn anything about what he'd be likely to do in a confrontation such as the one you're planning!" Rand's voice was chilling. "Face it, he might very well turn vicious. But that's not the only risk you're running!"

She frowned, wishing on the one hand she'd never let him discover her real reasons for being in town and knowing on the other that some part of her had wanted to talk to another human being about the reckless plan. Why had that convenient human being turned out to be this unsympathetic male?

"What other risk could there be?" she snapped, goaded by his glowering disapproval.

"Are you sure revenge is the real reason you're planning this?" he growled. "Two years ago you were in love with the man. Maybe you're really here to see if you can pick up the pieces...."

"No!" The idea was ludicrous! "After what he did to me?"

"He hurt you. People hurt other people all the time but that doesn't always kill the love they have for each other."

"I a.s.sure you a healthy dose of reality killed any-feeling I might have had for David Hutton two years ago," she blazed.

"You still feel strongly enough about the man to want revenge," he reminded her coolly. "They say hate is akin to love."

"That's absurd and you know it," she scoffed with great certainty. Whatever else she felt for David Hutton after two years, Kalinda knew love had nothing to do with her emotions.

"Exactly what did happen two years ago after David took back his ring?" Rand regarded her probingly, sounding as if he were trying to get to the bottom of a serious mystery.

Kalinda lifted one shoulder casually. "I had my hands full trying to salvage the business. I didn't spend a lot of time brooding over my tragic romance, if that's what you're thinking."

"Brady Data Processing, I take it, is no longer on the skids?" he murmured dryly.

"No, it's not" That remark brought an unconscious smile of pride and satisfaction to Kalinda's lips. "We're on the way back. We've shown profits for the last three quarters, in fact."

One chestnut eyebrow lifted in acknowledgment of the accomplishment "You must have worked hard during the past two years."

"1 did," she admitted simply. It was the truth. She had literally buried herself in her work. And now, finally, it had all begun to pay off. She could afford to relax and enjoy her well-earned success.

"Why?" he asked evenly.

She hesitated. "I had to."

"In order to forget Hutton?" he demanded, sounding thoroughly irritated at that possibility.

She shook her head, her mouth quirking upward. "It had nothing to do with David. I had to try to salvage the company because so many people were depending on me. You don't know what it was like."

"An old, established family firm with employees and members of the board who'd started out with your father while still in their teens?" he hazarded dryly. "People who'd spent their whole working lives there?"

She looked at him in astonishment "How did you know?"

"I told you, we aren't totally isolated up here," he retorted cryptically. "I've heard of companies like your father's. So bound by traditional ways of doing things that they gently begin to sink beneath the waves of progress. Is that what was happening at the time your father was killed?"

"I'm afraid so. After I got my degree in business administration I went to work for another company. I knew I wouldn't fit in at my father's firm. Then he was killed and the board of directors asked me to consider taking over the day-to-day management After all, I'd inherited it and them along with all those long-time employees. It was almost feudal!"

"And you didn't have the heart to liquidate or sell out?"

"How could I do that to all those people? But after a few months I realized there was more to it than just a sense of responsibility...."

"It became a challenge?" he murmured.

"As I've said before, you're very perceptive," Kalinda smiled.

"So now, two years later, you've got the company back on its feet and David Hutton is trying to slip back into your life. Doesn't that strike you as something of a coincidence?"

Kalinda stared at him, shocked at that line of reasoning and then shook her head firmly. "David is thoroughly involved with his own firm; the manufacturing business where he was vice-president at the time of my father's death has moved him up to president Why should he be interested in Brady Data Processing now?"

There was a lengthy silence from Rand's side of the picnic blanket.

"Simple greed?" he finally suggested caustically.

She thought about that, wryly admitting that finding out David's renewed interest in her was once again based on Brady Data Processing would be a blow to her ego.

"He married well. Very well. He's running a successful business."

"All of which might make him more greedy than ever."

"Where did you gain all this vast insight into the motivations of other people?" she grumbled. "You must meet quite a wide variety of tourists up here!"

"I do."