Authors: Jayne Ann Krentz
"Emily…"
She smiled kindly. "Do you know that I used to think of you as a sort of
professional enforcer for Ravenscroft International? When my family sent you to buy off Brad Carlton, I told myself you were nothing more than a paid mercenary for RI. Friday night I was so angry that I told myself nothing had changed. But now I realize you were as trapped by your old loyalties as I was trapped in my role of dutiful daughter. But we've both taken steps to free ourselves from my family. We're on our way, Jacob. Maybe together we can accomplish what neither one of us can quite manage alone. Maybe we can finally get out from under their shadows."
"Emily! Dammit, wait a minute…"
Jacob surged out of the car as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. He was beginning to feel as if he were falling down the rabbit hole. Emily was not reacting the way he had anticipated.
He had expected anything from more tears and accusations to a stony silence. He had been prepared to handle either extreme, but what he was getting had not been on his list of possibilities.
Jacob could have sworn Emily was feeling sorry for him. She seemed to be offering sympathy—a sort of comrades-in-arms affection.
It occurred to him that though sympathy was not what he wanted from her it might make a good starting point for building a more passionate relationship. He took her arm as he caught up with her.
"Emily," he said urgently as he steered her into the restaurant, "maybe it would be best if we didn't discuss your family for a while. Let's just concentrate on getting to know each other again, all right?"
She smiled brilliantly up at him with her eyes and Jacob thought he would drown in amber. His whole body was suddenly tight and hot and vibrating with need. For a tantalizing instant he allowed himself to fantasize about carrying her out of the restaurant, driving her back to her apartment and making love to her in the middle of her white-carpeted living room. He could just picture her lying there with flowers scattered around her. He could feel himself inside her, taking her, having her, loving her.
"All right," Emily said willingly enough.
Jacob groaned, knowing she was agreeing to his earlier question about getting to know each other, not to his silent, searing fantasy. Patience, he told himself. He had to have patience. Things were going very well—better than he'd had any right to expect. He could use her budding sense of sympathy to lead her into a warmer relationship.
"Thank you, Emily." Jacob spoke with genuine gratitude. He kept his hold on her softly rounded arm as the host showed them to a table.
Three hours later, as Jacob stood in the hall outside her apartment and wished Emily good-night, he mentally cursed his decision to practice patience. Intellectually he knew it was the right one. He had to give Emily time to adjust to the idea of thinking of him as a lover.
They had made great progress tonight, he decided as he rode the elevator back down to the lobby. Emily had actually begun to treat him as a friend.
She had chatted easily about her work and his, as well as a variety of other subjects. She seemed quite willing to get to know him as a man who had other aspects to his personality besides the ability to be a paid "enforcer" for Ravenscroft International. Jacob winced at the description.
But it was going to be tough to be patient. The dull, restless aching sensation in his lower body made him vividly aware of just how tough. He did not want to give himself cheerful little lectures on how much progress he was making with Emily. What he really wanted to do was spend the night in Emily's bed. Five years was a long time to wait for a woman.
She apparently thought of him as a muscle-brained hit man, but he thought of her as an intriguing, exotic flower that had blossomed from the sweet little bud he had first met five years ago.
Jacob was tormenting himself with more fantasies and a lot of hard-edged plans when he walked out of the empty lobby and onto the sidewalk. Preoccupied with his thoughts, he climbed into his car and automatically turned the key in the ignition.
He would not have noticed the dark car that had been parked behind his own vehicle if it had not pulled away from the curb at the same time he did. But bright headlights flared briefly in his rearview mirror for an instant, and Jacob instinctively noted them.
Three blocks later the dark car was still behind him. It had fallen behind two other vehicles but it was still there.
Jacob looked for it again when he eased into the hotel parking garage. This time when he glanced into the mirror, there was no sign of the other car.
A coincidence, he told himself calmly. But he made a mental note and filed it away in the corner of his brain he reserved for just such coincidences.
Good professional "enforcers" needed such internal filing systems, he thought
wryly. Emily would nod understandingly if she knew about his personal records storage and retrieval mechanism.
It bothered Jacob that there might have been an element of truth in her mental image of him. But he remembered the gentle light of empathy in her eyes tonight and decided that he would work with that. One of these days she would be his.
S
omewhat to her surprise, Emily enjoyed the next few days. She began anticipating Jacob's arrival at the shop at lunch and again after work. He seemed contented to occupy himself during the hours when she was busy and eager to spend every available minute with her when she was not. He even offered to give her and Diane a hand around the shop and showed a surprising interest in the flowers being arranged and sold.
On at least two occasions during a customer rush, Jacob made cross-town deliveries using Emily's little station wagon. The first time he returned to the shop with a huge grin on his face. It was so strange to see him with such an expression that Emily stared at him in utter confusion.
"What happened?" she demanded.
He pulled two dollar bills out of his pocket and proudly displayed them on the counter. "I got a tip. The lady was so thrilled that someone had sent her flowers that she tipped the guy who delivered them. By the time I realized what was happening, she'd already closed the door."
Emily echoed his grin. "You see, not everyone wants to kill the messenger. The trick is to bring flowers instead of depressing news."
Jacob looked down at her. "I'll remember that." It was a promise.
Before Emily could think of a response, Jacob had walked into the small room at the back of the shop where boxes of fresh-cut flowers had recently been stacked by the wholesaler. He was familiar with the routine now, and Emily heard him go to work unpacking the flowers. She smiled to herself, thinking of how carefully he handled the delicate product she sold. There was no danger to the blooms when they were in Jacob's strong hands.
She had a fleeting image of him holding a baby as tenderly as he held a bunch of orchids and quickly put the picture out of her mind. The last thing she wanted to do at this stage was to look into the future.
Diane found Jacob and his steady pursuit of Emily vastly amusing.
"The man's falling all over himself trying to please you," she told Emily one morning before Jacob arrived. "It's so sweet. And such an excellent position in which to have a man. I love to see them panting like that. When are you going to start being nice to him?"
Emily blinked in astonishment. She paused in the middle of attaching a purple-and-white tulip to an invisible wire that would hold it in position in the arrangement she was creating. "What on earth are you talking about? I am nice to him."
"I mean, when are you going to put him out of his misery and go to bed with him?" Diane explained with mocking patience. "For that matter, when are you going to let him move in with you? The man's living in a hotel, for crying out loud. Have you any idea what that costs?"
Emily flushed and rammed the wired tulip into place. "My relationship with Jacob is absolutely none of your business."
"You're thinking about getting him out of that hotel, though, aren't you?" Diane asked slyly. "I can see the sparkle in your eyes every time he walks into the shop. I must admit, I never saw that particular glitter when Damon Morrell came around. Or any other man during the past two years, for that matter. Jacob Stone is different, isn't he?"
"Jacob and I are friends," Emily said loftily as she wired another flower.
"Sure. And one of these days you're going to be lovers. Watch out, Emily. The next thing you know, you'll be thinking of marriage."
"Not a chance." Something happened to the tulip in Emily's hands. It crumpled in spite of the thin wire that was meant to hold it straight. She must have handled it too roughly, she realized.
Diane eyed her friend curiously. "How can you be so sure there's no future with him?"
"I didn't say there was no future, I just said there was no chance of marriage." Emily concentrated on wiring another tulip to take the place of the one that had just collapsed. This time she would be more careful.
"Why?" Diane asked baldly.
"For one thing, Jacob once told me he would never marry again."
"Men change their minds."
Emily shook her head. "Not Jacob. And even if he did, marriage would be out of the question for us. I don't even want to think about what my family might do if they thought I was going to marry Jacob Stone."
Diane looked at her seriously. "You think they would try to put a stop to it?"
"Of course. They would never approve of him in a million years."
"They employed him. From what you've told me they trusted him with Ravenscroft secrets. Your family seems to like him."
"That's got nothing to do with it," Emily said wryly. "The fact that he was once a trusted employee would not make him a good candidate for my husband in their eyes. My family has very definite ideas about the kind of man I should marry, and if I look as if I'm going to choose the wrong one, they'll do something about it."
"Like what?"
Emily shuddered and tried to speak lightly. "Oh, it depends. Buy him off or warn him off or find a way to prove he's only after my interest in RI. Whatever works. My family is very practical and straightforward in such matters." She knew some of her bitterness had leaked into her words.
"You think they could buy off Jacob? Or warn him off? Or even prove he's after your shares and your seat on the board? I'm not so sure about that, Emily. Your Mr. Stone looks very solid to me. It would take a lot to deflect him from any course of action he chooses to take. It's hard to deflect a chunk of rock."
"I'm not sure what they would try with Jacob, but believe me, they'd find something. I know my family."
"What will they do if they find out you're just having an affair with him?" Diane pressed.
"I'm not having an affair with him."
Not yet, at any rate
, she added silently, aware of the thrill of anticipation that shot through her at the thought.
"But if you do get involved in that way?" Diane persisted.
Emily hesitated, gnawing on her lower lip. "The best thing for all concerned would be for them not to find out," she finally decided softly, thinking it through. "If I were to have an affair with Jacob, I would keep it very, very quiet. When dealing with my family, discretion is definitely the better part of valor." And the last thing she would want to do would be to risk losing Jacob.
Diane was unwilling to give up her point. "But what if your family eventually found out about him?"
Emily groaned. "They'd hit the roof."
"Really?"
"You can bet they wouldn't like the idea one bit. I think they'd be almost as upset about that as they would be about my marrying him. Almost, but not quite. After all, an affair isn't a permanent arrangement, in their view. It's marriage they worry about. Marriage puts my RI shares in jeopardy. Marriage means in-laws and another family getting involved in RI business. Marriage means there might be kids from an unapproved sire who would stand to inherit my interests in RI. Mustn't have that. The family name and business must be protected."
"But a quiet little affair… ?"
Emily drummed her fingers on the counter, thinking about that. "There's a chance, just a chance, mind you, that I could manage an affair with Jacob without bringing down the wrath of the Ravenscrofts on both our heads. If I'm discreet and very, very careful."
"You've got that funny look in your eyes again," Diane observed. "You know what I think?"
"What?"
"I think you're falling in love with Jacob Stone."
Emily suddenly felt very vulnerable. "I think I'd better get this arrangement done or forget about the Strandburg account altogether."
By applying a stupendous amount of willpower, Emily managed not to think about having an affair with Jacob for the rest of the afternoon. She steadfastly put the whole notion out of her mind while she worked, determined not to let it distract her.
But later that evening as she dressed for dinner, the sense of anticipation within her blossomed forth again. Emily looked at herself in the mirror as she put on a pair of silver-and-turquoise earrings and thought about her uncertain future with Jacob.
She was in love with the man. She had loved him in various ways for five years. Now that he was back in her life, that love was stronger than ever. Sooner or later, if Jacob hung around, she was going to wind up in an affair with him.
If that happened, she would be skating on very thin ice and she knew it. Her family would not like the idea at all.
She had been right when she had told Diane that having a love affair with Jacob Stone would require enormous caution and discretion. In fact, the only safe way to manage it would be to keep the affair a complete secret.
Emily shuddered, thinking of the logistics of trying to keep an affair with Jacob a secret from her family. Still, other people had secret affairs. History was full of such liaisons. It could be done. At least for a while.
The doorbell rang just as Emily was wondering dismally how long she could keep an affair hidden from her ever-vigilant family. She would need Jacob's full cooperation, and he was not the most subtle of men.
She walked to the door, expecting Jacob to be in the hall. He frequently showed up early for a date. It was flattering, but it was also a bit unsettling. Emily got the feeling Jacob enjoyed prowling around her apartment while waiting for her to finish dressing.
Certain that it was Jacob ringing her doorbell, Emily opened the door without bothering to double-check the identity of her visitor. It was a shock to see who stood in the hall.
"Damon!"
"Hello, Emily." Damon Morrell smiled fleetingly as he stood looking down at her. The expression did not reach his blue-green eyes. His tawny brown hair was attractively ruffled, he was dressed in an expensive European cut jacket and slacks. Unlike Jacob, he wore a silk tie with aplomb. "May I come in?" he asked politely.
"I'm about to go out," Emily explained, feeling extremely wary. She had been hoping to avoid a face-to-face confrontation with Damon. He was big, almost as tall as Jacob, although he did not give the impression of solidity that Jacob did. Damon had a leaner, wirier build. It was that build that enabled him to wear Italian fashions with consummate ease.
"I want to talk to you."
"Some other time," she suggested a little too brightly.
"Now, Emily. I want to talk to you now. Tonight." Damon pushed open the door and stepped through into the hall.
Emily's sense of uneasiness took a quantum jump. She instinctively backed off a couple of steps and then tried to hold her ground. Her chin came up angrily and her eyes narrowed. "What is this all about, Damon?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out," he replied, closing the door behind him. "You've been avoiding me for nearly a week. I'd like to know why."
"I don't owe you any explanations." Emily forced herself to speak calmly and quietly.
"You're seeing someone else."
"Am I?" Turn the question around. That was one of the tactics she had been taught in her assertiveness training course.
He ignored that and strode past her into the living room. Emily watched helplessly, wondering how to go about throwing him out.
"I would like you to leave, Damon." Emily stood stiffly in the hall and told herself she had to keep calm and in control of the situation.
"Not until I get some answers." Damon crossed through the white-on-white living room and came to a halt near the window. He thrust his hands into his pockets and stood staring out at the street below. "You changed after you came back from Portland. You haven't accepted any of my invitations since your return. Something happened down there, didn't it? What was it, Emily?"
"I'd rather not discuss our past relationship, such as it was," Emily said, calling on her training again. It would be better not to get into an argument with him. Better to keep things cool and businesslike.
"What did you discover about me down in Portland that changed your whole attitude?" Damon prodded quietly.
"I've told you, I don't want to discuss it. Please leave, Damon."
"I'm not leaving here until I know what went wrong between us." He kept his gaze focused on the lighted street outside the window.
Emily sighed. The part of her that had always dreaded confrontations was cringing now. But maybe the man did deserve an explanation. "I think you must know what went wrong."
"Tell me."
"I found out about a woman named Marcia, for one thing," Emily said bluntly. "I also found out that you had plans to use me to try to destroy Ravenscroft International. There—does that answer your questions?"
Damon swung around to confront her. There was an expression in his eyes that Emily had never seen before. It was hard and angry. But when he spoke, his voice was remote. "I wondered if that might be it."
Emily winced. "You're not even going to bother to deny it?"
Damon shrugged. "There is a woman named Marcia, although she's not important."
"I'll bet she'd be interested in learning that," Emily said scathingly.
"Marcia is no innocent. She knows how the game is played."
"Apparently I was not so smart," Emily retorted rashly, forgetting all her assertiveness training as her own anger surged to the fore. "I actually believed you were interested in me because you liked me, not because you wanted to get your hands on my RI shares. I didn't even realize you knew who I was. It was very depressing finding out you planned to use me, Damon. I'm sure you can understand why I lost interest in developing our relationship."
Damon began to pace back and forth in front of the windows. "Your family did some investigating, I suppose, after they discovered you were dating me?"
"Yes."
"And you believed everything they told you?"
Emily drew a deep breath and clasped her hands behind her back. "My family is frequently overbearing, ruthless and domineering, but they have never, ever lied to me. In fact, they tend to be brutally honest most of the time. Yes, I believed the evidence I was given. I didn't want to believe it, but I had no real choice. Just out of curiosity, would you mind telling me why you're so eager to hurt RI?"
"Your brutally honest family didn't tell you?" Damon asked dryly.