Perfect Partners (3 page)

For the most part Letty was happy for him. But as far as she was concerned, the decision to start a second family at Morgan's age was taking things too far. She still could not believe she was going to have a baby brother soon.

“Here we go.” Morgan drew the cork from the bottle with a flourish. “Excellent color, don't you think, Joel? Letty, let me have your glass.”

Letty got up and handed her father the long-stemmed wineglass. Morgan filled it before setting it down on the lacquered Art Deco coffee table in front of the sofa.

“None for Stephanie, of course,” Morgan said. “She won't touch alcohol again until after Matthew Christopher is born. How about you, Joel?”

Joel, who was standing near the window, studying the magnificent view, glanced at the wine bottle. “Any beer in the kitchen?”

Morgan smiled. “Of course. I kept the refrigerator stocked with Charlie's favorites. You know how he liked his Northwest-brewed beer and ale.” He raised his voice. “Stephanie my dear, would you bring Joel a bottle of that good ale we picked up last month at that new brewery in north Seattle?”

Stephanie appeared almost immediately in the doorway with a bottle and a glass. “Here you are, Joel.”

“Thanks.” Joel ignored the glass and accepted the bottle. “To Charlie.” He took a long swallow.

“To Charlie.”

“To Charlie.”

“To Charlie.”

Letty took a sip of the sauvignon blanc and surveyed the platter of vegetables that sat in the center of the lacquered table. She was familiar with most of them, although she noticed one or two odd-looking items. She dunked a peapod in the dip.

“What is this?” she asked politely. “I don't recognize the flavor.”

“That's a tahini- and tofu-based dip I whipped together,” Stephanie said. “Do you like it?”

“Very interesting,” Letty said. She moved on to a little dish of deep red spread surrounded by crackers. “And this?”

“Just a little something I make using sun-dried tomatoes. I'll give you the recipe if you like.”

“Thank you,” Letty said formally, aware that everyone was watching her with varying degrees of amusement.

“Do you like sashimi?” Joel asked a little too politely.

“Back home we bait fish hooks with sashimi,” Letty said.

Morgan laughed indulgently. “Everyone eats sushi and sashimi out here on the Coast. Isn't that right, Joel?”

Joel nodded slowly, his eyes on Letty. “There are sushi bars on every third corner from here to Vancouver. And the corners that don't have sushi bars usually have Thai restaurants. But I imagine Letty prefers beef.”

Stephanie looked immediately concerned. “Oh, dear, Letty, you aren't still eating red meat, are you? Nobody eats red meat anymore.”

“Well, we don't eat a lot of raw fish back in Indiana, either. I read an article that said there's a risk of worms in raw fish. They cause a very unpleasant illness that can be extremely difficult to cure.”

“Nonsense,” Stephanie said as she started back into the kitchen. “Statistically, the chances of getting contaminated fish are extremely small if one is careful to eat in good-quality restaurants.”

Morgan looked at Letty. “Why don't you tell us what your plans are now that you have your own business?”

“Actually, I've been giving that a lot of thought.” Letty paused to take another sip of wine. She could literally feel the seething tension vibrating close to the surface again in Joel. He had clearly gone on high alert. She realized with a trickle of dread that she had never been more aware of a man in her life. It was a very disconcerting sensation.

“Go on, Letty. Tell us what you've been thinking,” Joel said softly, his eyes intent.

“I've come to the conclusion that I need to make a few changes in my life,” Letty murmured. “This inheritance from Great-Uncle Charlie could not have come at a better time. It might almost have been fate. On the plane trip out here I decided not to go back to Vellacott.”

Morgan looked astonished, but vastly pleased. “Well, well, well. I'm glad to hear it. You're not normally the impulsive type, my dear. What were these changes in your life that you made on the spur of the moment?”

Letty munched a sliver of toast slathered with sun-dried tomato spread. “I've broken off my engagement to Philip, I've quit my job, and I've decided to move to Seattle and take over the reins of Thornquist Gear.”

The sharp crack of glass exploding on hard tile drew everyone's attention. Letty glanced across the room to where Joel had been standing by the window and saw that he had dropped his bottle of ale.

Joel looked up from the shards that glittered at his feet. His eyes burned like those of a tiger in the night as he stared straight at Letty.

“Sorry,” Joel said very softly, his tone devoid of any emotion. “An accident. Don't worry. I'll clean it up.”

J
oel came awake in a cold sweat, fragments of the dream still far too clear in his head. He could see the car going over the cliff and sinking into the sea. His father's face appeared, as it always did, at the window on the driver's side, fingers clawing at the glass, eyes staring wildly at his son. Joel could see him screaming as the car sank below the surface. There was no sound, but Joel could hear the words in his head as his father shouted at him.

“This is all your fault,” he had yelled.

All your fault
.

Joel lay still for a moment, orienting himself to his strange surroundings. The sighing of the wind in the trees outside the window brought him back quickly to reality. He threw aside the covers and sat up on the edge of the bed.

He was having the dream more often these days. He did not need a shrink to tell him why. He was on the verge of taking revenge after fifteen years of waiting, and all the old feelings were awakening and starting to churn inside him. With any luck he would stop having the damn dream when everything was finally finished. Only a few more weeks and it would all be over.

In the meantime, he knew from experience that he was not going to get back to sleep until he had worked off some of the adrenaline. Back home in his own apartment in Seattle, he would have worked out on the equipment he kept in the spare bedroom. Unfortunately there was no treadmill, stationary bike, or weights here at the Thornquists' mountain place.

There was, however, plenty of room to run. Joel put on his jeans and running shoes, picked up a towel from his private bathroom, and headed down the hall.

He sensed that Letty was awake when he went past her bedroom, but he paid no attention until he realized she had gotten out of bed and followed him into the living room. Her soft, startled voice caught him just as he was unlocking the sliding glass doors.

“Where in heaven's name are you going? It's one o'clock in the morning.”

He glanced back over his shoulder and saw a wild-maned ghost in a long white cotton nightgown. Letty's glasses were perched on her nose, making her look like a very serious, very intellectual sort of ghost. As she moved out into the weak moonlight, Joel saw that the long flounced nightgown was trimmed with a jaunty sailor collar and a red ribbon tied in a bow. The streamers of the ribbon drifted down the front of the gown.

The blue-white moonlight glinted on the lenses of her little round glasses and revealed the frowning disapproval on her face. Her gaze raked him from head to toe, taking in the fact that he was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. Joel wondered if she was about to rap his knuckles with a ruler.

“Don't worry. I'm not making off with the family silver,” he said. “I'm just going to take a run.”

“You're going running?” She stared at his bare chest as if she had never seen one before. “But it's the middle of the night. You can't be serious.”

“Trust me. I'm serious.” He slid open the glass door. The crisp air flowed over him like clear, cold water rinsing away the last images from the nightmare.

“Joel, wait. You can't go out there alone at this time of night.”

The patter of her bare feet on the hardwood floor stopped him. Joel reluctantly turned his head again. “What the hell's the matter, Letty? I'm just going to run. Go on back to bed and get some sleep.”

“I won't have it.” She scurried forward and came to a halt directly in front of him. “I can't let you do this, Joel.”

He studied her with growing curiosity. “Okay, I give up. Why can't you let me do this?”

Her eyes widened behind the lenses of her glasses. “Because it's dangerous, of course. What's the matter with you? Are you out of your mind? You can't go dashing about in an isolated area at this time of night. Anything could happen. Why, just the other day I saw an article about a series of murders in mountain campgrounds.”

Joel folded his arms across his chest, half amused in spite of his foul mood. “Did the article specify which campgrounds and where they were located?”

“Somewhere down in California, I think,” she mumbled. “But it hardly matters where it happened. The point is, it's dangerous to run around alone at night. There are a lot of crazy people in the world.”

“I can outrun them.”

“What about bears?” she shot back, undaunted. “Can you outrun a bear?”

“I don't know. I've never tried.”

“It's quite chilly out there,” Letty said.

“It's not that cold. I'll be warm enough once I start moving.”

“I read an article about some sort of horrible creature that lives in the mountains out here in the Pacific Northwest.” She looked a bit desperate now.

Joel nearly laughed. “You don't believe in Bigfoot, do you?”

“No, of course not. All the same, I think this is a very bad idea.”

Joel felt another wave of cold night air flow through the open door. “Your reservations on the subject are duly noted, Ms. Thornquist. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to run.”

She touched his arm, her fingers light and gentle. “I really wish you wouldn't. It's going to make me very uneasy.”

He shook his head, losing patience with her. He stepped out onto the deck and draped the towel over the railing. Letty came as far as the door. He scowled at her. “Damn it, I don't want to hear any more about this. Go on back to bed.”

Her chin came up at a stubborn angle. “No, I will not.”

He sighed. “What do you intend to do?”

“If you're going to insist on this foolishness, I'll keep watch from here. I can see a good portion of the road, and there's a full moon. I'll be able to keep an eye on you.”

Joel gazed at her in disbelief. “You're going to wait up for me?”

“I don't have much choice, do I? I couldn't possibly go back to bed and get any sleep knowing you're running around out there like a moving target in a shooting gallery.”

Joel gave up. “Suit yourself. I'm going to run.”

He loped down the steps without a backward glance. The crisp, clean night called to him, offering to blow away some of the anger and frustration that had been threatening to consume him all day.

He looked back once as he moved out in a long, easy stride. He could just barely make her out behind the sliding door. Her nose seemed pressed anxiously to the glass. For some reason she did not look like a prim little midwestern librarian in that moment. Instead, with her ghostly pale nightgown and her wild, tangled mane she seemed more like some fey creature of the night. There was an intriguing, sweet, rather innocent sensuality about her that Joel was finding increasingly disturbing.

Hell of a time to be thinking about sex.

He jerked his attention back to his running. What was the matter with him? he wondered grimly. Letty Thornquist was a major thorn in his side at the moment. He did not need to complicate an already difficult situation with sex.

Ms. Thornquist probably did not approve of sex, anyway. She had undoubtedly read an article that detailed the myriad dangers involved these days.

Hell, even he had read a few of those articles.

Joel ran easily on the edge of the blacktop road that paralleled the twisting river. When he looked down the steep embankment of the small gorge he could just barely make out the sheen of moving water. Charlie Thornquist had come up here often to fish in that river.

Joel gave himself over to the running, channeling his frustration into energy with a directed purpose. He could handle it as long as he did that. It was an old tactic, one he used whenever the restlessness deep within him reached the boiling point. Nights were always the worst times.

On the other hand, he reminded himself, nights were often the times when he saw things most clearly. Ideas that had been whirling around in the back of his mind for weeks would suddenly crystallize into a clear vision at night. Problems that appeared incredibly tangled during the day often unraveled at night.

Joel knew he did some of his best work at night. He had learned that some things, such as revenge, were best plotted in the dark hours before dawn.

And wouldn't the fact that he intended to use her company to destroy an old enemy shock the hell out of sweet, innocent little Ms. Letitia Thornquist? Joel grinned savagely to himself and ran harder.

By the time he turned and started back toward the house, he could feel the satisfying film of sweat on his shoulders and chest. His breathing was deep and strong and steady. The night air had acted like a sponge, soaking the remnants of the dream out of his mind. His brain began to function in a more disciplined manner.

All right, so there had been a minor setback in his plans. So Letty was coming to Seattle to take over Thornquist Gear. How long could it last? She would realize within a month that it was a lousy idea.

Letty knew nothing about business. He could arrange to keep her isolated and removed from the important stuff until she grew bored or confused. If he kept tabs on things, she would not be much more than a minor nuisance. She was bound to realize in short order that the best thing she could do was head back to her nice safe ivory tower job at Vellacott College.

No doubt about it. Within a month she would understand that she was out of her league. Within a month she would see that the smart thing to do was let Joel continue to run the company for the next year and then cash her out. She would end up with lots of money, and he would end up with Thornquist Gear.

Which was exactly how it should be.

In the meantime there was no reason why he could not proceed with his plans to crush Victor Copeland. No reason at all. Hell, Letty would never even have a clue to what was going on, and even if she did guess, Joel would simply tell her it was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a simple business maneuver. Companies like Thornquist took over outfits like Copeland Marine Industries every day and then liquidated them. Right down to the last outboard engine.

No big deal, Ms. Thornquist. This is known as business as usual. Welcome to the real world. If you don't like it, go on back to your ivory tower. Maybe if you ask very nicely, that fiancé of yours will take you back.

Joel frowned at that last thought. He wondered what sort of man Letty would welcome into her bed. The fiancé she had mentioned earlier was no doubt some stodgy, absent minded English lit professor. Joel tried to imagine the guy fumbling around politely under the covers while mentally reviewing his notes for the next day's lecture on the nineteenth-century novel.

Maybe Letty enjoyed discussing Austen or Thackeray while reaching orgasm.

That brought up the very interesting question of whether or not Ms. Thornquist had ever
had
an orgasm—a real climax, not some wimpy little release but the kind that would make her scream right out loud. The kind that would make her clutch at the man who was giving it to her and dig her little nails into his skin. That aura of innocence about her made him doubt it.

Joel groaned and pounded along the road with every bit of energy left in him.

The sweat was streaming off him in rivulets when he finally stopped running. He glanced ahead at the house as he slowed to a walk to cool down. Letty was no longer standing at the window. Perhaps she had decided to abandon him to his fate out here in the wilderness.

When his breathing had returned to normal and his pulse had slowed, Joel climbed the steps to the deck and picked up the towel he had left there. He felt in control again. With any luck he would be able to sleep for the rest of the night.

Wiping himself off with the towel, Joel opened the sliding glass door and stepped inside.

Letty was curled up on one of the white sofas. She stirred when Joel loomed over her.

“Oh, you're back.” Letty opened her eyes, yawning.

“Safe and sound, no thanks to you. Some guardian you turned out to be.” Joel found himself smiling. “I could have been violated and murdered out there and you would have slept through the whole thing.”

Letty considered that and then shook her head swiftly. “I might have slept through the murder part, but I doubt if I would have missed the sound of you being violated. Something tells me you would have made a lot of noise.”

Joel narrowed his eyes slightly in surprise. “Well, well, well. Are you always this witty in the middle of the night?”

“I wouldn't know. I'm rarely up at this hour.” She stared at him, unmoving. “How come you are?”

He shrugged. “I don't need a lot of sleep.”

“Everybody needs a good night's sleep. I read an article somewhere that said persistent insomnia should be investigated to rule out the possibility of a health problem.”

Joel grinned slowly. “Believe me, I am very healthy.”

She frowned. “All the same, it could be a psychological problem, you know. I mean, you might feel perfectly fit physically and still have some sort of neurosis that's keeping you awake.”

“I've got better things to do than waste my time being neurotic.”

Joel studied her intently in the silence that followed. He was grimly aware that he was getting hard. She looked very soft and vulnerable lying there in the moonlight. The nightgown was hiked up around her knees and he could see that she had beautifully arched feet.