Authors: Jayne Castle
"Adam, please!" she begged, trying a new tactic. "You're embarrassing me! Don't you have any consideration at all?" It was hard to plead with a man when you were hanging over his shoulder, Janna discovered with disgust.
"I warned you that I wouldn't particularly care about embarrassing you," he reminded her. "Say your farewells and we'll be on our way." He hesitated briefly and then added with appalling politeness to a thoroughly confused Scott, "Unless you'd like to try taking her away from me?"
"Oh, lord!" Janna groaned in despair. That would be the ultimate social disaster. To have two men fighting over her would be more than she could tolerate. She'd have to leave town! But she should have known Scott wouldn't allow himself to be dragged down to Adam's level!
"Janna's free to go with anyone she wishes," he managed, sounding nervous as he eyes Adam's size.
That was overdoing it, Janna thought furiously. Flinging her head back as far as possible she sent a scorching glance in Scott's direction. "Does it look as though I want to go with him, you idiot?" she choked, painfully aware of the smiling and amused faces forming a circle around the three players in the drama. This was going to provide faculty tea gossip for weeks!
"But, Janna, you obviously know him and..." Scott began prudently. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the red creeping into his face as he searched frantically for a way out of the mess.
"We're wasting time," Adam announced. "I take it you're not going to try and stop me, Barrett?"
"As I said," Scott began again, beginning to sweat,
"Janna's free to make her own decisions..."
"That's where you're wrong," Adam corrected him kindly as if Scott were severely lacking in brains. "It's a mistake to let a woman like Janna have her head, you know. She'd turn into a complete shrew and that would be a great waste. If you ever get a chance with someone like her again I suggest you take my advice and make sure she knows who's boss before giving her any leeway to make decisions!" Adam started toward the door and then halted to add cuttingly, "On second thought, forget the advice. You didn't realize what you were dealing with this time and you probably won't appreciate your luck if you're fortunate enough to find another woman like Janna!" He yanked open the front door, stepped outside and slammed it shut behind him. Then he was striding toward the white Continental parked in the street.
"Alright, Adam Halleck, you've had your big macho scene," Janna clipped hotly as he carried her along, "You've lost your audience so why don't you put me down?"
"If I were you, Janna Courtney," he answered with chilling calm, "I'd shut up and refrain from pushing me any further!"
There was that in his voice which told her it would be better to heed his suggestion. Biting her lip in silent fury, Janna kept quiet until he had opened the car door and tossed her down into the leather seat where she sat feeling horribly rumpled and unkempt. He returned her blazing glare with a coolly interested look of his own, daring her to defy him any further. Janna experienced that strange tremor of fear he seemed capable of inspiring in her when he chose and covered it by flouncing back into the depths of the seat, her arms crossed tightly in anger. Satisfied that he had quelled any more signs of immediate rebellion, Adam closed the door, walked swiftly around the car and climbed into the driver's side. Without a word he started the engine, flicked on the lights and pulled away from the curb.
"I suggest you fasten your seatbelt," he instructed mildly, glancing briefly at her and then returning his attention to his driving. "We've got a long way to go tonight."
"What are you talking about?" Janna ground out. "My apartment is only a few miles from here."
"Yes, I know," he returned calmly, "but we're not going to your apartment."
"Then where are you taking me?" she gasped, the touch of fear she had been so bitterly aware of beginning to grow.
"You and I are going to spend a few days at my house near Carmel. That means a three hour drive." He glanced at his watch. "We should be there shortly before one o'clock this morning, I think. Hence the advice about the seatbelt," he explained drily.
"Carmel!" Janna gasped. "Near Monterey Bay? You can'- be serious! I won't go with you!" What awful punishment had he created for her?
"No? How do you propose to avoid it?"
"Adam, be reasonable! You can't simply carry me off into the night like this. People will miss me!" A thought occurred to her. "Monday morning when I don't show up for work they'll call the police or something!"
"When are you going to stop lying to me, Janna?" he asked on a sigh. "I already know you're not working all of next week. The library is closed until the summer session begins. Nat told me."
"I see," Janna muttered, trying desperately to keep cool in the unreal situation. "And who told you where I was tonight?"
"Lucy, naturally. I asked her to find out if you had plans for this evening and she outlined them for me before leaving with Nat," he admitted lightly,
Janna remembered the way Lucy had whispered briefly into his ear at the end of the reception and swallowed a few choice remarks about friendship.
"Then you knew all along I wouldn't be home this evening at six-thirty!"
"I gave you every warning to be there but frankly I wasn't terribly surprised when you weren't. You have a lot to learn, Janna."
"Adam," she tried again, "you can't take me to a strange house for...for several days!" She ransacked her mind for reasonable excuses. "I mean I don't have any clothes with me or...or..." Her voice trailed off helplessly as she saw the feral grin on his lips.
"What do you think I've spent my evening doing, honey? I packed a suitcase for you which is in the trunk and I even made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us to nibble on later if we get hungry. I watered your plants and asked a neighbor to pick up your newspaper. I made sure everything was in order before setting out for Ferguson's house. Another thing you have to learn about me. I'm nothing if not thorough!"
Janna stared at him in the darkened interior of the car, annoyed at the look of self-confidence and male superiority which seemed so much a part of the man. Then she turned to glare out the window into the passing night. There was nothing she could do at the moment. She was being abducted. Carried off into the night by a tall man on a white steed. But there was no hint of chivalry in her captor and the Continental was moving far too swiftly to allow escape. She was trapped. She had taken on far more than she could handle when she had set out to challenge Adam.
The Continental hummed steadily into the night, the engine noise providing a lulling backdrop for Janna's tension-filled thoughts, plans and schemes, all of which led down dead-end roads. During the first hour after receiving the news of Adam's intentions, she said nothing after her first protests, trying to think her way out of the situation. But in the end, the only response she could finally put into words sounded trite and useless.
"You can't do this, Adam," she told him quietly, almost listlessly. Stupid thing to say. He could and was doing it. And she had only herself to blame, Janna thought gloomily. If she hadn't been so determined to demonstrate her independence...
"Decided to talk, have you?" he inquired pleasantly. He had been driving easily and steadily for the past hour without bothering to force the conversation. "I'm willing, but let's discuss something else besides the obvious."
"The 'obvious', as you call it, is the only thing on my mind at the moment!" she muttered, not looking at him. "I can't believe you'd go so far as to abduct a woman who's only crime was dating another man!"
"After this visit to my place on the coast, you'll never commit that particular crime again!" he told her coldly.
"How do you plan to face your brother and Lucy when they find out what you've done? Lucy, at least, will be horrified! Doesn't that bother you?"
"Lucy knows you belong to me. So does Nat. So does everyone, except possibly yourself! That was plain tonight when no one made a serious move to stop me from leaving that party with you," he noted coolly, making Janna seethe in impotent, frustrated disgust. "Even the Bearded Delight didn't come to your rescue. Why was that, Janna? I expected I might have to flatten him, at least." Adam sounded genuinely curious and the glance he flicked across the seat at her demanded an answer.
"If you had behaved like a civilized man tonight and decided to wait until tomorrow to ask me how the evening had gone, you would have found out how the evening went. I would have told you, It was a disaster. I'm never going to see The Bearded...Scott Barrett again!" Janna could have sworn out loud for having almost used Adam's mocking words to describe Scott.
"Well, I know that, naturally," he smiled. "This evening, in fact, was the last opportunity you'll ever have for straying..."
"Until you grow tired of me!" she reminded him brutally, hurting only herself and bitter at the knowledge.
"Er, yes," he agreed. "But I know something had happened between you and the Delight before I arrived to take matters in hand. You weren't at his side when I found you and he wasn't about to fight for you..."
"Thank God! Do you have any concept of how humiliating that would have been for me? It was bad enough to be hauled away over your shoulder. It's going to be awful having to face people at work when I return. But if there had been a...a brawl on top of that, I'd never be able to go back!" Janna stifled a small groan at the thought and then wondered when she would be able to go back. She didn't have the courage to ask Adam just then.
"You haven't answered my question."
"About why Scott didn't make a bigger scene over my unconventional departure?" Janna bit out. "I'll tell you. Because over dinner I had rejected his offer of an affair! There. Satisfied?"
"He made it so clear? On a first date?" Adam sounded more amused than annoyed.
"Oh, he tried to polish it by hinting at the possibility of a marriage someday. Preceded by a trial marriage. He had quite a line, actually, but when I asked him straight out if he simply wanted a casual affair he seemed vastly relieved at the depths of my understanding. Until I informed him I didn't care to cooperate, that is. The last I saw of Scott before you made your grand entrance, he was practicing his line on a pretty, young secretary."
"I would have fought for you, Janna," Adam said very quietly. "I would crush any man who dared to try and take you away from me."
Janna sat, slightly stunned at the intensity of his words, unsure how to respond. He meant them. Did Adam normally get this emotional over a woman he intended to seduce and then discard? Nat had told her once that his brother usually had a woman available when he wanted one and treated them generously. What was it Nat had added? Oh, yes. Adam was kind to his women! So why didn't she rate such treatment?
"I appreciate the fact that you chose not to crush poor Scott," she murmured drily. "I would never have lived it down!"
"If he had attempted to get in my way, I wouldn't have hesitated. But he had the sense to back off and I'm fair-minded enough to realize he didn't know how matters stood between you and me. He does now, though, and I'd better not catch him around you again! In fact, my little queen, if you'd rather not have your various courtiers left in undignified heaps, you'll do them the favor of warning them that you're already taken." He shifted, flexing broad shoulders in a small stretch. "But after Carmel you'll know what I'm talking about."
"If you think I'm going to submit tamely to being r...raped by you...!" Janna began in a painful, scratchy voice, not looking at him. Damn! She musn't lose her nerve! Furiously she blinked away a hint of moisture behind her eyes. If only it wasn't so late and if only she weren't so tired. Perhaps in daylight she'd be better equipped to face this creature! Even as she lectured herself on the subject of not giving in to self-pity, the white Continental was slowing. Without a word, Adam pulled it over to the side of the road, shut off the engine and shifted to face her, steel eyes unreadable in the darkness.
"Is that what you think is going to happen in Carmel, Janna?" he asked softly, the velvet back in his voice. "You think I would force myself on my queen?"
"It's what you've been implying!" she retorted, still refusing to face him.
"I've never said anything about rape," he told her very clearly, very gently. "I've only talked about surrender. Your surrender. There's a vast difference, you know."
"Perhaps from the man's point of view!"
"Janna, look at me."
She kept her tousled head turned away, staring out into the darkness, half expecting him to reach one rough hand across and force her chin around.
"I said, look at me, sweetheart," he repeated on a still softer note but now she could hear the hint of steel. It was only a matter of time before she would be obeying him. Was it always going to be like this? Would she always be the loser?
"You are such a stubborn little thing..." he began slowly.
Janna whipped her head around, eyes flashing from a sudden, unexpected surge of annoyance. "Why do you always call me little? I'm taller than most of the other women I've met and I would hardly be described as thin!" What a crazy thing to get upset about at this point, a small voice sighed inside her head.