California Caress (6 page)

A sarcastic chuckle echoed through the air behind her as the man dragged his fingers through his hair. “Please, spare the theatrics. I’ve seen acting jobs in a bordello better than the one you just tried to pull off.”

“You’re despicable,” she spat.

“Hmmm,” the man breathed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her statement. “I’ve been called worse.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” Swallowing the lump in her throat, she willed her painful memories back into the shady corner of her mind where they belonged. Many years of practice made the task surprisingly simple.

His brows rose mockingly high, crinkling his sun-kissed forehead. “Do I detect a note of sarcasm? You know, if you’re tired of my company there
is
a way to leave. Just tell me who sent you to my room tonight and why. Then I’ll be more than happy to unlock the door. In fact, I’ll even escort you downstairs myself.”

His voice had grown soft, cajoling. The change in timbre served to make her all the more leery. “Are we back to that again?” she asked with weary annoyance. “Lord, but I’ve never met a man as suspicious as you. How many times do I have to tell you? No-one-sent-me-here-I-stumbled-into-the-wrong-room!”

“About as many times as I have to tell you that I-don’t-believe-you.” His look darkened. “I want the truth.”

He was sick in the head, plain and simple. What other explanation could there be? She
had
told him the truth. How many times now? Six? Seven? Did it matter? The man was no closer to believing her now than he had before. What more could she do to convince him? And why the hell did this have to be the first time in his life that Luke did what she’d told him to do!

“Look, mister, it’s getting late and I’m tired. I still have a lot to do, and if you don’t let me out of here pretty soon I’ll—”
What? Break the door down?
She had already tried. The result had been the same as screaming her head off—fruitless. Spinning on her heel, she glared into that narrowed gaze. “All right, you want the truth? You
really
want the truth? Fine, I’ll tell you. If you must know, the man who sent me is named Bart Bennett.” Her hands rose, then fell and slapped her thighs helplessly. “There, does that make you happy?”

The golden brow knit in a frown as he ran a palm over the bristle of stubble coating his chin. All the while, he gazed at her thoughtfully. “Bart Bennett?” he squinted, shaking his head and searching his memory. “Never heard of him.”

Hope sighed in disgust. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me either, considering he sent me here to meet someone else. Now, I told you what you wanted to know and you agreed to unlock the door in return.” She waited patiently, but the man made no attempt to move. “Well? Are you going to let me out of this dump or are we going to stand here and argue all night?”

“Who the hell is Bart Bennett?” he demanded, ignoring her last comment entirely.

“My father.” She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming. Good God, the man’s skull was thick. At this rate she’d be lucky to get out of here before dawn! “Now will you please unlock the door?”

In one long stride, he closed the distance between them. Hope stiffened, refusing to be intimidated by that bullying glare, even when his fingers bit painfully into her shoulders.

“That does it,” he barked angrily. “I want the truth and I want it now or so help me I’ll—”

“Do what?” she taunted, lifting her chin with a courage she did not feel. “Take me over your knee? I’m a little too big for that, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t!”

The loudness of his voice echoing in her hears did nothing to alleviate the throbbing that was quickly returning to her temples. It did, however, intricately combine with the strength in his fingers and the anger shimmering in his eyes to effectively bring home the vulnerability of her position here. The man was quickly losing what little restraint he had. If he kept goading her, and she kept responding, God only knew what would happen.

I have to get out of here,
she thought wildly,
and I have to get out of here quick!
Desperation made her act impulsively, in the only way Hope knew how. The man held her shoulders, but not her arms. Her lips curled into a cold smile as she did something she’d been longing to do since she had first opened her eyes. She didn’t just slap that arrogant face, she balled up her fist, pooled all of her anger into her hand, and punched him as hard as she possibly could. The force of the blow made his head snap back. His hands instantly released her shoulders.

Skillfully, she lifted the key from the man’s pocket before he could utter his first grunt of pain. By the time he had reached out a hand to steady his balance against the wall, shaking his head to clear it, she had the door unlocked.

Throwing it wide, she allowed herself a small, heady giggle of triumph. Her giggle turned into a full-fledged laugh when she saw the towering form of her brother standing with his hand poised mid-knock.

If Luke Bennett had been a smaller man, he might have been sent tumbling backward at the force of his sister flinging herself into his arms. But he wasn’t, and Luke didn’t so much stagger as he accepted her weight and wrapped a large arm around her shoulder. Confused, he looked down at the top of his sister’s head as it nestled into his shoulder, then let his gaze scan the room as he stroked the silky mane of chestnut hair.

The sight of the ugly bruise quickly beginning to swell on the blond man’s jaw told Luke all he needed to know. His own deep, rumbling chuckle joined his sister’s as he asked, “I guess he said no, huh?”

Hope’s arms dropped away from Luke’s shoulders and she took a step back from her brother. “Who?” She asked, her voice as devoid of emotion as her face.

Luke grinned, nodding to the man who was gingerly exploring the bruise on his swollen jaw. “Him. Frazier. He said no, right?”

“Frazier?” She gulped, her head snapping to the side as she cast a quick glance at the half-naked blond. She turned beseechingly to her brother. “Him?” she asked, her voice a small, high-pitched squeak. “No. There must be a mistake.” She shook her head, the wild disarray of chestnut curls swaying over her shoulders and back. “No, that’s not—”

“Drake Frazier,” her brother confirmed, wondering why his sister’s cheeks had suddenly faded to such a deathly white, then just as quickly flooded crimson as her dark eyes widened with horror.

“Who the hell did you think I was?” a gruff voice called from behind, and Hope felt the knot in her stomach tighten as she turned toward the speaker.

Her shoulders stiffened as she sent him an indignant glare. “You never said who you were.”

“Then why didn’t you ask?” Luke phrased the question in such an innocently boyish way that Hope wanted to throttle him on the spot.

“I
did
ask,” she informed her brother haughtily. An angry glare told Luke to keep his big mouth shut. Her next words were aimed directly at the man she now knew to be Drake Frazier. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Why the hell should I?” Frazier raged, wincing when his fingers found the center of the bruise on his chin. “You burst into my room in the middle of the night drunker than a skunk—and fully armed, I might add—collapse in my arms, then refuse to tell me who you are, why you came, or who sent you. What the hell did you expect me to think?”

Hope hadn’t looked at it quite
that
way before, and she damn well wasn’t about to waste time looking at it that way now. She raised her chin high, in what she hoped was a daunting manner. “I expected you to believe me when I said I had the wrong room,” she replied tightly.

Frazier’s gaze flickered between the two dark heads, eventually settling on Hope. If she had thought to see a measure of intimidation in those eyes when he noted her brother’s towering size and girth, she was sorely disappointed. “Your friend here says you had the right room.”

“And how was I supposed to know that?” she fairly screamed. Her temper was getting the better of her, but at that moment she didn’t care. “You don’t exactly fit the description I was given.”

“Description?” Frazier’s eyes narrowed to thin, sea-green slits as his voice hardened with caution. The hand that had been rubbing his jaw dropped to his side. “What description? Who gave it to you and why?”

She sighed in annoyance. All this bantering was getting them nowhere. She was no closer to obtaining his help now than she had been when she’d first set foot in this room. Although she was sorely tempted to push his anger to its limits, to feed his suspicions, whatever they were, she hesitated. His cooperation was needed desperately, and with a man as conceited, as arrogant, and as exceedingly suspicious as this one was proving to be, angering him would be no incentive. Perhaps a different tactic was in order.

“Well?” His expression told her that he had no intention of letting either Bennett leave until he had the answers he wanted. “Who sent you?”

“My father,” she said, holding her aggravation in check with a firm hand. “Didn’t I already tell you that?”

“You did. And I still don’t believe you.”

“Listen, Frazier, my sister may be a lot of things, but she ain’t no liar,” Luke interceded. Wrapping a hulking arm around his sister’s shoulders, he steered her away from the door. “Come on, Hope, let’s go home. We don’t need this guys help anyway. I can handle things myself.”

“No, you can’t,” she insisted, stopping her brother just as he was about to close the door. “If you could, I wouldn’t be here. Oh, Luke, please don’t look so sad,” she pleaded, as her brother’s crestfallen gaze dropped to the floor. Lord, but she hated it when her brother’s lower lip trembled that way. It pulled at her heartstrings, and she had a feeling he knew it.

“You don’t trust me,“ he pouted, his big foot drawing circles in the dust on the floorboards. “Why don’t you just say it? You don’t think I can beat the Swede, do you?”

“If you’re talking about the Swedes who set up camp on the edge of town, then you’d better listen to her. She’s right,” a deep voice interjected from behind them. The two Bennetts turned to see Frazier regarding them thoughtfully. A trace of suspicion still lurked in his eyes, but it had lessened. “That
is
what this is all about, I take it?”

“Yes,” she replied, deciding she might as well tell him the truth now that she knew who he was. At this point, the odds of getting this man to fight in her brother’s place were almost as great as their chance of striking it rich in the mines that bordered this pitiful little town.

Drake nodded, and his expression took the form of a man busy fitting the last piece into a jigsaw puzzle. He rubbed his jaw again, his eyes never leaving Hope. “Tell your friend to leave. He can go downstairs and fetch me a piece of beef to put on this bruise while you tell me what you came here for.”

“Tell him yourself,” she snapped, angry that he would treat her brother like the slab of meat he was referring to. “He isn’t deaf.”

But Frazier was no longer looker at her. He’d completely dismissed them as he bent to retrieve his glass from beside the recently vacated chair. The bottle of gin was scooped up from the floor.

Her gaze shifted between Frazier, as he splashed some of the clear liquid in the glass, and her brother, who was regarding the reputed gunslinger with open confusion. It was that innocent, guiltless look in Luke’s eyes that prompted her into a decision. “You heard him,” she said to Luke, who stared at her as though viewing a total stranger. She nudged him in the direction of the stairs. “Go ahead,” she prodded. “I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” he stalled, obviously not pleased with the prospect of leaving his sister in such untrustworthy hands. He lowered his voice, nodding toward Frazier. “I don’t trust him, Hope. What if he does us dirty? What if he takes our money, then doesn’t come through?”

“He won’t,” she said firmly, “because I won’t let him.” She gave her brother another shove. “Now go on. Off with you, you big lug. And
don’t
hurry back. It could take me a while to convince him.”

“What if you can’t?”

“That’s my problem, and I’ll deal with it when and
if
it comes up. You just go and get him the piece of beef. Hopefully, by the time you come back I’ll have him convinced.” She gave her brother’s arm another shove. “Go on.”

Squaring her shoulders, she stepped back into the room and closed the door. She could hear her brother’s feet shuffling as he hesitated in the hall, and for a second she didn’t think he would obey her any more now than he had in the past. She was wrong. Like an obedient little boy’s, his footsteps could soon be heard trailing down the hall.

“You’ll have me convinced of what?” Frazier asked. He had moved to the window and was staring broodingly through the smudged pane as he nursed his drink. The bottle hung limply from his other hand as he unconsciously swirled the liquid inside.

So, Frazier was not as oblivious to their conversation as he would have liked her to think. Good. She let that knowledge sink in as she tried to overlook the fact that he hadn’t bothered to turn toward her as he spoke. It was an annoying lack of manners, and to a strictly raised southerner, an insult of grave proportions.