Crazy for You (10 page)

“Idiot?” Andrew angrily stepped closer. “I
don’t know who you’re calling an idiot! I’m the only sane person
around here. You don’t see me meditating in front of some strange
man humming and feeling up everyone else’s aura, do you? Didn’t you
find that just a teensy bit strange Tasha? Surely to hell you don’t
think that’s normal.”

Tasha met Andrew’s gaze and held. For the
life of her, she’d never seen him quite so animated. And she’d seen
him animated a few times before. This time Andrew Jacob Powell III
was quite agitated. Why, she just couldn’t figure out. And she
wasn’t leaving until she did.

“Leave Samuel out of this. He’s a nice man
and I found him quite pleasant. At least he doesn’t shout at
me.”

Andrew threw up his arms. Tasha watched him
stalk away from her.

“You never answered my question. Who are
those men? And why are you so angry with me?”

He swirled his body back to face her. “Angry?
I’ll tell you why I’m angry. You were giving Doug Johnston the eye.
Don’t deny it. I saw every bit of it. He was coming onto you and
you were giving the old invite right back. I’ll bet you’ve already
made a date with him for later, haven’t you? I bet you can’t wait
to drag him to some toga party or...or worse, to some nude beach.
And he probably won’t balk, either.”

There were a lot of words ready to jump out
of Tasha’s throat, but she choked back every one of them. Biting
her tongue to keep silent, she studied Andrew for a few minutes
more before replying. This whole conversation was absolutely
ludicrous. There was obviously a whole lot more to this than what
met the eye.

She took a deep breath and crossed her arms.
“Who
is
Doug Johnston?” she asked calmly, pinning him with
her stare. “Just answer that for me, please.”

Hands on his hips, Andrew glanced away and
sighed. His shoulders relaxed at the gesture and Tasha felt a
little of the ice about him melt. “He’s a colleague of mine from
Seattle. We work in the same firm.”

“And what about the other one.”

Andrew looked at her and huffed another
breath. “Yeah. Him, too.”

“What are they doing here?”

Andrew rolled his eyes and shrugged. “How the
hell do I know! For all I know they could be carrying out some big
plan to catch me naked with—”

Tasha watched his eyes widen. Suddenly, they
narrowed to tiny slits and he took three steps closer to her. For
an instant, Tasha was almost fearful of the look on his face.

“You’re in on this, aren’t you?” he
snarled

“What?”

“You’re in on it. You, Doug, Brett—you’re all
working together, aren’t you?”

“Andrew, I don’t know what you’re talking
about!” Tasha stepped back.

Andrew followed and grasped both her arms at
the elbow. “I understand every bit of it now. They probably hired
you before I even got on the plane. All that stuff with the rental
car, throwing away my luggage, this crazy place, it was all planned
wasn’t it?”

“Andrew, I don’t think anyone could think up
something so bizarre if they tried.”

“And you! Acting like you’re taking me under
your wing and helping me lose my inhibitions. Well, you’re just too
eager, Tasha, just too eager. What is it? Do you have a camera
hidden somewhere? Were you going to get pictures of me nude? Were
you going to blackmail me with them?”

Tasha shook her head. “Andrew,” her confused
voice returned, “you’re talking out of your head and not making a
lick of sense. Why in the world would I want to take pictures of
you nude? Well, now that I’ve had time to think about it...ahem, I
mean, really Andrew. Blackmail? Why would I want to blackmail you?
I barely know you. I just thought I’d try to save you from a life
of boredom and spice mine up a bit at the same time. I thought
maybe we could be friends. Maybe even more than that for a while.
But this talk about blackmail is absolutely foolish. If you think
for one minute—”

Andrew stomped off and ran every finger of
both hands through his short hair. “Would you just shut up for a
minute? Not you! Doug and Brett.
They
would try to blackmail
me. Don’t you see? They want me out of the firm. I’m too much
competition for them!”

Tasha let the room fall silent. Andrew paced
the length of the bed three times before he stopped and returned
his gaze to her face. Tasha eyed him, wondering why any man would
get so worked up about something like this. Why would any man put
themselves in a position with their career where others would try
to blackmail them to get a job promotion, or snag another’s job?
Poor Andrew.

“That may be true, but let’s just get this
thing straight,” she began softly. “For one, I don’t know those two
men and don’t care to. They didn’t hire me to do anything. I have
no idea if they’re out to blackmail you or not, I just know that I
have nothing to do with it. And I don’t have the hots for either
one of them. I’m not interested in getting anyone out of their
clothes at the moment.”

Her voice rose a bit. She hadn’t intended to
get angry, but the more she thought about it, his accusations did
anger her. “...least of all Doug Johnston, Brett Whomever, or
you
, Andrew Powell. All I want right now is to go back to my
room, slip back between the sheets of my wonderfully large,
king-sized bed, and take a nap. And when I’m finished, then perhaps
you and I can sit down and talk about the real reason you’re so
damned angry!”

****

The real reason I’m so angry? What the hell
is that supposed to mean?

Andrew stared at Tasha’s back as she exited
the room.

There were all kinds of reasons he should be
angry. For one, getting caught up in this whole crazy mess would
make any man angry, wouldn’t it? For two, Doug and Brett were here
for a reason—and he didn’t know what that reason was yet. Surely he
couldn’t have been right earlier, could he? Could Doug and Brett
really be trying to blackmail him out of his job? He didn’t know.
And he didn’t want to think about that because when he did, he got
even more angry.

His job was extremely important to him. He
needed it for more than financial security. He needed it because he
needed the identification with his career, because of the
workaholic thing—because he was his job, and his job was him.
Without his work, he was nothing. He needed the competitiveness,
the camaraderie. He needed the damn security that being a top-notch
businessman gave him.

Bottom line. He needed the damn to job to
make him feel good about himself. To make him feel complete.

See anything wrong with this picture,
Powell?

Startled, Andrew turned and glanced about the
room. The voice belonging to those words weren’t his, but Tasha’s.
He could swear she’d voiced the words and he had to stare at the
door to make sure she wasn’t still standing there. Dammit, she was
invading his mind, too. He shook his head to rid it of her voice
and the direction of his thoughts. Right now, he had other things
to think about. He wasn’t going to let Tasha’s nagging get to him
at the moment. He had to think about why Doug and Brett were
here.

He knew they were a constant threat to his
job security. He’d known that for a long time. They’d never been
quite able to reach his success his team rendered in the sales
figures column, and they’d probably do just about anything they
could to oust him from the company, or at least let him fall down
the ladder a bit.

Andrew sat on the bed and expelled an
irritated huff. His fist pounded the center of one of his bed
pillows next to him. The thought of those two scheming for his job
made him even more angry. If Doug and Brett were out to play dirty,
then he just might have to play hardball. He couldn’t do anything
to risk his job, but he wouldn’t hand it to them on a silver
platter, either.

But was that the anger to which Tasha
referred? Somehow, he didn’t think so. Tasha didn’t know much about
his job, or about Doug and Brett, either. He was sorry he’d accused
her of working with them against him. If he’d learned one thing
about Tasha Smith the past day, it was that she was completely
honest, so much so that she blurted out every thought with utter
openness. She couldn’t be hiding anything like that from him.

He had to apologize.

Then what? What else had made him so angry a
few minutes earlier? What did Tasha mean?

Then it hit him like an unexpected bolt of
lightning. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he knew exactly what
she was talking about. He was jealous. Doug had slid Tasha a grin
and she had reciprocated. He’d jumped to conclusions and the
green-eyed monster had taken control of his emotions.

Damn. He was jealous. Now he had to apologize
for two things, instead of one. And he better do it as quickly as
possible.

Seventeen

Back to Room 214, Oceanview

Someone was knocking on her door. Tasha
pulled the sheets over her ears.

“Go away. I don’t want any,” she mumbled.

There was a hesitant silence, then the
knocking began again. If she just ignored him, maybe he would go
away. She wasn’t in the mood to spar with Andrew once more.

The knocking grew louder.

“Go away!”

She pulled the pillow over her head. The only
thing she accomplished was muffling the sound of the persistent
knock.

Finally, she flung the covers back and jumped
from the bed. Hastily, she padded across the room while running a
hand through her mussed hair.

“You sure are a tenacious little jerk, Andrew
Powell,” she muttered, her hand curled around the doorknob. “You
better have an apology ready to jump from your sweet lips,” she
said a little louder as she pulled open the door.

But it wasn’t Andrew standing on the other
side of the threshold. It was the two men from Seattle.

“Apology?” The one Andrew called Doug stepped
forward and smiled. “Now, I don’t recall having anything to
apologize to you about. Did I miss something earlier?”

Tasha dropped her arm to her side.
Momentarily, she was taken aback. Where was Andrew? Now, what was
she going to do with these two jerks?

“What do you want?” she returned bluntly,
leaning against the door jamb with crossed arms. She was in no mood
for the two of them.

Doug stepped forward. “We thought that
perhaps we could interest you in swim later, or a lively game of
volleyball? Or, if you don’t have plans for later, we’re heading to
the Disco. Want to join us? We got in early this morning, and I
understand you’ve been here for a day already, and we were just
wondering if you’d like to show us around?”

Tasha didn’t miss a beat. “There are
employees for that. Sorry. Not interested.” She reached for the
door and started to close it. The other one reached forward and
laid a hand on the doorknob. Tasha stared at his hand. The
gall!

“You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m busy at
the moment.” She started to push the door closed again.

He resisted, smiling all the while.

“Do you mind?” She glared.

For several seconds, her gaze met his and
finally, he took his hand from the door and backed up a few
steps.

“I’m sorry. Where are our manners?” Doug
intervened rather sarcastically. She could understand why Andrew
didn’t like the man. “We haven’t properly introduced ourselves. My
name is Doug Johnston and this is my cohort, Brett Southworth.
We’re actually friends of Andrew’s, work in the same firm, you
know. And you are...?”

“Not interested, like I said. Look. If you’re
friends of Andrew’s, then go find him to show you around. He’s
around here somewhere. He never ventures too far away.” Tasha
couldn’t help the dig but immediately felt sorry she said it.

She glanced and saw Andrew heading toward
them at that instant. Uh-oh. Damnation. She didn’t like the look on
his face.

“In fact, there he is, now,” she returned
coldly. “Maybe I’ll see you around.” With that, she slammed the
door between them and quickly threw the dead bolt. As she leaned
against the door, she realized she was breathing hard. She didn’t
like those two men.

Well, Andrew would just have to hash it out
with them himself. It wasn’t her problem.

The knock came again.

She guessed it probably was Andrew. Surely
the other two hadn’t the audacity to come back for a repeat
performance. If so, she wasn’t going to give them the time of day.
Tasha rose from the bed. Just a quick peak through the peep
hole....

This time it was Andrew. And damned if his
face didn’t look any softer. In fact, he looked about ready to
explode.

Tasha quickly opened the door. Andrew’s fist
was raised in mid-knock.

“You know, if you don’t get that scowl off
your face, it could freeze like that.”

Andrew glared and strode past her into the
room.

Slowly, she closed the door and turned,
resting her back against the cool wood. She watched him for a
second or two more. The hour or so they’d been apart had obviously
done nothing to quell his anger.

“So, Andrew, is there something on your
mind?” Tasha pinned him with her stare as he finally stopped pacing
and met her gaze.

“Cut the crap, Tasha. Let’s get on with
this.”

“Okay. Let’s. Tell me what’s on your
mind.”

“What’s on my mind is you—and those other
two. What the hell were they doing over here a few minutes
ago?”

Tasha studied him while she chewed the inside
of her lip. He was stressed to the max. Had the arrival of those
two done that to him?

“I’ve told you I have nothing to do with
them. If you choose not to believe me, then that’s your problem,”
she returned in a matter-of-fact tone and stepped toward the center
of the room.

“Yeah, right. And just a few minutes ago they
were here at the door, sniffing around like hound dogs after a fox.
How’d they find you so easily, Tasha, if you three weren’t in
cahoots?” He paced three steps closer, then retreated. Tasha
watched the tension wrinkle his face like a raisin. She decided to
ignore that last statement.