Double trouble (15 page)

"Oh, did I?"

He nodded. "Right now the intensity of your feelings for me scares you, so you're putting on this hard-boiled con-

sultant act to try to drive me away. But Tm not going anywhere, baby."

A cold streak of rage shot through her. Kayla pulled at the lapels of her robe with trembling fingers. **A11 right then. You're welcome to stay right where you are. I, however, am leaving. Good night."

She stalked out of the room. Swift as a pouncing cat, Matt caught her around the waist as she started down the small hallway. '*Hey, was it something I said?" Laughing, he picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom.

Irate, Kayla did not join in the laughter. 'Tut me down!" she demanded. ''Was it something you said? Ohh! It was everything that you said, you snake. You're insufferable. Maybe I failed to drive you away, but you've succeeded in driving me away with your insulting, preposterous arrogance."

Despite her struggles, he handled her easily, putting her back onto the bed with him. He wrapped his long limbs around her and held her tight. *'Give up and relax, Kayla," he whispered against her ear. "You're not going anywhere. You're right where you belong, right where you want to be."

"That is not true, you conceited, self-deluded—"

"Some sleazeball paid your mother to have an abortion and then left her, so you expect all men to behave in the same selfish way? Well, I have a news flash for you, honey. They don't./don't."

"It wasn't my mother, it was my stepmother!" Kayla said, tight-lipped and furious. She was aware that her struggles were futile against his greater strength, but she didn't give up. "You don't know anything about me so don't try to pretend you do.''

"I want to know you, I want to understand you. Talk to me, tell me—"

"No!"

'*You might as well. I've figured out a few things already—that your parents are divorced and remarried." His tone was challenging, and Kayla reacted hotly.

''You don't have a clue! My parents were very happy together, they weren't divorced. My mother died of pneumonia when I was seven. My father married Penny, his secretary, a year and a half later. That marriage was a disaster. They could work together, but not live together. It lasted less than two years and then Penny contacted a lawyer about getting a divorce."

She swallowed hard, her rage suddenly dissolving. "The divorce never happened, though. My father was killed."

''Killed?" Matt echoed, shocked. "How?" His grip instinctively loosened as he turned her to face him.

"A car accident. It was late at night and he was alone and skidded off the road and into a tree. The police thought he'd probably fallen asleep at the wheel. Penny wasn't sure about that, though. She often wondered if he'd deliberately crashed just to get away from her without having to pay alimony."

"She told you that?" Matt gasped. "That's a helluva thing to say to a kid!"

He was temporarily distracted and Kayla knew she could get away from him. She could run down to Arlene's apartment. Her kindhearted neighbor would put her up for the night.

"God, you poor kid." Matt sounded genuinely disturbed. "Orphaned! What happened to you and Kristina afterward? Who raised you?"

He sounded genuinely interested, too. Kayla wasn't accustomed to that. In her line of work, all her clients were interested solely in themselves and their careers and what she could do for them. They never asked her personal questions; all that interested them about her life were her marketing and media skills.

His concern was irresistible. Unconsciously, she moved a little closer to him, but she stared into space, avoiding his probing blue eyes. ''Kristina and I lived with Penny. She really didn't want us. She was only eighteen years older than us and she'd never had any desire to have kids. But there was nobody else who would take us."

"Nobody?" Matt asked incredulously. "No grandparents or aunts or uncles?"

"There was our mother's father and our dad's parents, but they said they were finished with raising children and couldn't take us. Dad's brother had three kids of his own and couldn't afford to take us. Kristina and I were grateful that Penny agreed to keep us. Otherwise, we would've been placed into foster care."

"And your own flesh and blood would've allowed that to happen? They couldn't afford to take you, they didn't want you—that's outrageous! Disgraceful! I've never heard of anything so heartless and selfish as turning your back on children in your own family!"

Kay la shrugged. "It wasn't so bad living with Penny. She was never mean to us or anything. Money was really, really tight for a long time, though. Penny couldn't afford to keep us, either, but she did it anyway. We went through two bad marriages with her—the one to Don Felton and then to another man, Anthony Abraxis. Neither lasted very long, not that Penny expected them to. Meanwhile, she kept working hard and by the time Kristina and I graduated from high school, she was doing very well. She insisted on paying our college tuition, and room and board, which she certainly didn't have to do. We're very grateful to her, we owe her, well, everything, really."

"That may be so, but she sure gave you some screwed-up ideas about men," Matt said perceptively. "I guess it's going to be up to me to revise them."

Kayla shook her head. "No, really, you don't owe me anything. Matt. If you insist on contributing to the baby's

i

support, I will certainly accept whatever you choose to give but-"

*'I choose to support my child and live with it and be its father in every way, Kayla. That includes staying married to its mother and providing a stable home."

A huge lump rose in her throat. ''But I don't want to be foisted onto someone who doesn't want me. Not again, not at the age of twenty-eight," she cried.

''I want you." Matt's fingers tangled in her long, thick hair. ''You can't possibly have any doubts on that score." He pulled her against the long, hard length of him, letting her feel the burgeoning throb of his very definite arousal. **ril prove it to you again. Right now, if you feel you're up to it."

"That's just sex. We can't spend all our time in bed, you know."

"Don't underestimate the power of sex, Kayla. It's a powerful bond and we'll use it to forge a strong, permanent relationship."

"That sounds like singles-bar psychobabble. Next you'll ask my astrological sign and assure me that it's compatible with yours." She pushed at him with her hands and to her surprise, he let her go.

"Just to set the record straight, I've never asked about anyone's sign. It's sort of a point of pride for me." He rolled onto his stomach and closed his eyes. "You're tired and we've done enough tonight. Go to sleep, Kayla. We'll talk more in the morning."

She considered arguing. After all, she had a valid point to make—that a shotgun marriage between two people compatible only in bed augured nothing but trouble. But as a numbing fatigue seeped through her, the task of putting thought to words was simply too overwhelming. She was too tired even to take off her robe and put on a nightgown.

"In the morning," she mumbled, already drifting off to sleep.

* ♦ «

Morning arrived with stunning sp)eed. Matt awakened her with a hearty, "Time to get up. I'd Hke to be on the road within half an hour. We'll stop to eat breakfast along the way."

Kayla looked at him through half-slitted eyes. She didn't have the energy to open them all the way. **On the way to where?" she asked thickly. She felt stuporous and confused.

"Home," Matt replied briskly. "You need to pack a bag. We'll stay for the weekend."

It was still dark outside and the red numbers on her clock glowed an incredible 5:00 a.m.! And she was supposed to get up?

"You can't be serious," Kayla decided. She rolled over and snuggled deeper into the covers. Since he wasn't making any sense, she felt no obhgation to listen any further.

"Okay, I'll pack for you. You can catch a few extra z's while I do. Ah, here's your suitcase, in the closet."

She heard him opening drawers and rummaging through them, then padding back and forth to her closet. Slowly, dazedly, she sat up and watched him tossing clothes—/ler clothes/—into her weekender case that lay open on the chair. "What are you doing?" she croaked.

"Packing your things for the trip."

Kayla was too exhausted, her mind too befuddled to comprehend more than one point at a time. Her tired brain never registered as far as "the trip," but she did pick up on the fact that he was packing for her.

"A man can't pack for a woman," she murmured sleepily. "God only knows what he'd bring for her. All the wrong things, that's for certain."

"Ah, sounds like another pearl of wisdom from the inestimable Penny. She seems to believe that a man can't do anything right." Matt tossed a black bra into the suitcase. "I used to know a soul mate of hers named Debra Wheeler."

He grimaced, then dropped a sleeveless white T-shirt into the case. '*She too was of the all-men-are-either-idiots-or-evil-or-both school of thought."

Kayla blinked. '*You just packed a black bra for me to wear with a white shirt. A sleeveless white shirt in March when we haven't had a day above fifty degrees yet."

*'Should I pack you a sweater?" he asked solicitously.

**ril do my own packing, thank you very much." She stumbled out of bed, threw out everything he'd put in the suitcase and started over. He had already carried her packed suitcase to the car, leaving her alone in the apartment for a while, when she was finally alert enough to recall, '*What trip? We never discussed any trips."

*'We're going to Johnstown to meet my family," said Matt. ''Here, get dressed." He picked up some of the clothes that she'd discarded from the suitcase. A faded pink sweater she'd been meaning to get rid of for months and an old pair of aqua cotton shorts that was destined to become a dust rag. He tried to hand them to her.

Kayla shuddered and backed away. "I wouldn't wear that getup to sit alone in the dark in my own bedroom, let alone out in public. Besides, it's cold outside."

Matt heaved an exasperated sigh. "I guess I don't know anything about women's clothes. Pick out something yourself then."

' 'Don't worry, I intend to.''

"And hurry up."

Feeling pressured, she snatched a pair of teal-green cotton leggings and a matching oversize tunic-length cotton knit shirt from the closet and fairly threw them on. Matt was hustling her out the door, even as she was stepping into her shoes.

It wasn't until they were both in Matt's car, pulling out of the parking lot when everything finally clicked. "Wait a minute, you tricked me!" Kayla exclaimed indignantly. "I had no intention of going anywhere with you."

Matt switched on the radio and kept on driving.

'*This isn't fair! You woke me up at dawn, I was practically comatose and you took advantage to railroad me into this trip. Sleep deprivation is used to brainwash people, you know. And pregnant women need extra rest. I didn't fully realize what I was doing and now—"

Matt laughed. "I simply saved us both a lot of time, energy and arguing. You'd have ended up coming with me anyway."

''I want out! Turn this car around and take me home immediately."

"Sorry, angel. You're on your way to Johnstown to meet the Minteers."

Nine

^^Relax." Matt reached over and took her hand in his. *'There's nothing to be nervous about. My family will like you and you'll like them. They're not the ogres you're imagining them to be."

'*I have no preconceived notions about them." Kay la pulled her hand away. His still rested in her lap and she lifted his wrist to place his fingers firmly on the wheel. "And I'm not nervous."

'^Aren't you?"

''Not at all."

"You've been tying and untying the strap of your purse into knots for the past hundred miles," Matt said dryly. "Just doing it for the exercise, hmm?"

Kayla quickly dropped the strap that she was still unconsciously kneading with her fingers. "I didn't want to come with you, I don't want to meet your family and I'm not going to marry you. You can hardly blame me for feel-

ing...uncomfortable about finding myself on this enforced trip with you/'

**Ever been to Johnstown before?" Matt asked casually, completely ignoring the fact that she had just denounced him.

Kay la scowled. Much as she would Ve liked to ignore him, she felt obliged to respond to such a simple, direct question. '*No," she said stiffly.

"It's a good, solid working-class town. It was badly hurt by the collapse of the steel industry in the early eighties, but it's still more bustling than most other western Pennsylvania towns. I guess the biggest, most uniquely defining thing about Johnstown is the Great Flood of 1889. It was one of the epic disasters of the nineteenth century with over twenty-two hundred dead or missing. It still casts its memory over the town. Each native Johnstown family has its tales of the flood, handed down from generation to generation."

''Does yours?" she asked. "Aside from that tall tale about Minteer's Tavern being swept down the river to Pittsburgh?"

"You remembered!" Matt smiled. "I remember how pleased I was that you laughed at my story that night. Most people don't laugh at my jokes. I'm not exactly known as a sidesplitting raconteur."

"You aren't one. I was merely being polite when I laughed."

"Nope, you really liked me, I could tell. You were as attracted to me as I was to you. And that was before our brains were blitzed by WINDS, Kayla."

She rolled her eyes heavenward. "You're quite good at recreating events to show yourself in a positive light. Are you sure you wouldn't consider working for Dillon and Ward? That's the sort of work they do for their clients, you know."

**Ah, Kayla, I know what you're doing. You're trying to inflame me by using all the buzzwords. But it's not going to work, baby. I'm not going to fly off the handle and call off our—uh—engagement.''

Kayla winced. "We're not engaged. I was engaged once and it was a disaster. An engagement is so stressful.. .all that pressure, all those unrealistic expectations- Choosing a ring, seriously reading bridal magazines, all the artificial sentimentality and cloying jokes... Oh, I'll never go through that again!"