Full Bloom (2 page)

"Jacob is a man of honor," Gifford Ravenscroft finally said with a grimness that emphasized how hard he was working to keep control of his temper. "And for your information, he resigned his position with RI two months ago. He is here tonight as a favor."

"Is that right?" Emily asked with false brightness. "He just does this sort of work now for the fun of it?" She sent a scathing glance into the shadows of the room. Stone did not move. He just stood there quietly watching her. His very stillness was unnerving.

"Dammit, Emily, stop attacking Jacob," Drake ordered. "He helped us out on this, and we're grateful. We didn't want an outsider doing the investigation. We can count on Jacob to keep his mouth shut. None of this will go any farther than this room."

"How reassuring," Emily said dryly. "I hate to break this to you, but I'm not particularly worried about how far this goes."

"Emily, dear, there's no need to be sarcastic. I realize this is upsetting for you," Catherine interjected more gently. "But you must realize we're only doing this for your own good. You don't understand big business; nor do you understand what kind of man Morrell is. He's a conniving bastard. He'll use anyone or anything, and unfortunately he's decided to use you. Now that you know the truth, we expect you to be sensible about this. You must put an end to the relationship. It's very dangerous. You can't possibly marry the man."

Emily decided she'd had enough. She collected her small leather purse and got to her feet. The members of her family stared at her in astonishment.

"It's been a very interesting evening," she assured them all brightly. "I was looking forward to staying for dinner, but under the circumstances, I hope you'll excuse me."

"Sit down, Emily!" Gifford roared. "We're not through here."

Emily ignored him. It was the first time she had ever done such a thing. She walked to the door. "I've got a long drive ahead of me. I'd better be on my way."

"Emily!" her mother exclaimed. "You can't be serious. It's much too late to drive back to Seattle tonight. That's a two-hundred-mile trip. You won't get home until nearly midnight."

"All the more reason to be moving along," Emily said cheerfully from the door. She had her hand on the knob. It was turning beneath her fingers. In another moment she would be free. "Thanks for the invitation to spend the weekend, but I'll have to take a rain check. I'm sure you can understand that I've lost some of my enthusiasm for family life. Good night, everyone."

She was through the door, closing it behind her. Emily realized she was almost shaking in reaction. But she was all right, she assured herself. She had survived. She was not going to dissolve into anguished tears the way she had two years ago when she had been summoned to her father's study to learn the truth about the man she had been planning to marry. Maybe it was easier this time around because she had never planned to marry Damon Morrell. Emily did not plan to marry anyone, ever. But her family did not know that.

Clutching her purse with whitened knuckles, Emily walked determinedly across the oriental carpets and polished hardwood floors of her parents' elegant Portland hillside home. Then she let herself out into the chill of the spring night. The Oregon skies still leaked rain as she slid into her small compact. It was probably wet all the way from here to Seattle, she thought. It was going to be a long drive.

Emily sat behind the wheel for a moment, composing herself. It was hard to tell which of the fierce emotions raging within her was dominant. Humiliation mixed with fury was a powerful combination.

But by far the harshest emotion she was experiencing was generated by the realization that after all this time she still loved Jacob Stone. That fact jolted her far more terribly than anything she had heard on the tape that damned Morrell.

Emily had been so sure she had shed her hopeless passion for Jacob along with so many of the other naive dreams she had entertained in the past. So sure she had finally grown up. But apparently part of her was destined to remain naive forever.

She wanted to dash off into the safety of the night, but common sense told her she had to calm down a little before she turned the key in the ignition.

A shocked silence enveloped Gifford Ravenscroft's study as the door closed behind Emily. Jacob Stone half smiled at the expressions on the faces of the remaining family members as they stared, speechless, at the door. It was clearly the first time Emily had walked out on her family in the midst of an argument. Possibly the first time anyone had ever walked out on a Ravenscroft during a discussion of any kind.

He felt a surge of fierce, hot pride in Emily. His lady had guts. She had gone through some major changes since he had last seen her: She had come into her own. Those changes might make all the difference now. For the first time, he knew for certain he had been right to return to the States.

It was time at last to claim his woman. Jacob unfolded his arms and moved out of the shadows.

"What the devil has gotten into her?" Gifford fumed. "She's never acted like this before in her life."

Catherine shook her head. "I can't believe she just listened to that tape and than calmly walked out of here."

Drake said nothing but his eyes had a thoughtful expression.

Jacob moved silently toward the door.

"Where are you going, Stone?" Gifford demanded.

"I'm going to drive her back to Seattle." He didn't wait for the stunned reaction to that statement. Jacob opened the door and went through, closing it behind him as quietly as Emily had done a moment earlier.

He strode quickly through the hall and out onto the graceful veranda that surrounded the first level of the house. He was in time. Emily's compact little station wagon was still sitting in the driveway. He loped down the steps and over to the vehicle, reaching it just as Emily leaned forward to twist the key in the ignition. Jacob opened the door.

"I'll drive," he said.

She turned a startled face up to him, her amber eyes widening in the faint light from the veranda. "You'll what?"

"I said I'll drive." He eased in beside her, forcing her gently into the other seat. He had to move swiftly, before she could gather her senses and start thinking. "Fasten your seat belt." It always amazed him how easily people would follow clear orders when they were totally confused and upset. Emily automatically reached for her belt. Jacob was already buckling his own and switching on the engine.

"What do you think you're doing, Mr. Stone?"

"A favor." He wheeled the little car out of the drive, not bothering to glance back at the lighted veranda to see if the rest of the Ravenscrofts were watching. "I'm going to drive you home."

"As my mother pointed out, home is two hundred miles away, and I don't need any more favors from you. You've done enough for me. I'm sure you'll understand if I don't thank you for all your hard work. Stop this car and get out."

But she was sitting stiffly in the seat, her hands in her lap, and Jacob knew now she was not going to try anything foolish such as leaping out of the car. He kept his attention on the rain-slick street that wound down the hillside and spoke calmly.

"You handled them very well this time, Emily. I was proud of you."

"Do you think I care about your opinion?" she asked tightly.

"Probably not." Jacob glanced sideways. She was staring out the windshield, her gentle profile illuminated by the streetlights. Emily was the youngest and definitely the softest of the Ravenscroft clan, but she had the distinctive family features.

Her jet-black hair swung just above her shoulders in a smooth, shining mass. Her wide, amber eyes, framed by soft bangs, were slightly tilted at the outer corners, reminding Jacob of a cat. Her face was fine boned and delicate, like the rest of her. She had an exotic, almost feline grace that she seemed totally unaware of. He rather liked the glasses. Two years ago she had worn contact lenses.

Jacob had found himself fascinated by her tonight as he had watched her from the shadows. Two years had passed since he had last seen her, but he had known the instant she walked into the study that nothing had changed. The old hunger had not died. He still wanted her.

In fact, he acknowledged, as he drove down out of the hills toward the interstate, he wanted her a lot more now than he had two years ago. Tonight he had seen the new womanly strength in her as well as the captivating femininity, and the combination was dynamite. No wonder Morrell was licking his lips and waiting to pounce. All this and a chunk of Ravenscroft International, too. Morrell must have thought he'd landed in clover the day he came across Emily Ravenscroft.

"The tape wasn't faked, Emily," Jacob said into the silence. "That was Morrell talking about his plans to cripple Ravenscroft through you. And that woman he was speaking to was his mistress. A woman named Marcia. I can prove it, if you really have any doubts."

"How did you get the tape?" Emily asked in disgust. "Did you hide under their bed?"

Jacob's mouth hardened. "No. That little scene was not taped in a bedroom. You heard the voice of the waiter and the clatter of dishes. Morrell and the woman met in a restaurant. A place they've been using almost every week for the past year. People tend to be predictable in their daily habits, even nasty people like Morrell."

"That aspect of human nature must greatly simplify your life. You don't have to spend a large amount of time snooping around bedroom windows and garbage cans. You just figure out your victims' habits and take advantage of established routines. Nice work."

He heard the grim anger in her voice and sighed. It wasn't going to be easy. His fingers opened and closed around the steering wheel as he guided the small station wagon onto the interstate and headed toward Seattle. "I know you have a low opinion of my job skills, Emily, but I give you my word I don't make my living snooping around bedroom windows and garbage cans. I never have."

"The little
favor
you did for my family was an exception?"

"You're not going to believe this, but I did it for your sake, not theirs."
Most of all, I did it for my sake
, Jacob added silently. There was no way in hell he could let her marry Morrell now.

"How noble of you." Her eyes raked him as she glanced briefly in his direction. "I assume you were motivated by the same sort of gallantry this time as you were last time? What a lucky woman I am to have a knight hovering in the background who can be relied on to dash in and humiliate me whenever the rest of the Ravenscrofts decide I've made a mistake in my love life."

"Nobody wanted to humiliate you. But you had made a mistake. A big one. Your family was desperate to put a stop to your association with Damon Morrell, and they said you'd ignored all their warnings."

"Just as they were desperate to put a stop to my relationship with Brad Carlton two years ago. At least last time I didn't have to listen to any embarrassing tapes." Emily clenched her hands in her lap. "That was the worst part, you know. Listening to that tape tonight and knowing everyone else in the room had already heard it. I could feel all of you watching me. I knew what you were thinking. Poor, foolish little Emily has been duped again by a man." She paused for a moment and then added quietly, "I don't think I shall ever forgive any of you for the way you did it this time."

Jacob felt his stomach tighten with tension. "Maybe it wasn't well-handled. None of us, your family or myself, are subtle people. We thought a quick, clean approach would be best. You wouldn't have believed me or your parents if there hadn't been proof. That's why I made the tape. I couldn't think of any other way to convince you that Morrell was a lying bastard."

"You mean you didn't think you could simply buy him off the way Dad had you buy off Brad two years ago?"

Jacob swore softly. "Brad Carlton was an ambitious, greedy young man. He thought he could get a head start in life by marrying into your family, but the truth was, he wasn't all that eager to get married. He was more than happy to have the money without taking the vows."

"So my father sent you, his loyal errand boy, to buy him off."

Jacob's temper began to flare. He told himself he was prepared to be tolerant up to a point, but Emily was beginning to push him. He'd never seen her in quite this mood. "When I offered him a lump sum in cash to call off the wedding, he fell all over himself grabbing the money."

"And then the family fell all over me pointing out what a fool I had been. At least I got out tonight before the lecture." Emily looked at him again. "I assume I'm stuck with you all the way to Seattle?"

"Unless you want to turn around and go back to spend the night at your parents' house," he said gently.

"Would you, if you were me?"

Jacob blinked owlishly. "No," he finally admitted. "I probably would have done what you did. Walked out. I told you, I was proud of you."

Emily was silent for a moment. "Were they surprised that I dared to do it?"

"Very surprised."

"Good. It's nice to know I didn't play out the entire scene the way they intended it to be played. I'll take my little consolations where I can. I suppose you're insisting on driving me back to Seattle for my own good, just like you made that tape for my own good?"

Jacob squelched his rising irritation. "Yes."

"Terrific. How are you going to get back to Portland?"

He shrugged. "I can fly back or take the train tomorrow."

She folded her arms under her breasts and leaned back into the corner of the seat. "Where do you plan to spend the night?"

He winced at the soft challenge in her voice. "A hotel, I suppose. I take it you're not going to offer to let me sleep on your couch?"

"Nope. I don't owe you a damned thing, least of all a bed for the night. You're used to taking care of yourself, Jacob. I'm sure you'll be just fine on your own. Tell me something—is it true what my father said? That you quit Ravenscroft International a couple of months ago?"

The question surprised him. He decided to take advantage of the opportunity to tell her about his plans. "It's true. I left Ravenscroft because I've got some ideas of my own for the future. I intend to set up a consulting firm that will cater to companies interested in getting into the overseas construction market. Basically I'll be selling advice. After working for RI for six years, I know the territory."