Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (6 page)

Ty shouldn’t have been able to affect
her anymore, but the pang she felt in her heart at the possibility of his
family joining him told a different story, jolting her to her core. Deciding to
escape before he could see how the thought of him married truly wounded her;
she slid around the desk. Heading straight for the door she didn’t wait for his
response to the invite. Ty stepped in front of her, effectively blocking her
path. She looked at him questioningly, yearning for him to move and felt the
heat from his smoldering eyes.

“Jenny’s married and lives in Oregon,
not far from my own ranch. She, her husband, and their two boys are all the
family I have.” Ty smiled down at her, watching her face heat up in
embarrassment.

She had been hinting at his marital
status. He speculated whether she was as curious about the rest of his life.
Did she want to know how his life had been without her in it? There was so much
he didn’t know about her life now. Had she missed their friendship, as he had?

“Did your sister tell you it was me that
was coming?” he inquired huskily, hoping she had volunteered to meet with him because
she had known it was him. Even though she alleged differently earlier, he didn’t
know whether to trust her claim. He wanted it to be otherwise, that what they
had shared years before had not so easily been forgotten.

His voice hitting her ears made her
stomach flutter. It took her back in time to when she had been an adolescent
hanging on his every word, believing her world would end if he wasn’t in it. It
hadn’t. When she had been forced to leave home, she had learned to survive
without him.

“No,” she stated flatly. Her rage
mounted as the memories and the pain resurfaced. It stung knowing he was
intentionally being cruel. Trying to make her recount that period in her life,
his eye held those remembrances reflected in them. They forced her to remember,
making her relive that shame all over again. Disgusted, Alex quickly tried to
side step to the right and slide around him. He was persistent, his steps
mirroring hers. Feeling as if the room were closing in on her, she took a deep
breath lowering her head.

Her head remanded down as she heard his
voice.

“Your grandfather told me you lived in
L.A. now,” he inquired, not letting her get away from him so easily. “What are
you doing here in Texas? I thought the last place I would ever find you was on
a working cattle ranch. You used to hate ranch life. You were even afraid of
the horses, not to mention the cattle,” he mused reminiscently, wanting her to
recall the happier times between them.

His dark eyes played over her down cast
features while his blood heated from being near her again. How long was Alex
visiting the ranch? Stupidity let her get away from him once. Making up his
mind, he decided he would take what he wanted this time. There was no one and
nothing to hold him back. He still craved her.

Noticing her flush and make a move to go
around him again, he placed his hand on her arm to halt her. She looked up at
him apprehensively, her reaction damning. His eyes fell to her parted lips then
back to her eyes. The fever was still there. He could feel it. When he touched
her, she couldn’t hide it. The small tremor he felt move up her arm was all the
proof he needed that she was still attracted to him.

Her heart was threatening to break out
of her chest, pounding uncontrollably at his nearness. He was too close.
Something changed. Alex had been this close to him before, but now he was
looking at her like a woman, not a child. Could he really see their past so
differently than she did? He was acting as if he did. Or was this just a new
game he was playing with her now that she was older?

Trying to distract him enough to release
her, she told him, “I’m here on vacation, a break from work. Don’t worry. You
won’t see me much.” Alex jerked on her arm to get him to loosen his iron grip.

He only increased the pressure of his
long fingers, not wanting her to escape yet. “Why wouldn’t I want to see you
Alex? How long will you be staying? We used to be friends once. Maybe we could
start over, and see where it takes us?” He smirked down at her, waiting for her
response.

She sucked in her breath. Not trusting
her ears, she couldn’t believe he really assumed she was so stupid as to fall
for this again? The way he was acting, you would think he cared. Even so, Alex
knew differently.
He is so arrogant! He really doesn’t know how much I
despise him!
That’s why he was behaving the way he was, he didn’t know she
knew the truth. She smiled back with pure mockery. She knew Ty for what he
truly was. He was just another person after the money. He wasn’t asking because
he cared about her or her family. He was just as selfish and unfeeling as he
ever was. It had just taken her growing up and having it thrown in her face to
come to that hard fact.

“I guess I need to stay out of the fresh
air around here, because obviously, the fumes from the cow manure are somehow
affecting your brain. Seriously? That’s the line you’re going to try on me?” At
his look of bewilderment, she continued, wanting to make it crystal-clear what
she thought of him, “Oh, what the heck? I’ll probably be staying a couple of
weeks, although I don’t have any definite plans. However,” pausing poignantly,
she said, “if I need a friend, I will look for someone I know I can trust.
Thanks, but no thanks. I’m sure you can find some activity to keep you
entertained other than me,” Alex bristled.

He let go of her arm as if she had
burned him, he growled, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” As she
stiffened and clenched her fists at her side, he was truly shocked by the
hatred he saw radiating out from her green eyes.

“Let's just say that I’ve grown up some.
I don’t trust people who betray and use me. Go find some cowgirl jockey to play
with,” she remarked, forcefully.

Stunned, he didn’t know whether to laugh
his head off or shake her until her teeth rattled for the nasty accusation.
“When did I ever betray you?” he demanded, grabbing her chin and forcing her to
look him in the eyes.

There was contempt peering back at him,
and bitterness. It dawned on him that she held him responsible for the hatred
burning in their depths. It was there in the way she held herself rigid in
front of him.

“Believe me, it's hard not to notice
that you’ve grown up Alexandria.” Taking notice of how her eyes flared when he
had called her by her given name, he pulled her further into his arms, giving
into the temptation to feel her breasts through her sweatshirt. He needed to
experience her, to know she was real and not a dream.

No one called her Alexandria except Ty.
No one would ever dare to. Her grandfather would have a seizure if he caught
him calling her that, she thought. However, Ty was a rule unto himself. Looking
him in the eye, she squared her shoulders and raised her chin a notch.

Not able to control her tongue, knowing
even before she spoke she would regret revealing what she knew, “I heard you
that night at the party. I was just a joke to you, a way to amuse yourself. I
was a fool to believe I could trust in you! All you cared about was yourself!
You could have cared less about me or my family. You used me!” she accused, her
voice raw with emotions she still felt after all these years. “Now, if you will
excuse me, I would like to leave,” she said discourteously.

His grip on her arm lessened
inadvertently from the shock and anguish he saw in her eyes. She jerked out of
his entrapment and stepped around him toward the door. He thought by now she
would have figured out why he’d said what he had that night. He would have to
make her understand that what she had overheard was only said to protect her.
Growling deep in his throat he spun around racing after her. There was no way
he was letting her just dismiss him without letting him explain. When she had
gotten half way across the room, he grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her
around to confront her.

“Oh, no you don’t! You’re not leaving
until you hear me out,” he demanded his anger just as hot as hers.

Her eyes flared, and he noticed the way
her pulse jumped at her throat and how heat rose in her cheeks. Breathing
ragged, she appeared panicked by the touch of his hands on her shoulders.
Trapping her eyes behind her glasses, he read her response in them, and he knew
she still wanted him. He recognized the look in her eyes. He’d had the
identical look in his eyes years ago when he looked in a mirror and thought
about the two of them together. That same desire almost consumed him once.

Despite trying to lower her head, Alex
wasn’t swift enough to hide her reaction to his nearness. She took a deep
breath and let it out slowly to steady her shaky nerves before bringing up her
head.

Her eyes blazed with contempt that she
wanted him to witness. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. If you
need anything, ask Martha. I’m sure she would be more than happy to help you.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have a headache. I’m going to go lie down.”
Bracing herself in case he was prepared for a physical fight with her to get
her to remain, she deliberately leaned back to make her point. If he was going
to continue with this ploy, she was willing to retaliate by raging a war to get
him to release her.

It had wounded her pride, overhearing
him that night. His conscience paid a terrible price for it also; one he’d paid
every day since. She’d been getting too close, becoming an all-consuming fire
in his blood.

Ty released her reluctantly, knowing
that in the mood she was in, it would be like talking to a brick wall. While he
was working on the ranch, one way or another, he would get her to see his side.
She couldn’t hide forever; from him or the past.

“This isn’t over,” he warned her, as she
crossed the thresh hold of the room.

“Wanna bet?” she declared coldly.
Turning in the doorway to look back, she saw his eyes narrow as they darkened
to an ominous shade. His eyes fell to her breasts, poignantly driving home the
point that her body thought otherwise. As he watched, she felt them shudder
under his dark gaze. Not wanting him to know the full effect he could still
bring out in her treacherous body, she folded her arms over her chest in an
attempt to hide her response to his embrace moments before. She knew her
breasts had tightened and swelled after he had drawn her against his muscled
chest.

“Never bet with me, lady. You’ll lose, but
what a way to go-” He walked purposely towards her and she all but ran from the
room, fleeing from his threat.

Earlier, he had thought getting Alex in
his bed would be easy. He now knew differently. Alex was still the same
spitfire she had always been.
Well maybe this assignment won’t be so boring after
all.
Smiling smugly to himself, he contemplated the possibilities. He let
her slip through his fingers six years ago; she wouldn’t be so lucky this time.
He would have her, and he was going to enjoy every minute of placing her in his
bed, no matter what Max thought or threatened.
This time I’m going to be the
one to win.

Alex heard his laughter as she raced up
the stairs to her room, her body shaking so badly she didn’t think she would be
able to reach the bed before her legs gave out. Ty had never shown her his true
feelings. He hid them from her. He had always remained in perfect control of
his emotions, except for the one night that had changed their friendship
forever, and consequently, changed the course of what she had hoped her life
would be. Up until a few moments ago, she had genuinely thought what she felt
for Ty was dead and buried.
It has to be lust
, she told herself.

The headache that had started with her
grandfather’s call was now a full-blown migraine. She closed her eyes as she
reclined back on her bed, letting the tears fall unchecked down her cheeks. Why
had she ever let Sam persuade her into coming here? Her brain kept screaming at
her to pack her bags and leave.
If I do, Ty will know I’m running away
because of him. That he gets under my skin.
He could never find out who she
was. If he discovered her secret, her past would be laid open for him to see.
Everything was in the songs she had composed. The pleasure he would get in
torturing her about her music, and the obvious feelings she had for him back
then, would rip her apart. This time fate was conspiring to bring them full
circle. It was as if they were destined to take up right where they ended so
long ago.

Looking back, she was so naïve. Maybe
that was why she had seen things through rose-colored glasses…then.

When Ty had come to work for her
grandfather, he had stood out from the very beginning. Being just a kid of
fifteen to Alex’s nine; he was working for extra money to help support his
family.

Alex would never forget the day she had
first seen him. In her haste to hunt for her grandfather, she forgot about the
dark interior and the horses that lay within the barn. She froze in the cool
corridor; terror seizing hold of her limbs as she suddenly realized where she ventured.
The smell of the hay was overpowering to her senses. The noises from the
livestock nauseated her.

Her parents’ funeral was like a
kaleidoscope through her mind. She had always been petrified of the dark and of
horses. Those fears had only intensified after their funeral, as their coffins
had been transported to their final resting place by a horse drawn carriage.
Now, she was plagued with the image of being inside of a coffin blanketed in
total darkness, unable to breathe and without even a sliver of light. Trapped
as her parents were, and terrified. Her grandparents struggled to quiet her
panic, striving to explain death to her. Even so, it didn’t stop the nightmares
or her phobia of being engulfed in total nothingness.