Stormy Challenge (6 page)

"You'll have to forgive my sense of humor this morning," she grated. "It's at a low ebb."

"Come down to the beach, Leya, or at least down to breakfast," he murmured coaxingly. "We have to talk."

"I'm not setting foot outside this room in your company. Can't you get it through your thick head that I don't want to see you again? You certainly seem bright enough on other matters!"

"You're determined to be stubborn about this?" he demanded in soft warning.

"Why not? It goes along with being foolish and having an oversized ego!"

"When it comes to being foolish, I'm the one who should be accepting the honors!"

he snapped, putting out a hand to grasp her thick braid. With a quick tug, he forced her closer, ignoring the sharp gasp of anger and pain from his victim. "I should have kept you in my room and in my bed last night. We wouldn't be going through this little scene now if I had!"

"I can only be grateful that some remnant of my own common sense was at work last night!" she hurled back vengefully. "I can't bear to think of how much more foolish and stupid I would be feeling this morning if I had let you seduce me!"

"That's not the way it would have been. You would have understood ..."

"If you think I would have been so awestruck by your incredible lovemaking that I would have forgiven you the deception, you're out of your mind!"

He drew a sharp breath, and she knew he was waging an inner struggle with his temper. The knowledge that she had succeeded in upsetting him to some small degree was satisfying.

"Listen to me, Leya Brandon," he charged, his grip on her hair bordering on the painful. "You're going to get the full story of how I wound up involved in this situation whether you like it or not. I would prefer to do my talking down on the beach where the breeze can evaporate some of your heat, but if you insist, I'll do it here. Take your choice. Either way, you're going to hear me out!"

"You can't force me to listen to you!" Leya wrenched her head, trying to free the braid, but she only succeeded in hurting herself.

"Want to bet? I'm a hell of a lot bigger than you are!"

"Don't you dare threaten me!" she hissed, slightly appalled at his vehemence. Why couldn't he take his victory and leave?

"I'd rather reason than threaten, but you seem beyond the reasoning point! I'm not leaving you alone until you've heard me out, Leya."

She stared at him, knowing he meant everything he said and unsure how to handle his iron will. Short of screaming, there wasn't any obvious way of getting him out of her room, and a walk on the beach didn't sound all that bad. She needed to get some of the churning anger out of her system. Perhaps she could go for the walk and let him ramble his excuses. When he'd had his say, she could simply turn her back on him. There might be some satisfaction in showing him he couldn't talk his way out of the situation. The only thing that bothered her was why he should even want to try.

Unless having her signature on the contract wasn't reassuring enough for him . . .

That last thought decided her. It also jolted her. She had to remember that this wasn't just between herself and Court Tremayne. Keith was involved. And Leya still held fifty percent of the shares of Brandon Security. If she chose to try and get Keith to listen to her . . . Yes, Tremayne might have reason to be concerned.

"All right," she agreed ungraciously. "I'll go for the walk."

He relaxed visibly, releasing the chain of her braid. "Thank you, Leya."

"Don't thank me," she grumbled, turning away to collect her down jacket. "I'm going under duress. I can't understand what you're hoping to accomplish!"

"I only want to explain, that's all," he protested, watching as she zipped the front of the dark blue jacket. His eyes traveled over her with a curious possessiveness that annoyed Leya.

She said nothing as they went to his room, waiting in the hall while he picked up a sheepskin coat. He didn't try to persuade her inside, appearing to realize she'd been pushed far enough for the moment. In silence, refusing his proffered arm, she stalked beside him down the path leading to the rocky, untamed beach. The aftermath of the previous evening's storm had left the usual calling cards of carelessly tossed driftwood and broken shells. The tide was out and the sea moved sleepily under a gray sky.

Leya felt herself being absorbed into the scene, her senses responding as they always did to the feel of the ocean environment. It appealed to her love of the tactile quality in life, and when she accidentally caught Court's shrewd glance, she knew he was aware of the effect. Grimly, she closed her face so that he wouldn't start congratulating himself on that bit of perception, too!

"Well?" she prompted coldly. "Let's have it. I'd like to get the postmortem over."

He shoved his hands into the fleece-lined pockets of his jacket and shot her a narrowed glance as they walked.

"I met your brother a few months ago when he first began looking for a consultant."

Leya said nothing, her eyes fixed on the far end of the beach.

"We met initially, though, not because of my financial background but because of some work I've done with security electronics. He was interested in some of my"—

Court hesitated—"some of the results of my basement tinkering."

Leya did glance up at that and as quickly away. What was it to her if he liked to work with his hands occasionally? She certainly didn't want him thinking they might have something in common!

"He was interested in exploring some of the possibilities of a gadget he found out I had put together. One thing led to another and we started talking business."

"Keith needed a consultant for the business and you needed a way of marketing your latest gadget, is that it?" Leya murmured, leaping to the obvious conclusion.

"Not quite," he shot back dryly. "There were other markets for my little security device."

"But none that offered you control of the company at the same time, I'll bet!"

"Shut up, Leya," he told her peaceably enough. "I'm trying to explain."

Leya lapsed back into silence. Didn't he realize nothing he said could possibly alter this feeling of betrayal inside her?

"Keith and I eventually reached an agreement acceptable to both of us, and then he explained about your position in the firm."

"The silent partner who wasn't being too silent!"

"But who seemed to have no interest in Brandon Security except to babysit her brother!"

Leya winced at that. Was that how Keith had taken her resistance to the idea of the contract? She had never interfered in his life before, and it was only her basic good sense that had prompted her to do so this time!

"He told me a great deal about you, honey. He's very fond of you, and he's got a lot of admiration for his independent, successful older sister. But he's found what he wants to do in life, Leya, and he's determined to do it his way. He wants you to remain the silent partner and let him run Brandon Security."

"You mean let you run it, don't you?" She gritted her teeth.

"I've got the experience in both electronics and finance the firm needs right now.

Brandon Security is in trouble, Leya. Your brother won't be able to salvage it on his own. He's got the intelligence to see that, and he's got the guts to take the necessary steps to save it. Two years from now, he'll be a very smart, very street-wise young businessman. I'll see to that."

"We'll certainly find out if you're telling the truth, won't we?" Leya smiled with brittle, dazzling brilliance. "The contract is on its way back to Keith, and you're in charge of Brandon Security for the next two years. Bring me your report card at the end of that time and we'll see how you did!"

He came to a halt, swinging around to face her with his feet braced slightly apart.

Without a word, Leya stopped, raising her cold green eyes to meet his piercing gaze.

"I don't intend to wait two years for you to forgive me, Leya."

"Why do you need my forgiveness at all?" she countered recklessly, the sea breeze loosening tendrils of dark hair and whipping them around her throat.

"Because I want you," he said with flat honesty.

Leya gaped at him in open surprise, and then her teeth closed with a snap. "Oh, come off it, Court. Who's playing games now? You don't want me nor do you need me. Not any longer. You've gotten what you wanted!"

"No, I haven't. Not yet. But I will!"

"What you lack in romance and subtlety you certainly make up for in directness, don't you?" she mocked, outraged.

"I think," Court said slowly, examining every inch of her furious face, "that I began wanting you after your brother had told me something about you. From the way he talked, I knew I was going to find you interesting, to say the least. And I had to admire the way you'd picked up on the possible dangers in that contract we wanted you to sign. I was quite annoyed when you didn't bother to keep the appointment I'd set up for us to meet, and when I discovered you'd taken the contract and disappeared, I decided to find out for myself just what you were really like."

"So you came sneaking up here, pretending to be someone else ..." Leva began in a voice that shook.

"I came up here to find out if the real-life woman had the same laughter and challenge in her eyes that I'd seen in the portrait in Keith's office,"--he drawled softly, deeply.

Leya bit her lip, remembering the portrait her father had commissioned shortly before his death and had hung in the office that was now Keith's. Then she opened her silver-green eyes very wide and spoke in liquid tones.

"Look closely, Courtland Gannon Tremayne. I'm not laughing."

He reached for her, and she stepped hurriedly back out of range, a derisive sound on her lips. Why did he

continue to lie to her? It made no obvious sense! "I don't know what new game you're playing now, Court, unless you're afraid I'll turn my brother against you and make it difficult for you to do what you want with Brandon Security. But whatever it is, don't expect me to be fool enough to fall for your lies again! I know it's asking a lot in view of the current evidence, but try and credit me with some intelligence!"

"Leya, when you spontaneously asked me what I thought of that contract yesterday, the opportunity of getting it out of the way was too good to miss. But I didn't force you to sign it! You signed it because my arguments in favor of it were sound. They still are. Forget it now. That business is behind us where it should be. It had nothing to do with you and me in the first place."

Her eyes slitted at the note of urgency in his voice. "Do you really believe I'm going to simply forget what you've done to me?"

"I haven't done anything to you, damn it! Not yet, at any rate!" he growled feelingly, almost as if he were the persecuted one, Leya thought incredulously. "The contract isn't important. It was between me and your brother and should never have involved you in the first place. Naturally, I used the easiest method available of getting it out of the way . . ."

"So you could concentrate on me?" she scoffed, knowing he was lying and almost wishing he wasn't. But that was ridiculous. She wanted to be free of this man, not to discover he might actually be attracted to her after all!

"Yes!" he snapped back, frowning.

"What a waste of time," Leya said with a patently false regret. "I'm no longer in a mood to be the focus of your undivided attention, flattering though the offer may be!"

"You didn't seem to mind last night," Court pointed out righteously. She saw his hands shift slightly at his side and knew with a sense of triumph that he wanted to grab her and shake her. If nothing else, Court Tremayne was learning he wasn't going to have everything his own way!

"Last night I thought you were someone else, though, didn't I?" Leya tossed back very sweetly. "It was a simple case of mistaken identity. Probably could have happened to anyone." Her voice hardened. "Thank heavens I found out the truth in time!" She whipped around, the braid flying over her shoulder to hang down the center of her back. With grim briskness, she resumed her walk in tight-lipped fury.

This time, however, the fury was at her own runaway tongue. She shouldn't have tacked on that last line. It had been far too revealing and she could only hope he wouldn't pick up on it.

Court caught hold of her braid, yanking her to a violent halt before Leya had gone more than a few steps.

"Ouch!" she yelped, incensed at the small pain. "Let go of me, you sadist!"

But his response was a further, somewhat gentler tug that nevertheless managed to pull her slightly off balance and into his arms. At once, he steadied her by clamping her resisting body tightly against his broad chest.

"In time for what, Leya?" he demanded as she wedged her hands against his shoulders. "Why are you so glad you discovered who I was by this morning?"

"No special reason," she taunted, pushing with a disgusting lack of effect against his unyielding body. The silver in her eyes glinted as she lifted a resentful gaze to meet his probing one, "It's not at all uncommon for a woman to like to know the real name of the man who took her to dinner!"

"That's not what you meant, you little shrew. Tell me the truth! Or shall I do it for you?" he offered menacingly.

"You wouldn't know how!" Leya was acutely aware of the manner in which Court's small store of patience seemed to be depleting itself. But what did she care if he lost his temper altogether? There was nothing he could do to her now!

"You're telling yourself you're glad you found out the truth because you came very close to winding up in my bed last night, and there is every possibility you would have come even closer to doing so tonight. By the end of our week here together, you would have belonged to me completely and that frightens you, doesn't it?

You've realized you might have fallen for a man who made you feel like a fool."

"That's not true! You don't scare me in the least, Court Tremayne, but you do annoy the hell out of me! Kindly let me go!" Leya blazed, horrified at his perception. Her palms on his shoulders curled into fists as she struggled to escape his grasp.