Strange Bedfellow (15 page)

The morning crush of Newport traffic seemed heavier than normal, the distance to the office greater, the time passing slower, and the polar atmosphere between them colder than ever.
 

Feeling like a puppy dog on a leash, Dina followed Blake from the parking lot to his office. There she sat down, adopting a business air to listen to specific suggestions that had been offered by Blake and the staff for the campaign. It was a far-reaching plan, extending to redecorating some hotels to meet with their new resort image.
 

At that one, Dina couldn't help commenting caustically, “I'm surprised I'm not limited to that task. Decorating is woman's work, isn't it?”
 

The thrust of his frigid gaze pierced her like a cold knife. “Do you want to discuss this program intelligently? Or do you want to bring our personal difficulties into it? Because if you do, I'll find someone else for the job.”
 

Her pride wanted to tell him to find that person, but common sense insisted she would ultimately be the loser if she did. The project promised to be a challenge, and Dina had come to enjoy that. Her pride was a bitter thing to swallow, but she managed to get it down.
 

“Sorry. That remark just slipped out.” She shrugged. “Go on.”
 

There was a second's pause as Blake weighed her words before continuing. When he had concluded, he gave her a copy of the notes from the staff meeting and a tentative budget.
 

Dina glanced over them, then asked, “Where am I to work?”
 

“I'll take you to your new office.”
 

She followed him out of the office and walked beside him down the long corridor until they came to the end. Blake opened the last door.
 

“Here it is.”
 

The metal desk, chair and shelves seemed to fill up the room. Three offices this size could have fit into Blake's office, Dina realized. And that wasn't all. It was cut off from the other staff offices, at the end of the hall, isolated. She could die in there and nobody would know, she thought to herself.
 

Blake saw the fire smoldering in her blue eyes. “This is the only office that was available on such short notice,” he explained.
 

“Is it?” she retorted grimly.
 

“Yes—” he clipped out the word challengingly “—unless you think I should have moved one of the executive staff out of his or her office to make room for you.”
 

Dina knew that would have been illogical and chaotic, with records being shifted and their exact location possibly unknown for several days. Still, she resented the size and location of her new office, regardless of how much she accepted the practicality of its choice. But she didn't complain. She didn't have to, since Blake knew how she felt.
 

She looked at the bare desk top and said, “There's no telephone?”
 

“Arrangements have already been made to have one installed today.”
 

“Fine.” She walked briskly into the room, aware of Blake still standing in the doorway.
 

“If you have any questions—” he began in a cool tone.
 

Dina interrupted, “I doubt if I will.” The banked fires of her anger glittered in the clear blue of her eyes.
 

His gaze narrowed, his expression hardening. “You can be replaced, Dina.”
 

“Permanently?” she drawled in a taunting kitten-purr voice.
 

For an instant she thought he might do away with her violently, but instead he exhibited that iron control and pivoted to walk away. There was a tearing in her heart as he left. Dina wondered if she was deliberately antagonizing him or merely reacting to his attempted domination of her.
 

Pushing the unanswerable question aside, she set to work, taking an inventory of the supplies on hand and calculating what she would need. After obtaining the required items from the supply room, she began making a list of information she would need before drawing up a plan of action for the advertising campaign.
 

At the sound of footsteps approaching the end of the hallway, she glanced up from her growing list. She had left the door to her office open to lessen the claustrophobic sensation, and she watched the doorway, curious as to who would be coming and for what reason.
 

Chet appeared, pausing in the doorway, a twinkle in his gray blue eyes, an arm behind his back. “Hello there,” he smiled.
 

“Are you lost or slumming?” Dina questioned with a wry curve to her lips.
 

He chuckled and admitted, “I was beginning to think I was going to have to stop and ask directions before I found you.”
 

“It's certain I'm not going to be bothered with people stopping by to chat on their way someplace else. This is the end of the line,” she declared with a rueful glance around the tiny office. “Which brings me to the next obvious question.”
 

“What am I doing here?” Chet asked it for her. “When I heard you were exiled to the far reaches of the office building, I decided you might like a cup of hot coffee.” The arm that had been behind his back moved to the front to reveal the two Styrofoam cups of coffee he was juggling in one hand. “At least, I hope it's hot. After that long walk, it might be cold.”
 

“Hot or lukewarm, it sounds terrific.” Dina straightened away from the desk to relax against the rigid back of her chair. “I shall love you forever for thinking of it.”
 

She had tossed out the remark without considering what she was saying, but she was reminded of it as a discomfited look flashed across Chet's face.
 

“I guess that brings me to the second reason why I'm here.” He lowered his head as he walked into the room, not quite able to meet her gaze.
 

“You mean about not meeting me yesterday and sending Blake in your place,” Dina guessed, accurately as it turned out
 

“Yes, well—” Chet set the two cups on the desk top “—I'm sorry about that. I know you didn't want me to tell Blake and I wouldn't have, either, except that he was in my office when you called and he guessed who I was talking to.”
 

“So he said,” she murmured, not really wanting to talk about it in view of the discussion she had with Blake last night regarding Chet.
 

“Blake didn't lay down the law and forbid me to go or anything like that, Dina.”
 

“He didn't?” she breathed skeptically.
 

“No. He asked if you sounded upset,” Chet explained. “When I said that you did, he admitted that the two of you were having a few differences and he thought it was best that I didn't become involved in it. He didn't want me to be put in the position of having to take sides when both of you are my friends.”
 

Friends
? Dina thought. Just a few days ago, Chet had been her fiancé, not her friend. But he looked so pathetically sorry for having let her down yesterday that she simply couldn't heap more guilt on his bowed head.
 

Instead she gave him the easy way out. “Blake was right, it isn't fair to put you in the middle of our disagreements. If I hadn't been so upset I would have realized it. Anyway, it doesn't matter now.” She shrugged. “It all worked out for the best.” That was a white lie, since it almost had, until their blowup that morning.
 

“I knew it would.” The smile he gave her was tinged with relief. “Although I wasn't surprised to hear Blake admit that the two of you had got off to a rocky start.” He removed the plastic lid from the cup and handed the cup to her.
 

“Why do you say that?” she asked.
 

“The two of you were always testing each other to see which was the stronger. It looks like you still are.”
 

“Which one us is the stronger? In your opinion,” Dina qualified her question.
 

“Oh, I don't know.” His laughter was accompanied by a dubious shake of his head. “A feeling of loyalty to my own sex makes me want to say Blake, but I have a hunch I would be underestimating you.”
 

In other words, Dina realized, Chet was not taking sides. He was going to wait until there was a clear-cut winner. In the meantime he was keeping his options open, buttering up both of them.
 

The minute the last thought occurred to her, Dina knew it had been influenced by Blake's comment that Chet was always beside the one in power. But she immediately squashed the thought as small and not deserving of someone as loyal as Chet.
 

“You're a born diplomat, Chet.” She lifted the coffee cup in a toast. “No wonder you're such an asset to this company.”
 

“I try to be,” he admitted modestly, and touched the side of his cup to hers. “Here's to the new campaign.”
 

The coffee was only medium hot and Dina took a big sip of it. Chet's reference to the new project made her glance at the papers, notes and lists spread over her desk.
 

“It's going to be quite a formidable project.” She took a deep breath, aware of the magnitude of the image change for the Chandler Hotel chain. “But I can feel it's right and that it will be very successful.”
 

“That's the third reason I'm here.”
 

Her startled gaze flew to his face, her blue eyes rounded and bright with inquiry. “Why?”
 

Had she made Blake so angry that he was already taking her off the campaign? Oh, why hadn't she held her tongue, she thought, angered by the way she had kept pushing him.
 

“Blake wants me to work with you on it,” Chet announced.
 

Her relief that Blake hadn't replaced her didn't last long. “Doesn't he think I'm capable of handling it by myself?” Her temper flared at the implied doubt of her ability.
 

“You wouldn't be here if he didn't believe you could,” he said placatingly. “But after all, you said it yourself. It's going to be a formidable project and you're going to need some help. I've been nominated to be your help. Besides, Blake knows how well we worked together as a team while he was gone.”
 

Dina counted to ten, forcing herself to see the logic of Chet's explanation. But she wasn't sure that she liked the idea. There was still the possibility that Blake had appointed Chet as her watchdog and he would go running to Blake the instant she made a mistake.
 

She was doing it again, she realized with a desperate kind of anger. She was not only questioning Blake's motives, but making accusations against Chet's character, as well. Damn Blake, she thought, for putting doubts about Chet in her mind.
 

Chet took a long swig of his coffee, then set it aside. “Where shall we begin?”
 

“I've been making some lists,” Dina readjusted her attention to the project at hand.
 

She went over the lists with Chet, discussing various points with him. Although Dina was still skeptical of Blake's motives in having Chet assist her, she accepted it at face value until she could prove otherwise. An hour later, Chet left her small office with a formidable list of his own to carry out.
 

The bulk of the day Dina spent getting the project organized. In itself, that was no easy task. At five o'clock, she was going over the master list again, making notes in the margins while various ideas were still fresh in her mind.
 

“Are you ready?” Blake's voice snapped from the open doorway.
 

Her head jerked up at the sound. The lenses of her glasses blurred his image, deceptively softening the toughness of his features. For an instant, Dina almost smiled a welcome, then the sharpness of his demanding question echoed in her mind. Recovering from that momentary rush of pleasure, Dina bent her head over the papers once again.
 

“I will only be a few more minutes.” She adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose.
 

Blake walked in, his dislike at being kept waiting charging the air with tension. He sat in the straight-backed chair in front of her desk. Dina was conscious of his scrutiny, both of her and her work.
 

“Since when did you wear glasses?” he accused.
 

She touched a finger to a bow, realizing he had never seen her wearing them. “I began wearing them about a year ago.”
 

“Do you need them?”
 

“What a ridiculous question!” she snapped. “Of course, I need them.”
 

“It isn't so ridiculous,” Blake contradicted with dry sarcasm. “They enhance the image of a crisp, professional career woman who has turned her back on domestic pursuits.”
 

It was a deliberately baiting comment. Dina chose not to rise to the tempting lure. “With all the reading and close work I have had to do, it became too much of a strain on my eyes. After too many headaches, I put my vanity aside and began wearing glasses to read. They have nothing to do with my image,” she lied, since the choice of frame styles had been made with that in mind.