Silk on the Skin: A Loveswept Classic Romance (11 page)

“Nothing’s the matter. It’s just that we might as well get everything out in the open.”

He gazed at her, the assessing look back in his eyes. She realized how little she had seen of the corporate man over the last several days. He had been … Dallas.

“So,” she said, forcing her gaze to remain on his. “Tell me why you disagree with Ned’s decision to go public. That is one of your main arguments, isn’t it?”

Settling back against the work table, he gazed at her. “I’m not the only one who doesn’t like it. But your assessment is correct. Ned’s looking to raise twenty million dollars by going public.”

She stared at him, shocked by the staggering amount. Recovering a little, she realized her mouth was hanging open, and she pursed her lips together. “Twenty million. And how much more are the banks loaning for the project?”

“They’re not.”

“What!”

He dipped his head.

She took a long, slow blink at what the implications were. “Is the company’s credit that bad?”

“For this project, it is. Banks like to be assured they’re going to get their money back with interest. They don’t like the fact that Ned is refusing to test-market the venture by opening a few boutiques first to see if they’ll take off in the marketplace.
He wants to open two hundred and fifty stores in one shot.”

“But that’s cra—” She stopped herself from saying anything further. It didn’t matter.

“Crazy,” he finished for her. “Yes, I know. So does everybody else, except Ned. You might as well close down M & L right now. At least the stockholders would come away with their investments intact. They won’t once the boutique fiasco starts. Ned’s power-hungry, Cass, and he’s got a right to be. You put him there.”

“Me!”

“That was too harsh,” he conceded, smiling gently at her. “But I have to admit that sometimes I can’t help feeling that way, since nobody can stop him from ruining a fine company. Except you.”

“It’s not so easy for me, Dallas,” she said, slowly pushing the mop across the floor. “I was never interested in the company, but I kept the stock mostly because it was from my grandfather. The Markses have been good to me, and I just can’t go in there and do what you’re asking. It’s not right.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

She turned around. “For what?”

“For not questioning what I’ve just told you.”

She shrugged. “I know you wouldn’t bother to lie about facts I can easily check.”

“One week ago you were suspicious of every word I said, and you know it.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, nobody would be foolish enough to lie about something like this, if the truth could easily be discovered.”

He laughed. “Don’t try to slide out of it, lady.”

“I’m not trying to slide out of anything,” she began hotly.

“Cass, you better quit while you’re ahead.”

She closed her mouth on a pithy remark.

He’d probably turn that to his advantage too.

He watched her house from behind the thick grass of the dunes. Despite the sliver of moon and faintly twinkling stars, his presence was well hidden. He could hear the waves lapping continually against the beach, and the strong wind coming off the ocean wafted across him, bringing a slight chill. His flesh rose in goose bumps. He ignored them.

It had become a habit to come out to the deserted beach for a night stroll. And each time he’d found himself heading in the direction of her house. No amount of lecturing on schoolboy behavior had stopped him from coming here to wait until she turned her lights out and went to bed. Then the fantasies would start.

Fantasies were all he had at the moment, he thought. Reality was an entirely different matter. He’d finally thought up a plan, and it called for some very old-fashioned courting. Cass was a very cautious and stubborn woman, and he’d quickly sensed that she wouldn’t expect him to woo her. But it was becoming increasingly important for Cass to accept him for who and what he was.

That was the problem. At the rate she was going, she wouldn’t accept him before the turn of the century.

Patience had never been one of his specialties,
and he’d been pushed to the limit of his endurance. He wanted her. His body was so highly tuned to her every movement now that it was painful even to look at her. He wondered if the verbal tug-of-war she’d recently been engaging in was an indication of her endurance limit. Just that morning she’d been hell-bent on provoking an argument over M & L. Instead she had given him an enormous amount of trust.

He was beyond walking away, and he knew it. Time was running out.

The invitation of the still-lighted house was too much to resist, and he rose to his feet and brushed the sand from his faded jeans. He admitted he wasn’t at his best, but then, she’d seen him less than impeccable in the past.

He scrambled up the bank and across the only road on that end of the island, all the while watching the lights of her house. If they went out now, he admitted he was probably at the point where he wouldn’t give a damn. His body and mind were in unison on the subject of Cass Lindley.

He’d just set foot on the bottom step when the sliding glass doors opened and she emerged on the deck above. His breath whistled when he saw her delicate profile silhouetted against the night. She was dressed in a sheer peignoir of orchid silk, and he gazed in awe at the picture of feminine beauty she made. A sudden strong breeze pushed the material against her slender frame, outlining her breasts, belly, and thighs. Her blond hair seemed to have a life of its own as it curled around her features. With one hand she smoothed it back from her face.

He climbed two more steps before she turned toward the stairs.

“I’ll scream!” she warned loudly, backing toward the safety of the house. “The cops’ll be here in two seconds!”

“Cass! It’s me, Dallas,” he said, amused.

“Oh.” She leaned over the rail and peered down the steps. “Are you sure? I can’t see you.”

“Trust me, Cass.”

“Yep, that’s you, all right.” She straightened. “So what are you doing here at this time of night?”

“I was taking a walk on the beach and saw your lights on, so I thought I’d drop by.”

“How nice,” she said flatly.

“Since you obviously aren’t buying that one,” he said, “would you believe I was running from little green Martians and knew you’d rescue me?”

“Martians are tall and elegant.”

“Okay. I came for Jaws.”

She chuckled softly. “Too late. I ate him yesterday.”

“I’m out of excuses, so why not take a walk with me on the beach. It’s a beautiful night.”

He waited through a short, tense silence, before saying, “Cass?”

“Not tonight.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I’m not in the mood for a walk. Or a talk. Go home, Dallas.”

He realized she was trying to put a barrier between them. It was much too late for that.

“Are you afraid you’ll give yourself away?” he asked challengingly.

There was a long silence this time.

“I think I will take that walk,” she said. “Just give me a moment to change and lock up.”

He smiled to himself as he waited for her at the bottom of the steps. He knew she’d never be able to resist a challenge. Anticipation rushed through him at the thought of being alone with her on the beach.

Just to walk, he told himself, knowing seduction was not what he needed tonight. Cass had to want him as much as he wanted her. Still, that didn’t stop the sensual visions from pushing at him.

“Okay,” Cass said as she joined him at the foot of the stairs. She had changed into a loose cotton shift trimmed with eyelet lace and small buttons down the front.

His senses sprang to life at the scent of light perfume and woman. Every muscle in his body tightened at the closeness of soft feminine flesh. He wanted her, and it took every ounce of control he possessed to keep from reaching for her. A walk. That was all. A walk.

With a monumental effort he took her hand and turned toward the beach. For an instant she resisted, then relaxed. Her palm felt fragile in his, and he liked the sudden surge of protectiveness running through him. Then he realized the only person she needed protection from right now was himself.

The thought was sobering.

They recrossed the road and walked along the edge of the deserted dunes in silence. The tide was out, and, yards away, the wves broke in small waterfalls against the damp sand. Finally he said, “You’re up late tonight.”

“How would you know?” she asked.

“Because I’ve been watching the house. Just in case the burglar came back.”

“I’ve got a burglar-alarm system now. I’m quite safe.”

He glanced over at her. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“Must have been an oversight. But now you’re making me wonder if
you’re
my burglar.”

“Not me. My modus operandi is a sunburned body.”

He smiled at her chuckle.

A sudden gust of wind whipped the hem of her shift around her bare legs. Seeing the soft cotton sliding across her flesh made him wonder how incredible it would feel to slide it from her body.

With her free hand Cass gathered the material back around her. Dallas suppressed a sigh of disappointment.

“What made you so cautious about men?” he asked.

She glanced over at him. “I told you. Six stepmothers.”

“That made you cautious about marriage. I’m talking about men.”

“Why do you want to know?”

He almost said, “Just curious,” then realized how flip it would sound. “Because I like to know what I have to fight.”

She stopped and turned to him. “Don’t make it more complicated than it already is.”

“It’s too late for that, and you know it.”

She was silent for a moment, then said, “I hate it when you make those damned ‘on the nose’ assessments.”

As they began their stroll again, he laughed. “You make it sound like it’s a mortal sin.”

“Now, that’s a much more interesting topic than my past love life,” she said. “What sins have you committed, Dallas Carter?”

“I’m virtue itself,” he announced with mock dignity.

She made a rude noise.

He ignored it. “Sins are not the topic of conversation. You are.”

“Sorry. I never kiss and tell.”

“Were you hurt that badly?” he asked.

Shaking her head in obvious defeat, she laughed ruefully. “No, although it took me a while to figure out he’d done me a favor. I wanted loyalty, and he didn’t.”

Dallas decided the man must have been a damn fool to throw away the rare gift she had offered. Knowing Cass, she probably had never offered it again. But would she offer it in the future?

The question burned at him.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a pain in the tush, Dallas Carter?”

He grinned. For this one, at least, he had the perfect answer.

“Only you, Cass. Only you.”

Taking a walk along a moonlit beach was natural. After all, she’d done it many times in the past.

And talking about a person’s background was just natural curiosity.

Holding hands was natural too.

Natural things.

She could feel his body heat across the short space separating them. Her senses were screaming
with awareness at the strong yet gentle grip of his hand. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed the easy movement of his lean, muscular body and his long legs eating up the sand. Her breasts alternately ached and tingled in response. Stirrings of sensuality curled through her, giving her limbs a heaviness that made her feel at once graceful and clumsy.

Even in the darkness she sensed his own gaze continually seeking her out as they walked together, and she was all too conscious of the little covering she wore. Clothing could be a formidable armor, which, in just a shift and panties, she was definitely lacking.

Deciding she’d be less worried about natural things if he were on the defensive, she said, “So tell me about the woman who broke your heart.”

“I was twelve the first time,” he said. “And I had a terrible crush on my teacher.…”

Cass laughed lightly.

“She was married, with six kids. There was no hope for us. Then, when I was sixteen—”

“What happened to the four years in between?”

“I was a woman-hater. As I was saying, I was sixteen when Betty Sue Macon transferred to our school. She was tall and willowy, with the biggest pair of—”

“You can skip that part,” she broke in, lightly punching his arm.

“I just want to be an open book,” he said teasingly.

“Well, just shut it. I have the feeling all I’d get is smarmy fiction from you.”

He was quiet for a moment before dropping an equally quiet bomb.

“I was married once, Cass.”

She stopped dead and slowly turned to stare at him. Realizing that her mouth was hanging open, she closed her teeth tightly together and swallowed back her shock.

She sensed more than saw his shrug of dismissal. “We got married for the reason most teenagers get married.”

Cass swallowed again. “A baby?”

“Only, there was none.”

“You mean she … miscarried after you got married?”

Dallas smiled and smoothed her hair from her face with gentle fingers.

“No. There never was a baby to begin with. At first I thought something had gone wrong with my precautions. I had been careful with her.” He looked behind her to the ocean, and she knew he was looking into the past. “I didn’t find out she had lied until after the wedding. Her home life wasn’t the best, and she must have been desperate to get away.”

There was nothing she could say. She knew well enough that since the beginning of time men and women had been guilty of using sex for their own ends. But something inside her broke at the thought of Dallas’s being caught in such a trap. Even at a young age he’d been cautious and responsible; he must have cared very much for the girl involved. The revelation of a baby and then no baby must have been devastating.

His gaze refocused on her. His features were softened in shadow, and the expression in his eyes was tender, as if to say the past hurts were
only that: past hurts. Just as hers were. Both of them had survived the bad times, and had stubbornly forged ahead.