The Reluctant Lark (13 page)

“I wouldn’t go in there right now,” the older woman said quietly. “He’s with Dr. Knowleton, and he said he didn’t want to be disturbed.” She smiled wryly. “If you’re going to have a rhubarb, it’s always best to do it in privacy. Why don’t you come in and have a cup of coffee with me? It will give you a chance to get your thoughts together before you light into the boy. I can assure you that you’re probably going to need it. He’s tough as rawhide, and he learned his battle tactics in the corporate boardroom.”

Sheena’s hand slowly fell to her side, and she turned away from the closed door. Laura was right. She wanted no witnesses to her confrontation with Challon. She could wait until he was through with Knowleton. In all truth, she had no idea what she was going to say to Rand. She had been driven by a wild anger and jealousy that had completely banished logic from her mental processes. She had been so confused by the sudden riot of emotions that had been generated by Donna Scott that her only conscious thought had been to run to him and find some way of keeping him from going to his mistress.

She shook her head as if to clear it. What had she been thinking? She had no claim to Challon, nor did
she wish to have. No, that was not true. She had felt such a fierce, primitive possessiveness at the thought of Rand in bed with that beautiful slut that they might have been married for a dozen years. Why should she feel like that if she wasn’t emotionally involved with the man?

She ran a hand distractedly through her dark tangle of curls. “Yes, perhaps you’re right.” She turned to walk slowly toward the waiting Laura Bradford. “I don’t seem to be thinking any too clearly at the moment.”

Laura Bradford gave her a surprisingly gentle smile. “It goes with the territory, I understand,” she said, turning and preceding Sheena back into the kitchen. “You’re entitled, after what Rand put you through this morning.”

Laura took two cups and saucers from the cabinet and grabbed the glass pot of coffee from the heating element of the coffeemaker. “Go sit down by the fire,” she ordered briskly, shaking her head as Sheena offered to take the cups from her. “I wouldn’t trust you to carry a feather pillow in the state you’re in.”

Sheena obediently sat down at the maple dining table in front of the fire. Laura Bradford sat down across from her and silently poured the coffee, then leaned forward to study Sheena’s face in the firelight. “You’re as wild-eyed and nervous as a newborn colt,” she said gruffly. “I don’t think Rand imagined that his playacting was going to upset you this much.” Her brandy brown eyes narrowed consideringly. “Or maybe he did. He might have thought shaking you up a little might be to his advantage.”

“Playacting?” Sheena asked bitterly. “I think you’re mistaken, Laura. There was no reason for Rand to be anything but perfectly frank with me. He owes me nothing but my freedom.” She looked down blindly at the coffee in her cup. “It’s clear that he’s merely realized that he’s made a mistake where I’m concerned. Miss Scott has apparently managed to stir up the embers
of their affair to quite a respectable blaze in an amazingly short time.”

Laura Bradford snorted derisively. “Don’t be stupid. Rand doesn’t give a damn about Donna Scott. He’s a man, and she was available. He’s a very virile man, for God’s sake. There have been more woman than I can count in Rand’s bed over the years, and Donna Scott doesn’t mean any more than the rest of them. After a month he can barely recall their names.”

“I imagine he finds their anatomies a trifle more memorable,” Sheena said tartly, stung by the thought of that parade of faceless women.

“Perhaps.” Laura Bradford chuckled, her brown eyes twinkling. “But to my knowledge, he’s never kept a photo of any one of them to remind him.”

“Some people collect stamps. Rand collects pictures of Irish folksingers.” Sheena’s dark eyes turned stormy once again. “I was foolish to believe him when he said they meant something special to him. Probably next year he’ll have a roomful of photos of that blond bombshell upstairs.”

“You’re wrong,” the older woman said. “But I can see that Rand has you wound up so tight that you can’t see straight.” She took a sip of coffee and sat back, her plain, freckled face serene. “Well, perhaps it’s better if you thrash it out with him. It’s obviously what he wants, and it might clear the air.”

“Why should I give him anything that he wants? It seems to me that Rand Challon has had his own way entirely too much in our relationship. Perhaps it’s time I made a few decisions.” She pushed away the coffee cup.

“For instance?” Laura Bradford asked, her eyes on the mutinous curve of Sheena’s lips.

“It appears that this little hideaway is getting a bit crowded,” Sheena said. “I think it’s time I moved on and let Donna Scott have her turn at your irresistible charge. I’m sure that she’d be more than happy to arrange my departure.”

“Don’t do it, Sheena. Rand very seldom loses his temper, but you wouldn’t want to be around when he does.”

Sheena looked up, poignant pain mixed with the defiance in her dark eyes. “Why should he be angry? He’ll probably be grateful to me for removing an awkward obstacle in his path. I’ve heard there’s nothing so cold as the ashes of a dead love affair.” Her lips twisted. “And in our case, there isn’t even that to regret. Yes, I think I’ll have a little talk with Miss Scott later tonight.” She pushed back her chair and stood up.

“I don’t suppose you’ll believe me if I tell you that you’re making a serious mistake?” Laura asked. Then as Sheena shook her head stubbornly, Laura gave a resigned sigh. “I didn’t think so. I should have saved my breath.” She watched with troubled eyes as Sheena strode belligerently toward the door. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going out for a long walk,” Sheena said over her shoulder, her dark eyes feverishly restless in her white face. “Don’t wait dinner for me, Laura.” Her lips curved in a bitter smile. “You needn’t make my excuses to Rand. His mistress assured me that they’d be too busy for dinner tonight.”

It was almost dark when Sheena made her reluctant way back to the cabin through the dense forest. She had put off her return as long as possible, but when twilight covered the pine forest with its frigid blanket, she knew it would be foolish to delay any longer. It would be very easy to lose her way when darkness obscured the landmarks she had become familiar with in her walks with Challon. All she needed was to have Rand forced to call out a search party to find her. He would find it most inconvenient if he had to interrupt his rendezvous with that luscious blond amazon, she thought gloomily.

Sheena pushed that distasteful thought away hurriedly as she had all similar ones on her lone tramp through the woods. It seemed that she had walked endlessly, setting a brisk pace in the hope that the activity would help to keep her from thinking. She had purposely avoided the fallen pine tree at the head of the lake, for she knew it would bring back far too many
memories. They had made a habit of stopping to rest there after that first day. Rand would scoop her up and settle her in his lap and they would talk lazily and contentedly until Sheena was recovered enough to resume their walk. Now that memory was as agonizing as the hundreds of others that they had shared. How could so few days build so many memories? she wondered miserably.

“So you finally decided to come back.” Rand’s voice whipped through the still forest like the crack of a lariat.

She stopped abruptly in the center of the path, her eyes widening in surprise. She had almost reached the edge of the forest, and Challon was standing in the path before her, looming ominously large in the quickly darkening woods. She could not see his features, but there was a tightly coiled tension in his stance that sent a shiver of fear through her.

“You needn’t have come to find me,” Sheena said, glaring at him defiantly. “I know these woods fairly well now, and I was quite safe. There was no reason for you to have left Miss Scott.”

Challon swore under his breath. “Sheena, if you say one more word, I won’t wait until I get you back to the cabin to teach you a lesson you won’t forget!” He had reached her now, and his hand clamped onto her wrist with steely strength. “I don’t think you’d find a bed of pine needles in zero weather even a little bit titillating.” He was pulling her swiftly after him, and she had to trot to keep up. “While
I
probably wouldn’t even know the difference. You’ve got me so damn hot, both mentally
and
physically, that I’d probably burn the woods down!”

“You’re not making sense,” she protested breathlessly, as he pulled her up the hill toward the cabin. “And I don’t appreciate your acting like some macho caveman just because I interrupted your tête à tête with Miss Scott.” She struggled vainly to release her wrist. “It’s
not my fault that you decided to come after me. I told Laura that I didn’t want any dinner.”

“That’s good,” he said grimly. “Because I doubt if either one of us will get anything to eat tonight. I plan on keeping you very busy.”

They had reached the sundeck now, and Sheena noticed bewilderedly that the cabin was strangely dim and deserted looking. Darkness had fallen now, and Challon opened the door and pushed her inside, flicking on the light as he did so.

“Where is everybody?” Sheena asked, confused.

“Gone,” He pulled her toward the fireplace, where a blaze was burning fitfully. Shrugging out of his sheepskin jacket, he tossed it carelessly on the beige couch, then turned to unbutton her coat.

“Gone where?” Sheena asked blankly, as he pushed the coat down her arms and then threw it beside his own on the couch.

“Houston,” he said succinctly. He rubbed her cold hands briskly between his own. “You’re half frozen. You’ll be lucky if you don’t end up back in your sickbed. Sit down, and I’ll get you a brandy.” He moved swiftly across the room to the small portable bar in the corner.

“Houston!” Sheena echoed blankly. “But why? I thought the plan was for them to leave later tonight. And why did Laura leave? She wasn’t planning on going with them at all.”

“She changed her mind.” Challon returned to stand before her, the brandy glass in his hand. “Or perhaps I should say that I changed it for her. I decided that I’d had enough of chaperons to last me a lifetime. It was time we got back to a one-to-one basis as I planned originally.”

Sheena ignored the brandy he held out to her and moved to stand before the fire, her hands outstretched to the flames. “May I ask where your gorgeous Miss Scott has gone? Have you arranged another little hideaway to stash her in? You’re going to be a very busy man, aren’t you?”

He followed her to the fireplace and put the brandy glass to her lips. “Drink this!” he ordered harshly. “I’m in no mood to listen to that asp’s tongue without retaliation. So I’d advise you just to keep still.”

She was forced to drink the brandy or have it dribble ignominiously down her chin as he tilted the glass. The brandy was hot going down, and she realized grudgingly that she had been chilled. However, the acknowledgment didn’t lessen the resentment she was feeling.

“Satisfied?” she asked defiantly, as he took the empty glass away from her lips.

“Not by a long shot,” he said. “But it’s the tip of the iceberg. You just might get there yet.” He put the glass down on the coffee table before the couch. Then he took her hand and began pulling her across the living room toward the staircase. “Let’s go to bed.”

She struggled futilely to free her arm as she stumbled after him. Her temper was rising with every step. “Will you let me go! Your mistress may like this sort of treatment, but I find it as revolting as I do you. I’m not some type of chattel for you to order about at will.”

“For your information, Donna hasn’t been my mistress for almost four months.” Challon started up the stairs dragging her behind him. “But you might well wish that she had been before the night’s over. I haven’t touched another woman since I went to your first concert in Houston, and I’m damn near wild.”

“I could see that at brunch when you told your mistress to go to your bedroom,” Sheena said tartly, her dark eyes flashing. “I hope she proved satisfactory.”

They had reached the top of the staircase, and he turned to face her, his golden eyes blazing. He reached out and shook her with no pretense of gentleness. “You’ve got to be the most obtuse bitch it’s ever been my misfortune to know,” he rasped hoarsely, his lean face taut with anger. “I’d just spent two of the most bloody, frustrating weeks of my life acting the gentle, considerate lover, so that you could see that you meant more to me than a romp in the hay. Does it make any
sense that I’d give up all the gains I’d made, just to tumble a woman I don’t give a damn about?”

Sheena was a trifle intimidated by the raw fury in Challon’s face, but she was careful not to show it. “Well, it was very clear that was exactly what you had in mind,” she said belligerently. “You treated me like a little sister from the minute she stepped off the plane, and you told her that—”

“I know what I told her,” he interrupted. “I had to tell her that, damn it! No one was supposed to know you were here. Donna would have spread the juicy tidbit that I had you tucked away up here all over Houston. O’Shea is bound to be doing some snooping around. Your sudden disappearance and my arrival on the scene was too pat a coincidence to escape scrutiny.”

“So you decided to take her to bed to keep her mouth shut,” Sheena scoffed, her black eyes flashing. “I’m not entirely the fool, Rand Challon!”

“The hell you’re not. I know how to handle Donna, and it wouldn’t have gone that far, damn it. All you had to do was to keep a low profile, and everything would have been fine. Donna would have been on that plane tonight purring like a kitten, her lips firmly sealed.”

“I believe that she would have been purring, but I doubt if she’d have been on the plane!” Sheena said hotly.

“You jealous little shrew,” Challon accused furiously, his golden eyes darkening to amber. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done? After Laura told me what you planned on doing, I had to scratch everything and hustle everybody back on the jet for Houston. I didn’t dare wait and give you a chance to blow everything sky-high.”