Double Dealing (32 page)

“I lied.”

Samantha blinked in astonishment and then in gathering anger.
“You said you weren’t backing me just for the dubious benefit of sleeping with
me!”

“I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I can divorce the business
side of this from the bedroom. Can you?”

“Of course I can!”

“Then why are you going through this grand confession scene?”
he asked again, endlessly patient.

“Gabriel, you are deliberately confusing me,” she shot back
accusingly. “I’ve told you that Buchanan came to see me yesterday!”

“And that event made you decide to confide all your motives
to your business partner?”

“Well, yes, in a way…”

“In what way?” he persisted.

Samantha was almost out of patience. “Because I realized
when Drew tried to seduce me that I was in a somewhat untenable position!” she
gritted.

Something very
unangelic
moved in
Gabriel’s eyes at the word “seduce,” but he simply concluded the confession for
her. “You realized that you were suddenly very close to violating the promise
you made to me last week.”

She stared at him. “How did you know?”

“That promise of loyalty I got out of you that night was my
insurance, Samantha.”

“Your insurance!”

“I knew that the one way to be sure I didn’t find myself
facing one surprise too many was to shackle you with your own sense of
integrity. You live by your own rules, apparently, but you do stay within them.
I had been through a lot that night, I’m afraid, and I decided I’d better make
sure things weren’t going to get worse. I needed the reassurance.” He
half-smiled in grim memory.

“You put a hell of a lot of faith in that oath you forced on
me!” she crisped, feeling abused and outmaneuvered.

“The only thing I want to know, Samantha,” Gabriel went on
with a dangerous softness in his voice, is which line you were suddenly afraid
of crossing. Tell me about the seduction.”

“You want to know which it was in, business or bed, that I
found myself on the verge of betraying you, don’t you?” she muttered
resentfully.

“Just tell me what happened. Buchanan figured he could play
on your old attraction? Thought he could handle you by seducing you all over
again?”

“You don’t have to sound so matter-of-fact about it!”

Gabriel lifted one broad shoulder. “It sounds like a logical
approach for him to try under the circumstances. Was it in danger of working?
Is that why I’m getting this little scene today?”

“How can you be so damn cool about all this?” she stormed,
incensed.

“Sorry. I thought you realized I tend to be rather unexpressive
in my reactions. Am I making this all too dull for you? Would you rather I beat
my chest and then beat you? Shall I do a bit more kicking and screaming?”

Quite abruptly Samantha found herself stifling a small surge
of sardonic humor. “You don’t have to liven things up for me, Gabriel,” she
muttered dryly. “I’m quite aware of the fact that I should be grateful you’re
taking all this so calmly. It was the business end of things I started to get
nervous about yesterday.”

“Not the bedroom end?” He was still watching her with that
imperturbable, assessing gaze.

“Definitely not!” She smiled very coldly. “But I had planned
to let Drew try his little games. I wanted to string him along a bit; let him
think I was still attracted. Ah, Gabriel, I had such plans for that
confrontation with Drew Buchanan. After three years of working toward it, I had
intended to wring the most out of it. Instead, when he asked me out to dinner,
I suddenly realized I was beginning to panic. All I could think about was that
I hadn’t been completely honest with you. That I had used you, I guess. I
couldn’t get him out of the house fast enough. So much for three years of scheming!”

“What about the business end? Did you give him your price
for the restaurant?” For the first time she thought she detected satisfaction
in his voice.

“I, uh, upped it a bit from the one you and I had discussed.”
She eyed him warily, remembering the plan to set a five-hundred-thousand-dollar
tag on the land.

He closed his eyes, clearly begging a higher authority for
patience. “How much?”

“Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

That brought his eyes open in a hurry. “Seven hundred and
fifty!”

“That’s what Drew said,” she drawled. “And in exactly that
tone.”

“I’ll bet. You’re probably lucky he didn’t do something more
drastic than try to seduce you! Three quarters of a million. You’ve got nerve,
honey, I’ll give you that. Jesus! One more s-s-shock like that and probably collapse!”

“I guess I got carried away.” But that was the one aspect of
the situation for which she didn’t intend to apologize. Damn it, she had a
right to salvage something from the grand scheme which had gone grandly haywire.

Gabriel saw the glint of defiance in her eyes and decided
not to push the matter. The damage had already been done. He would just have to
keep an especially close eye on Samantha now because Drew Buchanan wasn’t going
to take kindly to the notion of being truly fleeced. He might have accepted
something around the three-hundred-fifty-thousand to half-a-million figure with
a certain fatalistic business equanimity. He’d have made a few attempts at
applying some pressure, but in the end he would have decided it wasn’t worth
fighting. Not when he realized Samantha wasn’t involved in this alone. But the
outrageousness of asking for a lot more was going to make the man furious.
People got unpredictable when they got emotionally involved to that extent, he
reminded himself laconically.

Just look at his own behavior!

“Gabriel,” Samantha said hesitantly, interrupting his thoughts.

“Hmmm?”

“You don’t seem especially upset, and while I’m grateful for
small favors, I find myself asking why I’m getting off so lightly.”

His mouth lifted reluctantly upward at the corner. “Like I
said. Nothing like a little insurance to give a man peace of mind. I’m sitting
here thanking my lucky stars that we had that midnight chat last week.”

“The only difference it made was that I decided against
having dinner with Buchanan!” she pointed out in annoyance.

“I happen to consider that a major difference.”

Her eyes narrowed, and Gabriel could have kicked himself. He
had been handling her all right up until now. Now things were threatening to
get sticky. She was like a stick of dynamite this morning, he decided uneasily,
trouble looking for an excuse to explode.

“I can see that you do consider it important. Which brings
up something I’m beginning to think we need to discuss, Gabriel.”

Hell. He’d let her off the hook, and now she was going to
push her luck. He could see it coming. With an inner groan of dismay, Gabriel
poured himself another cup of tea and waited patiently for disaster. “You got a
good scare last night, didn’t you?”

“Drew didn’t scare me. He left when I told him to.”

“I don’t mean Buchanan scared you. He’s got more sense than
to rough you up. That’s not his style, from what I know of the man.” Gabriel
pushed that notion aside. “What scared you was how you found yourself reacting.”
He tried to think of a way to defuse her uncertain temper. “That’s what you
want to discuss, isn’t it? The way you found yourself feeling bound to me? So
much so that you were unable to deal with Buchanan the way you had planned to
deal with him?”

“It was a very awkward sensation, Gabriel,” she told him
flatly. “I think we need to define our relationship a little more closely. I
should have felt free to deal with Buchanan anyway I wished last night, and
instead I lost control of the situation because I started worrying about what
you would think! I shouldn’t have had that feeling, Gabriel.”

He looked down at the cup of tea cradled in his hands,
searching for a diplomatic way of saying what had to be said. Diplomacy,
unfortunately, was not one of his strong points. He didn’t take well to
tiptoeing around an issue. “It’s too late, Samantha” was all he could think of
to say. He said it as gently as possible, but it was like lighting the fuse of
the dynamite.

“It is
not
too
later” she exploded, leaning forward intently. “Gabriel, we are going to set
some reasonable and highly explicit ground rules for this relationship of ours,
or else we are going to call the relationship off! Do you know what I felt last
night? I felt as if you had claimed some sort of territorial rights over me! As
if I shouldn’t be making a move, without consulting you! I felt as if I were
your possession or something! Believe me, that’s not the sort of relationship I
want with a man; any man. And it all happened because of that vague promise you
had me make. I want that promise clarified, Gabriel. I want both of us to know
exactly where we stand and what we can expect from each other. I don’t want
this nebulous, all-encompassing feeling that I somehow belong to you!”

He shook his head, knowing nothing he was going to say would
pacify her. She had indeed had a scare last night. She had come face-to-face
with the conflict between her passion for revenge and her passion for him.

“What do you want me to say, honey?” he asked softly. “That
we can conduct our affair as if it were a business contract? Do you want me to
say that yes, there are loopholes and you’re free to take advantage of them? I’m
not going to say that, Samantha. I’m not leaving you any loopholes. I’m not
going to release you from the promise you made me the other night.”

“Damn you, Gabriel, you’re deliberately taking advantage of
a promise I made at a time when I was very emotionally involved!”

“Honey, that’s the only way you ever are in a situation. Very
passionately involved. You’re passionate in your revenge, in your business
dealings, in your feelings of loyalty, in your sense of honor. You’re also
very, very passionate in bed. Do you really expect me to give up all that now
that I’ve got it?”

For a moment she simply sat, stunned by his bold claim.
Gabriel could feel the simmering fury in her and thought about pointing out
another of her passionate traits. Then he decided it was not the best time to discuss
her far from placid temperament.

“Of all the outrageous, chauvinistic, pigheaded,
masculine
things to say!” she finally
managed, jumping to her feet. “You don’t own me, Gabriel Sinclair! Do you hear
me? If you want a relationship with me, an affair with me, then it’s going to
be on my terms! I won’t be caught again in the situation I was in last night!”

He looked up at her incensed expression. “You mean you don’t
want to find yourself having to put our relationship ahead of your thirst for
revenge?” he asked calmly. “I can’t help you there, Samantha. The relationship comes
first. Ahead of everything else. I want you and I have you. I won’t release
you.”

The teacup left her hand and went sailing past his head,
landing with a shattering crash against the kitchen wall. She hadn’t really
been aiming at him, Gabriel realized, or else she would have hit him. He was
sitting too close for her to miss. The action was a grand gesture of
frustration and fury at the trap in which she found herself.

“The hell you
have
me!” she hissed, her hands on her hips.

Gabriel wasn’t sure what he would have said next, probably
nothing especially helpful. But the words died on his lips as the old brass
eagle sounded on Samantha’s front door. He watched the impotent look of outrage
cross her face as she realized the grand scene toward which she had been
building was going to be delayed. If he hadn’t had a fairly sure idea of who
was probably at her door, Gabriel would have felt vastly relieved by the
reprieve. As it was, he had to act quickly to get control of the situation.

“Samantha, listen to me. That’s probably going to be Buchanan,”
he snapped, leaning forward to plant his hands flat on the table between them. “He’ll
have some new tactic in mind, and this time he’ll find out he’s dealing with me
as well as you. Leave it to me, do you understand? I’ll handle him.”

“I set this whole thing up! I’m the one who’s going to handle
him!” she got out tersely, turning on her heel to stride for the door.

He caught her just as she reached the hall, clamping a sure
hand around her arm and pulling her to a halt. “Samantha, you and I can have
our battle in private later. Right now we have to stand together, no matter how
annoyed you happen to be. Is that clear? Everything’s going to ride on
convincing Buchanan that he hasn’t got a chance in hell of pressuring us.”

“And you think you can do a better job of convincing him
than I can?” she mocked savagely.

“Frankly, yes.”

She struggled for a moment longer, and then he saw the
recognition of the reality of the situation hit her.

“Later, Gabriel,” she warned him stoutly as she shook herself
free of his grip.

He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Later,” he agreed with
a sigh. But nothing was going to be different later, didn’t she realize that?
He had a claim on her, and he wasn’t relinquishing it regardless of what happened
between them later.

Now there was Buchanan to deal with. Buchanan, who thought
he was about to be held up to the tune of seven hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. Buchanan whom Samantha had once loved. Christ! What a morning.

Gabriel stood behind Samantha as she opened the door, just
out of the line of sight the visitor would have as he stood on the threshold. A
few seconds of time in which to observe the other before making his own presence
known was all he was going to get. But it should be enough to tell him what he
was dealing with, Gabriel thought.

“Good morning, Drew,” Samantha said with a chilling politeness
Gabriel had never heard from her. The
amazon
in
action.

He took an instant to reassure himself with the knowledge that
even when she was thoroughly annoyed with him she had never turned that
feminine ice on him. Then he focused all his attention on the tall, lean man filling
the doorway.