Lady Love (6 page)

In other words, Lila was blackmailing him. Merlyn felt miserable for the rest of the day about his opinion of her. It shouldn’t have been so hurtful, but it was.

“I ought to resign,” she told Lila finally, as they sat together at the kitchen table and had coffee after Amanda had gone to bed. “Amanda told me about the argument you had with your son.”

Lila grinned. “Did she? Don’t worry about Cam, I can handle him.”

“I don’t want to cause trouble.” Merlyn stared into her black coffee. “He antagonizes me, though. Sometimes I can’t help it. But I’ll do my best to be pleasant to him, if it will keep the peace.”

“But I don’t want you to be pleasant to him,” Lila said surprisingly, with a twinkle in her eyes. “He was angry when he left here. Angrier than I’ve see him in years. It was a pleasant change from his usual indifference. You’ve shaken him, Merlyn. Keep it up.”

“That would be risky,” Merlyn murmured with a delicate shudder, remembering his threat.

“I’ll protect you,” Lila promised. She searched Merlyn’s eyes. “Merlyn, did you feel the undercurrents, when the Radners were here?”

Merlyn shifted restlessly. “It’s really none of my affair.”

“Delle’s father has a very profitable investment corporation. She’ll inherit it. Cam has decided, in a coldblooded way, that she’ll make him a good wife.” She sighed miserably. “You see, dear, my husband left us deeply in debt. He borrowed too much, and he had friends who were too kind to refuse him credit. When he died, there were insurmountable bills. We even sold the family estate, which our ancestors built over a hundred years ago, to defray the debt. But it still wasn’t enough. Cam is slowly getting us back on our feet, and what I make with my writing helps.” She laughed softly. “I won’t deny that having money in the family again would be a tremendous boost to our small assets, but I don’t want Cam to ruin his whole life just to get out of debt.”

Merlyn studied her hands. “He doesn’t seem the kind of man who’d marry solely for money,” she murmured, looking up into Lila’s sur prised face.

“It isn’t just that,” Lila returned. “You’re very perceptive, Merlyn. No, it isn’t only money. He wants a home and a mother for Amanda. He wants permanence.” She shrugged. “He’s rather rootless right now. He lives and works in Charleston, but he’s always out looking for new investors. He’s spent a lot of time in Atlanta lately, courting the head of a new corporation that’s locating back home. Beating out the competition way ahead of time,” she explained with a grin.

“Why Delle?” Merlyn asked with genuine curiosity.

Lila grimaced. “He met her at a party, liked her poise, and set out to court her. I don’t know what he sees in her. She’s so fussy about her hair and clothes that I don’t imagine he even gets to touch her, and she’s years too young for him. But,” she sighed, “he doesn’t listen to me anymore.”

***

During the next three days they worked at a comfortable, steady pace, while Amanda fished and played on the lake.

“I love this,” Merlyn said on Friday, as she lounged on the dock with her legs hanging off the side and a fishing pole in her hand. She was wearing a blue tube top, cut-offs that showed her tanned, slender legs to their best advantage, and a floppy hat on her head.

“What, fishing?” Lila asked as she sunbathed nearby. It was the first real break they’d taken, and they felt they both deserved it. They’d gotten through a tremendous amount of work.

“Fishing. Working. Being here on the lake.” Merlyn shifted her pole experimentally to make sure the bait was still on the hook, and tossed it back in. “I hadn’t realized how pleasant it could be.”

“Why do you think I come here to work?” Lila laughed. “Of course, I’m usually alone with Tilly and Amanda. Cameron doesn’t often come here.”

With the pole in hand, Merlyn leaned back against the warm boards, hoping Cameron would indeed stay away. The sun felt good, and the only sounds were of birds and crickets and the wind. She felt the warm breeze over her face and sighed with pure delight.

The sudden tug on the line caught her unawares, and she felt the fishing pole being dragged out of her fingers. “Oh, no, you don’t, you sneaky fish!”

She made a grab for the pole, but it was dragged off the pier, obviously being tugged away by something with scales and a smug look on its fishy face.

Impulsively, she jumped into the lake after it, swimming smoothly toward the pole with the graceful style she’d been taught in her youth. She grabbed the pole and dog-paddled toward shore with it firmly under one arm.

“You got it, Merlyn!” Amanda squealed, jumping up and down. “You got it!”

Lila was grinning, too, clapping her hands in amusement.

“Stupid fish,” Merlyn muttered as she got to the bank and collapsed on it. The water had been cold, but she hadn’t even noticed. The pole was still being tugged, so she dragged herself to her feet and put all her remaining strength into fighting whatever was on the end of the line.

“Try to get away from me, will you?” she muttered. She was no novice at pulling in fighting fish. She frequently went deep-sea fishing with her father in the Gulf of Mexico. Huffing and puffing, she matched pull with tug, until with one quick, sharp jerk, she flipped the fish out of the water…and right into Cameron Thorpe’s face as he walked toward her down the slight hill.

Chapter Four

S
he heard a harsh curse as she turned around.

“Oops,” she said, glancing toward Lila and Amanda, who were in tears, they were laughing so hard.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Cameron growled, dabbing with his handkerchief at the expensive tan vested suit he was wearing. “My God, this suit cost a small fortune, and now it smells like a bad seafood restaurant.”

Merlyn moved closer and picked up her wriggling fish, which lay in the dirt next to Cameron’s expensive shoes. She held it up with a sigh. It was a carp, not even a terribly big one. And it was making pitiful little noises. With a wistful glance, she heaved it back into the lake.

“You got it all dirty,” she said, glowering at Cameron. “And it will probably lose every friend it’s got when they get a good whiff of it.”

He stared at her with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

“Why do you wear that horrible stuff, anyway?” she asked. “British Sterling is so much more impressive, and it doesn’t smell like a dead animal.”

One corner of his mouth lifted, as if he were tempted to smile. His dark eyes wandered down to her wet tube top and lingered on the outline of her high breasts. Something stirred in his face, and she knew that he was remembering how she looked without her clothes. She might as well be topless; the top was so thin that everything showed. Involuntarily, her arms crossed over it and she took a step backward.

“Are you cold?” he asked quietly. His eyes moved back up to hers, and it was like getting an electric shock. “Or do I excite you, Miss Forrest?”

She knew exactly what he meant, and her face flushed. “Now, now, Mr. Rochester,” she murmured, “let’s not get personal.”

One corner of that hard mouth curled up. “Are you sure you don’t want to? You might be enough to tempt me, after all.”

She glared at him. “I need to change.”

“Not on my account,” he murmured for her ears alone as the others came toward them. “You have exquisite breasts.”

She clenched her fingers and caught her breath, feeling murderous urges. Her glittering green eyes met his at point-blank range, and he gave a soft, predatory laugh.

Hard, she’d called him. Cold and stiff and as romantic as a crab. And now here he was throwing her off balance, when it should have been the reverse. She turned away.

“How very odd—that Merlyn goes fishing and you get the catch,” Lila murmured to her son, looking amused.

“It all depends on what you’re fishing for, I suppose,” he replied.

“All I’ve caught is a chill.” Merlyn laughed nervously. “I’d better put on something dry.”

“Yes, dear, we don’t want you getting sick.”

“I’ll come and help,” Amanda volunteered, and followed Merlyn into the house.

***

Cameron was rapidly becoming an unknown quantity. He watched Merlyn blatantly over the supper table, and it was all she could do to eat.

“Will Delle and her mother be back any time soon?” Lila asked her son.

He glanced at her, toying with his wineglass. “Next weekend. I’m giving a party, by the way. We’ll want a caterer and a band.”

“A party,” Lila repeated enthusiastically. “How lovely.”

“You’ll come, of course, Miss Forrest,” he added with a dark, intent stare. “We wouldn’t want you to feel left out.”

“But I’m only a humble employee, sir,” she said, holding on to her sense of humor. He was up to something, but she wasn’t going to give him any openings. “And perfectly content to sit among the cinders.”

“It will be formal,” he continued, with a pointed glance at the outfit she was wearing. “And something conservative, please,” he added in a long-suffering tone.

“Like the uniform you wear?” she returned sweetly, noting the suit he’d changed into.

He frowned. “What?”

“Gray suit, white shirt, gray tie,” she replied. “It’s always the same shirt, always a tie the same color as the suit—always the same suit in fascinating shades of gray or brown or blue. Don’t you like plaids and stripes and florals, Mr. Thorpe?”

“I’m not a woman,” he returned.

She sighed, leaning her chin dreamily on her clasped hands, and stared at him. “No, sir, you sure aren’t,” she murmured huskily.

His dark eyes narrowed. “You’ll have to wear an evening gown, or at least a cocktail dress,” he continued.

She shrugged. “In that case,” she replied, “I suppose I’ll have to go shopping. I didn’t come prepared for a ball.”

“There’s a lovely little shop in the mall,” Lila told her.

“Yes, I saw it,” Merlyn sighed. “They had some pretty gowns.”

“You can have an advance on your salary, if you need it,” Cameron said pleasantly.

She glared at him. “How odd. I had the feeling that you didn’t think I was worth the salary I was already getting.”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “I wonder what made you say that?” he countered, glancing in Lila’s direction.

Merlyn could have gone through the floor. No, she couldn’t let Lila take the blame. “I was outside the door, actually,” she lied smoothly.

“Eavesdropping?” he muttered.

“Well, I thought you might be about to confess undying love for me,” Merlyn said outrageously. “And I know that you’re basically a shy man.…”

Lila burst out laughing, and Amanda looked delighted.

Cameron only stared at her. His dark, graceful fingers seemed to caress the wineglass. “Are you propositioning me, Miss Forrest?” he asked pleasantly.

The counterattack was unexpected. Merlyn fought to keep from overreacting. “Why, no, sir,” she said fervently. “I’m an old-fashioned girl, you see, and what I had in mind was that you would seek my hand in—do I dare mention it—marriage.”

He chuckled softly, amusedly. “Touché.”

Merlyn smiled at him over her coffee. It was becoming a contest between them, to see who could score off the other first. The cold, hard man of her first meeting was slowly but surely coming out of his shell. But at what cost to Merlyn’s shredded nerves!

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” he told Merlyn suavely, “but you’re not my type.”

“Too much woman for you, hmm?” She grinned.

He burst out laughing. “Too little.”

That rankled, but she wouldn’t let it show. She raised her coffee cup in a mock salute and drained it. “I’ll be kind and let that barb pass me by.”

“How is the research progressing?” he asked his mother.

“Very well, indeed. We’ve settled on a pattern for a character and a period of time for the setting.”

“Which?” he asked.

“Early Tudor,” Merlyn replied.

“Henry Tudor?” he asked with an arched brow. “You needn’t look so shocked, Miss Forrest, I minored in history.”

“Your period?”

“Ancient Greece.”

She sighed. “Pericles…Herodotus…Socrates…Plato…”

“Ah, a student.”

“An eternal student,” she agreed. “I enjoyed the ruins, especially the site of Troy. You read about Heinrich Schliemann, of course? Amazing, how he used the ancient texts to…”

“You enjoyed the ruins?” He pounced on that, his eyes emphasizing his obvious contention that she couldn’t afford a raft to float to Greece on.

“In the books I borrowed from the library, of course,” she said quickly. “No, Mr. Thorpe, I could hardly afford a leisurely cruise to the Mediterranean, as you’ve reminded me so often.”

“Stop baiting me,” he said. “What did you most enjoy studying?”

“The kings of England. The royal family fascinates me,” she confessed. “And the founding of the Tudor line was a particularly romantic period.”

“Yes, romance does seem to play an important part in your life,” he observed with a curt laugh. “How many times have you read
Jane Eyre?
”

“A dozen,” she replied. “It’s a lovely book. And you did rather appear out of the dark looking like Edward Rochester that night.”

“I wasn’t riding a horse, and I didn’t have a dog at my heels,” he reminded her.