Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (17 page)

“Alex!” he moaned as if chastising her.
He shook her in the circle of his arms to gain her attention, still not ready
to believe it. Alex was involved with someone; Martha had talked about him
earlier. She couldn’t still be a virgin. Ty thought back to how she had behaved
since he had gotten to the ranch. He saw in a new light her innocence, her lack
of control over her body’s response to him. He saw plainly her futile attempts
to disguise her passion for him physically and emotionally. It was all so
transparent to him now. How could he have had such a blind misconception of who
she was?

Recognizing that Ty was angry, she tried
to focus, realizing that he had been questioning her about her past lovers. She
would never be able to lie to him convincingly. She didn’t know how, she never
had. He knew instinctively she still had not taken a lover. What was the point
of denying it? She didn’t want to end up in his bed; if she slept with him, she
wouldn’t be able to conceal her love for him. If she didn’t tell him the truth,
he would believe she had intentionally set out to trap him. He was still Ty,
nothing had changed from before. His sense of honor would dictate his actions
and if he made love to her, he would be compelled to marry her.

Not wanting him to see that she was
hurt, she averted her eyes. She looked at the floor, not trusting herself to
look at his face. She saw her glasses lying at her feet and they brought her
out of her stupor. Alex reluctantly left his embrace, shielding her face from
him by bending to retrieve the discarded frames. Striding over to the piano,
she lifted the lid on the bench seat and withdrew her sheet music.

“There hasn’t been anyone in the way you
mean.” Alex smiled, mocking herself as she thought,
if he only knew what the
press publicized
. They speculated that she had a lover and he was her
“mystery man”. She laughed bitterly thinking about how he would react to that
earth shattering news. A smile plastered on her face, she turned back to Ty.

He was shell-shocked. He couldn’t wrap
his mind around the bomb she had just dropped. “You date don’t you? There had
to have been men in your life?” he replied, more to himself than to her.

“Yes! There have been men, just not any
I wanted to touch me in the way you had that night. Plus, I didn’t want it
broadcasted in the morning paper. I can see the headline now,” she stated,
raising her arm up above her head, moving her hand from left to right as she
said flippantly, “Stone Girl Takes Lover, Read All about Their Torrid Affair!”
She hadn’t exactly lied. No one would sleep with Alex, but Fire was a different
matter. Ty didn’t look so amused by her outburst, if anything he looked as if
he wanted to shake the living hell out of her.

“Did I hurt you that badly that night?
Is that it?” He watched her face turn ashen, confirming his suspicion. He had
given her those emotional scars that she hadn’t overcome. He was responsible
for her hiding from a healthy relationship with a man. Remembering what she had
stated about the way he touched her, she had admitted, unknowingly, that it was
him she wanted not someone else. Did she still have feelings for him?

Ty examined that possibility. Lost in
thought, he didn’t notice Alex drifting toward the door as if to leave.
Catching the movement out of the corner of his eye, he leapt forward,
determined to stop her. He clutched her upper arms and swung her around to face
him. She fought to get him to loosen his hold, trying to shrug him off. He
yanked her body closer to his, sliding his arms around her back and pinning her
arms at her sides, forcing her to acknowledge his strength.

Alex’s temper flared. Increasing her
struggle, she brought her foot up and slammed it down, just missing his shin.

“Stop it! You can’t win. I’m a lot
bigger than you are, honey.” Snagging her chin he forced her to look at him,
and demanded, “Answer me! Is this my fault?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I grew up a
long time ago,” she bit out vehemently. “I know I was just infatuated with you,
it wasn’t love. I had you up on a pedestal no one could compete with.” She
shrugged her shoulders. “But you fell right back off it and I got on with my
life. I barely thought about that night after I left. The only reason I haven’t
slept with anyone is because of the press!” she clarified, meeting his stare
and refusing to back down. If she showed any sign of weakness, he would know
she was lying and destroy what was left of her crumbling pride.

Releasing her chin but retaining his
hold on her, he persisted, “So you don’t trust men do you little one? You’re
too scared they will hurt you like I did? Mock your response to them?” he
questioned softly, a strange note in his deep voice. His fingers tightened on
her back. He pinned her shocked eyes with his, trying to read her reaction.

“Don’t you think I care about what I did
to you that night? You trusted me and I abused that trust to get what I wanted.
That’s why you haven’t let a man into your life isn’t it.” The anguish on her
face spoke volumes.

He had thought he could just seduce her
and walk away without a second thought. Now he couldn’t let her go through life
not trusting anyone. He would have to convince her that she could trust again.

She paled, her eyes flaring like saucers
in her wan face. Ty was too close to the truth. “I trust people, just not you,”
she whispered brokenly, choking on the words.

“Please let me go,” she pleaded, trying
to break his hold. Being this close to him made her very aware of the raw power
in his lean body. His proximity was devastating.

Reaching up, he began to stroke her
cheek and said, “I’ll just have to teach you to trust me again, won’t I little
one?” He realized he still cared for her. It wasn’t just desire that he felt
for her. His expression turned to one of puzzlement.

“Forget it. I have. It was a long time
ago,” was her clipped reply as she pulled back from his touch. Maddened at the
action, he hesitated before releasing her. He watched her as she moved once
again toward the door, this time on shaky legs.

Angry with himself and the damage he had
done, not only to their friendship but to Alex as a person, made him strike out
unintentionally. “It might as well be today for all the trust you seem to give
the men in your life. How does dream boy feel about not sharing your bed?” His
jaw tightened as he thought about her with another man. “He must be getting
tired of all those cold showers.”

Stopping at the door, she spun around,
glaring hotly at him as she forced a sarcastic smile. Her mother would have
been proud of her acting abilities when she managed to say cheerfully, “He
knows how I feel about people who play around with sex. Actually, I think he’s
going to ask me to marry him. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll accept.” She had
been kicking around the idea of implying an engagement between Fire and the
mystery man. She wanted to give the fans what they seemed to want; the happy
ending to a tragic love story. So she wasn’t actually telling an untruth, she
reassured herself.

A smile firmly fixed on her face; she
waited for Ty to retaliate. He just stood there looking deadly, murderous. She
made sure not to show any emotion when he mocked, “Better him than me.”

Turning away from her, he picked up his
glass and refilled it as he heard Alex leave the room. Taking a swallow, he
ambled over to the window. He stood staring outside while replaying what she
had said, but he kept coming back to how responsive she had been in his arms.

The thought of her having another man
for her first lover had always bothered him. The power in knowing he could
still be her first rushed at him like a tidal wave, almost dropping him to his
knees. He was playing with fire; he couldn’t even be around her without wanting
her. And damn it, he couldn’t keep his hands off her!

If she were going to marry dream boy,
this would be his only chance to make things right between the two of them. He
didn’t want to think about her boyfriend, but he knew he couldn’t keep her. He
would let her go and hope he had repaired the damage he had done. That or every
relationship she had would be doomed to fail. First, he would teach her to
trust in him again.

After returning to her room, she
stretched out on her bed, trying to come to terms with herself and the fact that
she was still in love with Ty Phillips. She still cared deeply and it shook the
foundation of who she believed herself to be.

As the birds began to stir outside her
window, she finally slipped into a fitful slumber where her mind kept trying to
find a way to change the past. But nothing could change the cold reality. Her
grandfather’s claim that she and her sisters were under a curse, left in the
wake of her parents’ legacy, was true.

The Stone Girls had learned over the
years that people, especially men, just couldn’t look past the money or how the
press portrayed them. There didn’t seem to be a single man out there that could
fathom that she was just a woman.

As she sat up and ran her fingers
through her hair in frustration, Alex felt like she had gone twenty rounds with
José Cuervo. Her whole body ached. Remembering why her eyes burned and her
throat was scratchy, she replayed everything in her mind; every detail of her
confrontation with Ty flashed behind her lids.

She went into the adjoining bathroom and
splashed cold water on her colorless face. Gazing into the mirror above the
sink, she cringed at how bloodshot her eyes were.

“Good thing I don’t have a shoot today!”
she muttered wearily.

Cranking the shower to full blast, she
undressed and stepped into the shower stall. She let the water run down her
naked body, trying to loosen the kinks in her tight muscles. After finishing
her shower, she dressed in a pair of chocolate brown jeans and a matching plaid
shirt that was long sleeved and exceedingly baggy. She buttoned the shirt all
the way to her neck and turned up the cuffs that covered her hands. The extra
large men’s shirt came almost to her knees. She pulled on an old black pair of
combat boots she kept on hand for hiking. With her hair pulled back from her
face and gelled, the color looked darker than it actually was. She secured it
in a high ponytail and slid on her glasses. She stood back from the mirror to
see the finished product.

Not bad
, she thought before
she left her room to go downstairs.

She could smell the food Martha was
preparing as she started her descent. Martha was probably cooking for an army;
she always made a mountain of food when the house was full. It was probably a
good thing she liked to cook because it definitely was going to be a full house
if Ty didn’t catch the rustlers before the band showed up.

Alex dreaded them meeting Ty, and vice
versa. She still hadn’t warned Steven not to blow her cover and she desperately
needed to talk to him about that! Steven had a tendency to cause trouble in her
life just to see her break out in hives. He made Parry’s practical jokes seem
like kindergarten play!

As she entered the dining room she saw
Ty and his men already at the table, finishing their meal. Sam sat in her usual
seat at the head of the table with Ty seated beside her. He had been talking
business with his men, but stopped abruptly as they all turned toward her.

She suddenly felt nervous with so many
pairs of eyes on her all at once. She pulled out a chair next to Parry as she
quickly apologized for being late, and smiled sheepishly at Tennessee and
Ridge, who were seated across from her.

Ridge hadn’t warmed up toward her. He
just stared back frigidly. Dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt, just
like Ty and Tennessee, she couldn’t help but notice that his eyes matched his
attire; there was such coldness in them. Alex feared it would take an act of
divine intervention to get the man to smile.

Martha glided into the room and placed a
plate of warm pancakes on the table in front of her, none too gently.

“What?” Alex exclaimed, looking up
questioningly.

Martha folded her hands over her chest,
cocking an eyebrow in irritation with her. Alex made an uncomfortable sound in
her throat as she turned her attention to buttering her pancakes. Knowing
Martha was still glowering behind her, she fidgeted uneasily in her seat,
silently praying she wouldn’t start in with another lecture about working
herself to death.

“Steven called for you this morning,”
her annoyed foot tapping on the floor filled the awkward silence that followed
her statement. “I told him you were still asleep. He said he would try you
again later.”

Alex couldn’t believe she had missed
Steven’s phone call. When Steven was on vacation, getting in touch with him was
like trying to get an audience with God! He would get back to you on his
schedule, period.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” she threw up
her hands and wailed. She looked at Martha accusingly, as if she had conspired
to keep the phone call from her.

Alex had reason to suspect that Martha
had kept his call from her on purpose. She was probably being unreasonable in
thinking that way, but she couldn’t stop herself. She was growing more and more
frustrated by the minute at not being able to connect with Steven.

Martha looked poignantly at Alex,
“Because he told me not to. He knew how tired you were from your work schedule
and he didn’t want me to disturb you!” She tilted her head decisively so Alex
understood Steven had made the choice, not her.