Bargain With The Devil Part 10

"I don't like the idea of you being on the pill," Hunter stated categorically.

Stacy smiled grimly to herself but said nothing.

"We are both, however, too upset to discuss the subject reasona-bly tonight. So we'll wait and do it another time." Hunter switched on the engine with a vicious little gesture that gave evidence of his emotional state. "And don't think," he added gratingly as he glanced into the side mirror before pulling back out into traffic, "that I'm going to let this matter ride. We'll settle it soon!"

With a deep breath of regret and sadness, Stacy sank heavily back into the leather seat, her fingers clenched tightly in her lap. She had won this small round, but she had paid a terrible price. For now she fully comprehended the nature of her husband's revenge. It all made sense: the way he had made a deliberate effort to cement Eric's friends.h.i.+p tonight; his desire for her to have a child.

Paul J. Rylan might shrug and write off the loss of his wayward, difficult daughter, but he wouldn't be nearly so dispa.s.sionate about the defection of his son and heir.

When he discovered that Eric looked on the enemy as a friend and business confidant, the senior Rylan would, indeed, be furious. Add to that fire the knowledge that he had a grandchild who could be turned against him at Hunter Manning's whim....

That night, when Hunter reached for her in bed, it was with a strange intentness that silenced the protest Stacy had been about to make before the words left her mouth. There was no arguing with a man in this mood, she realized instinctively as he gathered her against the heat of his body, using his hands in a rough urgency that excited against her will.

"You are as stubborn, independent, and maddening as your father claims," he told her thickly, his hands twined deeply into the red-brown of her hair, his mouth hovering just above hers. "But you are my wife, and I'm going to teach you what that means if it's the last thing I accomplish on this earth!"

Stacy met his determined, promising gaze so close to her own and knew he meant it. My G.o.d, her mind whispered tantalizingly, what would this man be like if he channeled that power into loving a woman instead of merely possessing her!

Almost as quickly as it had come, the thought was gone, driven out of her immediate consciousness as his body moved sensuously against hers. Soon she was uttering the small cries of surrender and desire Hunter seemed to crave. And then she was caught up once again in the vortex Hunter created around them when he claimed his wife.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

The call from Gary Bowen came with complete unexpectedness the next morning at work. Stacy frankly had never thought to hear from her former boyfriend again. Julia took the call and handed the phone over to her boss with a small, speculative glance. Then she disap-peared to help a customer in the large greenhouse.

"Stacy?" Gary's voice sounded quite pleasantly familiar. A man like Hunter could make a woman appreciate a softer, gentler man, she told herself wryly. "I just wanted to call and wish you the best. I hear you're already married."

"Yes, it was a very small wedding," Stacy admitted. "It's nice of you to call and congratulate me."

"We were friends, Stacy," Gary reminded her reproachfully. "I'll be honest and say I had hoped it would turn into something more, but I expect it's my own fault for not moving a little faster," he con-cluded with a rueful, self-deprecating little laugh. "At any rate, I wanted you to know I really am happy for you. If this is what you want, of course," he added with a hint of meaning.

"Naturally it's what I want," Stacy heard herself say with a touch of spirit. She didn't want the whole world speculating on her wed-ding the way Leana had! "Why else would I have done it?"

"I'm sorry, Stacy, it's just that it all happened so fast," Gary ex-plained carefully. "I was a bit worried you might have rushed into something without giving it a lot of consideration. , ."

"I considered it from all angles," Stacy a.s.sured him with a small, inner wince. If Gary only knew how little real choice there had been! "I'm I'm quite content with my " She broke off, realizing she had been about to say she'd been content with her bargain. "With my marriage," she ended coolly.

"And you'll accept my congratulations, after the way I acted at lunch that day?" Gary demanded with a regretful chuckle.

Stacy thought about telling him that his reaction had been ex-traordinarily tame, according to Hunter's way of thinking, but de-cided against it. Gary meant well, and they had been friends. "Oh, Gary, don't be ridiculous."

"What about letting me make up for my bad manners? I'd hate to lose the friends.h.i.+p of another small business-person! It's good to have someone else to talk to about all the trials and tribulations of the free-enterprise system!" he remarked humorously. "Let me take you to lunch this afternoon."

Stacy thought of how her brother and Hunter had that same need and then forced herself to remember that Hunter, at least, had ulterior motives. And that last thought very nearly made her accept Gary's invitation. Why should she let her husband cut her off from her friends.h.i.+ps? She had a right to maintain business a.s.sociations.

"Gary, I'm going to be b.usy today," she heard herself say and knew she was taking the cowardly way out. But somehow it seemed safer r at to risk antagonizing Hunter at this point. She remembered his purposeful manner at breakfast and the way his foggy eyes had followed her as she had gotten ready for work. She wasn't certain what he had been thinking, but it hadn't boded well. A small incident such as that which might be touched off if he found out she'd had lunch with Gary could blow up into something very dangerous, given her husband's present mood.

"Some other time perhaps?" Gary pressed hopefully.

"We'll see," Stacy said hesitantly, growing ruefully more certain by the moment that the risk would be top great. Besides, she re-minded herself, Hunter seemed to be honoring his word about not encouraging Leana. Staying clear of Gary was only fair on Stacy's part. "But I'm pretty swamped these days," she added to Gary in a decisive tone that said it all.

"I understand." He sighed. "Well, take care, Stacy, and once again', I wish you the best. If you ever need anything or want a sym-pathetic ear, keep me in mind, will you?"

"Thank you," she whispered, abruptly grateful for the gesture. Gary was being very kind about all this.

She had barely hung up the phone when it rang again. She raised the receiver once more and heard a friend's voice. A female friend.

"Stacy, I've heard the news. Let's go out to lunch, and you can tell me all about it! I could hardly believe you'd gotten married, but I'm absolutely delighted for you! I want to know every detail. Can you get away today? My treat!"

"Thanks, Carla," Stacy agreed at once. "I'd love it!" Carla was exactly what she needed, she told herself as she hung up the phone for the second time. A friend who truly would wish her the best and who would be enthusiastic about the marriage.

Two hours later Stacy grabbed her van keys and waved good-bye to Julia. "I'm going out for lunch today, Julia. Be back about one-thirty or so. Can you handle everything?"

"Of course, Stacy, no problem." But there was a strange look in the young clerk's eyes. A look Stacy didn't hang around to decipher.

"I'll be at the Nature Hut restaurant if you need me," Stacy added, slipping out the door.

Lunch with Carla was balm to Stacy's highly strung nerves. Over colorful salads and the restaurant's elegant vegetarian soup, she began to relax. She was even able to laugh as she and Carla dis-cussed the doings of mutual friends.

"Listen, Stacy," Carla said toward the end of the meal, the curve of her short brown hair bobbing a bit as she leaned forward intently. "Is there anything special you need? I hate buying wedding gifts that wind up sitting on the shelf for forty years!" Her attractive, animated face smiled laughingly.

"Need?" Stacy remembered her husband's well-equipped house and shook her head slightly. "You know how it is when two people with established households marry. They end up with two of every-thing. I really can't think of anything I need."

Carla sighed. "Then it will have to be something frivolous!"

"Well, if you're really serious about this," Stacy amended, grin-ning.

"I am!"

"We could use a garden hose," Stacy said, thinking of the court-yard.

"A hose! Good grief! Leave it to you to come up with a sugges-tion like that. Very well, a hose it will be." Carla glanced at her watch. "I realize you're the boss where you work, but my supervisor is expecting me back on the job pretty soon. I hate to call a halt to lunch, but I think I'd better get going."

"I understand." Stacy smiled. "I can't tell you how much I've en-joyed it. Thanks again."

"My pleasure. And remember, this was my treat!"

Carta paused at the cas.h.i.+er's desk to pay the bill, and Stacy moved on ahead. Her practical leather purse swung from her shoul-der as she pushed open the heavy door of the restaurant to confront the Tucson warmth. After the air-conditioned comfort indoors, it was always something of a small shock to confront the desert again.

Stacy stood on the top step of the restaurant entrance, digging idly into her pocket for the van's keys and waiting to say a last good-bye to Carta. She glanced up automatically at the properly restrained roar of an expensive car engine, thinking it sounded somewhat like Hunter's car, and froze in astonishment. It was Hunter's car, she realized in surprise. What in the world was he doing here? He worked across town. He wouldn't have driven all this way for lunch. Especially not for roots and berries, as he termed the vegetarian diet!

"Hunter!" she exclaimed, an uncertain smile on her lips as she descended the steps to greet him. "Don't tell me you've grown ad-dicted to good food...!"

Her attempt at a light greeting was cut off as soon as she got a good look at her husband's rugged features.

He was in a fury, she realized with a gasp as he climbed quickly out of the car, slamming the door forcefully behind him and advanc-ing toward her with undisguised intent.

"Where is he, Stacy?" he growled, eating up the short distance between them with grim strides. "Still inside? No matter, I can take care of him as easily there as out here!

And when I've finished with Bowen, it will be yourTurn! Don't think for one split second you're not going to pay for this bit of fool-ishness!"

He was almost on her, and the fact that she was in danger finally registered in Stacy's astounded consciousness. Hurriedly she re-treated back up the steps of the restaurant. But he moved quickly, taking the treads two at a time and reaching out to grab her painfully by the upper arms. The keys fell from Stacy's hands as she stared helplessly up into her husband's face. Never had he looked more like the devil than he did at this moment!

"Hunter! Please. Listen to me! I'm not here with Gary!" The knowledge that she easily might have been at the restaurant with her former boyfriend but for her cowardliness was enough to make Stacy decide to trust her instincts again in the future. Thank G.o.d it wasn't Gary inside paying the bill. The trick now was to calm Hunter down while she explained everything to him. But he gave her no chance.

"The h.e.l.l you're not," he exploded, giving her a small, fierce shake that sent her hair flying from its topknot. "Julia said he'd phoned and you'd gone out to lunch with him! Don't lie to me on top of everything else, Stacy Manning. It's going to go hard enough with you as it is!"

"Julia said " Abruptly Stacy realized what had happened. Julia had known Gary had phoned, but she'd never heard the second call, which Stacy had taken. The next thing the clerk knew, Stacy had breezily announced she was going out to lunch. No wonder the younger woman had a.s.sumed the luncheon engagement was with Bowen.

"That's right! Julia told me where you were when I called to meet you for lunch myself. Little knowing, of course, that you had other plans! So help me, Stacy, I'm going to teach you that I mean what I say if I have to use a rawhide whip on you!" The gray storm of his eyes washed over her.

It occurred to a now trembling Stacy that she had accidentally found the outer limits of her husband's self-control. If she didn't get the situation explained quickly, she would find herself in very un-pleasant waters. The tight lines of Hunter's mouth, the totally threat-ening gleam of his eyes, and the way his fingers dug into the soft skin of her arm were painfully alarming. He really would beat her this time, she thought dazedly, struggling to put together a coherent explanation before he carried out the punishment here outside the restaurant.

"Hunter, it's not Gary inside. Will you stop yelling long enough to let me explain everything?" she pleaded, green eyes beseeching his understanding.

"I would have thought," he bit out dangerously, "that by now you would have learned not to play games with the devil. You know how to push too far, witch. And now that you've learned how to do that, you're going to find out what happens when you do! But first I'm going to take care of your philosophy-spouting friend...."

"Don't call him that!" Stacy hissed.

"I wouldn't waste any time defending him if I were you," Hunter retorted, bringing his face close to hers. She saw the gray shark that now swam in the depths of his eyes and swallowed in genuine fear. "You're going to need all your energy defending yourself!"

"Stacy?" Carta's uncertain, worried voice came unexpectedly from the door of the restaurant. "What's going on here? Shall I get help?"

"Yes!" Stacy gasped even as her husband straightened to glower at the new arrival on the scene.

"Stay out of this, whoever you are. This is my wife, and I'll han-dle her as I see fit!" He kept his grip on Stacy, who couldn't move.

"Your wife?" Carta gulped in amazement. "Stacy, is this the man you were telling me about during lunch?"

"This is the one," Stacy said, realizing that Carta was her best chance for cooling off her husband's flaming temper. "The man I told you always made me feel guilty because he never seemed to completely lose his self-control in an argument!" Actually, she hadn't really said that to Carta, but the opportunity was too good to miss.

"Stacy, tell your acquaintance here to get lost," Hunter warned.

"Why should I do that? She just paid for my lunch. A wedding present!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snarled, his glance going back to Carta.

"Just what she said, I'm afraid," Carta said softly with just a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in her voice. "I called Stacy up this morning and in-vited her out to lunch. I'd heard she'd been recently married and wanted to know all the fascinating details. Is there something wrong with that? I've heard of jealous husbands before, but I always thought they confined their rages to situations where another man was involved!"

"Can't you tell?" Stacy said bitterly over her shoulder, still held fast in Hunter's hands. "He thinks you're another man!"

"Enough of this!" Hunter barked. "Where's Bowen?" He directed the question as much at Carta as at his wife, but Stacy could sense the new uncertainty in him. Soon she would have this matter straightened out. And, she vowed silently, if Hunter thought that would be the end of it, he had a lot to learn!

"Gary Bowen?" Carta asked in astonishment. "Haven't seen him since he brought Stacy to my last party. That was weeks ago! You thought she was with Gary today? How interesting! Such a reaction. Poor Gary would be horrified at such a primitive response. He's above that sort of thing, himself, you know." Carta was almost gig-gling now, and Stacy groaned wryly. It wouldn't be long before the details of this embarra.s.sing little scene had been circulated among all her acquaintances.

"You're telling me it was you and not Bowen who just had lunch with my wife?" Hunter demanded in a low voice, his eyes coming to rest on Stacy's face.

"I'm afraid so," Carta admitted. "See here? I've got the receipt for two meals, and I'm sure we could get the waitress to identify us," she added helpfully.

"Would you like more evidence?" Stacy asked with great hau-teur. Now that the crisis was fading, her own anger began to kindle. She glared up at her husband's still-grim features and defied him with her brilliant green eyes.

"It would seem," he said slowly, his eyes drinking in his wife's incensed expression, "that Julia made a mistake."

"It would seem," Stacy corrected significantly, "that you made a mistake. One h.e.l.l of a mistake!" Relief that it had been an error washed through her. The thought of how close she had come to ac-cepting Gary's invitation was frightening. And it fueled her anger.

Abruptly Hunter released his menacing grip on his wife's arms, nodding with a faintly apologetic inclination of his dark head toward Carta. "I'm sorry to have involved you in this, Miss " he began formally.

"Carta Fowler, and don't apologize," Carta said cheerfully. "I found it quite fascinating."

"Oh, and so did I," Stacy snapped, rubbing her arms beneath the sleeves of her carnation-flowered s.h.i.+rt while she shot her husband a furious glance through her lashes. "I can't tell you how exciting it is to be the subject of a public scene. Especially after having been mar-ried only a few days!" She was surprised and much gratified to see a tinge of red on the devil's high cheekbones. Somehow she hadn't expected to find Hunter Manning capable of being embarra.s.sed.

"Well, I expect I'd better be off or I'll never make it back to work this afternoon," Carla said lightly as Stacy fixed Hunter with a glow-ering look. "Good-bye, Stacy, and don't worry, I won't forget the garden hose. So nice to meet you, Mr. Manning," she added with a grin. "I'd just finished hearing so much about you from Stacy. All of it to your credit; if you're interested! I'll give you a call when I've got the hose properly wrapped in silver paper and a bow, Stacy." And then she was gone, going gracefully down the steps and climb-ing into her white compact.

"Guess," Stacy invited in a slow, angry drawl, "what the chief topic of conversation will be at Carla Fowler's office this afternoon!"

Hunter drew a deep breath, and Stacy could see him mentally searching for. the words. "Stacy, honey," he began carefully, lifting his fingers to stroke the line of her cheek in a strangely gentle fash-ion. "I don't know what to say. I was so furious to think you might have been here with Bowen, I couldn't think straight."

"How about starting out with 'I'm sorry'?" she suggested bit-terly, twisting away from his touch to bend down and scrabble for her fallen keys. When she straightened, she deliberately stepped out of reach. He made no attempt to approach her, the gray eyes linger-ing hungrily on her face.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and then spoiled the apology by add-ing with a relieved sigh, "I'm also d.a.m.ned grateful!" He shook his head as if clearing away the last of the rage that had clouded his mind. "G.o.d, Stacy, I was ready to do murder at the thought of you meeting him again! I was so afraid he would be trying to lure you back, make you regret your bargain."

"You were prepared to kill poor Gary?" Stacy gasped, horrified.

"No," he admitted with a twist of his lips. "I would have con-tented myself with beating him to a pulp."

"And then use a rawhide whip on me!" she exploded.

Hunter opened his mouth to say something, apparently changed his mind, and said instead, "Stacy, let's go home. We can't talk here, and I want to show you "

"Of all the nerve!" Stacy yelped, starting down the steps and staying just out of arm's length. "You think you can make up for everything by dragging me home and taking me to bed? Isn't that like a man! Well, I've got news for you, Hunter. I don't feel in the least inclined to make love right now. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm going back to work. If you want to take the afternoon off and go home, be my guest. You can put through a load of was.h.i.+ng while you're there!"

"Stacy, you're upset...." he began, attempting to pacify her, fol-lowing her as she swept off toward the brightly painted van.

"You're d.a.m.n right I'm upset," she agreed forcefully, swinging around to confront him in the middle of the parking lot, her hands planted on her hips. "And I'm going to stay upset for a long time. At least as long as it takes this tale to make the rounds of all my friends!" she vowed, the bright sunlight glinting off the deep red highlights in her hair as it danced around her shoulders. "I hope you're pleased with the way your revenge is going, Hunter Manning. I can guarantee this particular Rylan has never been so humiliated in her life!"

She turned away again before he could say anything, yanking open the van's door and leaping inside. She gave him no chance to stop her, twisting the key savagely and snapping the gas pedal to the floor with such force that the abused vehicle fairly leaped out of the parking lot. She left Hunter standing in the middle of the pavement, a grim, unreadable expression on his hard and arrogant face. Not for the first time since she had encountered the devil, Stacy came very close to crying.

The first thing she saw when she entered the driveway of Hunter's house that evening after work was an unfamiliar, gleaming green sports car sitting smugly near the front door. It was all she needed, Stacy thought sadly, parking the van and trailing toward the entrance. She didn't feel in the least like entertaining guests and with her luck whoever drove that s.e.xy green car was probably a very important business a.s.sociate of her husband's. The car was brand-new, she noted idly as she unlocked the front door and turned briefly to glance at it. It still wore dealer plates. Well, she would do her best not to be deliberately rude....

There was no mumble of voices deep in conversation to be heard as she opened the door and entered the tiled foyer, however.

"Hunter?" she called uncertainly, not wanting to interrupt if he were in the middle of a business conference. His car had been parked near the green one. "I'm home."

There was the clink of ice against gla.s.s from the direction of the kitchen, and a moment later Hunter appeared, lounging in the arched doorway with a drink in his hand. He stared at her across the length of the room. Stacy would have given a great deal to know what he was thinking.