Summer Mahogany (17 page)

"You assumed wrong!" she flashed.

"Are you going to try to convince me now that you didn't want to stay with me last night? That I forced you to?" His lips curled in a cynical jeer.

Her cheeks reddened as she replied angrily, "No, I'm not! But I never indicated that I wanted it to be a permanent arrangement!"

"You are my wife!" Rhyder snapped. "You belong to me!"

"I am Gina Gaynes and I belong to no one but myself!" His arrogant claim of possession incited her to deny that any part of her belonged to him, even though she knew she had given him her heart.

"Damn it," he muttered beneath his breath, "I knew I should never have let you leave this morning."

The words were barely out before his hand snaked forward to grip her wrist with the striking swiftness of a cobra. Her reaction was too slow to elude him. Violently Rhyder yanked her toward him. In defense, Gina's arm swung, the fiat of her hand connecting with his cheek. The hard contact sent shock waves of pain rolling through her arm.

Instantly the striking hand was seized and twisted with the other behind her back to crush her against the granite wall of his chest. His expression was dark with anger as he glared at her whitened face.

"How many times do you think you can slap my face without receiving retribution," he snarled.

Gina strained and twisted to break free, fearing his manner of punishment. He shifted his grip, a single, iron band pinning her to him while his fingers twisted into her raven hair, pulling at the tender roots until the pain forced Gina to be still. The pain had barely eased in her scalp when her lips were ground against her teeth by his vengeful mouth.

Reeling under his punitive assault, Gina tried to struggle, but it only served to feed his wrath. The air was soon crushed from her lungs by the constricting band of his arm. His smothering kiss refused to let her draw new breath. Blackness swirled behind her tightly closed eyes. The rigidity of her body, which was her only remaining gesture of resistance, wilted with her ebbing strength.

With the last bastion of her resistance conquered, Rhyder set out to taste the spoils of his victory, searching relentlessly for the sweetness of her lips, plundering their softness. The ravaging fire of his kiss sparked the quivering beginnings of a response.

The fingers curling through her hair were no longer inflicting pain. Before Gina found herself surrending to his hungry demand for passion, she valiantly twisted away from the hard male lips.

"Let me go!" Gulping in air, her voice was breathy and low. "Or do you intend to exercise your husbandly rights by raping me?" Her face was turned far to the side away from him.

"Damn you, Gina." The savage groan was breathed against the arching curve of her neck. "You always seem to manage to make me despise myself for the way l feel, and half the time I'm only responding to your invitations."

"Let me go," she repeated, aware that he spoke the truth.

Her senses were clamoring from the musky male scent enveloping her and the hard feel of his body pressed against hers. Rhyder lifted his head slightly to study her averted profile, the moist warmth of his breath caressing her cheek and the sensitive skin along her neck.

"How, Gina?" he demanded in a husky pitch. "How do I let you go? I can't. Not yet."

No, her heart cried in pain, he couldn't let her go until he had accomplished his objective of buying the property on his terms, not Justin's. For that, he needed her. In the meantime he would use her to satisfy the lust she aroused in him. And that wasn't enough. To settle for that would literally break her.

Extreme tiredness washed through her. Gina fought it as she fought the emotional upsurge of her love for Rhyder. Both could too easily be turned into weapons against her. She strained against his arms.

"You can't hold me prisoner," she declared in a low voice to hide her weariness.

"Why not?" he mocked with a sardonic inflection. "For nine years, your memory kept me its prisoner. Now I'm holding the real thing. I can feel the beat of your heart, the heat of your body, the softness of your flesh against mine. Why should I only remember when I can hold what's mine?"

"I am not yours and I never will be," Gina continued to protest, deafening her ears to his seductive words. "So let me go!"

Rhyder allowed her to move a foot away, retaining a firm hold on her arms to prevent her from escaping altogether. The metallic hardness of his gaze was like a steel bit boring into her.

"I'm not letting you. Not until we've talked this out." The qualification was the first sign that her adamancy was gaining her ground.

"There's nothing to talk out," she stated. "The only thing I want from you is to have my belongings returned to my apartment and to be left alone, so there's nothing to discuss."

"Yes, there is," returned Rhyder in a voice that was positive and unrelenting in its purpose. "We're going to talk about the way you've changed from what you were this morning and last night to the way you are now."

"It would be pointless." Exhaustion was setting in again. She was tired of constantly having to struggle to protect herself, mentally as well as physically.

"I disagree," he denied flatly, indicating that he would accept no other conditions for her release.

Her wan complexion came from her inner weariness of fighting. Her eyes, a faintly haunted green, beseeched him silently not to put her through this, although her pride would not let her verbalize her plea.

The male line of his lips tightened. The creases on either side of his mouth were carved deeper as his searching gaze narrowed on her face and its brief expression of vulnerability and hurt. A slight frown creased his forehead.

"Gina…" Rhyder began, vaguely questioning, his hands tightening on her as if to draw her to him and show her the comfort of his strong arms.

A knock at the apartment door checked his movement. His frown changed to one of irritation at the interruption. The second knock drew his impatient glance, and Gina was released from his compelling gaze, gaining the respite she needed to reestablish the firmness of her stand. Rhyder sensed the change immediately, the line of his jaw hardening.

He let his hands drop to his sides. "We aren't finished," he stated sharply. It was more of a threat than a warning as he left Gina to walk to the door.

A silent sigh of apprehension quivered through her. Her skin felt chilled where his hands had held her. She wondered how much more she could endure without breaking up.

While her mind was wondering about that, her senses were following Rhyder, listening to his footsteps and the opening of the door. The blood froze in her veins when she heard him greet the caller.

"Hello, Justin. What is it you want?" The clipped demand by Rhyder made it plain that Justin wasn't welcome.

Gina pivoted slowly toward the door. Her harrowed eyes met the harshly accusing look Justin gave her over Rhyder's shoulder. He exhibited not the slightest surprise at seeing her there. The remaining color drained from her cheeks.

"I was told," Justin stated coldly, his gaze slicing to Rhyder, "that I could find Gina here."

Seconds ticked by in silence, the tension heightening to a charged level as Rhyder stood in the doorway, blocking Justin's entrance. Slowly, like an uncoiling spring, Rhyder appeared to relax as he stepped to the side.

"Yes, she's here," he agreed, stating the obvious since he knew Justin could see Gina standing in the foyer of the living room. "Would you like to speak to her?"

'"Please," Justin answered stiffly, and walked into the apartment.

As Rhyder closed the door behind him, his gaze slid to Gina's white face, then returned to Justin, whose attention was darting between the two. Rhyder's mouth curved into an aloofly courteous smile.

"I was about to fix Gina a drink. Would you like one, Justin?" he inquired.

Justin was on the point of refusing when he glanced at Gina and changed his mind. "Scotch and water," he said, accepting the offer.

Gina stared numbly at Rhyder, surprised that he had invited Justin in and offered him a drink. An inner sense told her that initially Rhyder had wanted to get rid of Justin as soon as he could, not welcoming the interruption from a man he possibly regarded as a rival.

Her gaze searched his impassive expression for a reason, but Rhyder barely glanced at her as he walked by her into the living room and to the small bar located at the far end.

Her attention was forced to refocus on Justin. With her nerves stretched thin, Gina made a futile attempt to smile, seeking to pretend the situation was natural.

"I've been trying to reach you all day." The low volume of Justin's voice didn't lessen the accusation in the statement.

"Yes, I know," Gina admitted, adding in false apology, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to return your calls, but I was tied up most of the day."

His brown eyes glowered their disbelief. "I see," Justin said grimly. "You were so busy you couldn't even spare five minutes to return my calls, is that what you're saying?"

"Yes." Rigidly clinging to her lie, Gina turned to enter the beige living room.

Her step faltered at Justin's angrily low and demanding, "Aren't you going to ask how I found out you were here?"

Perhaps it was his unjustified anger or his willingness to believe that things were as they seemed that turned Gina against him. Any thought of looking on him as an ally to stand beside her against Rhyder vanished at his silent condemnation.

"How did you find out, Justin?" Gina asked the question he had prompted with icy calm.

"I went to your apartment to find you and the woman that manages the building told me you'd moved out. Your husband—" he underlined the word "—had moved your things."

"I thought that was how you learned I was here," she responded evenly.

"I couldn't believe it was true," Justin muttered in a bitter breath. "I kept telling myself that the stupid old woman had got it wrong. I had to come to see for myself if you'd gone back to him."

"And now you're here." Gina lifted her chin, pale and proud, as she prompted him to say what was in his expression.

"And I see." His mouth tightened.

Gina knew that she had deliberately let him believe she had gone back to Rhyder, both by her words and her actions. But she couldn't let him go on thinking that way.

"Appearances are deceptive." She began her explanation stiffy. "I know how it seems to you, Justin, but it isn't true."

His head was drawn back to study her. "Are you saying that you haven't gone back to Rhyder?" he asked warily.

As her lips parted to state unequivocally that she hadn't, Rhyder's tall shape entered her side vision and he was answering the question before she had the chance.

"That was under discussion when you arrived, Justin. Scotch and water." He offered a squat glass to Justin, cubes of ice glistening in the pale gold liquid. The glass in his other hand he extended to Gina, the glittering light in his eyes holding her gaze. "My wife's moods are as changeable as the ocean. Our reconciliation is barely twenty-four hours old and already it's in jeopardy."

His words hung suspended in the air, carrying the charged undercurrents of a high-voltage wire. Automatically Justin had accepted the drink offered him, but his limbs were frozen by Rhyder's deliberate intimation that they had shared at least one night's worth of reconciliation.

A red flush of shame and anger rose in Gina's cheeks. She couldn't deny the truth and Ryder knew it. Again she was subjected to the harsh sweep of condemnation in Justin's gaze, while Rhyder's expression remained aloof yet mockingly complacent. Her failure to deny Rhyder's implication spoke as loudly as if she had confirmed it.

The urge rose to slap the proffered drink from Rhyder's hand. The blaze of temper must have flashed in her eyes, because Rhyder's gaze narrowed faintly in warning. He grasped her hand and curled her resisting fingers around the cold glass.

"I don't want it," she refused.

"Drink it," Rhyder ordered. "It will help settle your nerves." He released the hand he had forced to hold the glass and slipped a proprietorial arm around her waist to turn her to the center of the living room. He seemed unconcerned that Gina might fling the contents of the glass in his face. Strangely, she found she couldn't do it, although she wanted to. "Have a seat, Justin," Rhyder invited as he led Gina to the sofa and forced her to sit beside him.

Hesitating, Justin lifted his glass, downing a large swallow of his drink as if his system needed the reviving jolt of liquor. Then he walked to an armchair near the sofa and sat down, his sullen gaze sweeping over both of them.

"Gina's things are here," Justin said in a tone that requested clarification of the statement.

"Only temporarily," Gina answered.

"Yes, they are here," Rhyder asserted, making it sound as if they would never leave, and Gina flashed him an angry look of denial.

Justin stared at the cubes floating in his glass. "You should have told me, Gina," he said grimly, "instead of letting me believe that you despised him."

"Ours has always been a stormy relationship," Rhyder responded to the comment when Gina failed to find her voice, "with equal portions of anger and passion in between the dormant periods. You've happened to see us together in our more angered moments, such as now."