It was a question fraught with many possibilities but, just then, David could only see one of them. Stephanie's position was directly under his, and even though he was angry, even though hanging on to her was like hanging on to a football at the bottom of a pileup, he knew suddenly that if she kept moving the way she was, they were both going to be in trouble.
“Okay,” he said, “here's what I'm going to do.”
“Oh, I know what you're going to do,” Stephanie said fiercely.
“I'm going to stand up,” David said, ignoring her. “Take it nice and easy, understand? Then we'll talk.”
“We are done talking! I should never have listened to you in the first place. Walking me right past Clare and out of that house, and I never stopped to ask why!”
“I'm a sucker for appeals from the SPCA, too,” David said grimly. “Dammit, don't do that!”
“You're no better than Avery, youâyou liar!”
“Did he lie to you? Your husband?”
“Don't call him that,” Stephanie said through her teeth. “And yes, he lied to me. I told you that. He saidâhe said he'd take care of myâmy needs as long as it was necessary, but he didn't.”
“What needs?” David said softly, and suddenly everything around them seemed to stop.
Stephanie looked up into David's face. His eyes were sapphire dark and locked on hers. The rest of him was locked on her, too. Chest to chest. Hip to hip. Thigh to thighâ¦
Warmth suffused her skin. Her heart gave an unsteady thump. Desperately, she tried to dislodge him.
“Don't⦔ David caught his breath. “Don't do that.”
“Do what? Dump you on your head? Damn you, David!”
“That,” he said, biting back a groan as she moved again. “Hell, that You're the one who was busy talking about all those male chromosomes. What must I do, draw you a diagram?”
His body gave up the struggle and reacted to hers. He saw comprehension dawn in her eyes and she went absolutely still.
That had stopped her, he thought grimly. She wasn't fighting him anymoreâ¦not that he was thinking about her fighting him. All he could think about now was her softness. Her heat. Her scent.
“Let go,” she said.
He would. He'd let go of her wrists, gather her into his arms and take her angry mouth in a long, hungry kissâexcept, she wasn't angry. She had a look to her he'd seen in the eyes of a stray cat he'd found haunting the back alley when he was a kid, a cat so feral and afraid it had never let him get close enough to help it.
“Let me up,” she said. “Right now.”
The words were strong, but that didn't disguise the fear. Hell, it was more than that, it was something he didn't even want to put a name to. He drew back, his hands still holding hers.
“I'm not going to hurt you.”
“Justâjust get off me.”
Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. He took a deep breath and fought against the unreasonable desire to kiss those tears away.
“Promise me you won't run?”
She nodded stiffly.
“Let me hear you say it. Tell me you're not going to run like a scared rabbit.”
“I was not running like a scared rabbit”
He decided against arguing the point. He released her, rolled off her and stood up. He held out his hand, but Stephanie ignored the gesture, rose on her own and began dusting off her jeans.
“Maybe you'd like to tell me where you thought you were going,” he said.
She sniffed, wiped her nose on her sleeve, and shrugged.
“Home.”
“Home,” he repeated.
His tone incredulous. Not that she could blame him. Where was home, exactly? It was just that anywhere was safer than here, when she didn't trust this stranger or his promisesâ¦when she didn't trust herself when he touched her.
“That's right. Home. I told you. Home. To Willingham Corners.”
“Ah, yes. Willingham Corners. And that house.” David folded his arms and fixed her with an interested look. “How stupid of me. Come to think of it, didn't the Yankees burn Tara?”
She gave a choked little laugh. “It's true. I thought of Tara, too, the first time I saw Seven Oaks.”
David smiled. “When I rang the doorbell, that's what I half expected to hear. Dah-daaah-dah-dahâ¦you know. That music.”
“You almost did,” Stephanie said. “For a time, Avery actually thought about it.”
“But you managed to talk him out of it?”
“Me? Talk Avery out of something?” Her laugh was without humor this time. “I didn't even try. He just got sidetracked, I guess. Not that it mattered to me. It was his house, not mine.”
“Strange way to feel, about a house that's your home, isn't it?”
“Seven Oaks was never my home. It belonged to my husband, and I⦠I⦔ Her voice trailed away.
“And you belonged to him, too.”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “Are we back to that?”
“We never left it.”
“What do you want me to say, David? That it wasn't an arrangement I was proud of? Okay. It wasn't.” Her shoulders slumped. “Look, I don't expect you to understand.”
“Try me.”
“I⦠I don't see how it matters.”
“If I'm going to represent you,” he said, waving a mental goodbye to his junior partners because, hell, this case was too complex for them, “the arrangement you keep referring to matters a great deal. I need to know the specifics.”
“You know them. Avery deposited money in my name each monthâ”
“Did your sister-in-law hate you from the beginning?”
Stephanie shrugged. “No more than anyone else in town.”
David nodded. “I got that feeling from the documents I read. And yet, you were going back there, where Clare's probably already changed the locks, and the good townsfolk are probably holding a party to celebrate the removal of the grasping, scheming, hard-hearted widow of the town's fairhaired patriarch.”
“You don't believe in pulling your punches, do you, Mr. Chambers?”
“We've made too much progress to go back to such formality now, Mrs. Willingham. And no, I don't believe in pulling my punches. That is how they see you, isn't it?”
Stephanie lifted her chin. “Everyone does. Including you.”
David reached out and plucked a leaf from her hair. “Change my opinion, then.”
“How? By listing my virtues?” She drew herself up. “I am not about to defend myself to you or anybody, sir.”
He smiled. “I like the way you say that.”
“Say what?”
“Sir.” His smile tilted. “It's very old fashioned, and politeâand yet, I get the feeling what you're really doing is calling me a four-letter word.” He reached out and took another bit of leaf from her hair, his hand lingering against the dark curls. “Avery wasn't a nice guy, was he?”
“He was a rat,” Stephanie said in a whisper.
“Because he cut you off without a cent?”
“Because he lied,” she said sharply. “He lied about everything, and once I was trapped, once I realized, he just laughed and said I'd have to live with it.”
She spun away, her arms wrapped around herself. David turned her to face him.
“Did he hurt you?”
She looked up. His eyes had gone as flat as his voice.
“He didn't beat me, if that's what you mean.” She shook her head. “He was justâhe got his kicks out of inflicting other kinds of pain. He was mean-tempered. Vindictive. He must have been the kind of little boy that pulled wings off bugs, you know?” She touched the tip of her tongue to her lips. “I suspect lots of people would agree, if it didn't mean bucking Clare and siding with me. Most folks would sooner shake hands with a rattlesnake than admit to having anything in common with Bess Horton's girl.”
David's gaze swept over her face. It was bright with defiance.
“Is that your maiden name? Horton?”
She nodded.
“And what is it people have against your mother?”
Stephanie looked down and brushed a speck of dirt he couldn't see off her jeans.
“They don't have anything against her, anymore,” she said brusquely. “She's gone.”
“Gone where?”
She shrugged. “I've no idea.”
“And the brother you mentioned? Where is he?”
“He's⦔ She hesitated. “He's around.”
“Why didn't you leave Avery Willingham, if he was such a bastard?”
“I didn't know what he was like. Not at first. And besides⦔
“Besides, there was the money.” His tone was cold and accusatory.
“Yes,” she said, so faintly that he had to strain to hear it.
“And it's all gone,” he said.
She nodded.
“How? How could it be gone? What did you do with it?”
“I spent it.”
“All of it? On what?”
“That's none of yourâ”
“Do you want me to represent you, or don't you?”
She stared at him. “Why would you do that? You don't like me. You don't believe anything I say. Why would you take me on?”
“Because I'm a lawyer,” he said quickly. Too quickly. What was he getting into here? Nothing he couldn't get out of, he told himself, answering his own question. “And I believe that every person in this country is entitled to the protection of the law.”
“I couldn't pay you.”
“Our office does pro bono work all the time,” he said, trying to think straight. It wasn't easy. She was touching the tip of her tongue to her bottom lip again. Her tongue was a pale, velvety pink, and her mouth wasâher mouth wasâ“But I need some answers first. Like, what happened to the money in your account?”
Stephanie thought of Paul, who'd been her courage and her strength when the town had pointed its fingers at Bess Horton and her dirty-faced, ragamuffin offspring. Who'd raised her, after their mother left. Who sat now in his room at Rest Haven, unable to do the things he used to do, and of the pride that was all he had left.
Swear to me, Steff,
he'd said,
swear you won't ever tell anybody about me
.
She swallowed dryly and looked at David. “I spent the money.”
“Gambling?” She shook her head. “Drinking?” She shook her head again. “Do you do coke? Heroin? Dammit, Scarlett.” He shook her, hard. “It couldn't have just trickled through your fingers.”
“It's gone,” she said, her eyes on his. “That's all I can tell you.”
“And now you want more,” he said softly.
“I want what's rightfully mine. What Avery promised me.”
It was the answer David had expected. Only a miracle would have made her say that she didn't want anything, now that she'd met him. Nothing but him, his kisses, his arms around herâ¦
He stepped back, his hands curling into fists that he buried in his pockets, his anger as much for himself as for her.
“I'll take you to D.C.,” he said. “To my place.” He almost laughed at her strangled yelp of indignation. “There's a housekeeper's apartment in my town house. Bath, bedroom, small sitting roomâand a lock on the door. All that's missing is a housekeeper. Mine sleeps out, not in.”
“And what will you expect in return?” she asked coldly.
“Your presence at my office, five days a week from nine to five.”
“Why are you doing this for me, David?”
He thought again of the stray cat he'd tried to help, all those years ago.
“It's for me,” he said briskly. “Your case is interesting. Well?” He held out his hand. “Deal?”
Stephanie drew a deep breath. What choice was there? Slowly, she placed her hand in his.
“Deal,” she said.
David's fingers closed around hers. Shake her hand, he told himself, do it in an impersonal wayâ¦
But his arms were already gathering her to him and she was yielding, melting, soft and warm as honey, into his embrace. He kissed her, kept kissing her, while time stopped. And when he finally let her go, he looked at his watch, then said, in a voice so calm that it amazed even him, “We'd better get moving.”
David started for the car. Stephanie stood motionless.