Undying Love

The charm had gone from his face now, leaving his expression harsh, his mouth taut, his eyes narrowed. ‘So I’m not the exception?’ he bit out, seemingly unaware—or just unconcerned—of the people standing near them, the conversation and loud laughter doing a lot to mask this very private conversation.

‘No,’ she drawled, knowing the idea displeased him. Rick Dalmont was a man who arrogantly dismissed women when they displeased him; he was never dismissed himself. It would have been that way all his life; the Dalmont fortune had been made long before Todd took his young Spanish bride and produced Ricardo. Rick Dalmont had grown up with a gold spoon in his mouth, and the determined line of his mouth said he wasn’t going to allow a mere woman to deny him something he wanted—even if it was her! For thirty-seven years nothing had been denied him, and Shanna Logan wasn’t about to be the exception, not even when it was her body he wanted. ‘What do you and my brother have to talk about so earnestly?’ She decided attack was still the better form of defence.

Rick’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘He hasn’t told you yet?’

‘No,’ she evaded.

‘I wonder why?’ he taunted.

She gave a careless shrug. ‘I have no doubt he will, in time.’

Rick gave a haughty inclination of his head. ‘In time. But will that be too late?’

‘I have no idea. Will it?’

He gave a husky laugh. ‘It could be,’ he mocked her attempt to get information out of him.

‘Then perhaps I’d better go and talk to Henry now.’ She turned to leave.

Firm fingers grasped her arm, strong relentless fingers that held Shanna to his side. ‘It can wait,’ he dismissed abruptly. ‘Maybe if you ask me nicely enough I might be persuaded to tell you.’

She eyed him coldly. ‘I can get the information from Henry with much less effort.’

His breath was warm against her cheek. ‘Would it be so much of an effort?’

‘Yes!’ she snapped—and then cursed herself for her show of anger. She had intended to show this man no emotion at all, but his manhandling of her couldn’t go without retaliation of some sort. She pulled pointedly out of his grasp, knowing her arm was going to be bruised in the morning from his reluctance to release her. ‘Yes, I’m afraid it would, Mr Dalmont,’ she repeated coldly. ‘And I hate having to make an effort of any kind.’

‘Poor little rich girl,’ he rasped.

Her cool green eyes openly mocked him. ‘Isn’t that slightly ridiculous, coming from you?’

‘I worked for my place as head of Dalmont Industries from the time I could understand what stocks and shares were,’ he bit out fiercely. ‘My father never gave anyone anything for nothing in his life, and he wasn’t about to start with me. What’s your excuse?’

She had hit a raw nerve, she could tell that; Rick Dalmont would lose his temper only rarely. He had just done so very effectively. ‘I don’t have one,’ she told him quietly. ‘I’m the editor of a magazine Henry owns.’

‘So he informed me,’ Rick nodded abruptly. ‘A cursory title, I’m sure.’

‘Then don’t be,’ she snapped. ‘Fashion Lady may only be a women’s magazine, and unimportant to a man like you, but I run it to the best of my ability.’

‘And how good is that?’

She flushed at the quietly intended insult. ‘Ask Henry!’ her eyes flashed.

To her chagrin Rick Dalmont began to smile. ‘At least this is an improvement. I’ve made you lose your temper with me three times in the last five minutes.’

‘I think that probably makes us even,’ she taunted.

‘Nothing like it,’ he still smiled. ‘My temper has been much less controlled since I met you. But you could soon change that,’ he added throatily. ‘All it would take is one word from you.’

And she knew exactly what that word was! ‘I haven’t been using that word too often lately,’ she said abruptly.

‘Since your husband died.’

Shanna froze. ‘What do you know about that?’

Rick shrugged. ‘It’s no secret that he died, is it?’

‘No.’ She avoided that black-eyed gaze, knowing this man could see into her soul if he wanted to. And from what she knew of him he would want to.

‘Or how he died?’ His eyes were narrowed now, sensing her increased hostility.

She swallowed hard. ‘No.’

It had been no secret how Perry died, it had been emblazoned across the front page of every newspaper in the world. A famous ex-racing driver killed in a road accident was world-wide news.

‘Or that you were in the car with him at the time?’ Rick continued his prodding into her personal pain.

This time she didn’t even answer him; her expression was wooden, refusing to show any emotion to this man. He would take any sign of weakness and use it to his advantage.

‘Or that your marriage had already ended.’

The cruelly stated words brought a light sheen of perspiration to her brow, although her dull gaze remained fixed on one of the light-fittings on the far wall.

‘That the two of you be together at all was an unusual occurrence.’

Her gaze slowly moved back to the hard face of the man standing in front of her, missing the taut enquiry of his expression, seeing only the determined cruelty of his eyes and mouth. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Mr Dalmont——’

‘And if I won’t?’ Once again his fingers bruised her arm, but this time she didn’t even feel the pain.

‘You will.’ The cold dullness of her voice made his hand drop away, and without another glance in his direction she walked away.

People rarely spoke to her of Perry, most of them respecting the fact that she must still feel her husband’s loss after only six months. But Rick Dalmont had a hard cruelty about him that didn’t respect anything, even a widow’s grief. He had even mentioned the reports in some newspapers that her marriage to Perry had been far from happy at the end. Only an insensitive swine could have done that. Rick Dalmont would use anything to get what he wanted, including her grief for Perry.

‘Shanna,’ Henry touched her arm lightly. ‘What have you said to Rick?’ he asked anxiously. ‘He looks like thunder.’

She blinked up at her brother, her elder by five years, his receding hairline adding to his air of maturity. Although right now he looked very worried.

‘You haven’t upset him, have you?’ He kept shooting worried glances at the other man.

‘Does it look like it?’ she mocked. Rick Dalmont was now leaning against the wall talking softly into the ear of a giggly blonde.

‘Rick isn’t interested in Selina,’ Henry dismissed.

‘Oh?’ She was regaining control now, wishing she hadn’t made her distress quite so obvious to Rick Dalmont. He was a man who shouldn’t be given any advantage, and she had just given him one.

‘You know he isn’t,’ her brother sighed.

‘Do I?’