Because Of The Ring

“I’ve never been so insulted in my life!”

“Sorry, I’m out of practice.” He lowered his mouth toward hers. “Maybe I should try again.”

Ducking away from him, Claudia collapsed onto the couch and gulped in several breaths of air. “You’ll do nothing of the sort!”

He’d been wrong a few moments ago, Hayden realized as he looked down at her. She wasn’t a plain woman. Now that he’d kissed her, every nuance of her soft features had come alive. Fire blazed in her brown eyes, heat burned brightly in her cheeks and passion had pouted her rosy lips to an enchanting curve.

It would be nice to taste her again, he thought. But he was a busy man and didn’t have time for such pleasantries. Besides, he’d not flirted in years. Not since he was a teenager. A few kisses now would lead his body straight toward the main course. Now that he thought about it, he was already straying in that direction. Why had he kissed her like that? He usually waited until he’d dated the woman! And yet, there was something about this particular woman….

“All right. Then maybe you’re in the mood for talking,” he said as he took a seat a few inches away from her.

She scooted to her left to put an even safer distance between them. “I—I don’t think it would do any good to talk now, Mr. Bedford. We’d both be wasting our time.”

He studied her for a moment as though he was weighing whether this meeting between them actually held any importance. “Perhaps you’re right. But I would like to know one thing. What did you mean when you said you couldn’t get me out of your mind? You don’t know me.”

Before he could see the bewilderment in her eyes, her gaze dropped to a spot on the hardwood floor. “I suppose I didn’t phrase that quite right. You’re not exactly ‘in my mind.’ I just see you—at odd times.”

His expression said he was completely confused and Claudia couldn’t blame him. She’d been confused for days now.

“What does this mean, you see me?”

She made a palms-up gesture with her hands. “I see you. For no reason at all. Your face comes to me out of nowhere.”

Baffled, his head swung back and forth. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you first walked into this office, you told me we’d never met.”

“That’s true. We haven’t.”

“Then how…how did you know what I looked like? You had a picture? Where did you get it?”

“I didn’t have any idea what Hayden Bedford looked like until I walked into this office! Look, Mr. Bedford, this isn’t…some crazy infatuation and I’m not stalking you. It’s nothing like that. I’ve been—well, I’ve been very worried and confused because this problem has been going on with me for two or three weeks now and frankly, I want to know why.”

“Are you—” He rubbed the heels of his palms against his thighs, then rose to his feet and glanced down at her. “Are you suggesting that you’ve been seeing me in some sort of—vision?”

She passed a shaky hand over her forehead. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you.”

He chuckled. Shook his head. Then chuckled again. “Really, Ms. Westfield. This is San Antonio, not the Twilight Zone.”

“You don’t have to tell me where I am, Mr. Bedford,” she said primly.

His blue eyes were full of suspicion as they raked her from head to toe. “How could a vision lead you here? How did you know my name? Am I supposed to believe that I talk to you, too?”

She sighed. This is exactly what she’d been dreading, she thought. Questions for which she had no answers. “No. So far you haven’t said anything to me. But I picked up on things in the background. Like your boat. And then it finally dawned on me to trace the numbers through registrations. I can tell you that I was pretty shocked when I found out there was such a boat and an actual person owned it.”

“I keep that boat docked down on the coast at Port O’Connor. You were obviously there and copied the numbers,” he accused.

Sadly, she shook her head. “I wish that were true. That would prove I might not be going crazy. But now, after seeing you—seeing that you’re the man—I really don’t know what to think.”

He muttered a curse. “This is ludicrous and if I had any sense at all I’d call the cops and have them check up on you!”

Claudia gestured toward the phone. “Go ahead. If they can explain any of this, I’d gladly welcome their help.”

Glaring at her now, he stalked over to his desk, picked up the receiver and shook it at her. “I have a friend who’s a detective on the force,” he warned.

“Good. That will be even better. He might have some ideas of how to solve this mess.”

Seeing he couldn’t frighten her into confessing, he slammed the receiver back onto the hook. “Do you realize how stupid you sound? How stupid it makes me look just to be listening to this?”

She nodded. “Yes, I realize.”

“People don’t have visions. Not normal people. And they certainly don’t have them about me!”

Unblinking, Claudia stared at him. “A month ago I would have said you were right. Now, unfortunately, I’m forced to disagree.”

He strode back to the couch and, with his thumbs riding his belt, stared down at her. “I don’t know what you’re after Ms.—”

“Claudia,” she interrupted. “You’ve already kissed me, so you might as well call me by my first name.”

He didn’t want to call her by any name. And as for kissing her, that had been a big mistake. Because in spite of her lunacy, he wanted to do it again.

“Like I started to say, Claudia, I don’t know what you’re after,” he bit out, “but you’ll not get anything from me and I mean anything.”

Rising to her feet, she met his gaze and as she did so a terrible sadness welled up in her. Yet she could understand his doubts and suspicions. She couldn’t blame him for accusing her of being dishonest. She still couldn’t quite believe any of this herself. It would be stupid to expect him to swallow such a story.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Bedford. This is the last time you’ll ever see me.”

Politely, she reached to shake his hand and felt a sense of gratitude that he didn’t object. “I apologize for taking up your time. Goodbye.”

Bewildered by this sudden turn of events, he watched her start toward the door. “What will you do now?” he asked.

Glancing back at him, she shrugged. “Go home and hope that I never see your face again.” And she wouldn’t, she told herself grimly. If she took off the opal. Claudia had not told this man about the ring. She’d understood it would’ve only made the whole thing even more far-fetched. And now it didn’t matter. She was ending her search. And the visions.

Hayden thought he would feel relief once the woman was out of his office. But now that she was gone, the room felt eerily empty, as though she’d taken the very life out of it.

Raking a hand through his hair, he sank into the comfortable chair behind his desk and reached for the telephone. Halfway there, his hand paused in midair and, with a muffled groan, he flopped back against the seat.

He’d kissed the woman! And not just a peck on the cheek. He’d really kissed her! What had he been thinking? Oh, he’d met women before that he’d been attracted to on first sight, but he’d never impulsively kissed one. In fact, he couldn’t think of one woman he’d kissed since he and Saundra had divorced.

That notion was shocking in itself and he quickly leaned up and pushed the button on the intercom connecting him to Lottie’s desk.

“Yes, Mr. Bedford.”

The fact that the woman called him Mr. Bedford was laughable. She’d been with the company for thirty-five years and during that time she’d seen Hayden born and his father die. She knew everything about the family, including births, deaths, marriages, divorces, public scandals and hidden affairs. But apart from her knowledge of the Bedford family tree, she kept the office running smoothly. No matter if they were experiencing times of joy or strife.

“How long have I been divorced?”

“Three years, sir.”

“That long?”