in her trembling hands. He didn’t want her. Well, she knew that already, didn’t she? He’d only been playing with her, taunting her. It was like what he’d done to her when she was twenty, rejecting her, throwing her away. Only this was more cruel, because he’d tempted her first, made her show him how badly she wanted him.
Her eyes closed on a wave of pain and shame. “If you won’t take the pearls, you’ll only get fifty cents on the dollar like the other investors,” she said in a ghost of her normal tone.
“I’ve already torn up that agreement your father signed with me,” he said shortly. “You could have saved yourself the trip.”
“That and the humiliation,” she said huskily.
“What humiliation?” he asked quietly. “I know that you want me. I’ve always known.”
She turned away with tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’ll get your money back, Cade. All of it, somehow,” she said unsteadily.
She sounded a little wild, and the tears unsettled him. He wondered if she might take him seriously and go to some other man, and that whipped up a fury of sudden anger.
“You won’t do anything stupid, will you?” he asked suddenly, moving forward.
“What do you mean?”
“Like letting Gussie offer you to some well-heeled, bald millionaire just to get enough money to pay me off?”
She took a deep, hurt breath as she felt behind her for the doorknob. “What do you care?” she cried, feeling reckless. “You don’t even want me, you never did, so why play with me like a trout on a fishing line? You’re cruel, and I think I hate you, Cade!”
He didn’t flinch. Not outwardly, at least, except for the sudden angry glitter in his eyes. He cocked his head and gave her a cold smile. “Do you? Was that why you begged for my mouth? Because you hate me?”
Her face went from a blushing rose to a cold white in seconds. She gave in, as she always did, her eyes closing on a wave of shame.
“No. I don’t. I only wish I could hate you,” she whispered brokenly. “I’ve tried for years...” Tears choked her, and she blinked them away. “I came here because I was sorry for what you’d lost, because I wanted to help you. But you don’t want help, least of all from me. I know you don’t want me. I’ve always known that. I wish I was beautiful, Cade! I wish you wanted me so that I could push you away and watch you hurt as much as I do!”
She opened the door and ran through it, her heart broken. He was horrible. Cruel and cold and she didn’t want him anymore, she hated him...
She loved him! His mouth had been the end of the rainbow, the most exquisite promise of pleasure she’d ever known, and she’d wanted it with a pitifully evident desire. But he’d only been playing. And then he had to go and spoil everything with that cruel taunt...!
Cade meanwhile was glaring at the closed door with a jumble of emotions, foremost of which was anger at his own cruelty and Bess’s helpless reaction to it. He’d never meant to humble her. He’d only wanted to protect her, even from himself. If he started kissing her, he wasn’t sure he could stop. The last thing she needed now was the complication of a hopeless relationship. But he hadn’t meant to hurt her.
He started after her, flaming with frustration and bad temper. “Damned circumstances,” he muttered to himself. He hated making apologies. Not that he intended to make one now. But maybe he could rub a healing balm on the wound he’d inflicted.
But when he stepped out into the long hall, he found Bess halfway down it, sobbing into his mother’s shoulder.
Elise looked at her tall, angry son with knowing, soulful eyes. That look was as condemning as Bess’s had been. Worse. He glared at her, then at Bess’s rigid back, and went into his office again. But he didn’t slam the door. Oddly enough, he felt as if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.
“There, there,” Elise murmured softly, smoothing Bess’s soft hair as it fell out of the bun down her back. “It’s all right, darling.”
“I hate him,” Bess whimpered. She clung, even though she’d sworn on her arrival that she didn’t need sympathy. Yes, she did, desperately. Gussie had none for anyone except herself, and Bess had nobody else.
“Yes, I know you hate him.” Elise hugged her close with a sigh. Poor little thing, with only Gussie for company at Spanish House. Elise and Gussie had been friends once, until Cade had made an accusation that had broken their friendship and made them enemies. Elise held no grudges even now, but Gussie hated Cade for the accusations he’d made and the way he’d embarrassed her in front of Elise. Bess didn’t know about that scandal, and there was no reason to tell her. It was better left in the past, to her mind. It was only Cade and Gussie who kept it alive, and Elise had long since given up hope that the two of them would ever bury the hatchet.
All the same, she worried about Bess. At times like this she could have picked Gussie up and shaken her. Didn’t she care enough about Bess to see that she was taking her father’s death badly? The last thing she needed was to be here, letting Cade upset her. Elise, who’d wanted at least one daughter, had to content herself with the hope of daughters-in-law. Someday. Maybe.
Bess wept slowly, enjoying the luxury of tears. She was going to get over Cade Hollister if it killed her, now that she knew how he really felt about her. And she’d pay him back someday. It was going to be her goal in life. So it was a pity that no matter how hard she pictured her revenge, it always ended with his arms around her.
BESS HAD HERSELF under control by the time she went upstairs to say good-night to Gussie. She’d wiped the tears away and even forced herself to smile as she carried her mother a cup of herbal tea and some cheese for a bedtime snack.
“Feeling better?” she asked Gussie.
The older woman stretched lazily. “A little, I suppose. It’s very lonely without your father, Bess.”
“Yes, I know,” Bess said gently.
“I thought I heard the car leave while I was napping,” Gussie said, eyeing her daughter. “Did you go out?”
“Just to the store for a minute, to get some more tea,” she prevaricated.
“Oh. Well, you really should tell me when you’re going out. I might have needed something.”
Bess felt herself bristle. This was going to be unbearable. Now that her father was gone, she could already see Gussie’s attention turning inward, to her own comfort. Bess was going to be trapped, just as Cade had said.
“Now listen, Mother—” Bess began.
“I’m so tired and sleepy, darling. I simply must rest,” Gussie said with a weary smile. “Sleep tight, baby.”
Bess almost stood her ground, but that smile cut the ground out from under her. She stood up. “You, too, Mama.”
“And don’t forget to lock the doors.”
“No, Mama.”
“You’re such a nice child, Bess.” She lay back, sipping her tea.
Nice, Bess thought as she went to her own room. Nice, but thick as a plank. She was going to have to do something to shake Gussie out of her tearful, clinging mood. Perhaps that would work itself out in time. She had to hope it would.
Meanwhile she didn’t dare tell her mother anything about going to see Cade with Great-aunt Dorie’s pearls. It would be the final straw, to have to hear Gussie ranting about that.
That was unkind, Bess told herself as she put the pearls away in her drawer. Gussie did try, but she just didn’t have many maternal instincts. Bess looked at the sheen of the pearls against their