“That’s the idea.”
Kady did her best to move her neck away from his mouth. She must keep her wits about her. With surprising strength, she managed to push away somewhat, but his hands were still clasped behind her back.
“What do you mean that there is no codicil? What did Ruth’s letter to you say? In fact, why are you here?”
With a sigh, Tarik dropped his hands from her body. He was never going to be able to answer questions if he kept touching her. “My ancestress, Ruth Jordan, left me a letter saying something about her having commissioned you with the task of trying to make her grandson Cole live past nine years of age. She asked that I help you accomplish this task.”
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“But you don’t believe that I can do it.”
“I don’t want you to try.”
“Why not?” she asked suspiciously.
“Because my ancestor was killed with bullets. If you stop him from being shot, maybe you will be shot instead.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Seems to me that you two women didn’t think out a great many things. Such as a will like hers not holding up in court. And besides, my family has known about that will for many years. We took precautions.”
Kady blinked at him, trying to understand what he was saying. “Are you telling me that all this was a setup?”
“More or less.”
“Mr. Fowler—”
“He knows nothing. He thought you would be the owner of everything, and he thought he was returning it all back to me at your request.” When he saw her face, he knew he’d told her too much too soon. “Look, sweetheart, let’s talk about this later. Now, standing on the stairs, is not the place to talk about—”
“Talk about how you’ve laughed at me, lied to me, and generally manipulated me?”
“Well, yes, I did, but it was all for a good cause.”
“And what would that be?” she said through clenched teeth.
“The first moment I saw you I knew that I loved you, but I wanted to know if you loved me too.”
“I don’t love you,” she said angrily. “I can’t stand you! You have ridiculed me, laughed at me, made fun of my cooking, and—And I never want to see you again,” she said as she started to move around him to go up the stairs.
“Kady, honey, darling, sweetheart, you don’t mean that. I had to do all this. After what that bastard Gregory did to you, you wouldn’t have believed me if I’d said I loved you that first day in my office.”
“I don’t believe you now, so what’s the difference?”
“Yes you do,” he said with absolute confidence. “Your eyes say it, the way you move says it.”
“You should take a course in reading, then, because I don’t love you and never will. I don’t even like you.”
“Yes you do, and if I had time now I’d take you upstairs and show you how very much you like me. But I don’t have time. Luke and I—”
Kady had once thought that Gregory was vain, but this man won all prizes. “You aren’t listening to me, are you? I don’t want anything to do with you. Go spend the night with Luke or your macho Wendell or your anorexic Leonie for all I care. It doesn’t concern me in the least.”
“Kady, honey, you really don’t mean that, and if I had time—Ow! Why’d you kick me?”
“Because I don’t have a knife handy.”
“You don’t mean that,” Tarik said, but from his tone she could tell that he was shocked.
“I mean every word of it. Go sleep in one of the brothels, that should suit you.” With that she pushed past him and went up the stairs in search of the blue bedroom.