“No,” she panted, her own voice trembling as she shook her head. She had expected to hear mockery in his tone, perhaps a sarcastic hint of victory as well. There was none, and the lack of it confused her, “Let me go, Drake,” she pleaded, her words stronger now that the air had had a chance to work its magic. “Please? I’ll pay you. I’ll even have Papa increase your share in the mine. How does half of the profits sound? Three quarters? My God, you can have the whole damn thing, just let me go and forget our deal. Pleeease....”
The last was a ragged, broken whisper, filled with desperation—and something else. Drake scowled. Was it terror that shaped her words? It was the same tone he’d heard when she’d first come to him with the deal, when he’d suggested he preferred a different form of payment. He was again struck with the feeling that her reluctance went beyond virginal innocence. He couldn’t help but remember how she’d acted with the other men. She laughed, she joked, she returned their stares. But not with him. With him she acted like a child who’d just woken up to find her worst nightmares come true.
With hands that were gentler than Drake ever dreamed they could be, he eased her around. Her shoulders were squared with pride, but she kept her eyes lowered. Cupping her chin, he tilted her head up so that she had no choice but to look at him.
“I don’t want your money,” he said softly, momentarily laying aside the irony of those words. He could feel Hope trying to pull away from him, but he refused to let her slip from the circle of his arm. Nor would he release her chin. Instead, he turned her head back when she would have looked away. “And I don’t want your claim. Not all of it, anyway.”
“I know what you want,” Hope replied flatly. Swallowing hard, she fought the urge to run. Where would she go? She couldn’t run from this man, at least not very far. Hadn’t he already proven that?
“What I want is an explanation,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “First, I want to know why you would come to my room, solicit my help, and agree to a deal you had no intention of honoring.” His voice lowered to a husky whisper. “Then I want to know why you can’t honor it. Mind you, I want the truth—if you think you’re capable of it.”
Hope stiffened and her lips thinned into a tight, hard line. “I didn’t have a choice,” she said, tilting her chin away from his grasp as a spark of defiance flared in her eyes. “Believe me, if there had been another option, another man I thought could beat Larzdon, I would have taken my business somewhere else. Unfortunately, my father decided you were our best bet.”
“So you decided to take a gamble and hope that the despicable Drake Frazier, that good-for-nothing gunslinger, would live up to his reputation, is that it?” Drake chuckled. It was a cold, mirthless sound. “I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be,” she spat. Slapping his hand from her chin, she slipped from his grasp. She was surprised when he let her go so easily. “I didn’t like the idea any more than you did. But, like I said, I had no choice.” She took a deep breath and pushed on, determined to end this confrontation as soon as possible. “As for ‘payment,’ well my offer was for one hundred dollars. You’re the one who insisted on more.”
“And you’re the one who agreed to it,” he reminded her coldly. Reaching out, he let the tip of his fingers stroke the smooth line of her jaw.
Hope pulled back, more from the odd, tingling sensation the touch evoked than from the contact itself. “Not by choice!”
“Ah, so you were forced then,” he nodded, crossing one arm over his chest. That muscular forearm pillowed the elbow of the other arm as he lazily stroked his chin with the tips of his index finger and thumb.
He was mocking her, she realized, though she didn’t call him on it. She didn’t dare.
“And where did they hide the gun, sunshine?” he asked, a sly grin pulling at one corner of his mouth. “In your underdrawers?”
“That’s pretty low, Frazier. Even for you. What do you think, that they threatened my life and forced me to come to you that night?” she demanded tightly. Her eyes narrowed angrily as her hands balled into useless fists at her sides. “My own father? My brother? My friends? Think again. Your life may be ruled by the wrong end of a rifle, but not mine.” She tapped an index finger against her temple. “Unlike most of the women in Thirsty, I happen to have a brain in here. And what’s more, I know how to use it. What they suggested that night made perfect sense. Everything would have been fine if you’d taken my first offer. You’re the one who complicated things by not taking the money.”
“Did it ever occur to you that there might be a reason you were the one chosen to deliver that message, Hope Bennett?” Drake asked, his voice low and deadly serious. “Of all the people in this little band of yours, why you? Why not one of the twins? Or that big hulking brother of yours? Isn’t the old man trustworthy enough to carry a message? Is your father too sick to be walking the streets alone at night? Why you?”
Hope tipped her head to one side, her gaze wary as a shiver of apprehension curled up in her spine. He was trying to trick her, she thought. Trying to make her think that her family would sell her virtue for services rendered. He was wrong, of course. They wouldn’t do that to her, not her family, her friends. She knew it.
This time it was Drake’s finger that tapped her temple. “Think about it, sunshine,” he said, that infuriatingly lopsided grin slipping back into place. “You have a brain in there. Use it.”
“Oh, no,” Hope insisted, shaking her head as she brushed a stray chestnut curl from her brow. “If you’re trying to tell me they sent me to... to... you’re wrong. I was chosen because I’m the only cool-headed one of the lot. And they thought you’d listen to a woman.”
“Listen? You’re sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Hope defended staunchly. She wasn’t lying, was she? Good Lord, he managed to make her doubt her own family! She was lost. “What other reason could there be?”
“I don’t believe you. I think they picked you for another reason and if you can’t see that then you’re a goddamn fool.”
“Get out,” she hissed, her brown eyes shimmering with anger. To Hope’s surprise, Drake made no attempt to stop her as she briskly stamped to the door. Flinging the flimsy thing wide, she jerked her thumb into the cool, dark night. “Just get the hell out.”
“What, and solve all of your problems?” Drake asked as he slowly advanced on her. Again, she was struck with the impression of a wolf cornering its prey. “My leaving would solve all of your problems, wouldn’t it, Hope?” Drake pulled her away from the door and closed it. His fingers did not drop from her arms, however. “Sorry, sunshine. You got yourself into this mess and you’re going to have to get yourself out. I can’t help you there.”
“Can’t? Or won’t? There’s a big difference. Can’t help means you couldn’t release me from our deal even if you wanted to. But we both know that isn’t true, don’t we?”
“All right,” he conceded, pursing his lips and giving a brisk not of his golden head. “I won’t help you then. Better?” His palms were tracing slow, tantalizing hot paths down the outside of her arms, over her elbows, down to her wrists, then back up again. A shiver trembled through the tendons beneath his fingertips, and the feel made Drake smile. While her sharp tongue could deny the physical attraction crackling between them, her body was powerless to deny it. That faint trembling and the becoming flush that kissed her cheeks, coupled with the pulse throbbing frantically in the creamy base of her throat, told him quite a different story.
Hope’s
tongue darted over her suddenly parched lips as she tried to ignore the shiver of delight Frazier’s more-than-casual touch inspired. “What did—” She hesitated, looked away, then continued faintly. “What did you mean before, when you said I’d been sent to your room for a reason? What did you really mean?”
“Exactly what you thought I meant,” he replied, his features melting to stark seriousness. “That they sent you because they thought my head would be more easily turned by a lifted skirt than by a gap-toothed smile. Have to admit, their reasoning was pretty sound. It did work, didn’t it?”
“You don’t expect me to believe the deciding factor in your fighting today was whether or not I would—um—” Hope flushed clear down to her toes, “compensate for your time.”