"Good," he stated evenly. "I wouldn't want any misty memories coming forth to mar the image we're trying to establish tonight!"

"There aren't any," she replied easily, smiling at him across the flickering flame of the candle. She met his eyes with total honesty and he nodded, apparently satisfied.

"But I could use a little guidance on how to play the coming scene," she went on determinedly. "Are we supposed to create the impression of boss and consultant holding a dinner conference? Or should I let him think you're an old friend of the family who stepped in to give me a hand because of a friendship you once had with Dad? Or..."

"I never met your father," he reminded her with an enigmatic smile.

"But it would lend a nice touch to the 'image', wouldn't it?" she suggested seriously, struck with the brilliance of her own idea.

"Just follow my lead, all right?" he said repressively.

"But what, exactly, is your lead?"

"You'll see... Ah! Here he comes now. Looks just like his picture."

Kalinda stiffened, the sense of adventure going out of the evening as reality intruded. She looked at Rand, watching for some sort of signal, some indication of how to greet David.

And then the other couple was beside the table and Rand was getting politely to his feet as David came to a pointed halt.

"Good evening, Kalinda," the well-remembered voice said suavely. "I hadn't expected to see you here tonight I don't believe you ever met my wife. Darling, this is Kalinda Brady. She and I are presently involved in some business negotiations."

Kalinda could have screamed at the harmless way in which he said that, but she looked beyond David's handsome features to the face of the woman she had used as one of the arguments for not going through with the confrontation with David.

It was a lovely, charming face, a face that said the other woman knew nothing about the darker side of her husband 's nature and preferred it that way.

"Good evening, Mrs. Hutton," Kalinda said politely, holding out her hand. It was taken graciously as the other woman smiled and said something polite in return. And then Kalinda glanced at Rand, preparing to introduce him.

"I don't believe we've met," Rand was already saying smoothly, before Kalinda could get the proper words out of her mouth. He looked straight at David. "I'm Rand Alastair, Kalinda's fiance."

9.

Only David Hutton's wife appeared to accept Rand's deceptively casual announcement at face value. Kalinda decided rather cynically that she and David both owed Mrs. Hutton a vote of thanks for giving them time to recover from the shock.

With polished charm the lovely woman at David's side extended her congratulations and made the proper remarks. Rand responded to her calmly, easily, until they were interrupted by David who had obviously managed to begin reasoning things out.

"I hadn't realized you were engaged, Kalinda." The dark gaze that Kalinda had once found so attractive pierced her, looking for the lie.

"It's a very recent development," she explained, astonished at her own coolness. She flicked a quick look at Rand who came to her rescue.

"Last weekend, in fact," he elaborated, smiling fondly at Kalinda who felt herself redden. "We haven't even had a chance to buy a ring. We were on vacation in the mountains," he went on, speaking apparently to David's wife. "Soon after we arrived back in town we discovered some rather urgent business had developed."

Kalinda felt David stiffen at the words, his narrow gaze going to Rand's hard profile.

"Kalinda and I will have to settle the business matters this week and then we'll have time for all the little niceties of an engagement" Rand turned his head with an amused gleam in his hazel eyes, catching David Hutton's a.s.sessing glance. "Nothing very complicated, so it shouldn't take too long."

"I had heard you'd gone to work for Brady Data Processing," David said coldly. "It must have taken the promise of a considerable financial reward to draw you out of retirement..."

"Money, Pm afraid, had nothing to do with it Kalinda was the reason I decided to get involved in the business world again."

Kalinda felt a happy warmth flood her veins. Rand had just made it very clear his interest in going to war against David was entirely personal, not monetary. He could not be bought.

"I see," David said icily. "You don't appear to think this rather urgent business matter you mentioned will take long to settle?"

"Not at all." Rand smiled his shark's smile. "A quite simple bit of corporate game-playing. I've had a great deal of experience in this sort of thing, as you may know. In this instance, it's all a piece of cake. Kalinda's firm is surprisingly strong. Her credit flexibility would astound you. I rather think when the current matter is settled I may encourage her to do a little corporate hunting. Brady is in a very strong position to get involved with the merger craze as a buyer."

The meaning in his words hung in the air, unsaid, but clear. Brady Data Processing might soon be seriously looking at David Hutton's firm as a potential acquisition. The thought of turning the tables on David nearly made Kalinda laugh. It was all she could do to maintain only a polite, amused smile.

"That's enough business for tonight, David," Hut-ton's wife was saying cheerfully, a fine-boned hand on her husband's sleeve. "We really should leave these two by themselves. They're probably taking an evening to celebrate their engagement...?"

"How did you guess?" Rand said dryly.

"Yes, of course, my dear," David said absently, his angry gaze on Kalinda's amused expression.

Her smile broadened as she politely inclined her head in farewell. There was so much David wanted to say and so little he could say under the circ.u.mstances. She saw it all in those handsome dark eyes. He was calling her every name in the book, frustrated, angry, and beginning to perceive his own potential failure.

Without a word he turned and walked stiffly away with his wife. Rand sat down slowly, his thoughtful gaze on his opponent Kalinda didn't hesitate. Leaning forward, she hissed, "You might have warned me!"

"It was a spur-of-the-moment inspiration," he defended, his gaze swiveling back to her accusing features.

"The h.e.l.l it was! You've been planning this all day. Why didn't you tell me you were going to let David think we were engaged?"

"Because I thought I'd only get a lot of static from you," he retorted imperturbably, reaching once more for the wine menu as the wine steward approached.

Kalinda sat impatiently, one toe tapping the carpet in irritation as Rand deliberated with the steward. When they were atone again she resumed the attack.

"Aren't you afraid you might talk yourself into a corner with lies like that one?" she grumbled, wishing with all her heart it hadn't been a lie; that Rand wanted to marry her, not just have an affair.

"1 have never talked myself into a corner I didn't want to be in or couldn't get out of if I wished," he declared emphatically, beginning to study the list of delicate salads on the front page of the menu.

"Well, that's very nice for you, but what about me?" she protested feelingly, annoyed at his casual arrogance. "Word of this so-called engagement is going to go around like wildfire. I have no desire to go through the process of being jilted again! It's... it's humiliating!"

Even as she spoke, Kalinda thought ahead to just what Rand's announcement might mean. It was easy for him to use whatever tactics came to hand in this business battle, but she was the one who was going to be left to deal with the aftermath. And right now the aftermath of an affair seemed far more depressing than the aftermath of a merger action.

Rand set his menu down with care, eyes turning a little golden in the flickering candlelight as he caught her half-accusing, half-despairing look.

"Do you really believe I would deliberately humiliate you, Kalinda?" he asked softly.

The simple question stopped her in her tracks, effectively cutting off the flow of angry words she had been preparing to launch as the full realization of her new predicament registered. It struck her very forcibly that this was the second time that day Rand had asked her for a show of faith. The first had occurred that morning when he'd asked her if she thought he'd let Hutton buy him off.

She eyed him thoughtfully, wondering why he was pinning her down like this. But forced to consider the question in depth, rather than in irritation, she knew there could be only one answer.

"No," she sighed, sitting back in her chair and lifting her chin with a regal air. "I don't believe you would deliberately humiliate me, Rand."

There was a long, weighty pause while the implications of her confession hovered between them. Rand's eyes never left hers and she could have sworn there was the faintest of smiles playing at the edge of his mouth.

"So why," Kalinda went on steadily, needing to know the answer, "did you use that line on David?"

"Number one because it was effective...."

Kalinda said nothing, waiting for number two.

"And number two," he went on obligingly, "because I think the idea has a lot of intrinsic merit"

"Meaning?" she challenged bravely.

"You and I make a good team, Kalinda," he began intently. "We work well together, we're attracted to each other, we're..."

"Is this a proposal?" she gasped, horrified.

"If you like..."

"If I like! I have never heard such an unromantic, unemotional suggestion in my life! You might as well be proposing a... a merger!" Kalinda felt like crying and heaving the crystal at him at the same time. How dare he sit there and calmly suggest a business arrangement?

"A friendly merger," he emphasized dryly, his eyes wary.

"Not so long ago you only wanted an affair!" she reminded him tightly.

"There are other factors involved now, don't you think?" he asked reasonably.

"Business factors!"

"May I take it from your seething expression that you're turning down my proposal?" he inquired politely, his eyes enigmatic.

"You may consider the proposal hurled back in your teeth!"

"Then I'm off the hook? There will be no future accusations that I've deliberately humiliated you?" he drawled.

She whitened, shocked by the twist in the argument Desperately she grabbed at her pride and her strength of will "You... you may consider yourself quite free," she muttered "You have, after all, given me my chance, haven't you?"

He shrugged. "It wouldn't have been a bad arrangement, Kalinda."

"No wonder you call yourself a shark when ft comes to business. You can be quite cold-blooded, can't you?" she snapped, desperately using anger to sh.o.r.e up her willpower. She was deeply shocked at her desire to say yes to his proposal; to accept him on any terms.

Something in him hardened perceptibly. "I would think that 'cold-blooded' is the one accusation you wouldn't make. You are, after all, in a position to judge the issue. Have I ever been cold toward you, Kalinda?"

She ground her teeth. "That's got nothing to do with this!"

Suddenly a slow grin began to replace the firmly marked line of his lips and the hazel eyes softened. "Does it strike you that you're on the verge of becoming slightly irrational in your arguments? It's a good sign, actually. It gives me hope."

Kalinda's hands knotted the white linen napkin in her lap but her voice was properly flippant "A good businessman doesn't rely on hope. He relies on facts and figures."

"You're wrong, you know. Business people are essentially optimists. Who else but an optimist would wager such vast sums of money on anything as tricky as competing in the national economic marketplace?"

"Are you going to argue with me all evening?"

"No, honey, I'm not I'm going to enjoy this evening and I'm going to do my d.a.m.ndest to see that you enjoy it, too!"

"Of course. We have an image to maintain, don't we? As long as David and his wife are in the vicinity..."

"We shall do our best to appear the happily engaged couple," he concluded firmly.

And much to Kalinda's surprise, Rand proceeded to do exactly that He was charming and attentive. He entertained her throughout the first course until she finally began to relax and respond to the intelligent, amusing conversation.

By the time the entree arrived, she had firmly pushed the depressing business proposal into the background of her mind, telling herself that it had all arisen out of Rand's determination to help her defend Brady Data Processing, ft wasn't his fault she had overreacted.

They were lingering over dessert, a fresh raspberry torte, when Kalinda glanced up to see David and his wife leaving. The other couple did not stop to say good-night to Rand and Kalinda.

"Are you beginning to find it amusing?" Rand inquired blandly.

"David's reaction to us? Yes, 1 am. I could almost see the little wheels going around in his head when he realized you were firmly on the side of Brady," she admitted, grinning.

"So I'm forgiven for my claim to being your fiance?" he asked whimsically.

"I'm sorry I blew up," she apologized meekly. "It's just that it took me by surprise. You should have warned me, Rand."

"I was afraid you wouldn't agree to it"

"So you sprung it on me just as you sprung it on David." She shook her head "When I first met you in the mountains I kept telling myself your talents were being wasted. I was right"

"I'm not sure that's a compliment," he groaned "But I'll let it go for now. Are you finished?"

"One last raspberry."

"Good. It's a shame to waste all these fine feathers we're wearing. I thought we'd go dancing at a nightclub I used to know near here."

Kalinda made no protest, knowing in her heart that she would do anything to prolong the evening. Anything to prolong her fragile, dangerous relationship with Rand Alastair.

A few moments later, the fringed, sequined stole glittering around her shoulders, Kalinda found herself gently stuffed into the front seat of the Lotus. When Rand slid in beside her, turning to smile, she became very aware of the dark intimacy of the small car. And of the proposal she had just turned down.

There was little conversation between them as Rand drove to the nightclub, a delicate, stirring, undeniably sensual feeling permeating the confined atmosphere. Kalinda didn't want to fight it even though she knew she should.

But the evening had made her realize how tenuous her relationship with Rand now was. He would help her stave off David Hutton's takeover bid, but after that there would be nothing to keep him by her side. She sensed he still desired her, but she couldn't shake the feeling his need was somehow connected with the fact that she had been his ticket back to the business world. He claimed he'd come back to prove himself to her, but she was far too aware of the satisfaction he was taking in the effort. Rand had wanted an excuse to come back to the thing he knew best and she had been that excuse.

Torn by the knowledge that she would have leaped at his proposal if it had been delivered with even a modic.u.m of love, Kalinda sought to justify her response when Rand took her into his arms on the dance floor. If she wasn't going to marry the man, why was she clinging to him like this? There was no future, or at least not one which boded well. Why prolong the agony of a final good-bye?

His arms slid warmly around her waist as the soft, slow music drifted through the dark, romantic nightclub. Other couples moved nearby, each lost in a private world. Kalinda rested her head on Rand's shoulder, her arms moving with an aching intimacy around his neck.

Rand's fingers gently kneaded the curve of her hip as he pulled her close. "I think we make a very convincing engaged couple," he murmured in her hair. "No, don't you dare tense up on me. I was merely stating a fact Did you forget how good we are together when you turned down my proposal this evening?"

"Mutual desire is not enough to justify marriage," she whispered into the fabric of his jacket.