Queen of Hearts Read online

  "Oh?" Janna asked unencouragingly as she and Lucy made their way through the crowd toward the small room where the bride was to change into her traveling clothes.

  "You don't want to talk about it?"

  "There's nothing to talk about!"

  "Perhaps not yet, but from some of the things Adam let slip on the walk over here after the wedding I gather he has his eye on you..."

  "He's upset with me for having tricked him into thinking I was marrying Nat. Did your husband explain that mess to you yet?" Janna asked ruefully.

  "I got a brief, capsule description. What an overprotective idiot Nat was!" Lucy chuckled affectionately. "And it was all for nothing, wasn't it? I mean Adam and I got along beautifully when we finally met!"

  "But Nat couldn't be certain Adam would behave himself. You saw how he treated me before the wedding when he thought I was going to be the bride! If you hadn't stepped in I would probably be nursing quite a few bruises!"

  "But that's because Adam wants you for himself," Lucy explained reasonably. "He told me after the service that he couldn't possibly have allowed Nat to marry you..."

  "So flattering!" Janna muttered, feeling insulted all over again.

  "Janna, aren't you interested in him? I think he means to go all out to get you..." Lucy broke off, looking somewhat worried now. "Nat agrees with me. He thinks Adam really want you. And he says Adam always gets what he wants! Janna, it would be awful if you don't think you want him because I'm not at all sure anything could stop him!"

  "Relax, Lucy," Janna soothed as they stepped into the dressing room and closed the door. "I don't think he's quite that dangerous!" she chuckled, helping her friend undress. "Remember, he looks a lot bigger to you than he does to me!"

  "Because you're so much taller? It's not that, Janna," Lucy pursued thoughtfully. "I think he'd appear just as unstoppable even if he were much smaller! There's something almost ruthless about him, although I think he would be quick to protect what was his!"

  "You're being fanciful. Now quit worrying about Adam Halleck and concentrate on his brother. I'll be fine!" Janna held out the skirt of the small green outfit Lucy had selected earlier in the week.

  "What are you going to do if he wants you to go out with him tonight?" Lucy persisted, stepping into the garment.

  "There, fortunately, I'm quite safe," Janna smiled cheerfully. "I've got a date with Scott Barrett!"

  "The new man in the English Department?"

  "Right. We're going out to dinner at six and later on to a friend's house for a party."

  "Whose house?" Lucy asked carefully, not looking at Janna as she reached for her shoes.

  Janna frowned at her, wondering why Lucy was so interested and then shrugged. "He dropped by the library yesterday to remind me of the date and mentioned that the party was at Hal Ferguson's house. Do you know him?

  ''Ferguson? I think he's in the History Department, isn't he?" Lucy said thoughtfully and then smiled. "Yes, I know him. His parties have a certain reputation! I think one of the girls who works with me in Cataloging mentioned having been invited to a party at Hal Ferguson's. She said it got a little wild at one point although no one overstepped the bounds of academic propriety, of course!" Lucy finished with a cheeky little grin.

  "Well, I'll let you know all about it when you get back," Janna assured her, standing back while Lucy ran a comb through her short curls. "You look terrific, by the way. Where are you going to honeymoon?"

  "Would you believe I don't know yet?" Lucy confessed. "Nat says he wants it to be a surprise, although from the clothes he told me to pack I have a hunch it's somewhere on the coast. Maybe Santa Barbara."

  "Well, it looks like everything's ready. I'll take care of your dress," Janna promised, picking up the heap of frothy white material and folding it carefully. "Don't worry about anything. Enjoy yourself!"

  "I intend to," Lucy whispered. "Oh, Janna, I'm so very happy!"

  "You look it!"

  The crowd turned to stare excitedly as Janna and Lucy appeared. There were cries of 'don't forget the bouquet' and Lucy's wedding flowers were shoved into her hands. And then Nat was at her side, a firm hand guiding her toward the door and the car which waited at the curb outside.

  "Goodbye, Janna," Lucy mumbled hurriedly and turned to give her new brother-in-law a peck on the cheek. Janna saw her whispering into his ear but couldn't hear what was being said over the cheers and shouts of good luck. She saw Adam frown slightly and then the look was replaced almost instantly by the familiar highwayman's grin. He nodded to Lucy, gave her a quick hug and then came to stand by Janna as the groom yanked his bride swiftly toward the door.

  Rice pelted down on the couple but at the last second Lucy turned to toss her bouquet, making no attempt to be in the least bit impartial. The flowers sailed merrily through the air directly toward Janna who put up a hand instinctively to catch them.

  "Congratulations," Adam whispered drily as Janna stared in surprise at the bouquet. "It looks like you're fated to be a bride after all. Got anyone in mind?"

  Janna stood eyeing the petals grimly, not glancing up to meet Adam's eyes. "Yes," she snapped coolly, "as a matter of fact, I do!"

  "Wouldn't happen to be blond and bearded, would he?"

  "He might very well be exactly that!" Janna flung back her head to glare at him.

  "Then he's going to have a very long wait for his bride," Adam promised ruthlessly. "Because I shall have her first and who knows if I'll ever decide to release her?"

  CHAPTER 5

  Janna sat opposite Scott Barrett in the restaurant, fingering her wine glass, listening to her escort discuss nineteenth century English literature and wondered what was wrong with the evening.

  She had been carried along all afternoon on a wave of cool excitement, feeling extremely clever at having evaded Adam, determined to show him he couldn't dominate her. Everything had gone perfectly until her successful maneuvering had been crowned with Scott arriving promptly at six o'clock to pick her up for the evening. Oh, it had been close a couple of times. Adam had stuck like glue after the wedding, insisting on driving her the short distance back to the apartment and then settling in to spend the afternoon fixing her broken stereo.

  "I'll take it to the shop next week," she told him when he began taking the delicate machine apart with some tools from the trunk of his large car.

  "That's alright. I think I can handle it," he assured her breezily. Janna, unable to watch the destruction of her prized speakers, fled to the bedroom to change into jeans and a plaid shirt. Then she moved on to the kitchen and made coffee and plans. Afterward she carried the cups gingerly back into the living room where Adam sat surrounded by tiny parts, busily working on an important looking chunk of metal.

  "If you wreck my stereo," she began threateningly, thinking of how much it had cost.

  "I'll replace it. But I'm not going to break it. Have some faith, honey. I usually know what I'm doing. I told you I'm interested in how things are constructed..."

  "But I'm not sure I want you learning how stereo record players are made by dissecting mine!"

  "I'm not learning on yours. I learned on mine!" "Do you think you'll find a place for all those pieces when you try putting it back together?" she worried, sipping her coffee and watching intently.

  "If I can't find a spot for it, that will only mean it wasn't necessary in the first place!" he grinned, reaching for one of the cups. "You remembered I prefer mine with cream," he added, pleased. He took a swallow and nodded. "Good. You make it strong enough for me, too."

  "I made it the way I like it," she informed him sweetly. "You're just lucky you happen to like it the same way!"

  "If it hadn't been right I would have given you instructions," he told her absently, bending closer to the delicate piece on which he was now concentrating.

  For a long time there was silence as Adam worked carefully and with an air of great attention. Janna watched him, making one or two comments, but generally keeping still
. She had plenty on her mind to occupy her own attention.

  The stereo, surprisingly, went back together without a single leftover component. On top of that, it worked. Adam played a record to test the machine, choosing an album of Mozart music which caused Janna to wonder about his tastes.

  "Well, thanks," she managed, unable to hide her relief and pleasure.

  "I told you, have some faith in me. I don't attempt anything I can't handle!"

  "Is there anything you haven't attempted on the grounds that you didn't think you could handle it?" Janna asked wryly, watching as he got to his feet and straightened his clothes. He raked his hand through the crisp blackness of his hair and looked straight at her.

  "I've always gotten everything I've wanted when I've wanted it badly enough to go after it. Remember that, Janna," he said, a curious thread of warning replacing the earlier conversational tone of his voice. "It's four o'clock now. I'm going to check into the motel and change clothes. I'll be back for you around six-thirty. You will be here, won't you, sweetheart?" he added with such casual threat that Janna winced in fleeting alarm.

  "Six...six-thirty?" she repeated, feeling foolish but not quite daring to tell him she had a date and would, with any luck, be gone by six-thirty. It would be easier to let him remove himself now and simply not be in the apartment when he returned.

  Adam took two, slow, menacing strides which brought him directly in front of Janna who sat very still on the couch and met his eyes with what she hoped was a look of unconcern. Reaching down one large hand he lifted her easily to her feet. Both rough palms moved to cup her face. "I was going to wait until later this evening when you'd had a little wine and were feeling mellow before giving you the next lesson in the course of instruction I've decided you need..." he began, the velvet in his words making Janna give an involuntary shiver, "but I have an idea it wouldn't hurt to provide a small reminder..." His mouth hovered over her lips, ready to swoop and take them prisoner.

  "Wha...what course of instruction?" Janna squeaked, wishing she could stop the sudden trembling sensation in her limbs. She had to find the strength to fight this man. She had to!

  "The one in which I'm going to teach you what surrender to me means, silly little queen. Weren't you listening this morning at the reception?" he whispered with mocking reproach and then he kissed her.

  Janna, knowing it was much too late in so many ways, began to struggle then, but his hands moved harshly, punishingly away from her face, across her shoulders and around her back. She was hauled against his hard, lean length and made to feel the toughness, the utterly masculine dominance in him. For all her height and feminine strength, Janna was helpless. He held her as easily as if she were cooperating instead of trying to escape. As it had been that night in the car, his embrace seemed designed to brand her in some strange fashion. Janna knew she was being taught that he was her master and the knowledge angered her, sending a fierce desire to defy him through her blood-But when she succeeded in wrenching her mouth from his and turning her face aside he didn't punish her as he had last time by painfully nipping her ear. Instead, to her surprise, his lips softened and began a sensual progression down the tender, sensitive line of her throat.

  "We are going to be so good together," he husked against her skin. "I'm going to make you want me with all the fierceness you now use to fight me," he promised, a hint of savagery in his tone. "And it's going to be worth all the trouble you've caused me when I finally have you completely."

  Janna experienced a wave of hopeless despair. Why did he have to talk in terms of possession? Why, a tiny corner of her mind asked desperately, couldn't he talk in terms of... of love.

  The thought stunned her. She couldn't possibly be thinking in such terms, could she? A new kind of fear began to curl through her as she felt the deliberately teasing touch of his lips at the curve of her shoulder where he had pulled aside the collar of the shirt. She was aware that her wrists were locked in one of his large hands and that the fingers of his other hand were beginning to move with casual arrogance just inside the opening of her shirt.

  "No!" she protested brokenly as she felt the first button being undone.

  "Yes," he countered with casual certainty. "Relax, Janna. The time of surrender isn't yet. In this lesson all you're supposed to learn is that I can touch you whenever and wherever I wish and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

  Eyes tightly shut so that he couldn't see the effect his caress was beginning to have on her, Janna waited helplessly for the next step in the pattern of intimacy. His mouth moved back to cover hers, felt the feminine quiver of her lips and took ruthless advantage of it. Her lips, unable to resist his any longer parted beneath the onslaught and in the next instant she felt as though she had been invaded. The warmth of his mouth filled hers and as he sensed the weakening of her defenses, Adam's hand moved further down, freeing another button and exposing the full curves to his touch.

  Janna drew in her breath in a small gasp as his hand molded her breast possessively, and then something else began to seep into her whirling mind. The realization took a while to sink in but when it had she knew it was true. Adam was no longer the totally cool, arrogant male engaging in a planned seduction scene. She felt a shiver course through the smoothly muscled body against which she was being held. His breath was coming faster now and when his fingers strayed within the confines of her honey colored bra he groaned softly against her mouth. Janna felt excitement begin to replace the fear deep inside her. A strange, primitive desire to make Adam want her took shape and she had no idea where it might have led if he hadn't abruptly released her, setting her away from him. "So," he said thickly, bringing himself under control with what seemed to Janna an effort of will. "I think that's enough for now, don't you? You will remember this little demonstration, won't you, Janna?"

  "Remember it?" she gasped, wishing she could regain her own self-control as rapidly as he did. As it was she wasn't sure if she would have been able to stand if he had released her at that moment. "How could I forget it? You've succeeded in demonstrating that you're no gentleman, that you don't have any inhibitions about forcing yourself on a woman and..."

  "That's enough, little queen," he ordered roughly and then grinned, shaking his head slightly from side to side. "We both know I could have gone on to prove a great deal more just now, but I'm willing to take it slowly!"

  "Thank you very much!" she snapped waspishly. "You're too kind!"

  "Ummm, Probably, or I'd go ahead and settle matters right here and now," he agreed. He released her and Janna took a small step to steady herself as he picked his jacket off the arm of a chair and started toward the door.

  "One more thing, Janna..." he began turning back to confront her.

  "Yes?" she whispered, licking her very dry lower lip.

  "Remember that I have other lessons in my repertoire, such as teaching you that I wouldn't hesitate to come after my woman if she took it into her head to defy me." He smiled dangerously. "And I wouldn't particularly care whether or not she was embarrassed in the process!" With a look that promised he meant what he said, Adam was gone.

  But his words had weighed heavily on Janna as she dressed for the evening out with Scott, creating a kind of tension in her that was distracting, to say the least. She tried to banish the niggling worry about what Adam would do when he found her gone and made an effort to look her best for Scott. The red jersey dress clung softly to her pleasantly rounded figure, ending high enough below her knees to display a length of leg. One of the few advantages of being so tall, she thought ruefully, slipping into nearly flat shoes, was that one had lots of leg! She twisted the long, brown hair into a rope and fixed it to the back of her head, decided the overall effect would take her from dinner to faculty party and prepared to wait for Scott. What if he were late?

  But he wasn't. By two minutes after six Janna was being bundled into the bucket seat of Scott's small, racy little sportscar and she breathed an unconscious sigh of relief when the apart
ment vanished behind her.

  At dinner she made a severely determined attempt to enjoy herself. But as Scott wandered off into intricate analyses of his favorite writers a small part of J anna's mind kept wondering what Adam was doing. It was nearly seven, she realized at one point. Her disappearance would have been discovered. How had Adam reacted? He couldn't possibly come after her because he'd have no idea where to start looking, but that didn't prevent the possibility of him deciding to wait for her in the apartment. For the first time Janna began to question the wisdom of going home at all that night. But what else could she do? Check into a motel? She had a credit card... "I beg your pardon?" she asked guiltily, realizing that Scott had made some comment which demanded an answer from her. One of the few all evening which had, as he had been quite content to carry on a monologue during dinner. With a funny twist of memory, Janna found herself thinking of the banter and discussion and argument which had flickered back and forth between herself and Adam on Monday evening...

  "I was asking if you'd heard about Sam and Elaine Parker," Scott repeated obediently.

  "From the Botony Department? What about them?" Janna chided herself for not having kept track of the conversation well enough to have realized Scott had gotten onto another topic than English literature. What would Adam have done if he'd known she was going to be out this evening? He had been so certain she wouldn't have the courage to defy him. He must have been sure of her or he would never have left her alone until six-thirty!

  "I've been told they're going to divorce. Elaine has a fantastic position lined up in Texas and Sam is doing well here at La Paloma so they've decided to split." Scott shrugged. "I'll miss Elaine but I guess there's no help for it."

  "You mean they're breaking up the marriage because they can't find work in the same area?" Janna asked, startled.

  "What else could they do? Texas is a bit of a commute!" Scott smiled, his fair hair and beard somehow combining with the pleasant features to make him look almost soft. Soft! Janna scolded herself. He only appeared that way because she was comparing the man to Adam's rugged toughness and that was most unfair.