Bargain with the devil by Jayne Castle Page A

no move on his part to completely close the trap he was setting.
    The sensation of a closing trap was an accurate description of how Stacy’s senses perceived the impending marriage. She didn’t like the poorly masked impatience with which Hunter awaited his wedding day. She knew he saw it as the beginning of the main thrust of his revenge. He made no secret of his anticipation, but he was content to let those around them think that his eagerness was for Stacy. He had kept his word thus far and not even hinted to Eric or Leana that there was something else behind his plans.
    His kisses during the past few evenings had been hungry, demanding embraces, but he had not stayed long or pushed for her to come home with him. In fact, she had only been to the elegant Spanish-style house in the desert foothills overlooking the city on one occasion and that was to supervise the unloading of her belongings.
    She had taken a quick, nervous walk around the house with its floor-to-ceiling windows, curving arches, and decorative tiles and then fled. He hadn’t pressed her to stay.
    One of the things Stacy had delayed moving was the backyard greenhouse with its two hundred exotic orchid plants inside. The dis-assembly and reassembly of the small building would be a major project, and she thought she would handle it after the wedding. Later, when she was certain the marriage was going to go through. She wondered how Hunter would view the new addition to his cactus and rock landscape. There had been an unreadable expression on his face as he’d watched her hurry out of his house, and she still hadn’t decided exactly what he’d been thinking. Then there were all her houseplants, which she hadn’t yet talked herself into moving, either.
    Stacy stood up, dusting off her hands, and glanced at her watch.
    The wedding was scheduled to take place in about an hour, and so far Hunter hadn’t arrived in a fury to call it off. She could only assume her father hadn’t called or sent a telegram to him, which meant her own poor plans were going to come off as arranged. Once married, Hunter was stuck with his bargain. He’d given his word. And strangely enough, even in a fit of his all too uncertain temper, she didn’t see him going back on his agreement.
    The roar of the normally well-mannered exotic car Hunter drove was the first indication of his mood when he braked to a loud halt in the nursery’s parking lot half an hour later. Stacy was busy in the greenhouse, but she heard the threatening engine and her heart sank.
    It was almost time for the wedding. Had Hunter discovered the truth at this late juncture?
    „Where is she?“ she heard him demand of Julia, and the tone of his voice made Stacy swallow nervously. He was furious! Well, she couldn’t very well run off and leave poor Julia to deal with him.
    Grimly Stacy wiped her palms on her jeans and started for the front shop.
    He met her before she could get halfway down the long line of plants, his face full of the thunder of a desert storm, fiercely swirling clouds in the depths of his eyes. He was wearing a dark, beautifully tailored suit with the stark white of a silk shirt at collar and cuffs.
    The Italian leather of his shoes shone with the elegant gleam of lengthy polishing, and there was a flash of genuine gold from his cuff links. The heavy, dark mane of his hair, slashed with the silver streak, had been trimmed recently and carefully combed. He looked like the magnificent male animal he was, and Stacy wanted to run as fast and as far as possible in the opposite direction.
    It was, she told herself as he slammed to a halt in front of her, only the perverse stubbornness that her family found incomprehensible that kept her from fleeing before the wrath in Hunter Manning’s eyes. In that moment she was certain he must have heard from her father.
    „What in hell,“ Hunter ground out in a voice of tempered steel,
    „do you think you’re playing at, Stacy Ry-lan?“
    Had she really