of a woman who seduced—but was never seduced herself. “Don’t be ridiculous, Josh,” she said gently.
Josh made a wrenching attempt to free himself, ignoring the urgent mutters of Rafferty and Lucas. “Raven …” It was almost a groan. “Please! He’ll turn you into something ugly, something vile—”
“I told you in New York, Josh.” She was still gentle. “I told you not to follow me. I’d rather be my own woman than just an ornament on any man’s arm.”
“Dammit, you know I don’t—I want to
marry
you!”
Her eyes went suddenly cold and hard, andher voice was filled with scorn. “You want to
own
me, the way you own hotels and corporations and the two men trying to keep you from making a fool of yourself.”
“Raven!”
“Get him out of here,” she advised his men coolly, expressionless again. “And try to keep him out of my sight from now on.”
“Josh, come on.” Rafferty and Lucas struggled against the distraught man’s nearly overpowering strength, and finally managed to hustle their friend out the door.
“Raven!” The final cry was despairing, defeated. A magnificent performance.
From behind his column, Theodore said blankly, “Well, for God’s sake.”
Smoothly, as if nothing had happened, Leon said merely, “Tomorrow, Theodore,” and escorted Raven out through the front doors and to his limo.
Once they were in the car and on their way to a restaurant, he murmured, “Joshua Long. He seems obsessed with you, my dear. Does he know—?”
Raven uttered a low laugh that would have shamed uncaring ice. “Do you imagine he’d become involved with any woman without checking into her background? Certainly he knows what I—do for a living. I believe the poor man’s appalled at himself. But he’s too accustomed to molding his empire; he wishes to reform me, if you please. Obviously, he believes you to be a bad influence on me. The fool.”
“Ah.” From the dimness of the limo, Travers said somewhat dryly, “They say that many a bad woman has been a good man’s downfall.”
A gambler by nature, Raven took a chance and retorted indifferently, “I believe the opposite is more commonly true.”
“Very likely, my dear.” His voice was indifferent as well. “Very likely. Shall we return to that Italian place you enjoyed so much?”
“Whew!” Rafferty shook his numbed hand and sent a reproachful look at Josh. “Did you
have
to twist like that? I think my wrist is sprained.”
They were sitting in a darkened car near Travers’s apartment building, and even though Josh was still too worried to feel humorous, he grinned faintly as he lit a cigarette. “Sorry about that. Had to make it look good.”
“We know,” Lucas remarked from the backseat. “But you don’t know your own strength. Hagen should have sent Zach after all.”
“And speaking of our security chief,” Rafferty said, “shouldn’t we be getting back to ease his worried mind? We’ve rung down the curtain on our little drama.”
Bracing himself for their reaction, Josh said, “You two go on back. I’m staying.”
“What?” Rafferty’s voice was faint.
The red glow of Josh’s cigarette brightened as he drew on it strongly. “I said I’m staying. I’m going in the back entrance, and I’ll be in the penthouse when Raven gets home.”
Lucas leaned forward to peer into the front seat. “Josh, you know Hagen told us none too politely to keep our paws out of this from now on.”
Politely, Josh offered a rude message for Hagen in basic Anglo-Saxon language.
“No,” Lucas said with a sigh, leaning back. “I won’t tell him that. Fire me, if you like.”
“Me too,” Rafferty chimed in.
The moment Raven entered the penthouse, she knew Josh was there. It was not her training or experience that told her of his presence, or even her exceptionally alert senses. She simply knew. Quickly, she dropped her purse on the table beside the silk flowers and turned on the tape player. And she had
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