to escape. Once they were in the kitchen, he released her wrist. While he pulled a cold beer out of the refrigerator, Meredith studied the windows and latches, which looked quite ordinary. And she had watched when he had turned off his alarm, so she could remember the series of numbers he had punched in. She was certain Jason wouldn’t think she’d try to escape, especially since they were so far from town. He had left his pickup near the back door and if she could get outside to his pickup, she would be on her way.
“Want some pop?”
“I am not drinking or eating with you.”
“Suit yourself,” he said, and turned to open the bottle of beer. They returned to the sofa where he sat too close for comfort. She could detect his aftershave, see the faint dark stubble on his jaw.
He set his beer on a coaster on the large cherrywood table standing in front of the sofa. He pulled off a boot and set it aside and then pulled off the other one. “We might as well get comfortable.”
She was half tempted to say she wanted to go to jail, but his house was cozy and there weren’t any bars on the windows and she stood a far better chance of escaping from this ornery Texan than she would from a jail.
“Now tell me why you want to cause Dorian grief.”
“He’s a wicked man. But I know you don’t believe a word I’m saying because he’s in your good-ol’-boy group.”
“Let me decide that.”
“One of my sisters was engaged to him.”
“He denies that. Do you have any proof?”
“Proof of their engagement? No, I don’t.”
“Did he give her a ring?”
“He told her that he was having his grandmother’s diamond ring reset. He kept putting off why it wasn’t ready and at the time, he sounded convincing. He can be charming and he’s good-looking and he’s clever. Everything sounded logical, so I didn’t doubt what my sister was telling me. Twice I had dinner with them, and I had him at our house,” she said. As Merry talked, she had to constantly gaze into those sexy eyes and she could hear how lame her story sounded. There wasn’t a flicker of emotion in Jason’s expression, so she had no idea what he was thinking.
“Our house? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not. I live in an apartment in Dallas, but I go home often to the house where I grew up. My mom is a Dallas news anchor and I grew up in Dallas.”
“Another well-known family member.” He tilted his head to study her. “Your mom isn’t Serena Dunstan, is she?”
“Yes, she is. Her real name is Therese Silver, but Serena Dunstan is her professional name. How did you guess?”
“She’s the right age and she’s done some controversial reporting—and won awards. Hank Silver, Serena Dunstan—you’re from a whole family of feisty daredevils.”
“My sister Holly isn’t. She’s a little on the shy side.”
“I would have to see it to believe it,” he remarked dryly.
“Mom’s certainly more well-known than my brother. I’m really close to my three younger sisters, so I’m at our house most of the time. My youngest sister, Claudia, is in high school now, but she graduates this spring.”
“I hope she’s not the one Dorian was supposedly engaged to.”
“It isn’t supposedly,” Merry said darkly, knowing he was friends with the creep and wasn’t going to believe a word she said. “Dorian was engaged to Holly, who finished college early and has a great job as an engineer.”
“Do you have pictures of them together?”
“No, I don’t,” Merry answered flatly, realizing how flimsy her accusations were beginning to sound up against Jason’s practical questions. “There was always a reason why Dorian did or did not do something. When I wanted to take their pictures, he’d put me off and then we’d forget all about it.” The more she talked, the more her anger built again. “I thought Dorian just decided all of a sudden to dump her, but now that you’re asking all these questions—reasonable questions—he must have planned to do this from the very start. She really was in love with him,” Merry said, remembering Holly sobbing and shaking and refusing to eat far too many times. For the past few months she had watched her sister lose weight steadily.
“Holly believed Dorian and was taken in by him. She had bought a wedding dress—”
“No ring, but she bought a dress?” Jason asked doubtfully, as if Holly were lost in fantasies.
“I can’t tell you how believable he made it all sound.”
While blue-green eyes studied her, she wondered what was running through the lanky Texan’s mind.
“Men can be very convincing when they want to. Even in the biggest of lies,” she added.
A shuttered look altered Jason’s expression slightly. “I don’t think you should limit that to men,” he said in a cynical tone that surprised her.
“I can’t believe any woman ever hurt you. I’ll bet you draw them like flies to honey.”
The twinkle returned to his eyes. “Whatever makes you think that?” he asked with great innocence.
“Stop fishing for compliments! You know you’re a good-looking and sexy stud.”
“Son-of-a-gun, darlin’,” he drawled. “You will turn my head. So you think I’m a sexy stud?” The words rolled out like soft velvet sliding across her skin, and Meredith wished she hadn’t said anything. When would she learn just to keep quiet? But then, how could she sit in silence when he was looking at her with an eagle-eyed intentness that made her nervous and made her want to chatter?
“Why don’t we go out to dinner tomorrow night? I can drive to Dallas,” he said.
“Thank you, but I have other plans. And I’m not leaving Royal.”
“You have friends here in Royal?”
“No, I don’t know anyone except Dorian, and now you. I’m staying right here in Royal. You can’t make me leave town.”
“You plan to slash Dorian’s tires again?”
“No, I won’t,” she said, annoyed with him and trying to ignore the little nagging voice inside that wanted to accept his offer of a dinner date. “I wouldn’t tell you anyway, but I don’t have other plans. I just don’t care to go to dinner.”
He grinned, a full-fledged, heart-stopping grin with perfect white teeth, and she tried to catch her breath and not stare. With an effort she shifted her gaze to her fingers laced together in her lap. She had just turned down a date with that grin. Just sitting there doing nothing, the man was handsome, but when he smiled, he was to-die-for gorgeous. His smile could melt the coldest heart. She just knew it had better not melt hers. And she knew he had an ulterior motive in asking her to dinner because he was trying every which way to learn her plans about Dorian and to keep her away
