him that she made quite enough modeling to pay her school fees and to support herself. But she hadn’t seen the sense in trying to maintain an apartment of her own when she was in school nine months out of the year. Besides, she thought bitterly, Dilly was rarely at the New York apartment these days. There was always a man....
“Think what you like,” she told him. “You will, anyway.”
He looked down at her quietly. “Does it bother you?”
She shrugged carelessly. “You don’t really know anything about me.”
His eyes dropped to her soft, full mouth. “I know that underneath that perfect bone structure and bristling pride, you burn with sweet fires when you want a man to kiss you....”
Her face flamed. She moved away as he opened the door for her, standing in such a way that she had to brush against his powerful body to enter the dining hall. She glanced up at him as she eased past, her eyes telling him reluctantly how much the contact disturbed her.
“Soft little thing, aren’t you?” he asked in a deep, lazy drawl, his eyes pointedly on the high thrust of her breasts as they flattened slightly against his broad chest in passing.
Teddi was grateful that Jenna was already at a table waiting for them, so that she didn’t witness the strange little scene. Jenna tended to carry teasing to an embarrassing degree.
Chapter Two
Breakfast was pleasant. It was one of the few times Teddi could remember sitting down to eat with King when he didn’t go out of his way to needle her. She had the strangest impression that their fiery relationship had undergone a change while they talked earlier. She looked into his eyes and blushed, and the reaction caused an amused glint in his own eyes.
“How soon can you girls get packed?” King asked over a final cup of coffee. At a nearby table, several female students were openly watching King with every bite, their eyes dreamy.
“I’m taking a flight to New York later this afternoon,” Teddi said quickly.
King watched her, reading accurately the panic in her young face. “You and I will iron out our differences this summer,” he said in a tone that made her tingle all over. “In the meantime, there’s no excuse for denying Jenna your company just to spite me.”
It was the truth, but part of her was afraid of what settling those differences might lead to. She was nervous of men in any physical sense, and especially of King—there were scars on her emotions that she didn’t want reopened.
“I’ve got modeling jobs—” she began.
“You can live without them for a few weeks, surely?” he taunted. “Twenty-four-hour days are only bearable for short terms,” he reminded her. “You’ve been holding down a night job, Jenna told me, in addition to your day courses. Quite a feat, if I remember curfew regulations.”
“The gates close at midnight here,” Teddi murmured. She glared at Jenna, who managed to look completely innocent.
“All the same, you could use a vacation. As long as you don’t spend it mooning over me,” he added.
Her eyes jerked up to find him smiling in a teasing way, his eyes kind and glittering with good humor. It surprised her into smiling back, accentuating her beauty to such a degree that King just sat and stared at her until she dropped her own gaze, embarrassed.
“Besides,” King added tautly, “where else have you got to go? With that nymphomaniac of an aunt, or to an apartment alone?”
“A half hour ago, you wouldn’t have cared if I’d had to shack up with a bear at the local zoo,” she reminded him hotly.
He cocked an eyebrow. “As I recall, Miss Cover Girl,” he murmured, “the subject of bears once got us into an interesting situation.”
She went fiery red, avoiding Jenna’s smiling, curious gaze. “An unbearable situation,” she murmured, laughing when King got the pun and threw back his own head.
“Please come,” Jenna added, pleading. “If you’re around to chaperone me, King will let me chase Blakely all over the ranch,” she laughed.
“Blakely?” King frowned. “You don’t, surely, mean my livestock foreman?”
Jenna peeked at him through her lashes. “I’m interested in ranching,” she murmured.
“Don’t get too interested in Blakely,” he warned. “I’ve got bigger plans for you.”
“Do you always try to run people’s lives?” Teddi challenged.
He looked deep into her eyes. “Look out, honey, I might fancy running yours if you aren’t careful.”
“I’m hardly worth notice,” she reminded him. “An orphan with no connections, a background of poverty, a sordid reputation...”
“Oh, hell, shut up,” he growled, getting to his feet. “I’ve got to have the plane serviced. You two get packed.”
He stormed off. Jenna giggled openly, her eyes speculative.
“Just what is going on?” she asked Teddi. “I’ve never seen him off balance like that.”
“I have been practicing sorcery,” Teddi said in a menacing whisper. “While he wasn’t looking, I slipped a potion in his coffee. Any second now, your tall, blond brother is going to turn into a short, fat frog.”
Jenna burst out laughing, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Oh, I can’t wait to see him,” she laughed. “King, with green warts!”
Teddi laughed, too, at the absurdity of fastidious King with such an affliction. He never seemed to have a hair out of place, even when he was working with the livestock.
Hours later, they were well on the way to Calgary in King’s private Piper Navajo.
“I can’t wait for you to meet Blakely,” Jenna told her friend. “King just hired him a couple of months ago and I got to know him when I was home for that long weekend in April.”
“He must be something special,” Teddi murmured.
Jenna sighed. “Oh, he is. Brown eyes and red hair and a build like a movie star. Teddi, you’ll love him...but not too much, please,” she added, only half teasing. “I couldn’t begin to compete with you, as far as looks go.”
“Don’t be silly,” Teddi chided. “You’re lovely.”
“You’re a liar, but I love you just the same,” came the laughing reply. Jenna leaned back in the plush seat. “King didn’t chew you up too badly, did he?” she asked after a minute. Her gray eyes met Teddi’s apologetically. “I could have gone through the floor when he made that nasty remark and I saw you standing in the doorway and knew you’d heard.”
“King and I have been enemies for years,” Teddi reminded her friend, her dark eyes wistful. “I don’t know what I did to make him dislike me so, but he always has.”
“It puzzles
