BARGAIN WITH THE DEVIL.
JAYNE CASTLE.
Dear Reader:
In response to your enthusiasm for Candlelight Ecstasy Ro-mances, we are now increasing the number of t.i.tles per month from two to three.
We are pleased to offer you sensuous novels set in America, depicting modern American women and men as they confront the provocative problems of a modern relationship.
Throughout the history of the Candlelight line, Dell has tried to maintain a high standard of excellence, to give you the fin-est in reading pleasure. It is now and will remain our most ardent ambition.
Vivian Stephens.
Editor.
Candlelight Romances.
CHAPTER ONE.
If they had been filming a western that night in Tucson instead of throwing an elegant party, Stacy Rylan knew which role Hunter Manning would have been playing. He would have been the man wearing the black hat.
She stood perfectly still in the shadows of the patio, a half-eaten apple clutched in one hand, and watched Hunter deliberately try to seduce her sister-in-law. A very dangerous man, Stacy told herself nervously as the fingers of the hand not holding the apple curled into her palm ia silent frustration. Dangerous because there was no real pa.s.sion or even elemental desire in Manning"s approach. Couldn"t Leana see that? Everything about the man was cold and calculating. Stacy shivered involuntarily as Hunter whispered something in a low growl of a voice that caused Leana to giggle delightedly.
"I really should be getting back to our guests," Leana murmured, a trace of genuine anxiety in the soft, lovely smile she turned upward to Hunter.
"So soon?" Hunter said, sounding regretful. He stood with his back toward the watching Stacy, casually bracing his tall, lean frame against one of the posts that supported the latticework patio roof. Pale light spilled from the open doors of the house and gave the almost-black hair of his attentively bent head a dark, sinister gleam. He had apparently shed his jacket earlier, as had every other man at the party in deference to the balmy Tucson night, and the crisp whiteness of his well-tailored shirt seemed to accent the dark hard-ness Stacy sensed in the man. Good lord! she scolded herself rue-fully. She hadn"t even met Hunter Manning yet and already she was prepared to forgo that dubious pleasure. If only he would leave Leana alone!
"I"m afraid I must," Leana whispered in response to Hunter"s query, tipping her beautiful blond head back to meet his eyes. Stacy could cheerfully have kicked her lovely young sister-in-law at that moment. Leana might be only twenty-three and rather spoiled, but she"s a married woman who ought to know better than to allow her-self to be caught up in this sort of situation.
"You"ll come back to me later?" Hunter asked in a low, demand-ing tone that could have pa.s.sed for pa.s.sion but didn"t to Stacy"s ears.
"I"ll I"ll try," Leana promised, her blue eyes flickering with the excitement of a child who has found a new toy. "Now I really must go." She made to turn away, her body slim and graceful in the ex-pensive silk dress Stacy knew she had bought only yesterday, but Hunter put out a large hand and caught her gently by the chin.
"A little something to remember me by," he told Leana and, shifting slightly, dropped a rather casual kiss on the pretty young woman"s pet.i.te nose.
Leana smiled and then turned, disappearing quickly back toward the house and her guests. Stacy grimaced, forced to admire Hunter"s methods even while she deplored them. A full, pa.s.sionate kiss on the lips would probably have frightened Leana, who was clearly a little nervous about the flirtation, but the light, unaggressive caress Hunter had delivered was perfectly calculated to entice without making the girl any more anxious.
For a moment longer Stacy stood silently watching as Hunter stared after Leana. His back was still turned toward her, and Stacy knew she could simply wait in the shadows until he chose to rejoin the other guests. He need never know his little game had a witness. That would be the safer course of action, Stacy knew instinctively. Better by far not to get involved with this man, let alone do some-thing foolish like confronting him. But something had to be done, and she was very much afraid that telling her brother what was going on would accomplish little. Eric was hopelessly in love with his spoiled, lovely wife, and he was hopelessly inundated with the task of learning what it meant to be president of Rylan Enterprises. He would choose to believe Leana was merely being friendly to a busi-ness a.s.sociate, and he would most certainly be annoyed at Stacy for implying his wife was heading for trouble. Stacy deliberated the situation a second longer and then she made up her mind.
The first thing she did was to take a large, crunching bite out of the apple she held.
While it could not be said that Hunter appeared terribly startled by the sound, Stacy knew she had his complete and very alert atten-tion. He didn"t move away from his negligent stance against the post, and his arms remained folded against the expanse of his chest, but the dark head turned so that the strong chin was aligned with his shoulder, and he waited with an easy patience for whoever was be-hind him to announce his or her presence. The strange streak of sil-ver in his hair was suddenly visible.
It was the first time Stacy had been given a clear glimpse of his profile, and what she saw confirmed her earlier impression that Hunter Manning could have played the role of outlaw with little or no theatrical a.s.sistance. Every line in his face, from the deep-set eyes, the arrogant blade of a nose, and the harshly carved cheek-bones declared to the world that this was a man who lived by his own rules. A man who, if he had lived in the Tucson of a hundred years earlier, would have worn a gun slung low on his narrow hip and strapped professionally to his thigh. There was a grim, no-nonsense line to his mouth, which made one instinctively wary, Stacy decided, chewing absently on the bite of apple. The overall effect of Hunter Manning"s strong, uncompromising features seemed curiously accented by the silvery streak in the near-blackness of his hair. It began at the low side part and swept across, a section of a lock that would fall forward over his brow if his hair were to become tousled. Stacy sighed inwardly, acknowledging that she"d probably made a serious mistake and telling herself bracingly that she was committed now.
"She"s married," Stacy announced baldly, unable to think of any other way to begin the confrontation.
"I"m aware of that." Hunter"s hard mouth quirked upward in a chilling, challenging way, and he slowly swiv-eled to face his ac-cuser. "The fact, however, is a matter that concerns only myself and the lady involved." The cool edge on his words would have effec-tively deterred Stacy under other conditions.
"Her husband," she stated clearly, grateful for the poor protection of the shadows, "is my brother."
One heavy black brow lifted with a surprising degree of interest. "You"re a Rylan?" Hunter asked, dropping his hands to his side and taking a couple of deceptively casual steps toward the spot where Stacy stood beneath the shelter of a shade tree.
Stacy frowned, aware of the sardonic gray gaze that was sweep-ing her from head to foot. Suddenly the shadows were providing very little protection. A fine time to become style conscious, she told herself with grim humor, aware of the rather untidy and overly cas-ual sight she presented. "I"m Stacy Rylan," she announced proudly, lifting her chin.
"Interesting," Hunter drawled, his gaze focusing first on the pre-cariously perched knot of heavy dark brown hair with its almost buried red hints. Several strands of the stuff were straggling free of confinement. "I didn"t know there was a sister."
Stacy"s frown deepened as the fog-colored eyes took in her jeans and bright flower-patterned cotton shirt. She was wearing leather sandals, and not one piece of jewelry to soften the overall effect. Well, she wasn"t at this party to socialize, she reminded herself, and it didn"t matter in the least what Hunter Manning thought of her appearance! Besides, if he preferred his women pet.i.te and soft and lovely, nothing Stacy could have worn would have sufficiently changed her enough to meet with Manning"s approval. She was definitely not another Leana! A straightforward, rather than flirta-tious, expression was mirrored in wide green eyes, which watched the world with humor and intelligence. Stacy knew her features were not unattractive, but there was a certain basic, healthy wholesome-ness about them that kept the straight little nose, firm jawline, and pleasantly curved lips from being seductive or coy. Leana was al-ways telling her she ought to wear more makeup, but at twenty-seven, Stacy, who had never gotten into the habit, decided it was too late to start. Her figure was slim and firm, but the small, high b.r.e.a.s.t.s and narrow waist lacked anything resembling voluptuousness. In-stead there was a sense of inner energy about her body and a supple strength, which came from the outdoor work she did.
"Now that you know there is a sister," Stacy began pointedly, de-liberately trying to bring his attention back from his critical perusal of her person, "you"ll understand my interest in the fact that you"re flirting with Leana."
Hunter met her severe glance, and the curious quirk of his mouth lifted higher as if he found her amusing. "Leana appears to be quite adult. Old enough to make her own decisions, I"d say," he drawled.
Stacy took another bite out of her apple, crunching thoughtfully as she considered how best to handle this man. "I"m afraid that"s the problem," she said finally. "Leana really isn"t all that grown-up. Not yet. She"s a bit spoiled, you see, and she"s quite young in many ways." The first pitch, Stacy decided carefuHy, would be to Hunter"s better instincts. If he had any.
"You mean she"s a little flirt," Hunter said, nodding agreeably.
"I didn"t say that!" Stacy snapped around the mouthful of apple. The fruit was beginning to play the same role as a cigarette might have played in the hands of a smoker. It gave her something to do and thus helped hide her growing nervousness. "It"s just that my brother has been terribly busy lately and Leana "
"Leana is starting to look elsewhere for her entertainment," Hunter concluded bluntly.
"With a little help from you, apparently!"
"I"m always happy to oblige a beautiful woman," Hunter retorted silkily.
"There are a number of them here tonight," Stacy shot back meaningfully. "Why don"t you go back inside and have a look around?"
"Sorry, but Leana is the one who offers me what I"m looking for at the moment," he said smoothly. "She"s one of you."
"One of us?" Stacy gasped, uncomprehending. "What in the world are you talking about?"
"She"s a Rylan," Hunter informed her in a simple, deadly tone.
Stacy chilled, appalled by the coldness of his narrowed, fog-colofed eyes. "What"s that got to do with anything?" she whispered.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked almost pleasantly.
"You"re Hunter Manning," Stacy managed, the apple forgotten for the moment. "Leana told me you"d be here tonight. She... she described you quite accurately."
"That was the first you"d heard of me?" he persisted coolly.
"I"m sorry if you feel I should know you by reputation," Stacy re-torted with a hint of impatience. "But I don"t normally attend my brother"s parties. I"m only here tonight because I helped Leana with the flower arrangements earlier and accidentally left something be-hind. I was just going to slip in the back entrance and get it when I saw you here on the patio with Leana."
"Tell me something, Stacy Rylan," Hunter bit out quietly. "How old are you?"
"What the h.e.l.l does that have to do with anything?" she chal-lenged, abruptly fl.u.s.tered. Nothing about this little scene was mak-ing any sense!
"Twenty-six? Twenty-seven?" he hazarded calmly, studying her features with dispa.s.sionate interest.
"I"m twenty-seven, although I don"t see why it should matter to you!" she snapped angrily.
"So you would have been about thirteen at the time." He nodded to himself. "Too young and much too sheltered to take an interest in your father"s business activities!"
"Mr. Manning," Stacy began feelingly, "will you kindly explain your point? I"m afraid I"ve lost the thread of the conversation!"
"With pleasure, Miss Rylan." He smiled very dangerously. "Soon all the Rylans will be aware of me. There"s no reason you shouldn"t be the first. I"m not here tonight for business or social reasons, al-though your brother thinks I am."
"You"re here to seduce my sister-in-law?" Stacy breathed tightly, her mind floundering for some rational explanation of this man"s behavior.
"It seemed an appropriate place to start," he agreed with a mock-ing tilt of his head.
"To start what?" Stacy demanded in a curious mixture of anger and fear.
"My revenge, of course," he answered as calmly as if remarking on the weather.
"Your revenge!" Stacy stared unbelievingly up at the tall, re-mote-faced stranger, her shock clearly reflected in the wide green eyes and slightly parted lips. "For what? I don"t understand. Leana says you only moved to Tucson a couple of months ago. What could my family possibly have done to you in that time?"
"What your family did to me occurred fourteen years ago," Hunter told her grimly. "I was twenty at the time, and I made a promise to myself that one day I would return. It took quite awhile, Stacy Rylan, but I"m here and I"m going to finish what I set out to do. Fourteen years it"s taken to put together a company successful enough to allow me to return to Arizona and meet Paul J. Rylan on an equal level. But two months ago I finally moved into the house I"d had built for me last winter in the foothills, and I"m here to stay until I"ve satisfied myself!"
Stacy flinched from the harsh determination in his words. She didn"t doubt him for one single moment. This man was bent on re-venge, and she didn"t think there was much that could stop him!
"What what was it my family did to you?" she whispered, her mouth dry with dread.
"Your father ruined mine. Very simply and very efficiently." Hunter grated starkly.
Stacy licked her lips unconsciously. "How?" she whispered help-lessly.
"The mechanics of it were rather involved." Hunter shrugged. "But it amounted to a takeover. A takeover in which even the cour-tesy of retaining the former management was ignored! My father spent his life building the electronics firm that is now part of Rylan Enterprises. Losing it was like losing his whole reason for living. He died a year after the takeover." There was a strangely unemotional bitterness in the words as Hunter faced Stacy and told her the tale.
"That that sounds a little oversimplified," Stacy began bravely, sensing some need to defend her father. "I"m sure there was a great deal more to it than that. Business can be very complex...."
"Oh, there was a great deal more to it," he agreed at once. "There was, for example, the day I came to your father"s house and pleaded with him not to go through with the deal. You and your brother weren"t there at the time, but your mother was. I remember the way she looked at me as if pitying me, but she made no effort to change your father"s mind!"
"What did my father say?" Stacy demanded softly.
"Business, he said, was business," Hunter quoted casually.
Stacy took a deep breath. She could almost hear her father saying just those words. Paul Rylan was a businessman down to his finger-tips. "Your quarrel, if you really think you have one, would seem to be with my father, Mr. Manning," she stated, wondering at the depths of a revenge that could ride a man for fourteen years. A part of her wanted to reach out and tell him she understood, but the lines were clearly drawn in this engagement. As a Rylan, there was no question about which side she represented. Hunter Manning would not welcome her sympathy, and he certainly wouldn"t allow it to deflect him from his path. The only thing Stacy could hope to do was mediate to some slight degree. "If you"re determined to take up this matter again after all this time, then it should be with Dad. And for that you"ll have to wait," she continued hopefully. "My parents are on an extended cruise. They won"t return for a month!"
"I know where your parents are." Hunter half-smiled. "I made it my business to find out as soon as I moved to Tucson. Jt makes no difference. I intend to repay him in the same way he treated my fa-ther. Paul Rylan is going to watch helplessly as something and someone he cares about is ruined."
"You"re going to try and buy out Rylan Enterprises?" Stacy asked, startled at the audacity of the move.
"No, I have no wish to acquire possession of your father"s busi-ness," Hunter drawled. "I have other plans."
"Just where does Leana fit into your "plans"?" Stacy demanded.
"Your brother, as you mentioned, is very much in love with his new wife," Hunter commented. "It"s no great secret."
"Yes." Stacy waited fearfully for the next statement.
"Seducing her will serve quite well to take his mind off the busi-ness of running Rylan Enterprises, don"t you think?" Hunter went on thoughtfully.
Stacy blanched. "He"s just taken on the job," she whispered. "My father turned the position over to him only a few months ago!"
"After grooming him quite carefully for years. Quite an invest-ment in time and effort your father has made. The same sort of in-vestment my father made."
"My brother had nothing to do with what happened fourteen years ago," Stacy hissed. "You have no right to take out your re-venge on him."
"Business is business."
"Oh, shut up! You can"t just casually set about seducing Leana merely to hurt my brother and weaken him so that he"ll fail in run-ning the company. It wouldn"t work anyway! I"m going to tell him exactly what"s going on!"
"He won"t believe you until it"s too late. Leana certainly isn"t go-ing to confirm your tale. In fact, if you take that approach, I"ll simply arrange for sweet little Leana to feel that I"m the persecuted one in the story. Before she knows what"s happened, she"ll find herself on my side. Your brother, fool that he is, will try to placate her rather than make a scene. He"ll be too afraid of driving her away. But he"ll start worrying about Leana"s "friendship" with me. By the time he has the guts to do anything about it, it will be too late." There was a menacing satisfaction in Hunter"s smile now. "The whole Rylan family will be humiliated. Your brother will be crushed, and your father will be furious. Paul Rylan will also be quite helpless. It will be amusing to see if he comes to plead with me to leave Leana alone!"
"No!" Stacy exclaimed, totally outraged now. "You can"t do this!"
"Who"s going to stop me?" he inquired mildly.
"Is it money you"re after? Do you want my father to buy you off?"
"Money," Hunter Manning declared calmly, "is no longer a prob-lem in my life. I have all I need and the means to make more if I wish. I may not be precisely able to buy and sell Rylan Enterprises, but Manning Development Corporation can certainly hold its own when it comes to a.s.sets! The day your father comes to my home and offers to buy me off will be a fascinating one indeed. It will give me great pleasure to tell him to go to h.e.l.l."
"You just want to hurt," Stacy murmured. "The way you were hurt."
"The way my father was hurt," he corrected immediately, frown-ing.
"Did he put this notion of revenge in your head?" Stacy asked de-liberately, eyeing the set features above her.
"I told you, my father lost everything after he lost the business," Hunter growled. "He didn"t even have the will to seek revenge."
"So you"ve appointed yourself the one to do it for him. But he"s gone now, so who will appreciate your efforts?" Stacy pressed care-fully.
He chuckled unexpectedly. "Don"t think you"re going to talk me out of this with a bit of patio psychology," he mocked. "Although you"re welcome to try. After all, part of the revenge will be watching the various members of the Rylan clan grow increasingly upset and finally desperate. There are all sorts of possibilities, you know. One is that your father will fear for the health of the company and will attempt to resume control. Your brother will resent that, naturally, and they"ll quarrel." Hunter lifted a hand as if handing the conclu-sion to Stacy on a platter. "Another wedge, this time between father and son. Your father won"t like that one bit. Not after raising your brother as the heir apparent!"
Stacy thought of the proud manner in which Paul Rylan had turned the responsibility for the day-to-day running of Rylan Enter-prises over to her thirty-year-old brother, and then taken off on a lengthy cruise to demonstrate his complete confidence in the young man. Then she reflected on the humiliation her brother, Eric, would experience if he had to face his father with the news that the son of an old business rival had run off with his beautiful young wife, of whom Paul and Miriam Rylan had so wholeheartedly approved! If there were problems with the business on top of that...!