Call It Destiny

told herself, the draped vee neckline was cut low enough to intrigue Jake’s attention but not so low as to earn her a lecture. Heather sighed inwardly as she turned away from the mirror. She certainly walked a fine line these days.
    She knew a strange kind of tension lately, as if she was on a ragged edge between surrender and resistance. Logically she believed she was following the right course of action. Her whole future with Jake depended on maintaining it. But there was a deep need inside her to cease the struggle and simply throw herself into Jake’s arms. She loved him. She didn’t want to do battle with him.
    How long could this nerve-racking situation go on, she wondered bleakly. It was one thing to manage a male employee. Quite another to manage the man who held your heart in the palm of his hand.
    So much depended on the groundwork she was trying to lay, she told herself again and again. She must be strong.
    Jake was at her door promptly at six-thirty looking a little on the sober, restrained side. The dark aloofness in him ought to have been offset by the cream-colored sport coat he wore with the open-necked coffee-colored shirt and slacks. But as usual, his clothing didn’t affect the overall impression of self-imposed distance. Heather couldn’t stand it. She knew him too intimately to be put off by the impression.
    The moment she opened the door she stepped forward, rose on tiptoe and brushed her mouth across his with sweet warmth. „I hear we’ll be able to go in the Mercedes tonight,“ she said lightly, stepping away before Jake could respond. „Dad says you and he and someone from the grounds-keeping staff drove up into the canyon to rescue the cars.“
    „They were both covered with mud but otherwise okay.“ Jake’s eyes lingered for a moment on the vee of the white sheath. „That dress is cut a bit low, isn’t it?“
    „No.“ Heather smiled brightly and closed the front door behind her. „Any sign of the jeeps Rick and his friend drove?“
    „None,“ he answered as they walked toward the parking lot. „It looks as though they made it out of the canyon. With any luck the authorities will nab them at the border.“
    „I hope so,“ Heather agreed fervently. „Where are we going tonight?“
    „Someplace we can talk.“
    „Well, that’s encouraging. Talk about us, you mean?“ she tried for a cheerful note, anxious not to let any of her trepidation show.
    „About us,“ he confirmed.
    He drove to an elegant restaurant in the hills overlooking the city, saying little en route. Heather sensed that he was involved with his own musings and she longed to be able to read his mind. Had he thought about their untenable situation? she wondered nervously. Perhaps he had reached the decision she wanted him to reach. Perhaps he had accepted the fact that he was in love with her. The jumbled hopes and fears in her own head kept her unusually silent on the drive. It was after Jake had parked the Mercedes in the lot of the restaurant and guided her firmly indoors into the elegant Spanish-colonial decor that she realized matters were not going to end rosily that evening.
    „Let’s have a drink first,“ he ordered, taking her into the darkened, quiet lounge and leading her to a small table for two. „A glass of burgundy?“
    „You know me so well,“ she murmured, trying for a small joke.
    „Better than you know yourself,“ he agreed far too seriously. He ordered a Scotch for himself and watched her in silence as the drinks were delivered.
    Heather moved uneasily under the intent regard and then forced herself to sit coolly still. When the wine arrived she was grateful, however, to have something to do with her restless hands. Jake was in a dangerous mood tonight and she knew it. There was a hard relentless determination in the depths of those gray eyes that disturbed her. In this mood he was virtually unmanageable.
    „Now, then,“ he began after letting the silence between them grow to huge dimensions, „I think it’s time we got down to business.“
    „Business?“ She heard the wariness in her own voice and knew he must have heard it too.
    „Business. You don’t want to be my wife – “
    „I never said that,“ she protested urgently.
    „Let me rephrase that. You insist that any marriage between us be on your terms. Terms I find unacceptable.“
    Heather’s mouth went dry.
    „Since marriage is therefore out of the question, we are left with another sort of situation