Full Bloom

interfere in my relationship with him, I will start looking for a buyer for my RI shares. I'm sure I could turn up several interested parties on short notice. Damon Morrell would no doubt be at the head of the line."
    Drake was shaking his head ruefully. "Oh, Emily," he muttered.
    "I can't believe I'm hearing this," Gifford thundered at his daughter. "You wouldn't dare do such a thing. Are you out of your mind, girl?"
    "No, I'm finally taking charge of my own life." Emily walked across an Oriental carpet toward the door, her eyes fastened on Jacob's face. "It's about time, don't you think?"
    "You can't mean that," Catherine whispered in a stricken voice.
    Emily turned to glance at her mother. "Oh, but I do. If you try to use any means of coercing him, I swear I will sell my shares within twenty-four hours."
    Her parents appeared frozen.
    Drake watched his sister for a moment, and then his attention switched to Jacob's implacable expression. "Emily seems to have made her choice tonight. Treat her well, Stone, or I'll carve you up with a dull knife."
    Jacob straightened away from the door and reached out to take Emily's arm. He looked at Drake. "I guess we all should have remembered that underneath the softness, she's still a Ravenscroft. I could have told you it was dangerous to push any Ravenscroft into a corner. Don't worry, Drake. She's in good hands."
    Emily's pulse was racing with the adrenaline of victory as Jacob led her down the deserted hallway. Her step was light and full of energy. She almost laughed with exuberance.
    "I did it," she sang out softly. "I did it. I stood up to them and made them all back off. It was even better this time than it was when I got my own loan for my shop because this time I used their own tactics. I finally beat them at their own game."
    "You threw them for a loop, I'll give you that." Jacob piloted her toward the rear of the house. "I hope you enjoyed it."
    "I did. Oh, Jacob, it was wonderful. It was a fantastic sensation. I should have started using those shares a long time ago to keep them out of my hair. I don't know why I didn't think of it before now. I feel like I'm finally free. I faced them down. I won.
I won
."
    "You think so?" Jacob asked cryptically.
    It finally dawned on Emily that he was not sharing her jubilation. She frowned slightly, forced to quicken her steps to keep up with him. He was pacing along the hall with the long, smooth stride of a leopard on the prowl. "Of course I did. You saw them. They were all dumbfounded by my threat. They care more about those shares than they do about anything else in the world."
    "I think you underestimate your family, Emily."
    They had reached a door that opened onto a back garden. Jacob turned the knob with a fiercely controlled movement and pulled Emily outside into the chilly, damp night. Emily finally became aware of her surroundings.
    "What are we doing out here? Where are we going?"
    "I'm taking you to a hotel near the airport where you can spend the night and tomorrow morning I'm putting you on a plane to Seattle."
    "A hotel? But, Jacob, the evening isn't over. I don't want to leave just yet."
    "I know. You want to hang around and enjoy your little victory, don't you? But I'm not in the mood to indulge you tonight, Emily. I've had enough Ravenscroft drama for one evening."
    Emily was totally bewildered. "Jacob, I don't understand this. What's going on? Are you afraid to stay at the party? You don't have to worry about my family anymore. I've got them under control at last."
    "I'm not worried about your family. I never was worried about them. I told you that several days ago." Jacob fished a set of keys out of his pocket as he led Emily down the path to where his car was parked.
    "But, Jacob, you don't understand. My family would have made our lives hell. I had to make it clear to them that this time I would not tolerate any interference. I conducted that little scene in the study to protect you."
    "The hell you did. You did it because you've been looking for a way to punish your family for the way they handled the situation between you and Damon Morrell. You've probably wanted to pay them back in their own coin for years because of what you call their interference in your life. Tonight you found a way, didn't you?"
    Emily was truly alarmed. "Jacob, that's not how it was." He cut off the rest of her protest by the simple expedient of settling her in the car seat and closing the door.
    "You used me," Jacob said quietly