Raven's Prey

out of that situation, even though you did it in your own unique fashion. Lucky for me you do have a few scruples, isn’t it? But you’d probably rather have the two thousand than my thanks, anyway.”
    “Damn it, Honor!” He started to climb out of the bed behind her. “What is it with you today? Are you still worn out? [_Do _]you need more rest?” He glared at her, clearly trying to work out an explanation for her cool behavior. It was obviously not what he had been expecting.
    “I’m fine, Judd,” She managed a very brilliant smile. “Now, if you will excuse me I’m going to take a shower and then Fm going to pack and go home to Phoenix. I hope you’ll have a good time all alone on your vacation. You probably will. You seem quite accustomed to spending time by yourself.”
    His expression was set in the savage lines of a bird of prey, “You’re coming with me, Honor,” he stated evenly. “To Acapulco or Hawaii. You belong to me now. We’re going to get to know each other, be together. Live together!”
    “That’s not possible, Judd.”
    “What the hell do you mean, it’s not possible?” he demanded.
    Honor took a deep breath and then said what had to be said, “Judd, I’m grateful to you for ending the crisis. But I can never forget that when the chips were down you didn’t really trust me. That night we spent together was not the turning point for you that it was for me. I gave you everything I had to give that night and the next morning you just went ahead with business as usual.” She moved one hand in a flat gesture of finality. “Whatever I was beginning to feel for you. down in Mexico died the morning after we made love. You killed it when you made it plain that the night we had together meant nothing to you in terms of trust or love or anything else that’s important.”
    “For God’s sake, Honor! I saved your life! I rescued you! How the hell can you stand there and tell me you feel nothing for me now?”
    “I didn’t say I felt nothing. I said I was grateful, remember?” she reminded him harshly. “But that’s all I feel. I’m damn grateful Garrison was dumb enough to give himself away on the phone and I’m grateful you had enough in the way of scruples to bother checking out my story. But I’m not going to sleep with you out of gratitude! The man I choose to sleep with will be someone who loves and trusts me completely. A man who would go to the wall for me just because he cared. He wouldn’t wait to work out the [_logic _]of the situation before he decided which side to take. He’d be of my side come hell or high water, regardless of the damned logic of the thing!” She was aware that her voice was rising and her hands were clenching into fists. Deliberately Honor took deep breaths, striving to regain her control. She had lost her self-control far too many times with this man. It was time she took a leaf out of his book!
    “Honor, I made it clear I would protect you right from the start!” Judd raked a hand through his hair, dark eyes gleaming with frustrated anger. “What more did you want from me?”
    “Trust. I wanted you to be one hundred percent on my side, no questions asked. I wanted you to have absolutely no doubts about me.”
    “Just because we’d been to bed together?” he demanded incredulously.
    “Because I thought we’d made love together,” she corrected savagely. “But I was wrong, wasn’t 1? Nothing changed for you that night. You woke up the next morning still the same cold, unemotional robot you were before you went to bed with me. Well, you got your proof and you did your duty by rescuing me. But don’t expect anything more than gratitude from me, Judd Raven. Because I haven’t anything more to give a cold-blooded mercenary who trusts his damned airplane more than he does me!”
    She walked into the bathroom and shut the door far too quietly behind her.

Chapter 7
    T he apartment in Phoenix had never looked more inviting. Honor turned the key in the lock, knowing a vast sense of relief at being home. There had been too many lonely nights of wondering if she would ever be able to return. Her rakish little Audi was still parked sedately in the drive where she had left it that morning so long ago. Honor wondered if the battery still functioned.
    The inside of the spacious one-bedroom apartment was exactly as she had left it, except, she noted wryly, all her plants had died. No, the little collection of exotic cacti in the corner of