The Ties That Bind

Shannon."
    "But on Sunday you acted as if you'd just discovered I was Mata Hari ."
    "I couldn't figure out what was going on," he said quietly. "I wanted some answers. Instead of giving them to me, you ran."
    "What did you expect me to do?"
    "Given your impulsive, temperamental approach to things, I guess I should have expected you to do exactly what you did."
    She gritted her teeth over the "impulsive" and "temperamental." "What conclusion did you come to on your own?"
    "The obvious one. You were used."
    "Used? How was I used? What are you talking about?"
    "Shannon, it's pretty clear you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Garth sat forward, his elbows on his knees, glass held lightly in both hands as he talked intently. "I don't know what was supposed to be going on in that bedroom at the Hutchinsons ' party, but it looks like someone was using it to pass that copy of the bid proposal to a, shall we say, interested party."
    "Kenyon?"
    "Who knows? The information in that bid package would have been interesting to several other people who were there that night, not just Kenyon. We may never know. Whoever was trying to make the transfer is hardly likely to come forward now and claim the document got lost."
    Shannon chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. "Let me get this straight. You're saying someone used my tote to hide the copy of the bid proposal while waiting to make his deal?"
    Garth nodded. "It's a possibility. A reasonable explanation."
    "And it was just my bad luck whoever it was used my tote?"
    "Your bag was very distinctive. Easy to spot among a pile of purses. Easy to describe to the person who was supposed to collect the document. Shannon, this is purely speculation on my part. But it's the best I can come up with at the moment. As I said, it doesn't really matter now. The proposal got intercepted."
    "Thanks to me," she couldn't resist pointing out. "Maybe you owe me something for that, Garth. Have you looked at the matter from that angle?"
    Garth raised his eyebrows but didn't comment on that. "Shannon, I didn't want you getting involved with the business side of my life. I wanted to keep you clear of it." He swore in soft disgust. "But even I couldn't have guessed it would get as messy as it did the first time you showed up in San Jose."
    Shannon couldn't ignore the pain in his voice. She felt her resolve weakening. "It was pure bad luck. You said it yourself. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She hesitated and then asked cautiously, "So you drove all this way to apologize?"
    "I told you why I drove all this way. I'm here to ask you to marry me."
    She clasped her hands together tightly in her lap, aware that her pulse was suddenly racing. "But, Garth, why?"
    "You love me," he said quietly. "You said so. We're good together, you and I. We have something unique. If we're married I'll be in a better position to take care of you. I won't have to worry so much about your impulsiveness. And I think that once we're married you'll be a lot less likely to run whenever we find ourselves confronting a problem. You'll stay and face the issue."
    "What makes you so certain?" Shannon asked tightly.
    He frowned, obviously sorting through his words. "Marriage will put restraints on your behavior, Shannon. You'll be more inclined to listen to me. I think you'll be a lot more likely to accept my protection."
    "Protection? You're making it sound as if you're going to be my jailer, not my husband!"
    He groaned. "I don't mean it that way and I think you know it. Shannon, I want to take care of you. I want to know you're following my advice. I want to keep you out of the kind of situation you got into the other night at that party."
    Shannon's emotions were so jumbled that she could hardly breathe. "You think that if we're married I'm going to be more inclined to be meek and obedient?"
    "I think," he said softly, "that if we're married, you'll be more reasonable about some things."
    "Less likely to play spy, for example?" she got out through clenched teeth.
    "I've already told you I don't believe you were playing corporate spy the other night."
    For some reason the deliberately soothing tone of his voice enraged her. Shannon realized she was trembling with the force of her reaction. It was ludicrous. Here she was receiving a proposal of marriage from the man she loved, and all she wanted to do was hurl it back in his face because she was getting it for all the wrong reasons. "You want to marry