The Ties That Bind

road. For a moment she stood in the doorway, glancing around to see if Ted Walters had changed his location. There was no sign of him or the car.
    Shannon closed the door again and went back to the kitchen to eat her own lunch. Perhaps security types had regular coffee and meal breaks, just like normal employees. The man hadn't knocked on her door with a request to use her plumbing facilities all morning. He might have taken a fifteen-minute break to search out his own now.
    Deciding it really didn't matter to her, Shannon finished her meal and considered a short walk on the beach. She felt the need for some exercise before going back to work. Silk-screening was hard, physical labor that often left her muscles cramped and tired.
    The day had turned out beautifully. All traces of fog had evaporated. In another couple of hours it would be genuinely warm. Shannon made her way down the short cliff to the rough beach and thought about her mad dash across the same territory the previous evening. She realized she had been lucky not to take a couple of really bad falls on the uneven ground.
    Setting off toward the far end of the beach, Shannon walked briskly. The exercise felt good, clearing away some of the cobwebs from her troubled mind and loosening her muscles. Deliberately she considered her future.
    She knew she was going to have to make some harsh decisions. True, she was in love, but no amount of passion was going to sustain her in the kind of relationship Garth seemed to want. Furthermore, the uncertainty she always felt when she tried to assess his emotions was as strong as ever. Valiantly, she tried to mentally list the pros and cons of her situation.
    There could be no doubt that he desired her, Shannon thought wistfully. And she sensed that his possessiveness and feelings of responsibility toward her went deep. The fact that he had managed to convince himself she hadn't stolen the bid package was heartening. Shannon smiled grimly. All things considered, it was actually pretty remarkable that Garth had given her the benefit of the doubt. Judging from what she knew of his world and his past, she was aware that it would have been logical for him to assume the worst.
    Of course, having him think of her as simply too unsophisticated and naive to know how to go about seducing and betraying him wasn't exactly a compliment. Shannon rebelled at the idea of being declared somewhat innocent by reason of stupidity. And as much as she loved him, she rebelled, too, at the notion of marriage to a man who wanted to keep her stashed away until the weekends. He wasn't just trying to protect her, Shannon knew intuitively. Garth was really trying to protect himself. He had practically admitted as much. He wanted to be able to use Shannon as a retreat and a refuge, not realizing that by so doing he was relegating her to only a minimal role in his life.
    Not that she couldn't comprehend and even sympathize with his desire for an alternative to his working world, Shannon thought with an inner sigh. But she wondered whether he could learn to ever really love her as long as she was kept on the fringes of his life. A part of her clung to the knowledge that he wanted her to love him. She tried to tell herself it was a hopeful sign. But another more practical voice warned Shannon that she needed to be loved completely in return. She wasn't sure how long it would take a man like Garth to trust her and himself deeply enough to allow himself to risk loving her.
    In many ways she had been right about him that first morning when she had followed him down to the beach and invited him to her dinner party. Garth's dark, brooding spirit was as complex and remote as that of any poet or writer. Unfortunately for her, she still felt the same compulsion to force her way past the barriers he was so good at erecting. It would be simpler, Shannon thought, if she could write Garth Sheridan off as a negative experience. But writing off the man you loved was easier said than done.
    The depressing train of thought came to an abrupt halt as Shannon shook herself free of it. She would not give up on this man. Not yet. Maybe not ever. She loved him too much to allow failure.
    Somehow, some way, she would find a path that led to the inner sanctum of Garth's emotions. The man had potential, she told herself resolutely. And she was the persevering type. She would continue to pursue him until he fell in love with her. And once he had acknowledged that much, she was