The Harder They Fall

Six

Trisha started, then slowly let out the breath she’d been holding.

The phone rang again, and with the noise came reality. Sunday. Oh, dear – Uncle Victor with his weekly dose of guilt and shame.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?” Hunter asked, his voice husky.

It did give her some comfort to know he’d been as affected as she. “No.”

When the phone rang a fourth time, her palms started to sweat. Dammit, not now, not when she felt so open, so incredibly vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able to stand it.

But Uncle Victor missed Aunt Hilda, and didn’t just the fact that he called her tell her how much he cared, somewhere deep inside?

Oh, fine. She yanked the receiver off the wall. “Hello?”

“Well, girl, it’s about time,” Uncle Victor said in the cantankerous, demanding tone he always used with her. “I’ve been trying to get you for two weeks now.”

“Hello, Uncle Victor.” Her stomach already hurt.

“In the name of God, Trisha,” he griped. “Turn that blasted noise down.”

“I like the music,” she pointed out automatically, her every muscle tightening with stress. He couldn’t be nice or kind. Never. Not even when he was calling to say he missed his wife, he missed his niece, that he was lonely. “How are you?”

“What?” he bellowed.

“I asked how you were,” she repeated dutifully, slightly louder, in deference to the hearing loss that he wouldn’t admit to save his life.

“Tough as nails, as always. What the hell have you been doing?”

“I, uh…” She glanced at Hunter, who had squatted on the floor and was inspecting their work. He’d obviously forgotten about her. Relieved, she turned her concentration back to the telephone. “Just the usual, Uncle Victor.”

“You mean you’re still selling that nasty crap to people who have nothing better to do with their time?”

Like the man didn’t have a stack of adult magazines dating back twenty years in the woodshed behind the garage. “Selling nasty crap. That about sums it up,” she said cheerfully while her stomach clenched. She shot another surreptitious glance over her shoulder.

Hunter didn’t even glance up, which relaxed her somewhat. She didn’t want him to be an audience to what she knew was coming.

“Good God, girl, your aunt Hilda’s probably rolling in her grave,” Uncle Victor said roughly, his voice heavy with disapproval. “I’m not sure where we went wrong that you feel you have to do this.”

“You didn’t go wrong. And it pays the bills.” Sometimes.

“What’s the point, if you can’t be proud of what you do?”

“Who said I wasn’t proud of what I do?” Dammit, she’d promised herself she wouldn’t let him bait her, and here she was, hooked again. From the corner of her eye, she could see that Hunter’s stance had stiffened. With all her might, Trisha wished she’d answered the phone in the other room, away from his curious ears.

“Well, you might as well be standing on the street corner, flaunting your wares.” Uncle Victor berated her so loudly that Trisha had to pull the phone away from her ear.

Hunter went unnaturally still.

“Standing on the street corner would constitute a different occupation entirely,” Trisha observed lightly as the last of her nerves frayed. Hunter shifted suddenly, drawing her attention to his concentrated frown, and she closed her eyes in embarrassment. Oh, well, it wasn’t as if she were trying to make a good impression. It was far too late for that.

Besides, she didn’t care what he thought of her.

Yeah, and pigs could fly.

“Sassing me!” her uncle said with disgust. “You would never have dared when -”

“Aunt Hilda was alive.” She quietly completed Uncle Victor’s oft-spoken line.

“I’m just trying to make sure I do what’s right by you.” Uncle Victor spoke louder than before, a sure sign his temper had been stirred. “I have a duty.”

“Your duty has been completed. The fact that I’m rotten to the core -”

Uncle Victor swore colorfully. “Don’t you put words in my mouth. I just don’t approve of what you do for a living.”

“So I’ve thrown my life away; it isn’t your fault,” she said dryly.

Hunter rose lithely from the floor. He stepped closer to her, his expression carefully blank. Horrified at what he was hearing, Trisha turned away and struggled to watch her words. She moved as far from him as the phone cord would allow.

The leather of Hunter’s tool belt creaked, warning her of his movements as he came close enough for her to feel his body heat seep into her back. “Was there something you wanted, Uncle Victor?” she asked quickly. “I’m really quite busy.”

“Just wanted to talk to my niece,” he grumbled. “Not like you ever call me.”

Guilt lanced through her, which was exactly what he’d intended. Still, she felt like a jerk. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely, dropping her forehead to the wall. “I should call you more often.”

“It’d be nice. Instead, you’re too busy selling unmentionables to strangers. I can’t even tell anyone what you do for a living, girl. Good Lord, if I did, they’d all be beating down your door, thinking you were easy.”

A career in the army hadn’t softened his manners any. Gruff as they came, and stubborn as a mule once he got a thought into his head. “I’m not easy,” she said through clenched teeth.

From behind her, Hunter’s big, warm, callused hand settled on her shoulder, making her bite her tongue. Gently but firmly, he turned her to face him, ducking his head to see her face. She stared at his shoulders, fascinated with how the width of them seemed to surround her.

He lifted her chin, the sparks of anger in his eyes startling her. “Hang up,” he mouthed.

“Just remember your upbringing, girl,” Uncle Victor said in her ear. “Your aunt Hilda and I worked hard to teach you straight.”

“Yes, Uncle,” she said dully, her heart thumping in response to Hunter’s touch, to his nearness. To the empathy he showed. “You did your best.”

Hunter reached for the phone, looking determined.

“You can say that again,” Uncle Victor said with a snort. “When I think of all we gave up to raise you after your parents died -”

“I know. I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.” But she stood there, locked in miserable memories until she felt a gentle tug on the phone.

Hunter took it from her and set it quietly in its cradle. His expression could no longer be read, but she had no trouble sensing the sudden tension and anger. For some reason, that made her want to cry. “Well, that was fun,” she said, striving for humor and falling flat.

He seemed to understand her need to keep things light. “Isn’t family something?” he asked quietly, still standing close.

“Oh, my family is something, all right,” she said, turning away. It didn’t matter what he thought, she told herself. It just didn’t matter.

The hand he had left on her shoulder tightened as he gently turned her back to face him. “He was rude to you.”

“Isn’t that the definition of family?”

“Why do you put up with it?” he asked, his tone suddenly curt, very controlled.

So this was what the space scientist looked like angry. Shakily, she released her breath. He was full of this rage, for her. The burst of emotion that realization caused made her legs rubbery. “I guess your family does things different.”

“Not much,” he muttered. “But I don’t let mine get to me.”

What he didn’t say spoke volumes, and she knew without being told that his family hurt him as much as hers hurt her. “Well, what’s family for if not to constantly remind you of every fault and failing?” she quipped.

“It’s wrong.”

“Doesn’t your family ever get the best of you?”

“We’re not talking about me.” His voice softened. “But family shouldn’t hurt.”

“No, they shouldn’t.” Before her eyes, his temper drained. Something flickered in his gaze then. Sympathy? Compassion? Whatever it was, she couldn’t handle it, not when the urge to weep still had her eyes stinging. “Let’s finish the floor.” Again she turned away.

But Hunter just pulled her back. “What do your parents think of good old Uncle Victor?”

“They’re gone.”

He winced. “Hell. I’m sorry.”

“It was a very long time ago. My aunt and uncle raised me, and my aunt died not too long ago, which is why… why he calls,” she finished lamely.

“Does he call often?”

“Weekly. I usually manage to avoid him, which makes me feel even guiltier.”

“Sounds like that’s part of his purpose.”

“Guilt is his specialty.” Why was she telling him this? It would only reinforce what he thought of her. She clamped her jaws shut.

His gaze searched her face deeply, as if he could see past her facade and into her very soul. Uncomfortable, Trisha squirmed away, unwilling to allow this man more insights than she’d already given him.

“I’d probably avoid him too,” Hunter observed, setting his hands on his hips. “He didn’t have much of value to say about you or your life.”

He never did. With a meaningful glance toward the tools, Trisha said, “The floor. I think we should -”

“Is he your only family?”

“Now who’s full of questions?”

“Is he?”

She sighed. “Yep. Just good old Uncle Vic and me. The floor, Hunter.”

“He sounded… demanding.”

“He’s military,” she said with a shrug, wondering at his curiosity. “My aunt wasn’t as bad, but she attended mass daily, sometimes more than once. They aren’t exactly what you would call openhearted or forgiving.”

“Sounds tough. And you were all alone with them, no siblings to deflect some of the anger?”

She never talked about this, not even to Celia. Her new outlook on life – namely, being positive no matter what – didn’t allow it.

Diversion was self-defense. Backing away from both him and his touch, she said pointedly, “The floor, Hunter. We’ve got to finish it today.”

Again, he just looked at her, his green eyes seeing far more than she wanted him to. “I’m sorry he upset you, Trisha.”

He said this so lightly, with such tenderness and understanding, that her throat tightened again. “I’m… just fine.”

“Then why are you twisting the phone cord as if you need something to strangle?”

Looking down at her tangled-up fingers in the long cord, she grimaced. “Can we drop this? Please? I’m really rotten with pity.”

“I’m not -” He broke off when she walked away from him, heading to where they’d been working. “Gee, I guess we’re done talking,” he muttered, and followed her.

She knelt, keeping her head down. What was it about this man that stripped her bare? “Are you going to help, or what?”

Yeah, he was going to help. Probably more than he wanted, but dammit if she didn’t look unexpectedly small, alone, miserable. God, he was a sucker. Dropping to his knees beside her, he looked into her drawn face. “I’m going to help.”

“Good.” She sniffed, blew her nose.

His heart broke a little. “For the record, I don’t pity you.”

“No?” One side of her mouth quirked. “Why not?”

“You’re too damned ornery.”

She laughed, as he’d hoped she would. Some of her color had come back, he noted, and that relieved him. For one horrified moment, when he’d been pushing her for answers as if she’d been an experiment of his, he’d thought she was going to burst into tears.

It had been a favorite tactic of his mother, and his two ex-fiancées.

Hunter Adams didn’t do well with weepy women.

But Trisha, she did something to him, something he was unaccustomed to. Listening to her battle with her uncle for pride and confidence stirred within him a fierce protectiveness he hadn’t known he possessed.

It also gave him an insight into the woman who, up until now, he’d looked at only superficially. It shamed him to realize it, but it was the truth.

Trisha Malloy had become far more than just a shell. Beneath the slightly off-center purveyor of fine lingerie lived a surprisingly tough, intelligent, and lovely woman. One, he suddenly realized, he wanted to know better.

Hunter worked days and nights for most of the following week. His current project, only twelve months away from launch, had kicked into high gear. As principal investigator, team leader, and payload specialist, all aspects of the flight would be under his command. The planetary surface lander they were to launch from the shuttle, the one that would study the soil content on Mars, had been ready for some time, but there was still a long list of preparations to carry out, all of which was his responsibility. An exciting task, one he typically thrived on.

But it became difficult to concentrate fully when his new project, the duplex, weighed heavily on his mind. He’d moved his spartan belongings into the lower apartment the weekend before. Now, for the first time in his many years of traveling and hotel living, he needed his own furniture.

He liked that very much, and as he jogged at week’s end, he thought over his week.

On Monday, he’d had most of Eloise’s furniture picked up by the center he’d donated it to. Now suddenly, or maybe not so suddenly, he’d become eager to dig in and fix the place up.

It was a joke, or it would be if he had told anyone his plans. Dr. Hunter Adams drooling over fixing up a house. But the yearning deep within him, to have a real home that belonged to him, couldn’t be denied.

For now he’d start with the lower portion of the house. He told himself he didn’t want to take on too much at once, though he knew it was that he couldn’t bring himself to fight Trisha for full possession.

He hadn’t spent any time with her all week. Which was good, he told himself. It meant she hadn’t destroyed or ruined anything. It meant she hadn’t caused any trouble. He’d heard her music, and several times he’d heard her laughter.

Halfway through the week, he’d come home at dusk to hear a lawn mower. Curious, since he knew he hadn’t paid a gardener, he walked through to the back and suddenly stopped, riveted by a surge of surprise and pure lust.

Trisha, hair piled precariously on top of her head, singing at the top of her lungs and rocking her head back and forth to the tune only she could hear in her headphones, was mowing the lawn. The cropped white T-shirt she wore clung to her damp skin, becoming sheer enough to reveal the outline of her nipples.

His mouth went dry.

Not noticing she had an audience, she moved past him, sashaying her cute little butt, barely covered in the tiniest, shortest cutoffs he’d ever seen.

On her next turn through the yard, she caught sight of him and started in surprise. Stopping, she flipped up the headphones and smiled sweetly – completely unaware of what she’d done to him.

He’d covered the shock of his reaction to her by muttering grumpily and taking over the job of mowing. That she’d relinquished the chore with only a knowing smile, then disappeared, hadn’t improved his mood, or his raging hormones.

The next day he’d come home to find her on the front lawn, giving Duff a bath.

“He rolled on the driveway, under my car,” she explained over the yowling feline objections.

“So you decided to punish him by sentencing him to a bath?” he asked, watching in amusement as Duff’s ears flattened against his head when she carefully mopped his face.

“He was covered in oil,” Trisha explained, leaning back on her knees.

His gaze dipped, and he got an eyeful down her gaping, drenched sundress, enough to render him speechless for a minute. By the time he could speak, words weren’t necessary.

Because Trisha, with a wicked smile, threw a soaking wet washcloth in his face. Pulling it away slowly, he glared at her. “What was that for?”

“Take a picture,” she suggested with that irritating secret smile. “It lasts longer.”

“You’re not going to provoke me into a water fight.”

“No?” Those full lips pouted. “You’re no fun.”

“So I’ve been told,” he retorted. And, hard as a rock, he’d walked away.

The next morning, while shaving, he’d heard her shower running. Standing there in front of his bathroom sink, staring at himself in the mirror, he’d pictured what she was doing directly above him. He’d gotten hard, again. The image of her wet and soapy had stayed with him for the day, making it necessary for him to spend most of it behind his desk.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been unable to control his own body, and felt, quite ridiculously, like a teenager.

Now it was Friday, and as his feet pounded the cement, he realized he hadn’t seen Trisha the day before, and he wondered what she’d done, if she’d had a good day.

You’re no fun.

Trisha’s words echoed in his head. No, he was no fun, not in her eyes. Which was exactly why he had to stop thinking about her. She was so different, so full of life – happy to live her life as she saw fit, as wildly as she wanted.

He was the complete opposite. Even if he decided to risk it for himself and drown himself in her beauty, they were doomed. He could never make someone like her happy for long.

He had never made anyone happy.

As he ran down the dark driveway, past the newly mown lawn, he glanced at his car and came to an abrupt stop.

The scrawled words on his windshield – in what looked suspiciously like lipstick – read:

I’m sorry about the little dent on your fender! Think you could scoot over just a bit more when you park? Keep smiling, Trisha.

Beneath that, she’d drawn a happy face.

Disbelieving, Hunter strode to the back of his car and swore colorfully into the predawn morning. His left bumper had been neatly rearranged, dotted with red paint – the very color of Trisha’s ancient Nissan.

He jerked his gaze up and studied the amply wide driveway that ran alongside of his large house. Then he glanced at the equally wide street and the front of the house, where at least three cars could have fitted. Unbelievable. A small white, flapping piece of paper had been attached to the fender, catching his eye. With a snort of disgust, he ripped it off, brought it close in the waning dawn and read:

Ran out of lipstick! I’m really, really sorry. Hope you have a nice day, Hunter. (This time I insist on paying the damages!) See ya soon.

A little laugh escaped him. “Unbelievable,” he repeated out loud. He spared a last look of disgust at Trisha’s offending red car, which didn’t appear damaged beyond a few missing flecks of paint. Shaking his head, he shoved the note in his pocket, thankful he’d run, because it looked as though he would definitely need the stress relief today.

Hunter allowed himself one last thought before he focused his energy on his work.

A silent Trisha didn’t necessarily mean a quiet one. It looked as if he’d do well to remember that in the future.

Hunter would have liked nothing better than to bury himself in his work, of which he had plenty. He’d been doing it for years. But lately, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, his personal life kept interfering.

He’d no sooner set foot in his office when his phone buzzed. His secretary’s voice came over the line, sounding surprised.

“You’re late.”

If he was, it was the first time in his thirty-four years he’d been late for anything. “Seems that way.”

“Is anything wrong?”

He smiled grimly. “Lipstick doesn’t come off windshields. Remember that if you ever get the urge to paint a guy’s window with scarlet lipstick.”

“What?” Heidi exclaimed, obviously startled. They’d worked together for nine years and they’d shared exactly three personal conversations – occurring each time Heidi had gotten pregnant and needed leave. “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” he answered wryly, shoving a hand through his short hair and sinking into his chair. “What’s up?”

“You’ve got a visitor down at the main building who’s awaiting clearance. Sheryl Adams?”

His niece. Tuition time already, he thought with a sigh, and okayed her clearance. Ten minutes later Sheryl entered his office, looking every bit the college student in her opaque black tights, thigh-high black leather boots, and a short black wool jumper over a stark white blouse. Hip-length, straight blond hair bounced as she danced into the room. “Hi, Uncle Hunter!”

Standing, he suffered her jubilant hug and kiss, then extracted himself from her arms when Heidi buzzed him again.

“You’ve got another visitor at the main desk,” she said, sounding wildly curious. Hunter knew two personal visitors to the reclusive Dr. Adams in one day would have Heidi the center of attention at lunch.

Not his mother again, he thought, knowing he didn’t have the patience today. Besides, his checkbook couldn’t handle it.

“It’s a Ms. Trisha Malloy.”

Hunter stared at the telephone. Trisha. Good Lord, what had she done now that she actually had to seek him out at work? “Send her up,” he said wearily, and managed to give a weak smile to his waiting niece.

He’d written Sheryl’s tuition check, and had just barely managed to catch her as she flung herself at him in gratitude, when his office door opened.

He heard the soft exclamation of apology.

Hands full of buoyant, happy coed, Hunter jerked his head up to see Trisha turning away.

“Trisha?”

She disappeared around the corner.

Dammit. “Trisha!” Hunter plucked Sheryl’s arms from around his neck and strode to his door. “Wait.”

Slowly, from halfway down the carpeted hallway, Trisha turned back. The very short, very full skirt of her fuchsia outfit swung wildly around her trim thighs. “I can see you’re busy,” she said softly, quietly, though her hands fisted at her sides. “I’ll just talk to you another time.”

He’d never seen her so strangely subdued, so… calm and unassuming. Something was wrong, very wrong, and his heart tripped. “Now is fine, Trisha.”

But Sheryl, curse her very lovely hide, chose that moment to bounce out of his office, throw her long arms around his neck, and kiss him soundly on the cheek. “I’ll never forget this,” she vowed cheerfully with a vibrant giggle. “Never.”

Without another word, Trisha turned and left.