Because Of The Ring

He took her hand in his, but rather than shake it, he simply held it firmly as his gaze scanned her face.

Hysteria rose up in Claudia as heat seemed to arc from his fingers to hers. Those were the same blue eyes, she thought frantically. The same square jaw and chin, the same hollow cheeks. Seeing her vision in the flesh was incredible—and terrifying.

“I think I should be the one to apologize,” he said. “Because I can’t say that I remember meeting you.”

Hearing his voice seemed to help her pull herself together. Hoping she appeared far more normal than she felt, she said, “You haven’t.”

The marginal widening of his eyes had her quickly adding, “I mean…I’m pretty sure we’ve never met before.”

“Are you feeling up to this interview, Ms. Westfield? You look a little pale.”

In fact, Hayden was fairly certain he’d seen dead people with more color in their cheeks. But in spite of her paleness, she was an attractive woman. A little plain to suit his taste, but then, she wasn’t here to supply him with female diversion, he reminded himself.

She was dressed in a white linen sheath and her light brown hair was pulled back at her nape and fastened with a white clasp. Her eyes were a soft brown and her skin was tanned. And suddenly he had the image of biting into a warm, golden marshmallow.

“I’m…I’ll be all right,” she replied. “And I’ll try not to take up too much of your time, Mr. Bedford. Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice.”

Still holding her hand, he cupped her elbow with his free hand and led her over to a leather chair that was angled toward the front of his desk.

“There now,” he said as she sank onto the cushion. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what it is you wanted to see me about. It’s pretty obvious you’re not here to contract a roustabout crew.”

She tried to swallow, but her throat was so dry it refused to work. “No. I don’t dabble in oil or gas wells, Mr. Bedford. I’m here because—I’m looking for a man.”

Surprise flickered across his face. Then folding his arms across his chest, he shot her an amused smile. “There aren’t any available men where you come from, Ms. Westfield?”

Claudia was so rattled it took her a moment to digest his meaning. When it did finally register, her spine stiffened to a prim line. Her chin jutted forward. “Fort Worth has plenty of men. I’m looking for one certain one.”

Still amused, he said, “Hmm. I’m intrigued that your search brought you here. I wasn’t aware that I’d made any bachelor lists.”

Somehow his arrogance angered her enough to get her shocked juices going again. Color blossomed in her face and her eyes darkened. “I’m not aware of it, either, Mr. Bedford,” she said in a clipped tone. “In fact, I know nothing about your marital status. I found you because of a number. Or maybe I should say, a number on a boat.”

A puzzled frown pulled his dark brows together and Claudia realized that, as the man in her vision, this man was by no means handsome, yet there was a rough masculinity about his craggy face and sinewy body that made his appearance totally unforgettable.

“I’ve got to admit I’ve had some odd encounters with women over the years. But I’ve never had one go to this length to meet me.”

She silently groaned with impatience. “I’m not here to meet you, Mr. Bedford!”

“You’re not here to hire roustabout services and you’re not here to meet me. If that’s the case, then it looks as though you’re taking up my valuable time, Ms. Westfield.”

She bolted to her feet. “And frankly, Mr. Bedford, your assumptions are downright insulting! For your information, I’m not on the prowl for a sugar daddy!”

He shot her a wry look. “I’m not old enough to be your sugar daddy.”

Claudia’s nostrils flared as she breathed deeply and tried to clamp a hold on her rising temper. Which in itself was a new task for her. She wasn’t a woman who let herself get angry about anything. Until now.

“I don’t care how old you are, mister!” She pushed the words through gritted teeth. “The only—and let me repeat—the only reason I’m here is because your name and address matches the number on the boat registration.”

Her outburst seemed to get through to him and his eyes narrowed as he studied her with new regard. “What boat are you talking about?”

She slashed a hand through the air. “I’m not sure what kind of boat it is. Except that it has sails and I think the name written on the bow was something like Stardust or Skydust.”

“Stardust,” he informed her. “And what has my boat got to do with you? She’s not for sale.”

Claudia met his cool blue gaze and tried not to shiver from the contact. “I’m not interested in buying your boat. It just happened to be the only clue I had to start with.”

His expression suddenly wary, he stepped toward her. “Start what? Digging into my personal affairs? Are you with some insurance company? Because if you are, I’ll personally toss your little butt right out of here.”

To her horror, her hand was suddenly itching to slap his face. She, a person who wouldn’t even step on a spider, wanted to inflict bodily pain on another human being! This man was doing something to her and whatever it was had to be bad.

“I am not with any sort of insurance company. I’m a high school science teacher and I’m here because—” She sucked in a fierce breath, then heaved out the next words. “Because you’re the man I—I can’t get out of my mind!”

Chapter Two

The man had the nerve to laugh.

“Oh, honey, come on, you got some mixed signals somewhere. I never did think I was God’s gift to women. And you shouldn’t, either. In fact, the opposite sex seems to want to take me in small doses. You probably will, too.”

“I can certainly see why,” Claudia intoned, then stomped toward the door.

Suddenly he was blocking her path and she teetered back on her heels to keep from plowing into him.

“Where are you going?”

Her jaw rigid, she folded her arms across her breasts. “Goodbye, Mr. Bedford. I can’t really say it’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

His head swung back and forth in a menacing way and Claudia found her gaze sliding from his thick shoulders and wide chest to his long, muscular legs. She’d been around strong, athletic men before, but this man was different. There was something blatantly masculine about him. Something that made her think of procreation rather than recreation.

Dear heaven, it was time she got out of here, Claudia thought. The last thing she needed was to add sexual fantasies to her visions of the man.

“No,” he corrected in a voice too smooth to be nice. “You’re not going anywhere just yet. We haven’t gotten this matter straightened out.”

She arched a haughty brow at him. “There is no matter. I—I found what I was looking for. And that’s the end to it.”

Wrinkles furrowed his forehead. “You wanted to find me and now that you have, that’s it? You’re going to leave?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“Just a minute,” he muttered, then opening the door, he said to his secretary, “Hold all my calls, Lottie, and radio Vince to let him know I’ll be late getting out to the site.”

Claudia stood her ground and tried to gather herself together as she waited for him to shut the door. When he finally turned back to her, she said, “I think it’s you who are wasting my time now, Mr. Bedford. I have no intentions of discussing anything else with you! You’re arrogant and assuming and—”

His features tight, he took her by the arm and this time led her to a long leather couch positioned against one wall of the office.

“You’re the one who made an appointment to see me,” he reminded her as she sat. “And you’re the one who barged in here and started spouting nonsense.”

“‘Nonsense’!” she echoed with outrage, then jumped to her feet.

Immediately, he caught her by the shoulder and pushed her back down to the couch.

“Stay put!”

Claudia bounced right back up in his face. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m leaving! Now step out of my way!”

Ruefully he shook his head. “I didn’t want to have to do this,” he told her. “But it looks like I don’t have any other choice.”

Air whooshed from her lungs as she suddenly found herself flattened against his hard chest.

“What—”

The question was literally smothered beneath his lips. Unprepared for such an intimate onslaught, she stood paralyzed. Then her mind began to spin and she felt herself going hot and cold, then hot again.

Her hands formed two fists and she raised them to whack at his shoulders, but they never reached their destinations. Before she could fight back, he pulled his mouth away from hers and grinned down at her.

“Feel better now?”

He needed his foot stomped, but she realized she just didn’t have the strength to do it. Kissing this man had left her weak and quivering.

“I’ve never been so insulted in my life!”

“Sorry, I’m out of practice.” He lowered his mouth toward hers. “Maybe I should try again.”

Ducking away from him, Claudia collapsed onto the couch and gulped in several breaths of air. “You’ll do nothing of the sort!”

He’d been wrong a few moments ago, Hayden realized as he looked down at her. She wasn’t a plain woman. Now that he’d kissed her, every nuance of her soft features had come alive. Fire blazed in her brown eyes, heat burned brightly in her cheeks and passion had pouted her rosy lips to an enchanting curve.

It would be nice to taste her again, he thought. But he was a busy man and didn’t have time for such pleasantries. Besides, he’d not flirted in years. Not since he was a teenager. A few kisses now would lead his body straight toward the main course. Now that he thought about it, he was already straying in that direction. Why had he kissed her like that? He usually waited until he’d dated the woman! And yet, there was something about this particular woman….

“All right. Then maybe you’re in the mood for talking,” he said as he took a seat a few inches away from her.

She scooted to her left to put an even safer distance between them. “I—I don’t think it would do any good to talk now, Mr. Bedford. We’d both be wasting our time.”

He studied her for a moment as though he was weighing whether this meeting between them actually held any importance. “Perhaps you’re right. But I would like to know one thing. What did you mean when you said you couldn’t get me out of your mind? You don’t know me.”

Before he could see the bewilderment in her eyes, her gaze dropped to a spot on the hardwood floor. “I suppose I didn’t phrase that quite right. You’re not exactly ‘in my mind.’ I just see you—at odd times.”

His expression said he was completely confused and Claudia couldn’t blame him. She’d been confused for days now.

“What does this mean, you see me?”

She made a palms-up gesture with her hands. “I see you. For no reason at all. Your face comes to me out of nowhere.”

Baffled, his head swung back and forth. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you first walked into this office, you told me we’d never met.”

“That’s true. We haven’t.”

“Then how…how did you know what I looked like? You had a picture? Where did you get it?”

“I didn’t have any idea what Hayden Bedford looked like until I walked into this office! Look, Mr. Bedford, this isn’t…some crazy infatuation and I’m not stalking you. It’s nothing like that. I’ve been—well, I’ve been very worried and confused because this problem has been going on with me for two or three weeks now and frankly, I want to know why.”

“Are you—” He rubbed the heels of his palms against his thighs, then rose to his feet and glanced down at her. “Are you suggesting that you’ve been seeing me in some sort of—vision?”

She passed a shaky hand over her forehead. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you.”

He chuckled. Shook his head. Then chuckled again. “Really, Ms. Westfield. This is San Antonio, not the Twilight Zone.”

“You don’t have to tell me where I am, Mr. Bedford,” she said primly.

His blue eyes were full of suspicion as they raked her from head to toe. “How could a vision lead you here? How did you know my name? Am I supposed to believe that I talk to you, too?”

She sighed. This is exactly what she’d been dreading, she thought. Questions for which she had no answers. “No. So far you haven’t said anything to me. But I picked up on things in the background. Like your boat. And then it finally dawned on me to trace the numbers through registrations. I can tell you that I was pretty shocked when I found out there was such a boat and an actual person owned it.”

“I keep that boat docked down on the coast at Port O’Connor. You were obviously there and copied the numbers,” he accused.

Sadly, she shook her head. “I wish that were true. That would prove I might not be going crazy. But now, after seeing you—seeing that you’re the man—I really don’t know what to think.”

He muttered a curse. “This is ludicrous and if I had any sense at all I’d call the cops and have them check up on you!”

Claudia gestured toward the phone. “Go ahead. If they can explain any of this, I’d gladly welcome their help.”

Glaring at her now, he stalked over to his desk, picked up the receiver and shook it at her. “I have a friend who’s a detective on the force,” he warned.

“Good. That will be even better. He might have some ideas of how to solve this mess.”

Seeing he couldn’t frighten her into confessing, he slammed the receiver back onto the hook. “Do you realize how stupid you sound? How stupid it makes me look just to be listening to this?”

She nodded. “Yes, I realize.”

“People don’t have visions. Not normal people. And they certainly don’t have them about me!”

Unblinking, Claudia stared at him. “A month ago I would have said you were right. Now, unfortunately, I’m forced to disagree.”

He strode back to the couch and, with his thumbs riding his belt, stared down at her. “I don’t know what you’re after Ms.—”

“Claudia,” she interrupted. “You’ve already kissed me, so you might as well call me by my first name.”

He didn’t want to call her by any name. And as for kissing her, that had been a big mistake. Because in spite of her lunacy, he wanted to do it again.

“Like I started to say, Claudia, I don’t know what you’re after,” he bit out, “but you’ll not get anything from me and I mean anything.”

Rising to her feet, she met his gaze and as she did so a terrible sadness welled up in her. Yet she could understand his doubts and suspicions. She couldn’t blame him for accusing her of being dishonest. She still couldn’t quite believe any of this herself. It would be stupid to expect him to swallow such a story.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Bedford. This is the last time you’ll ever see me.”

Politely, she reached to shake his hand and felt a sense of gratitude that he didn’t object. “I apologize for taking up your time. Goodbye.”

Bewildered by this sudden turn of events, he watched her start toward the door. “What will you do now?” he asked.

Glancing back at him, she shrugged. “Go home and hope that I never see your face again.” And she wouldn’t, she told herself grimly. If she took off the opal. Claudia had not told this man about the ring. She’d understood it would’ve only made the whole thing even more far-fetched. And now it didn’t matter. She was ending her search. And the visions.

Hayden thought he would feel relief once the woman was out of his office. But now that she was gone, the room felt eerily empty, as though she’d taken the very life out of it.

Raking a hand through his hair, he sank into the comfortable chair behind his desk and reached for the telephone. Halfway there, his hand paused in midair and, with a muffled groan, he flopped back against the seat.

He’d kissed the woman! And not just a peck on the cheek. He’d really kissed her! What had he been thinking? Oh, he’d met women before that he’d been attracted to on first sight, but he’d never impulsively kissed one. In fact, he couldn’t think of one woman he’d kissed since he and Saundra had divorced.

That notion was shocking in itself and he quickly leaned up and pushed the button on the intercom connecting him to Lottie’s desk.

“Yes, Mr. Bedford.”

The fact that the woman called him Mr. Bedford was laughable. She’d been with the company for thirty-five years and during that time she’d seen Hayden born and his father die. She knew everything about the family, including births, deaths, marriages, divorces, public scandals and hidden affairs. But apart from her knowledge of the Bedford family tree, she kept the office running smoothly. No matter if they were experiencing times of joy or strife.

“How long have I been divorced?”

“Three years, sir.”

“That long?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I just realized something about myself, that’s all.”

“Are you ready to start taking your calls now?”

“No. Not yet.” He paused and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Lottie—”

“Ms. Westfield is staying on the river walk. I have her hotel and room number.”

“What makes you think I was going to ask you about her?”

There was a pause and then his secretary said, “I just had a feeling.”

“That’s a scary thought. The last time you had a ‘feeling’ crude oil bottomed out to a record low.”

“Well, I hardly think Ms. Westfield could have any effect on crude prices.”

No, but she’d already had an affect on him, Hayden thought. And he wasn’t a bit sure what to do about it.

“Cancel the rest of my calls, Lottie. I’m going out to the site to see Vince and then I’m quitting for the rest of the day.”

“What about Ms. Westfield?”

He snatched up a pen. “All right, damn it, give me the hotel and room number. I’ve got some unfinished business with her.”

“What sort of business is she in?”

“Illusions, Lottie.”

“Illusions? Did you have a few beers with your lunch, Mr. Bedford?”

“I’m stone-cold sober,” he answered. “Although right now the idea of getting drunk has a mighty big appeal.”

Inside her hotel room, Claudia snatched up the telephone directory. She was going to call the airport and get the next available flight back to Fort Worth. There was no point in staying in this town any longer. Hayden Bedford was a jerk and she’d been stupid for ever allowing Liz to dare her into making this ridiculous journey.

As for the opal, she’d get rid of it as soon as she got back home. The only thing the ring had ever brought her was a pile of misery. Never again would she allow it to lead her anywhere. Especially to a worthless man!

Claudia was on hold, waiting for the ticket clerk to make a search through scheduling when a knock sounded at the door.

With an impatient groan, she dropped the receiver onto the bed and walked across the room. At the door, she called cautiously, “Who is it?”

“Me. Hayden Bedford.”

Claudia was so stunned she grabbed the doorknob and gripped it to keep from falling over.

“What do you want?” she asked warily.

“Not to have this conversation through the door,” he said.

Her hands shaking, she unbolted the lock, then opened the panel of wood wide enough for her to see him squarely. “Our conversation was concluded back in your office, Mr. Bedford.”

“Call me Hayden. Since you’ve already kissed me, you might as well use my first name,” he said, using her earlier phrase.

“I’m sorry, but I’m on the telephone. I don’t have time to talk to you now.” Nor do I have the courage, Claudia thought. This man made her feel weak, strange and vulnerable. Just looking at him reminded her she was a woman. One who didn’t know anything about men like him or how it felt to be in the grip of a passionate love affair.

“I’ll wait,” he said, then pushed through the open door before she could stop him.

Seeing she didn’t have much choice in the matter, Claudia hurried over and snatched up the telephone. Long before she placed the receiver against her ear, she could hear the loud buzz of the dial tone. Damn it, she’d lost her connection!

Dropping the receiver back on the hook, she turned to find he’d helped himself to a seat in a stuffed armchair. As though he had every right to make himself comfortable in her room. She’d never seen anything like him!

You need to correct yourself on that, Claudia. You’ve seen him before. Too many times.

But those visions hadn’t given her a clue to what sort of man she was dealing with, she thought. A picture might speak a thousand words, but the real thing spoke volumes and she was getting the message that Hayden Bedford was a man who usually got his way, even if he had to get it by force.

“What happened? Decided you didn’t want to talk now that you had me for an audience?” he asked.

Claudia rolled her eyes. “The call had been disconnected. I’m sure the woman probably hung up when she came back on the line and found I wasn’t waiting. Now I’ll have to go through the ordeal of making another call.”

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Was it important?”

“Flight tickets back to Fort Worth!”

“Didn’t you buy a round fare to begin with?”

Like a replay in his office, her breathing was growing short again, along with her temper. Which didn’t make sense. She tried to be a kind, patient person with everyone, no matter what sex or age. And he really wasn’t being that awful.

“Yes. But I want to leave this evening. Now!”

He studied the aggravation on her face and the taut line of her slender body. She’d changed out of the white dress and into a pair of loose navy pants and short red top that exposed her arms and much of her back. The clip was gone from her hair and the honey-brown strands swished against the tops of her shoulders with each little movement of her head. This Claudia Westfield looked far different from the prim woman who’d visited his office. And far more appealing.

“Why the rush?”

Claudia wasn’t exactly sure why she felt such a desperate need to run back to Fort Worth. There wasn’t anything urgent waiting for her there. Yet the thought of home was consoling. Mainly because she knew there would be no outside chance of having to deal with this man again. Especially after she got rid of the ring.

Claudia twisted the opal around her finger. Once she’d decided to try to solve the mystery of her visions, she’d returned the ring to her hand. But at this moment she was definitely getting the urge to slip it off and keep it off. “My business here is over.”

“Meaning me?”

“I guess you could put it that way.” She forced herself to look at him. “So why did you come here to the hotel?”

“That’s a good question, Claudia. Maybe you can answer that. You say you can see things about me.”

The husky tone of his voice cloaked her name in velvet and conjured up images in Claudia’s thoughts that were distinctly wicked.

“I’m not a mind reader, Hayden. Not even yours. And I’ve never had visions before until…well, until a few weeks ago.” Disturbed by her outrageous thoughts and his probing gaze, she began to move around the room. “Furthermore, I’m not one of those people that dabbles in the psychic. Physics in the science lab, but never the supernatural.”

“I find that hard to believe for a woman who claims to have visions.”

She paused long enough to cast him a disgusted glance. “I imagine I find it even more preposterous,” she admitted. “I even had a medical checkup in hopes of finding an explanation. The doctor gave me none.”

There wasn’t the slightest chance in hell that this woman had experienced visions, Hayden thought. He didn’t believe in such things. He’d come here because he wanted to know why or how she’d pulled him into this crock. And to see her again, to prove to himself that there was nothing special about her.

“Magic, extrasensory perception, mystical powers—I’m not interested in those things. I’m a down-to-earth man, Claudia. I believe in facts. So the answer I really want from you is, why me? Of the millions of people in the world, why choose me for whatever it is you’re doing?”