COUNTERPOINT
An original romantic serialFrom Alina Adams the author of "When a Man Loves a Woman" (DELL 4/00), "Annie's Wild Ride" (AVON 8/98), "Inside Figure Skating" (METROBOOKS 11/00 & 9/99), "Thieves at Heart" (AVON 12/95) and "The Fictitious Marquis" (AVON 6/95)
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CHAPTER FOUR
"What the hell," she flung the chips back in his face. "Do you have against my brother? You don't know him. You don't know who he is, or what he does, or the sorts of miracles he performs every day down at his clinic. No, you just had a whim -- God only knows why -- snapped your fingers, and condemned dozens of poor people to throwing themselves on the mercy of our healthcare system."
"Hold up, Vicky." Gabriel pushed his way through the crowd to stand beside Victoria. "I can speak for myself."
Robin's face, arranged in a perpetual smirk for the length of Victoria's tirade, hardened as if set in fast-drying cement at the intrusion of Gabriel. His hazel eyes darkened to match his ebony hair, fingers tightening about the pool que until Victoria feared he might snap it. The women standing on either side of Robin drew back, apparently accustomed to his rapid shifts in mood.
"Well, well," Robin drawled, "If it isn't St. Gabriel? Friend of huddled-masses-yearning-to-breathe-free everywhere."
"Come on." Gabriel took Victoria's arm. "Let's go."
"Not just yet." Victoria turned to Robin, hands on her hips, her thoughts barely keeping up with her words. "You're a gambling man, aren't you, Mr. Cooper?"
Her about-face surprised him. Unable to summon a sarcastic retort, Robin merely nodded.
Victoria indicated the glass standing nearest to him on the billiard table. "What are you drinking?"
Still unsure of what she was getting at, Robin, nevertheless, regained his equilibrium in time to smile that infuriating smile of his and suggestively inform Victoria, "Between the Sheets."
The fire that exploded throughout her at his utterance didn't limit itself to Victoria's cheeks. She blushed, true, but that was not the primary heat that dominated her senses. Rather, her entire body seemed to simultaneously sizzle and liquefy, a molten essence erupting deep inside her with a thousand fireflies, and a sumptuous pressure that made Victoria want to burst out of her skin.
Although she had one standing beside her, Victoria didn't need a doctor to diagnose her condition. She was a grown-up woman after all, not a teen-ager. She knew pure, pulsating, hormonal lust when she felt it. But, unlike a teen-ager, she also knew that it didn't mean anything. It was a minor inconvenience that would shortly -- courtesy of Mr. Cooper's charming personality, she was certain -- snuff itself out. Until then, Victoria's best course of action was to carry on as if nothing were happening.
And, under no circumstances, was she to allow Robin to suspect that anything was.
To that end, she looked him right in the eye, matching Robin smile for smile, challenge for challenge, and repeated, "Between the Sheets? That would be, now, let me see.... Brandy, Triple Sec, light rum, and just a touch of -- is it lemon?"
For the first time since they'd met, Robin appeared summarily impressed. He took a sip, double-checking, and smiled, "Very good, Miss Morgan. Although, I daresay, somewhat of a non-sequitur."
"You like to gamble." His obvious confusion helped Victoria regain another fraction of her self-control. "I have a proposition for you. Let's make a bet. If I name a drink you don't know the ingredients of, you agree to continue supporting Gabriel's clinic."
"And if I name a drink you don't know, what do I win?" Robin's eyes traveled lazily along the length of Victoria's body, making no secret of the prize he expected in return.
She swallowed hard. And not because Victoria found his offer repugnant. Quite the opposite, actually.
"Do you accept my terms?" Victoria asked.
"Do you accept mine?"
Yes. "No."
"In that case," Robin was clearly beginning to warm up to the game, even in spite of himself. "I propose a... devaluation... in prizes. Instead of me committing to support your brother's hobby in perpetuity, how about, if you win; not that I see it happening, I've been educated at some of the best watering holes in the world, ask my father.... If you win, I'll do as you suggested earlier and take an excursion downtown for a peek at those daily miracles you accuse me of terminating. Maybe the sight will prompt me to change my mind, you never can tell."
It was the best offer she was going to get all night, and she knew it. But there was still a minor matter of, "And if you win?"
His eyes danced. In a voice suggesting their sharing a most intimate secret, he reminded, "The Kidnapping of Persephone."
It was her turn for sarcasm. "Speaking of a non-sequitur..."
"I expect my reward to match the one Hades received when he outwitted Demeter for Persephone."
"Which was what?"
"Brush up on your Greek mythology, Miss Morgan. I refuse to be penalized by your lack of familiarity with the classics. Those are my terms, take them or leave them." And, in an instant, Robin lost interest in their contest.
Desperate to hold on to the concessions she'd already gained, Victoria threw caution to the wind, and, even without fully understanding what sort of Faustian bargain she'd entered into, blurted out, "Fine, then. I accept your terms."
The crowd around them, which had been growing bored with the seeming stalemate, sprang back to life. Murmurs suddenly filled what had once been still-air, as a succession of side-bets changed hands just out of view.
"Are you out of your mind, Vicky?" Gabriel hissed in her ear as both she and Robin moved towards the bar, agreeing that its host would be the one to judge the accuracy of each answer.
"It's okay. I know what I'm doing."
"I don't need you making deals with the devil for my sake."
"Hades," Robin stepped between Gabriel and Victoria, politely informing him, "The devil is a Christian concept. I was invoking Hades and his underworld kingdom of soulless ghouls."
Only Gabriel, with his angelic face, could get away with the subsequent query. "Soulless ghouls? Oh, well, I guess you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Mr. Cooper?"
The flip question appeared to strike a nerve. Robin's entire aspect changed, the haughty, arrogant posturing of a second earlier momentarily disappearing behind the shadow of a trounced spirit who had lived too long, and seen too much. Startled, Victoria wondered if she was the only one to notice the evolution. Everyone else was carrying on business as usual. Yet, in what must have been a split second, she'd caught a glimpse of something so tormented, something so agonized within Robin's perpetually rippling eyes, it made her heart somersault. Instinctively, she reached out to him. But, as mysteriously as he'd disappeared, Robin reconverted back, winking confidently at the well-dressed rubber-neckers who'd migrated with them to the bar, and informing the moderately taken-aback Victoria, "Just to show what a gentleman I am, I'll let you go first. Come on, Miss Morgan, give it your best shot."