The Harder They Fall

he sounded just like the intolerant jerk she thought he was. “I mean -”

“I know what you mean.” She turned from him, entirely without the show of temper he expected, and sauntered back over to her stereo in her teal workout clothes that so nicely encased her -

The stereo blared even louder as Trisha turned it up with a flick of her wrist, her face carefully devoid of that carefree expression he’d come to expect from her.

He’d hurt her feelings. “Trisha.”

There was no way he could hear himself think, much less have a conversation over the music, which he knew she’d turned up on purpose. “Trisha -”

Smiling sweetly, she moved past him, grabbing the teddy from his hand as she went. The satiny material slid slowly through his fingers. Her thick hair brushed his arm.

He still couldn’t think, but now it wasn’t the music that echoed in his brain. Nope. It was the scent of this irritating, sexy woman floating over him. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, knowing he had to straighten this matter out. “Trisha.”

No one could hear a thing over that noise, and certainly not Ms. Malloy, who was obviously ignoring him. “Trisha, please. Could you turn that down?”

She didn’t look at him, just started singing as she scooped her shipment off the couch one item at a time, draping them over her arm.

“Trisha?”

“Sorry,” she sang out with a smile, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Can’t hear you.”

Moved by a temper he didn’t know he possessed, Hunter stalked to the door. Women, he reminded himself harshly, rarely fitted into his life, and this was proof positive. “Forget it,” he muttered. “I’ll send a contractor.”

Once in the fresh air, free of the bewitching scent of that woman, Hunter sighed gratefully. He’d nearly tossed his good intentions aside and done what his body seemed to be aching to do – kiss the living daylights out of her. But he’d made it out safe, without making a fool of himself, close as it had been. After all, his self-control rivaled the best of the best.

So why then, he wondered a bit desperately as he drove to his lab, couldn’t he get the sight of Trisha Malloy, his new and irritating tenant with the soft smile and wild ways, out of his head?

Hunter sent a contractor and a cleaning crew to his new duplex, and then had dreams about the place every night for a week. Maybe nightmares was a better word, for the place seemed to obsess him. Or rather, the tenant in it did. What was it about the woman who dressed so outrageously? Was it her huge, sweet eyes and generous, smiling mouth, which seemed to clash with the image she projected?

Maybe it was even baser than that, nothing more than her husky voice and incredibly lush body.

Whatever it was, he had to admit, he was fascinated in a way he hadn’t been in a long time.

He dropped his elbows to his desk and rubbed his temples.

“Darling, you are going to sell it, aren’t you?”

He glanced up and mentally groaned at the sight of his mother. “How did you get past security?”

“Our World, of course.” Gloria Ann Whitfield Adams smiled and patted her sleek, red bob. She had red lips, red nails, and wore a hot red dress with four-inch heels in fire-engine red to match. “The entire front desk downstairs claims never to have missed an episode. I signed their uniforms.”

Hunter had a clearance of the highest level, and security scrutinized him every morning. His mother just waltzed right in. “Good thing the Cold War is over.”

“Don’t be angry, darling. A television star always attracts attention.”

His mother, a diva of daytime for nearly thirty years, the same woman who had made and lost more fortunes than Hunter could count, sent him an innocent smile. He sighed deeply at that smile, knowing he was in for it. “I’m really busy today.”

“Nonsense,” she declared. “You can never be too busy for your mother.” Casually, she ran her fingers over his latest flight experiment, a one-eighth-scale steel model of the telescope he’d take with him on his next space- shuttle mission – the telescope that would allow him to study the strange and unusual gathering of air molecules one hundred miles into Mars’s atmosphere. Under her questing and not too gentle fingers, the delicate eyepiece gave slightly.

For peace of mind, he scooted the model back. He could ask her not to touch, could tell her that this latest multibillion-dollar project just might make it possible for mankind eventually to take a trip to Mars, but he didn’t bother.

It had no place in her whirlwind world, therefore, she couldn’t care less.

“So,” she said casually, which put his guard up instantly, since nothing was ever casual with Gloria, “when do you sell?”

“Sell what?”

She sighed the sigh of a martyr dealing with a half-wit. “That monstrosity that Aunt Eloise left you. It’s worth a fortune.”

“Is it?”

“You know that it is. It’s in a high-dollar district on nearly an acre of land.” Perfectly made-up green eyes batted at him.

“Big loss again this weekend in Vegas, huh?”

Her lips tightened imperceptibly. “Why do you assume it was me? It could have been your father, you know. The way he haunts Paris as if just being there were going to give him that famous reputation he’s always chasing. It’s humiliating, if you ask me. Everyone knows artists don’t become well-known until they’re dead. And he’s far too stubborn to die.”

This conversation was definitely not a new one. His parents, married twenty years, divorced ten years, and now living together, couldn’t seem to decide if they loved or hated each other. It never failed to confuse him. “Mother -”

“If you sold that place, it would be only fair for you to divide the profit. Eloise was my favorite aunt, you know.”

He laughed. His mother and Eloise had barely tolerated each other. “Now I know you lost last weekend. How much?”

“It’s not funny.” She sank into the nearest chair, tossed her head back dramatically, and covered her eyes with her hands. “I came to throw myself on your mercy and you’re laughing at me.”

“How much do you need?” he asked more gently, sighing as he glanced at his watch. Five minutes until his staff meeting, and if he didn’t get rid of her before then, he would hear about it for the rest of the week. He’d never understand why his personal life riveted his staff members so.

His mother smiled at him, her eyes shining with warmth and affection. “You’re so good to me, Hunter. You always have been.”

He got out his checkbook.

“What are you going to do with the place?”

“Maybe I’ll live in it.”

His mother laughed. “You? In a house like that?”

He stilled, though he knew she didn’t mean anything hurtful by the comment. “Would that be so ridiculous, me wanting and having a home?”

She laughed again and patted his arm. “We Adamses weren’t meant to be tied down by such mundane chores as taking care of a house.”

He knew that philosophy well, he’d grown up on it. Still, something deep within him yearned for things to be different.

“Besides,” his mother continued with raised eyebrows, “if you were meant to have a place like that, neither Sally nor Darlene would have left you standing at the altar.”

“Nice, Mother.”

“Look, darling, we all know you’re not cut out for that kind of life. Mowing lawns, chasing children… watching football.”

She had no idea what kind of life he was cut out for, she’d never known, but he didn’t feel like reminding her of that. Especially when, as he handed her a check, his secretary popped her head into his office.

“Everyone’s here, Dr. Adams – oh, hello, Mrs. Adams.” Heidi, his usually reserved secretary, stopped in her