Giant of Mesabi

"No one answered the door. I heard the radio playing and came around to investigate."

The direction of his hooded gaze made Alanna suddenly aware of the bikini strings hanging freely at her sides, and of how much the loosened top exposed of the full curves of her breasts. The book was discarded as she quickly gathered the strings and tied them around her neck.

Swinging her feet to the sun-warmed concrete of the patio, she stood up. The brief swimsuit made her feel too naked, but her beach jacket was lying on the chair Rolt was standing beside.

"Would you please leave? I have no wish to see you," she said with the greatest difficulty in sounding composed and controlled.

Rolt ignored the taut request. "I noticed your parents' car is gone. Your housekeeper is off for the day, too, isn't she?" He reached down and picked up her. beach jacket, holding it in his hand. His gaze raked her soft curves.

Alanna's skin burned. A slow warmth began to rise in her neck. She wanted the jacket desperately, to conceal her figure from his insolent blue eyes, but not for anything would she ask him to give it to her.

"Go away, Rolt." She tossed her head back in proud defiance.

"And leave you here alone to entertain yourself? I couldn't do that," he mocked.

"If you don't leave, I'll call the police," Alanna threatened.

"Will you?" he returned smoothly, and she realized that to get to the house and the telephone, she would have to pass him. It didn't take much intuition to know he wouldn't let her by to fulfill that threat.

"So help me, if you don't leave," she sputtered angrily, "I'll scream!"

"Go ahead." His gaze centered on the moistness of her lips. "I would enjoy silencing your cries."

Alanna inhaled sharply and about-faced, trembling with rage. How she would love to defy him and scream her head off, but the thought of his hard mouth smothering her lips was a strong deterrent.

"Why do you stay when you know how much I despise you?" she demanded in a strangled voice.

"I find you attractive and desirable," Rolt stated.

"Even though I'm going with your brother? You don't feel guilty about that at all, do you?"

"I've decided that I don't want you for a future sister-in-law. I want you for myself."

"But I don't want you!" Alanna cried in irritation. Suddenly she was still as a thought occurred to her. She tipped her head to one side and gazed at him. "Or is that it? You know I don't like you and you find that a challenge, don't you?"

The indigo shade of his eyes deepened, concealing his thoughts in dark, unreadable pools. "Perhaps." His aloof voice made it neither a yes or a no.

"That's it, isn't it?" She felt certain she was right. "I'm a challenge to your over-inflated ego. Because I prefer your brother to a cold fish like you."

"Cold?" An eyebrow arched in arrogant mockery.

"Yes, cold," Alanna repeated forcefully. "Cold and insensitive. You have no feelings, no compassion for anyone but yourself. Not even your brother."

His mouth thinned. "Then how do you explain the way I feel toward you?"

"You're the fox and I'm the grapes just out of reach. Emotions don't enter into it, otherwise you wouldn't be here when you know I don't like you at all."

"Maybe I want to change your mind," Rolt suggested.

"You'll never do that! Alanna said angrily.

"You aren't meant for my brother. You're mine." There was a gleam of fierce possession in his eyes. "He would never make you happy."

"And you would, I suppose," she jeered.

"I would make you very happy," he stated with complete certainty.

Alanna turned her head away, seething at his unbelievable conceit. A thousand angry words ran through her mind, spiteful phrases of how contemptible she found his arrogance. All of them churned, inside waiting to be hurled at him in a torrent of temper. Yet the scathing words would not deal the crippling blow that she longed for. There was another way, however, that she might accomplish it.