A Wild Affair

'I'll see you into the flat,' Brendan decided firmly. 'You'd better lie down for a while—head injuries, however slight, can be dangerous.'

'Don't fuss, Brendan,' she said, then regretted speaking so sharply as he looked at her with silent reproach. 'Sorry,' she added quickly. 'Maybe you're right.'

'Does it hurt much now?'

'Not that much,' she said as they walked into the building. She swayed very slightly as the throb from the wound began again and Brendan's arm steadied her, drawing her closer. She leaned on him, slanting a grateful smile up at him, then saw his face change as his eyes moved from her face to that of the man confronting them.

Quincy's head swung that way, too, her breath catching sharply as she took in Joe's frowning face. She had never seen that expression in it before, it startled her. He wore a savage, hostile scowl, those dark eyes icy little chips of lightless black beneath his drawn brows.

'Where the hell have you been all morning?' he ground out between straight, unsmiling lips which only just parted to let the words through.

CHAPTER FIVE

For a beat of time, Quincy was speechless in the face of the angry question, then she, in turn, grew angry, her eyes very bright in her flushed face as she stared back at him.

'How dare you yell at me like that? Who do you think you are? I've every

right to go out if I want to, I'm not owned by anybody but myself and I'll go where I like. If you object, I'll pack my case and go home, Mr Aldonez!' The words tumbled over each other making them almost inaudible if it wasn't for the fact that she flung them at him so loudly that he couldn't help but understand them.

His features darkened even further, she heard the savage snap of his teeth as they came together. 'Don't you scream at me, Quincy!' he snarled.

'If you can scream, so can I,' she retorted.

He took a long stride, his body pulsating with the rage she saw in his face. 'Now look here…'

'No,' Brendan interrupted, stepping in front of her and facing Joe, his shoulders squared, bristling with aggression. 'You look, Mr Aldonez—if you push her around you'll have me to answer to!'

Quincy heard the sudden softness of Joe's voice and a quiver of alarm ran through her. 'Oh, will I?' said Joe, almost purring, like a crouched panther just waiting for the chance to spring on an unwary victim who has wandered innocently into its path.

'Quincy isn't under any obligation to you,' Brendan informed him. 'You don't now her.'

'Do you?' Joe asked in that soft voice, and Quincy heard the hidden pulse of danger beneath the gentle tones, her skin going cold.

Brendan hesitated, but only for a second. 'If you mean, is she my girl—yes, not that it's any business of yours.'

Quincy was shaken and drew a quick breath to deny it, but Joe did not give her time to choose her words.

'I see,' he said, the syllables dragging out of him so slowly that her teeth ached with the tension of wondering what was going on inside his head. She could not see his face, Brendan stood between them, but she shifted sideways to get a glimpse of him and found him staring at Brendan dangerously, his jaw set.

As she moved, his eyes slid sideways to touch her face, and Quincy flinched at the cold contempt she saw in his gaze.

'Why did you want me?' she faltered, hating the way he looked at her so much she felt sick.

'Carmen had set up some publicity shots,' Joe told her in a curt voice. 'I was rehearsing at the hall all morning and she thought it would be a good idea to have you there, but we couldn't track you down. Even your sister had no idea where you were.'

'She left before Brendan arrived,' Quincy mumbled. 'I hadn't expected…'

'I arrived without warning,' Brendan broke in, putting an arm protectively around her shoulders. 'It never occurred to either of us that anyone would worry.'

'Didn't it?' Joe demanded in that clipped, terse voice, somehow conveying that he did not believe Brendan.

'No!' Quincy assured him, faint pleading in her green eyes. 'Carmen said she'd ring me this afternoon. I thought I would be free all morning, and when Brendan arrived and suggested we went on a trip down the river I didn't think twice.'

'You're here to do publicity for us,' Joe said scathingly. 'We promised your father that we'd keep an eye on you—how do you think we felt when you vanished off the face of the earth, leaving no clue where you had gone?'

'I'm sorry, I hadn't looked at it like that,' she admitted.

'You should have left a message,' Joe flung at her. 'Going off alone without saying a word to anyone was the height of lunacy.'