Because Of The Ring. Stella Bagwell

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?”

      She walked over to where he sat and made a palms-up gesture as a display of innocence. “I’m not doing anything, Hayden. I’m not here to con you in any way.”

      He looked unconvinced. “I’m a rich man,” he informed her.

      The faint frown on her face turned to a glare. “I’m not interested in what your bank accounts look like. But if you’re worried that mine are flat, I can give you the names of some financial institutions in Fort Worth that will prove otherwise.”

      Maybe he should take her up on that, Hayden thought. Yet for some reason he believed that part of her story. The woman hadn’t been brought up in poverty. She just didn’t have that sort of bearing about her.

      “Okay. You’re not after my money or my—shall we call it affections—so what’s the deal? And be honest this time.”

      Claudia studied the rough, craggy lines of his face and wondered how just the mere touch of his lips against hers had been enough to knock her feet out from under her. Men had never affected her that way. Even Tony, with his smooth looks and practiced lovemaking, had never made her swoon.

      Tony had called her frigid. She’d considered herself systematic. All that talk about passion and fire between the opposite sex had seemed like overexaggeration to her. Now, after meeting Hayden Bedford, she wasn’t quite so sure.

      “Sorry, but I have been honest with you. I came here for your help. Nothing more.”

      He raised up to the edge of the chair and stared at her through narrowed eyes. “Help?”

      Breathing deeply, she turned her back on him and stared down at the opal on her hand. She desperately wanted to rip it off and order this man out of her room. But something stronger, some intangible force, was preventing her.

      “Yes,” she answered quietly. “To help me figure out exactly why you’ve barged into my life. If I can find out why, then maybe I can get rid of you. For good!”

      “You’re making me feel so wanted,” he said dryly.

      “You don’t want to feel wanted,” she muttered. “Not by me.”

      Suddenly one of his hands was on her bare back and electric frissons rippled over her skin. Her first instinct was to move away from his touch, but she was frozen, mesmerized by him and the strange things he was doing to her.

      “I think the best thing we could do is forget about this vision thing and get to know one another a little better. Why don’t we go down to one of the cafés on the river walk and have dinner? Maybe between the two of us, we can come up with a practical solution.”

      Oh, she had a solution,