Man In Control. Diana Palmer

flags on the beach warned of treacherous riptides that could drown even experienced swimmers. Which her mother and father were not. She could still remember the horror of it. Alexander had come to take care of the details, and to get her back home. Odd how many tragedies and crises he’d seen her through over the years.

      “Your mother was a sweet woman,” he recalled. “I’m sorry you lost her. And your father.”

      “He was a sweet man, too,” she recalled. It had been eight years ago, and she could remember happy times now, but it still made her sad to think of them.

      “Strange, isn’t it, that you don’t take after either of them?” he asked caustically. “No man in his right mind could call you ‘sweet.’”

      “Stop right there, Cobb,” she threatened, using his last name again. It was much more comfortable than getting personal with the nickname Margie used for him. “I could say things about you, too.”

      “What? That I’m dashing and intelligent and the answer to a maiden’s prayer?” He pursed his lips and glanced her way as he pulled into the road that led to the ranch. “Which brings up another question. Are you sleeping with that airheaded boss of yours at work yet?”

      “He is not airheaded!” she exclaimed, offended.

      “He eats tofu and quiche, he drives a red convertible of uncertain age, he plays tennis and he doesn’t know how to program a computer without crashing the system.”

      That was far too knowledgeable to have come from a dossier. Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve had him checked out!” she accused with certainty.

      He only smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

      Two

      “You can’t go around snooping into people’s private lives like that,” Jodie exclaimed heatedly. “It’s not right!”

      “I’m looking for a high-level divisional manager who works for the new drug lord in his Houston territory,” he replied calmly. “I check out everybody who might have an inkling of what’s going on.” He turned his head slightly. “I even checked you out.”

      “Me?” she exclaimed.

      He gave her a speaking look. “I should have known better. If I had a social life like yours, I’d join a convent.”

      “I can see you now, in long skirts…”

      “It was a figure of speech,” he said curtly. He pulled into the road that led up to the ranch house. “You haven’t been on a date in two years. Amazing, considering how many eligible bachelors there are in your building alone, much less the whole of Houston.” He gave her a penetrating stare. “Are you sure you aren’t still stuck on me?”

      She drew in a short breath. “Oh, sure, I am,” she muttered. “I only come down here so that I can sit and moon over you and think of ways to poison all your girlfriends.”

      He chuckled in spite of himself. “Okay. I get the idea.”

      “Who in my building do you suspect, exactly?” she persisted.

      He hesitated. His dark brows drew together in a frown as the ranch house came into view down the long, dusty road. “I can’t tell you that,” he said. “Right now it’s only a suspicion.”

      “I could help you trap him,” she volunteered. “If I get a gun, that is. I won’t help you if I have to be unarmed.”

      He chuckled again. “You shoot like you drive, Jodie.”

      She made an angry sound in her throat. “I could shoot just fine if I got enough practice. Is it my fault that my landlord doesn’t like us busting targets in my apartment building?”

      “Have Margie invite you down just to shoot. She can teach you as well as I can.”

      It was an unpleasant reminder that he wasn’t keen on being with her.

      “I don’t remember asking you to teach me anything,” she returned.

      He pulled up in front of the house. “Well, not lately, at least,” he had to agree.

      Margie heard the car drive up and came barreling out onto the porch. She was tall, like Alexander, and she had green eyes, too, but her dark hair had faint undertones of auburn. She was pretty, unlike poor Jodie, and she wore anything with flair. She designed and made her own clothes, and they were beautiful.

      She ran to Jodie and hugged her, laughing. “I’m so glad you came!”

      “I thought you were going to pick me up at the airport, Margie,” came the droll reply.

      Margie looked blank for an instant. “Oh, gosh, I was, wasn’t I? I got busy with a design and just lost all track of time. Besides, Lex had already gone to the airport to pick up Kirry, but she couldn’t get his cell phone, so she phoned me and said she was delayed until tomorrow afternoon. He was right there already, so I just phoned him and had him bring you home.”

      Kirry was Alexander’s current girlfriend. The fashion buyer had just returned home recently from a buying trip to Paris. It didn’t occur to Margie that it would have been pure torture to have to ride to the ranch with Alexander and his girlfriend. But, then, Margie didn’t think things through. And to give her credit, she didn’t realize that Jodie was still crazy about Alexander Cobb.

      “She’s coming down tomorrow to look at some of my new designs,” Margie continued, unabashed, “and, of course, for the party in her honor that we’re giving here. She leads a very busy life.”

      Jodie felt her heart crashing at her feet, and she didn’t dare show it. A weekend with Kirry Dane drooling over Alexander, and vice versa. Why hadn’t she argued harder and stayed home?

      Alexander checked his watch. “I’ve got to make a few phone calls, then I’m going to drive into town and see about that fencing I ordered.”

      “That’s what we have a foreman for,” Margie informed him.

      “Chayce went home to Georgia for the weekend. His father’s in the hospital.”

      “You didn’t tell me that!”

      “Did you need to know?” he shot right back.

      Margie shook her head, exasperated, as he just walked away without a backward glance. “I do live here, too,” she muttered, but it was too late. He’d already gone into the house.

      “I’m going to be in the way if the party’s for Kirry,” Jodie said worriedly. “Honestly, Margie, you shouldn’t have invited me. No wonder Alexander’s so angry!”

      “It’s my house, too, and I can invite who I like,” Margie replied curtly, intimating that she and Alexander had argued about Jodie’s inclusion at the party. That hurt even more. “You’re my best friend, Jodie, and I need an ego boost,” Margie continued unabashed. “Kirry is so worldly and sophisticated. She hates it here and she makes me feel insecure. But I need her help to get my designs shown at the store where she works. So, you’re my security blanket.” She linked her arm with Jodie’s. “Besides, Kirry and Lex together get on my nerves.”

      What about my nerves? Jodie was wondering. And my heart, having to see Alexander with Kirry all weekend? But she only smiled and pretended that it didn’t matter. She was Margie’s friend, and she owed her a lot. Even if it was going to mean eating her heart out watching the man she loved hang on to that beautiful woman, Kirry Dane.

      Margie stopped just before they went into the house. She looked worried. “You have gotten over that crush you had on my brother…?” she asked quickly.

      “You and your brother!” Jodie gasped. “Honestly, I’m too old for schoolgirl crushes,” she lied through her teeth, “and besides, there’s this wonderful guy at the office that I like a lot. It’s just that he’s going with someone.”

      Margie grimaced.