Rivals Read Free Page A

time, haven’t you?”
    â€œA long time, yes.” He lowered the tumbler, his glance automatically straying to the stunning redhead across the room. She had stirred his interest from the moment she’d walked into the room with a stride that had in it the faintest hint of a swagger, with quick rhythm that synchronized and turned graceful the supple movement of her body. And her shoulders, wide and straight, had been presented squarely in a manner that flaunted her serene confidence. She was a woman all the way through—all lace and legs.
    â€œWould it be safe to guess that your on-again, off-again romance with Miss Colton is back on again?” the columnist queried slyly.
    â€œI hate to disillusion you, Jacqui, but all this on-and-off business is the product of your profession. Over the years, our relationship has never changed.”
    â€œI suppose you’re going to try to convince me that you’re just good friends.” She openly mocked the cliché.
    â€œIt doesn’t make good press, does it?”
    â€œNot if it’s true.”
    Ignoring that, Chance raised his glass and gestured toward the far side of the room. “Isn’t that Malcom Powell?”
    All the photographs he’d seen of the august lion of the retail world had depicted a somewhat stout and stern man. In person, he had a commanding presence, physically vigorous and trim despite that barrel chest.
    â€œYes, that’s Malcom,” the Van Cleeve woman confirmed. “Truthfully, I didn’t expect to see him here. Diedre told me that he’d returned from a business trip only last night.”
    â€œDiedre?” He arched her a questioning look.
    â€œHis wife.”
    â€œIs that her?” His gaze sharpened on the pair, irritation flickering through him.
    â€œNo, that’s Flame—Flame Bennett.” During the brief pause that followed, Chance could feel the columnist carefully monitoring his reaction. “Gorgeous, isn’t she?”
    â€œDefinitely.” He continued to lounge against the wall, for the moment content to enjoy his unobstructed view of the woman so aptly named Flame, conscious of the hot, smooth feeling that flowed through him.
    â€œAren’t you going to ask me about her?” The instant the faintly challenging question came out of Jacqui Van Cleeve’s mouth, Chance knew she’d give him a complete rundown on Flame Bennett. She made it her business to collect every scrap of information—whether rumor or fact—on every person remotely important. And when a person had that much information, they could never resist sharing it.
    â€œI was always told it wasn’t polite for a gentleman to ask questions about a lady,” he countered smoothly.
    Her short laugh had a harsh and grating ring to it. “I have heard you accused of many things, Chance Stuart, but being a gentleman was never one of them. Granted, you have all the manners, the polish, the clothes of one, but proper, you’re not. You’re too damned daring. Nobody’s sure what you’re going to do next and you move too fast. That’s why you make such excellent copy.”
    â€œI’ll take that as a compliment.”
    Again he felt the speculation in her study of him. “It will be interesting to see how you fare with Flame.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?” He glanced at her curiously.
    â€œBecause…she’s a woman of such contrasts.” Her attention swung away from him, centering on the subject of their discussion. “She can be as fiery as the red of her hair—or as cool as the green of her eyes—and that quickly, too. I suppose that’s part of the fatal attraction she has for men. You always see them fluttering around her like moths. She lets them get only so close and no closer.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI’m not sure, but no man seems to last with her. It isn’t even a case of off with the old and on