From then on, Jared avoided Lauren completely. If they should chance to meet each other, he inquired politely about her well-being. That was all. He never came to her room. She never went to his. It was as if the intimacies that had been established between them existed only in her vivid imaginings. His indifference was as hard for her to accept as the reason for it.
Olivia sparkled radiantly during these weeks. Her smooth cheeks were flushed and her eyes glittered with excitement. She looked far younger than her years. The tight lines on her face relaxed. She was in her element.
Carson was at the house constantly. He was extremely nervous.
Lauren found the presence of the Vandivers the hardest cross to bear. Three or more times a week, they had dinner with the Locketts and Carson. For Lauren, the meals were an ordeal. Jared sat picking at his food, drinking too much, snarling if Kurt so much as spoke to her, answering anyone brave enough to speak to him in monosyllables.
Kurt, as if sensing Jared’s animosity, provoked it at every opportunity. He was unctuously courteous to Lauren. Each time his hand closed around her elbow to lead her into another room or seat her in a chair, it took all her control to keep from snatching her arm away. She worried, too, that Jared might make good his threat to kill the man one day. Nor had Kurt forgotten Jared’s pistol being pointed into his face.
For all his bravado, Lauren knew that Kurt was afraid of Jared. Her husband’s malevolent looks were too blackly threatening to be taken lightly.
One evening, Jared was called away for one of his “secret meetings,” as Lauren te
rmed them to herself. Olivia had just suggested that she and her guests take their coffee in the parlor. Lauren watched forlornly as Jared went out the front door without so much as a nod in her direction. Instead of following the others, she excused herself and went into the library. She loved that room of the house and often sought refuge there, for no one else used it much.
She had been reading in one of the overstuffed easy chairs for about twenty minutes when she heard the door open and close quietly. She turned to see Kurt standing just inside the room. His thick, bulky body was repugnant to her, as was the insinuating expression on his ruddy face.
“Lauren, I missed your piano playing this evening. You deprive us of your company. Why? Are my father and I so offensive?”
She knew he was deliberately baiting her and she refused to rise to it.
“Of course not, Mr. Vandiver. I was overly tired tonight and knew that I would not be very good company.”
“I’m sorry you are unwell.” He approached her and took the chair closest to hers, his knees inches from her own. She pulled back quickly and the action wasn’t wasted on Kurt. He was not at all perturbed. Rather, he seemed to enjoy her uneasiness. Again she felt that there were undercurrents of cruelty in this man.
“Your husband shouldn’t neglect you this way. You’re far too tempting to be left alone for long.”
“Jared will be home shortly,” she said hurriedly, furious with herself for showing him her nervousness.
He laughed. “I happen to know that he’ll be gone most of the night, Lauren.” He fixed her with a sinister stare that caused her to jump from her chair.
“If you’ll excuse me, Mr. Vandiver, I’ll—”
She all but ran past him, but he reached out and grabbed her arm, spinning her around and pulling her against him.
“You’re not being very friendly, Lauren, with your husband’s business partner. Haven’t you learned anything from your mother-in-law? She has always been nice to Carson, Ben’s partner.”
He laughed and it was an ugly sound. By now, Lauren had figured out for herself the relationship between Carson and Olivia. It would have taken a fool not to see it. Kurt’s snide comment maligned Ben and she wanted to slap his face in Ben’s defense. But he held her arms painfully just above her elbows.
“Of course, Ben had Maria Mendez. It’s a shame what happened to her, isn’t it?” he asked in a lilting voice that suggested he didn’t think it was a shame at all.
Lauren’s struggles ceased abruptly as she stared open-mouthed into his cold, blue eyes. “Wh-what do you know about Maria? How did you know—”
“I make it my business to know everything about the Locketts. Did you learn anything from Maria’s unfortunate demise? Hmm?” he went on smoothly. “See what happens to whores who sell themselves cheaply to the first bidder?”
“Let me go,” she grated, and renewed her efforts to escape his grasp.
“Be nice to me, Mrs. Lockett, and I’ll take care of you. You won’t end up like that Mexican slut.”
His thick lips were inches from hers and she was near screaming when Parker’s voice thundered down the hallway. “Kurt! Let’s go. I’m tired and need to get to bed early.”
Kurt cursed under his breath and the hands on Lauren’s arms increased their pain-inducing pressure. “I promise you, Lauren, there will be a time when I won’t be interrupted by your cowboy husband or anyone else. I won’t be disappointed again.”
“Kurt!”
“Coming,” Kurt called back. Then, lowering his voice again, he whispered near her face, “You won’t be disappointed, either, because you’ve never seen one as big as mine. It’s going to rip into you like a battering ram. And when it’s finished, you’ll be begging for more.” To emphasize his vulgar promise, he ground his hips against her middle.
“Kurt!” the voice down the hallway boomed out.