Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [61]
The hell she was. When it came to her daughter she was a panther, and she’d rip his throat out before anyone hurt her.
“I don’t think I like that smile,” he said. “It looks far too evil to me. What were you thinking?”
“What I’d do to you if you did anything to hurt my daughter.”
To her surprise he grinned. “Good to know. You’re not going to believe this, but comparatively speaking, I’m quite harmless.”
“Compared to whom?”
“Compared to the Northwest Strangler.” There was no more levity in his deep voice. “Having second thoughts about going on a little trip?”
Not with David hovering, she thought. “No.”
“You’re pretty fucking stupid for such a smart woman,” he said in a low voice.
“Caleb, your language!” David had somehow managed to pick up on the forbidden word. “There are children present.”
Rachel glanced over at Sophie, at the mischief in her eyes, and she knew it was a testament to Sophie’s self-restraint that she didn’t tell David to leave Caleb the fuck alone. She simply grinned.
“Christ, David, are you still living in Victorian times?” Caleb drawled. “I think Sophie’s heard that word before. Probably used it a time or two.”
“Not my darling Sophie,” Rachel protested, in mock horror. “She’s had a rarified upbringing.”
“She will from now on,” David said firmly.
Sophie made a comical face of dismay, so swift that neither David nor Stephen Henry noticed. “Absolutely,” she said staunchly.
“I’m thinking maybe we should have coffee,” David said. “Decaf for me, darling. The Sumatran roast, I think. Caleb, why don’t you go help her?”
For a moment Rachel froze, about to protest, when Caleb kicked her in the leg. “We’d be happy to. Just give a shout if you need anything,” he said as he rose, and the back of the chair shielded the sight of him hauling her up, too. “Won’t take more than a minute.”
She glanced back at Sophie as Caleb was shooing her away, but her daughter simply nodded, and she followed her obnoxious brother-in-law into the kitchen.
He waited until they were out of hearing range. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he said. “Are you really going to tell them you don’t trust them to be alone with Sophie?”
“I do,” she protested unconvincingly. “I just wanted to keep an eye on her. She’s had a lot of things going on in her life in the last few months, and I don’t like to leave her…”
“Sometimes you have to. I can understand why you don’t want her around me, but you don’t really have an excuse not to leave her alone with David and my father. Or do you?”
“The situations are different.”
“I know they are. But do you have any reason not to trust my father or David? Any concrete reason? If you do you need to tell me,” he said.
“Of course not,” she protested. “You’re making a fuss over nothing. I’m just a little rattled, which is perfectly normal given what’s just happened in this town.”
“Given what happened in San Francisco.”
“Sophie trusts you too much,” she said in a cranky voice.
“And you don’t trust me enough. Let’s stop fighting and get this coffee made. Otherwise David’s paranoid enough to think we’re having passionate sex on that kitchen table.”
She couldn’t help it—her eyes immediately went to the sturdy table. She knew her body well enough to recognize her reaction, but she ignored it. “He’s the one who sent you out here with me. Why would he do that if he doesn’t trust you?”
“Now that’s a very interesting question.”
She reached for the coffee beans, then turned. “Would you do me a favor?”
“You’re asking me for a favor?” He was startled. “I thought you considered me the spawn of Satan.”
“You’re the spawn of Stephen Henry, so you’re not even close.”
“Actually I think spawn are biological off-spring, so I’m not sure…”
“I’m not going to argue semantics with you,” she said. “Will you do me a favor or won’t you?”
“Yes.”
“That simple? No questions asked?”
“No questions asked. Unless you’re going to ask me to leave town.”
She sighed. “I figure that’s a lost cause. No, I want you to go