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| SHOWDOWN BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 1 |
Tea Delgado opened the door to the penthouse and fingering her keys roughly, proceeded to throw them haphazardly on a table. She stood motionless for a moment, biting her bottom lip which was quivering slightly. If there ever was a man who was a walking contradiction, it was Todd Manning. The bastard! She was so tired of all this "push Tea away because I can't give her what she wants" business that Todd had been pulling lately. He certainly was full of surprises these days. First the reconciliation agreement, then that first kiss which had completely unglued her, then that reckless jump into the Llantano river to get Mami's necklace, and the proposal to end all proposals with its storybook romantic quality. Now he's backpedaling like mad, retreating like a frightened rabbit and giving up on us. So now that he has me, he isn't as interested, is that it? Typical male. And I actually felt sorry for him! Well, Mr. Manning...yes, you're right back to being Mr. Manning right now...you're going to get a few surprises, too. I'm no open book that you can scan through and toss aside. You once thought of me as a challenge. You're about to find out just what kind of challenge I really am. Your life may have been a living hell, but so was mine, and I didn't get to be where I am without knowing how to fight fire with fire! She shook her head stubbornly as an affirmation of what she was thinking.
Twenty minutes later she stood in front of the mirror in Todd's bedroom and looked approvingly at the dress she had bought at a boutique earlier in the day. Knowing that Todd probably wouldn't be home for a while (if at all), gave her ample time and freedom to do what she was doing. She began applying a dark, burgundy red lipstick to her full pouting lips and pressed them together. Yes, this looks convincing. Grabbing her mascara and eyeliner from her purse, she applied a heavy, charcoal-black line under her eyes and thickened the lashes. Narrowing her eyes, she noticed how seductive and alluring the effect was. She then applied a rich, burgundy wine blush powder to her cheeks with an upward sweep of the brush across her face. Can't handle good girls, Todd? Well, Del could tell you a thing or two about my bad girl past that would curl your hair. Whenever she had felt particularly unloved or neglected, she had gone out and partied until daybreak. She had lived her life with no thought of tomorrow and had a streak of wildness in her that scared even her.
She smoothed the back of the tight-fitting, short, shimmery gold cocktail dress, her hands lingering on her hips for a second and shifted again to the side to see her profile. Not bad at all, Delgado. The lights in the room illuminated her shiny thick hair and just to see the effect, she tossed it around until it fell forward over her shoulders. Every inch of her was perfection tonight and there was an aura of raw sexuality about her.
Slipping quietly downstairs she saw the full moon glowing through the penthouse window. A full moon. I have a feeling about tonight. She went over to the CD player and looked through a stack of CDs carefully arranged by Todd in alphabetical order. My, my, he's such a stickler about his things. Her eyes fixed on the one she wanted and she put it on. It was one she had heard lately which seemed to say it all for her -- "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia. She turned the sound down low, just low enough to hear it. As she swayed some to the music, she heard a key turn in the lock. This is it, she thought. I've got to do this!
Todd strode in and tossed his keys very near to where Tea's were lying on the table. His hazel eyes surveyed the room and they immediately opened a little wider when he saw Tea. Somewhere in the pit of his stomach a small knot was forming and it began to tighten as he watched her dancing hypnotically to the strains of music floating in the air.
She seemed to glisten in the moonlight flowing through the window and every curve on her body was accentuated by the brilliant gold color of her dress. Her lips were almost a blood red and her eyes were darker and devilish-looking. He stopped in his tracks and felt the knot tightening more. He almost couldn't speak.
"You going somewhere?" he finally said and heard the sarcasm behind it. She turned as if she hadn't known he was there and smiled a smile which he would have pegged as completely sinister.
"Oh..hello Todd," she murmured with a silky quality, still moving her hips ever so slightly to the music. "Yes..as a matter of fact, I am. There's a new club opening tonight on the river, and...I thought I might go check it out."
"A club opening? What club?" he asked wondering what in the world she was talking about.
"You know, the one next to Toulouse's. It's been renovated and evidently is the talk of Llanview. I wanted to see what all the excitement is about. Besides," she rubbed her hands together, "I need to get out and circulate again, make contacts -- that kind of thing. If I'm going to get back into the law field, I have to mingle and get caught up on the latest scuttlebutt. You know the drill, Todd." She waited expectantly to see his reaction.
"Oh, I see...circulate." Todd tried to appear nonchalant, but he hastily looked her over again, taking in all the details. Then suddenly he pieced it all together. "She looks like a tramp," he thought. "She looks like she's going somewhere to get"...the knot twisted painfully this time.
"So," she said stretching out the word, "I really need to go ahead and go. They're going to have some big grand opening thing with plenty of good music and I don't want to miss it." She pursed her lips provocatively after the last line of the song and then turned the player off.
She moved like a cat past him, as he stood transfixed facing the moonlit glass.
"Like hellyou are," he spat out the words venomously and turned to glare at her.
"Excuse me?" Tea said, as she pivoted around and widened her eyes with mock surprise.
"You heard me. You're as transparent as a plate glass window, Delgado. So you're looking for a little action tonight?" he snarled and his eyes narrowed into slits.
She knew he was testing her and she just had to keep cool. Don't panic, Delgado... he doesn't really know anything yet. She laughed a throaty laugh, deep and resonant. "You're too much, Todd. It's just a club opening."
"Yeah, a club -- a club with a bar...with men hanging around...waiting for someone like you to walk in..."
"What if they are?" she purred innocently. "It's a free country...Todd!" With this statement, she shot him a look of pure spite which jolted him inwardly.
"But you're not free or don't you remember that? Oh...oh yeah...I forgot. You have a different set of rules for this marriage, don't you?" he said glowering at her but beginning to feel a sense of panic.
She didn't rise to the bait, but it was very hard not to. "Todd, don't even go there," she said lightly but firmly. "Besides, you're just edgy or something because you've had a long week. You probably haven't slept much lately, have you?" she said adeptly changing the subject.
Todd's instincts were beginning to come into play. Something was wrong with this picture. Tea, all floozied up, looking like she could be walking the streets, and acting like the cat who ate the canary when this afternoon she had savagely accused him of shutting her out of his life. "So," he mused silently. She's playing her little game. Didn't she know he was a master at this sort of game playing? Hadn't she learned her lesson that time at the bar when she had taunted him in order to get him to publicly assault her? How desperate can you get, Delgado? How pathetically simple to get him jealous so that he would at last pay some attention to her. He studied her a bit more. She appeared to be very comfortable in this new skin -- that of a scheming temptress. Something began stirring in him and he shuddered involuntarily. He was turned on by her! He knew that Tea was daring, but he hadn't seen much of this side lately. He had to remind himself that this was Tea, the woman he loved but did not feel worthy of. The way she was behaving now -- this was a woman not as familiar to him. This Tea was a vixen, fully aware of herself as a woman and wielding this knowledge as a powerful weapon.
"I can't let her win," he thought, as he tried to shake the feeling of desire for her. She would have complete power over him and he couldn't have that. He had to have something left of himself.
"Go ahead, then. Knock yourself out, Delgado...with all that clown makeup! Maybe there will be some poor schmo who will think he's getting something special."
Tea's heart stopped momentarily as she realized he was beginning to figure her little angle out, but whether or not he could read her, she knew she was really getting to him. He's such a cool customer, but I know he's upset and I'm going to use that. Don't let him get to you!
"Whatever, Todd...but I can tell you he won't be poor and it will be special!. Her words were like thick, sticky syrup -- seemingly sweet but sickening. The knot tightened to the breaking point and he wanted to double over with pain but instead he did an about-face, striding past her and grabbed her keys from the table.
"You're not going anywhere," he spoke with an alarming deadliness and
edged
his way toward the door to block her exit.
