Dare To Love. Eileen Nauman

      1

      TEARS STUNG her eyes. Kai blinked them back and compressed her full lips to halt the threatening deluge.

      “What’s the matter, Kai? Can’t you take a little good-natured ribbing?” her half brother drawled. He leaned against the door and watched her through hooded eyes. “Are we too good for you? You’ve been on Christmas leave exactly one day, and you’re already trying to escape.”

      She walked out on the red brick patio, which was enclosed by a huge wrought-iron fence that guarded the multimillion-dollar house. True to form, Frank was beginning to needle her unmercifully.

      “I know you find jogging a boring, plebeian pastime, Frank, but I enjoy it. And I’m not running away from anything,” she muttered, crouching to tighten one shoelace that looked suspiciously loose. Her green eyes glittered with hurt as she avoided Frank’s amused gaze. Why did it always stun her that he enjoyed torturing her with his carefully veiled barbs that appeared on the surface to be sibling teasing? Or reminding her that she was the major heir to her father’s massive oil wealth? Because, her mind railed, Frank and his two sisters, Susan and Audra, wanted it all. Well, money was only a means to an end, not a god as they worshipped it. She longed for the days before her father had wildcatted his way to this incredible wealth. Since then, money had been a constant reminder of interfamily greed and jealousy, which festered around her whenever she came home.

      “Most rich women wouldn’t dream of working up a sweat.” Frank grinned. “At least you and Susan have jogging in common. She does it to keep svelte, and you do it to get away from our wonderful family atmosphere. Or do you jog just to show everyone that you’re one of ‘them’ and not one of us? A hardworking, white-collar type who picks up a paycheck every two weeks. Prejudice in reverse. God, Kai, I’m glad you come home for Christmas every year. You break up the monotony of my existence.”

      She wanted to be as insensitive and cruel as Frank. He was three years younger than her own twenty-nine, and he had the emotional maturity of a three-year-old. Still, Kai was grateful to Susan for allowing her to borrow one of her jogging outfits. It was one of the few civil gestures she had bestowed on her half sister. Kai had disdained the designer suits Susan now wore in favor of a very old, worn pair of gray sweat pants and teal blue top.

      It was raining. Normally Susan would have joined her for her daily three-mile trek through Royal Oaks. But not today. No, Susan hated getting wet. So Kai would take her normal route. She slowly rosé and slipped a red sweatband around her forehead. Turning, she looked out over the Royal Oaks section of Houston. It had become a meeting ground, where the old rich and the new rich rubbed elbows and lived. A mist was beginning to fall from the gray sky. Grimly she swung her attention back to Frank.

      “If it wasn’t for seeing my dad, I wouldn’t bother coming down here to be the entertainment for you, Frank.” He was the least tolerable of her father’s second family. Susan was a snob. And Audra had some face-saving humanity that came to the surface in moments of weakness. Kai smiled to herself. Well, at least her father had found a sliver of happiness the second time around with Vera. And that was what counted. So Kai gritted her teeth to endure Vera’s three very spoiled children from her first marriage.

      Frank’s laugh was low and taunting. “Ah, but loyal, responsible Kai has to come. You’re like that watch Paul gave you last night, Kai—predictable, stable and forever reliable.” He gazed up at the leaden sky, and an amused look lingered on his long face. “Didn’t you know the rich melt when they get rained on? Susan thinks you’re crazy.”

      Kai quelled her tormented emotions. “Are you implying that we white- and blue-collar workers don’t care if we get wet?”

      Frank studied the carefully manicured fingers on his soft hands. “You hit the nail on the head. Sweat or rain. What’s the difference? Both make us look disheveled.”

      “Speak for yourself,” she growled. “I like good, honest sweat. I like earning a living, too.”

      “You aren’t getting rich on that nursing paycheck you bring in twice a month.”

      Kai swallowed a torrent of comments that would be appropriate for Frank’s needling, but that she felt were beneath her. “I consider myself rich in other ways, Frank. Ways that money could never buy. Besides, I don’t think you really care what happens to me.”

      He shrugged, giving her an appreciative look. Kai was tall, well-proportioned with an inbred grace that reminded him of a ballerina. She looked positively grotesque in that set of baggy gray sweat pants and bulky shirt. Only her richly colored auburn hair, which had been captured and tamed into a ponytail, gave any contrast to the drab outfit. She looked a bit like Susan in that moment, although his sister was decidedly more beautiful.

      Frank brightened as he perused Kai’s face. There were her glorious green eyes flecked with gold. And her mouth. Oh, yes, her mouth. Why hadn’t she ever married? Grudgingly he admitted she was a stunning-looking woman. Although not as pretty as his sleekly bred sisters, Kai had an unusual face that complemented her flawed attractiveness in a unique and arresting way. He would have to pursue the topic, at a later date, of why she wasn’t yet married. During breakfast, perhaps, when everyone would be present…. She always squirmed when he put her under his sights at family gatherings.

      “Well, don’t be long. You know father wants you back here in time for the official ‘Welcome Home, Kai, Breakfast’ at ten.”

      Kai pushed her wispy bangs out of her eyes, glancing at the watch on her wrist. It was eight-thirty. She opened the gate and then locked it with a key that she deposited in her pants’ pocket. “Three miles takes twenty-five minutes, Frank. I’ll be back in plenty of time.”

      He grinned and watched her from between the wrought-iron grillwork. “Wouldn’t want you to miss your homecoming, darling.”

      Kai refused to expend a glare