by Diana Palmer
asked.
"Yes, he does. He's quite well-known in these parts. He graduated in the top ten percent of his class," she added. "He's very intelligent."
Todd, who'd never had the advantage of a college edu-cation, was touchy about it. He'd made millions and he was well-known in business
circles, but there were still times When he felt uncomfortable around more educated businessmen
"Dad's smart, too," Cherry said, as if she sensed her father's discomfort. "Even if he isn't a doctor, he's made lots
of—"
"Cherry," her father said, cutting off the rest of her sentence.
"He's made lots of friends," Cherry amended, grinning cheekily at her parent. "And he's very handsome."
Jane wouldn't have touched that line with a pole. She fin-ished her chicken and reached for her glass of milk.
"The chicken was great, Meg," she commented.
"It's nice to see everyone hungry again," Meg muttered. "I get tired of cooking for myself and Tim and Cherry."
"I guess the pain takes away your appetite sometimes, doesn't it, Jane?" Cherry asked innocently.
"Sometimes," she agreed, and couldn't look at Todd.
He tilted his coffee cup and drained it. "I'd better get back on the books."
"A couple of faxes came in for you today," Meg remarked.
"One's from someone named Julia," she added with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Who's Julia?" Cherry asked, then her eyebrows lifted "Oh. Julia!"
Her father's glance silenced her.
"I guess she's missing you, huh?" Cherry asked, grinning secretively.
"I don't doubt it," Todd agreed, thinking of the thousand and one daily headaches that Julia Emory was intercepting on his behalf while he
lazed around in Jacobsville working for Jane. He put down his napkin. "I'd better get in touch with her. I'll, uh, reverse the charges," he
assured Jane. 'I wouldn't want to impose on my position here."
Jane only nodded. So he had other women. It shouldn't have come as a surprise. He was very handsome and fit, and she knew now why any
woman would find him irresistible in bed. She flushed at her intimate memories of him and covered it by taking a large swallow of milk.
When Todd was gone, the conversation became more] spontaneous and relaxed, but the room seemed empty.
"Did you ever think about marrying Dr. Coltrain?" Cherry asked Jane when Tim left and Meg started clearing away the supper things.
"Well, yes, I did, once," Jane confessed. "He's very attractive and we have a lot in common. But I never felt, well, the sort of attraction I'd
need to feel to marry a man."
"You didn't want him in bed, in other words," Cherry said matter-of-factly.
"Cherry!"
"I don't live in a glass bottle," the young girl said. "I hear things at school and Dad's amazingly open about what I can watch on
television. But I don't want to jump into any sort of intimacy at my age," she added, sounding very mature. "It's dangerous, you know. Besides,
I have this romantic idea that it would be lovely to wait for marriage. Jane,
did you know that some boys even feel that way?" she added
with a giggle. "There's Mark, who goes to school with the,
and he's very conservative. He says he'd rather wait and only
do it with the girl he marries, so that they don't ever have to
worry about STDs."
About what?"
"Sexually transmitted diseases," she said. "Honestly,
don't you watch television?" Jane cleared her throat. "Well, obviously I haven't been watching the right programs, have I?" "I'll have
to educate you," the girl said firmly. "Didn't your parents tell you anything?"
"Sure, but since I never liked a boy enough..." She hes-itated, thinking about how it had been with Todd, and her
face colored.
"Oh, I see. Not even Dr. Coltrain?" she asked.
Jane shook her head.
"That's really sad." "I'll find someone, one of these days," Jane assured her, and looked up, right into Todd's quiet, interested eyes.
"Hi, Dad! I've been explaining sex to Jane." She shook her head as she got up. "Boy, and I thought I was backward! See you later, Jane,
I'm going to saddle up Feather!"
She ran out the door, leaving Todd alone with Jane, because
Meg was in the kitchen rattling dishes as she loaded
the dishwasher.
"Do you need a fourteen-year-old to explain sex to you?" he asked quietly. "I thought you learned all you needed to know from the."
She bit her lower lip. "Don't."
He moved closer, a sheaf of papers in one lean hand, and stood beside her chair. "Why deny us both the kind of plea-sure we shared?" he
asked. "You want the. I want you. What's wrong with it?"
She looked up into his eyes. "I want more than a physical relationship," she said.
He reached down and touched her cheek lightly. "Are you certain?" he said softly.
She grimaced and tried to look away, but he caught her chin and held her flushed face up to his eyes.
"So beautiful," he murmured. "And so naive. You want the moon, Jane. I can't give it to you. But I can give you pleasure so stark that
you bite the and cry out with it."
She put her fingers against his hard mouth. "You mustn't!" she whispered frantically, looking toward the kitchen.
He caught her wrist and pulled her gently up out of the chair and against him, so that they were touching all the way up and down. "Meg
wouldn't be embarrassed if she saw us kissing. No one would, except you." His hand tightened, steely around her fingers as he used his grip to
force her even closer. Something untamed touched his face, glittered in his eyes as he looked down at her. His mouth hovered just above her lips.
"You can deny it all you like, but when I hold out my arms, you'll walk into them. If I offer you my mouth, you'll take it. You're a puppet on
a string, baby," he whis-pered seductively, letting the word arouse explosive memories in her mind.
She meant to protest. She wanted to. It was just that his hard mouth was so close. She could feel its warmth, taste the minty scent of it on her
parted lips. Of course she wanted to deny what he was saying. What was he saying?
He bent a fraction of an inch closer. "It's all right," he whispered, moving his hips lazily against her, so that she trembled with kindling
fevers. "Take what you want," he challenged.
She was sure that she hated him. The arrogant swine... But all she wanted to do was kiss him, and it was a shame to waste the opportunity. It
was so easy to reach up to him,
to pull his hard mouth onto hers and feel its warm, slow pressure. It was so sweet to press her slender body into his and feel his swift,
unashamed arousal.
He wasn't even holding her. His free hand was in her hair, savoring its silky length while she kissed him hungrily, pas-sionately. He tasted of
coffee and he smelled of spicy cologne. He was clean and hard and warm and she loved the feel of his powerful body against hers. Her legs
began to tremble from the contact and she wondered if they were go-ing to support her for much longer.
It was a moot point. Her nearness was as potent to him as his was to her. Seconds later, he put the papers on the table and wrapped her up in
his arms, so that not a breath separated them. His mouth opened, taking hers with it, and his tongue pushed deep inside her mouth in a slow,
aching parody of what his body had done to hers that long night together.
She moaned with the onslaught of the pleasure, trembling in his arms as the kiss went on and on.
His hands slid up and down her sides until they eased between and his thumbs worked lazy circles around her taut breasts. He
remembered the tast
e of them in his mouth, the warm envelope of her body encircling him in the darkness. One hand went to her hips and
gathered her against him roughly, and she cried out at the stab of discomfort in her
hip.
The sound shocked him into lifting his head. His eyes were blank with aroused ardor, but all at once they focused on her drawn face.
"Did I hurt your back?" he asked huskily.
"A little," she whispered.
"I'm sorry." He brushed the hair away from her face. "I'm sorry, baby. I wouldn't hurt you for all the world, don't you know that?"
"You did..." she blurted.
His eyes glittered. "Yes. God, yes!" He actually shivered.
"I didn't know until I'd torn you, there..." His eyes closed and he shivered again with the memory. "I thought I might die of the pleasure,
and the shame, because you asked the to stop and I couldn't." His mouth smoothed softly over hers "You don't know what it's like, do you,
to want someone past reason, past honor? I wanted you like that. I would have killed to have you, in those few blind seconds that robbed the
of reason. I was ashamed, Jane," he breathed into her mouth, "but I was too excited to pull away. I'm sorry."
She closed her eyes, drinking in the feel of him. "It's all right. Afterward—" she hesitated, and her body clenched at the memory of
afterward "—I...I think I understood."
His mouth was hot on her eyelids, her cheeks, her chin. "I thought you were never going to stop convulsing," he whispered. "I remember
laughing with the pure joy of id knowing that I'd given you so much pleasure." "So that was why...!"
"Yes." His hands framed her face and he looked deep into her eyes. "Come to bed with the tonight. I'll give you that pleasure again,
and again. I'll make love to you until you fall asleep in my arms."
She wanted to. Her eyes told him that she wanted to. But despite the pleasure she remembered, she also remembered his easy rejection of
her when his passion was spent. He'd left her as soon as he was finished, with no tenderness, no explanations, no apologies. He wanted her
now, desperately. But when he was satisfied, it would be the same as it had been before, because he only wanted her. He didn't love her. He
was offering her an empty heart.
She closed her eyes against the terrible temptation he offered. That way lay self-destruction, no matter how much temporary relief he
gave her.
"No," she said finally. "No, Todd. It isn't enough." He scowled. She was trembling against him. Her mouth was swollen and still hungry for
his, her arms still held him.
"YOU don't mean that," he accused gently.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Yes, I do,"
said quietly. She pulled away from him, slowly, and stepped back. "You're handsome and sexy, and I love kiss-ing you. But it's a dead
end."
"You want promises," he said shortly, "Oh, no," she corrected. "Promises are just words. I want years of togetherness and children." Her face
softened as she thought of a little girl like Cherry, or perhaps a baby boy.
"Lots of children."
His face went rigid. "I have a child."
She searched his eyes. "Yes, I know. She's a wonderful girl. But I want one of my own, and a husband to go with
them."
He was seething with unsatisfied passion and anger. "Wouldn't it be a great world if we all got exactly what we
wauled?"
"It certainly would." She moved away from him, concen-trating on each breath. She held on to the back of her chair. "And maybe I never
will. But my dreams are sweet," she added, lifting her eyes. "Much sweeter than a few weeks of lust that end with you walking right out of
my life."
His face went even harder. "Lust?"
"Without love, that's all sex is."
"You little hypocrite," he accused flatly, and reached for her. He was kissing her blindly, ardently, when the door opened and a shocked
Cherry stopped dead in the doorway.
Chapter 8
1 odd lifted his head, freezing in place, while Jane gently pushed away from him, red-faced.
"Sorry," Cherry murmured, and then grinned. "I was looking for Meg. Don't let the interrupt anything."
She darted past them into the kitchen and closed the door pointedly.
"I'm sorry," Todd said curtly, pushing his hair off his forehead. "That was a stupid thing to do."
Jane didn't know what stupid thing he meant, so she didn't reply. She moved away from him and sat down, her back aching from the
unfamiliar exercise. He hesitated for a few seconds, but he couldn't think of a single defense for his uncharacteristic behavior.
"Excuse the," he said, picking up the papers from the table. "I'd better get to work."
He left her sitting there, and he didn't look back on the way out. Cherry came in a few minutes later, and grimaced when she saw that
Jane was alone.
"I didn't mean to burst in," Cherry told her. "I didn't expect... Gosh, I never saw Dad kiss anyone like that! Not even my mother, when I
was little!"
Jane flushed. "It was just a...mistake," she faltered.
"Some mistake. Wow!" She chuckled. Her whole face lit Up. "Do you like him?"
"Don't start building dreams on the and your father," Jane said somberly. "There's no future in it. He doesn't want marriage and I don't
want anything else," she added flatly.
Cherry's face fell. "Oh."
"You're still my friend, Cherry," she said with a smile. "Okay?"
Cherry's mouth curled down but after a minute she smiled back. "Okay."
Jane went up to Victoria with Copper and spent most of the day posing in various articles of SlimTogs for the photographer. He was nice,
and very helpful, and considerate of Jane's back problem. It was worse today because of Todd's ardor the night before, but Jane wasn't about to
mention that to anybody. It was only a twinge, anyway.
"That should wrap it up," Micki said a few minutes later, after she'd talked to the photographer. "Jack said that he got some great shots. We'll
make our selection for the layout and then we'll be in touch with you. There may be a couple of promotional appearances, by the way, at a
rodeo and maybe for the opening of one of our new stores. We'll let you know."
"It was fun," Jane said. "I enjoyed it. And I really do like the clothes."
"We like you," Micki said with a nice smile. "You're a good sport. Uh, Todd didn't come up with you, did he?"
She shook her head. "He's still up to his neck with projects on the ranch. My own men answer to him, now, not to
the. I'm going to have a hard time getting control back when he leaves."
"Is he leaving?"
"Not anytime soon, I don't think," Jane replied. She hated Micki's probing questions, but she couldn't afford to say so and reveal her own
feelings for the man.
"He's very attractive," Micki said, her smile wistful and a little sad. "I guess he's got plenty of girlfriends."
"I don't doubt it," Jane replied. "They even fax him let- ters," she said absently.
Micki chuckled. ' 'Well, that lets the out of the running, I suppose. You're not sweet on him yourself, are you?" she added curiously.
"I'd have to get in line," Jane said. "And I'd be a long way back."
"Just our luck, isn't it? A dreamy man like that doesn't come along every day, but there's always a woman in possession, I guess." She
shook her head. "I think I'm destined to be an old maid."
"Marriage isn't everything," Jane said. "You might become the head of your corporation."
"Anything's possible. But I have a secret, sinful hunger for dirty dishes and ironing a man's shirts and having babies. Shameful, isn't it?
&n
bsp; Don't tell anyone."
"You closet housewife, you!"
Micki chuckled. "I love what I do, and I make a lot of money. I can't complain. It's just that once in a while I don't want to live alone."
"Who does?" Jane asked. "But sometimes we don't have a choice."
"So they say. I'll be in touch soon, okay? Have a nice trip home."
"Thanks."
Jane went downstairs and phoned the hospital. Copper
drove over to pick her up. But instead of heading home, he look her to Victoria's nicest restaurant for supper.
"But I'm not dressed properly," she protested, gesturing toward her chambray blouse and matching long skirt.
"Neither am I." He was wearing a sport jacket and a knit shirt with his slacks. "They can stare if they like. Can't they?"
She laughed. "All right, men. I'd be delighted to have dinner with you, if you don't mind the casual clothes."
"I never minded."
He took her inside the swanky restaurant, where he ordered her meal—lobster and steak and salad, topped off with an ice-cream-covered
brownie.
"I'll have sweet dreams about that dessert for years," she murmured on the way home.
"So will I."
She turned her head toward him. He was single-minded when he drove. Probably he was like that when he operated, too. He specialized in
diseases of the lung, and he was a surgeon of some note. He occasionally was called in to op-rate in the big city hospitals. But in recent years,
he stayed close to home. He was mysterious in many ways. An enigma.
"Do you want children?" she asked suddenly.
He chuckled. "Sure. Are you offering?"
She flushed. "Don't be silly."
He glanced at her. "Say the word. I'm willing if you are. I like kids and I wouldn't balk at marriage. We've got more in common than a lot
of people."
"Yes, we have. But there's just one thing missing."
He smiled ruefully. "And I know what it is."
"Two out of three isn't bad."
"No," he agreed. "But I couldn't live with a woman who suffered the in bed, Jane. That would be impossible."
"I know." She reached across the seat and slid her hand into his where it rested on the gearshift. "I'm sorry. I wish I felt that way."
His fingers contracted. "You do. But with Burke, not the."
