Fit for a King Read Free Page B

reason he wanted that lovely
woman with him to think he was involved with someone else, and this was obviously no time to ask questions.
    "Well, hello,
darling," Elissa said in her best husky voice. She
tugged the covers up demurely and yawned delicately. "I fell
asleep again," she added meaningfully, and she waited for the blonde to react

Fit for a King
    27

Chapter Two

    The reaction was almost
instantaneous. "Oh!" The woman
faltered, stopping beside King as if frozen to the spot. She stared at Elissa with huge, soft eyes, clearly struggling to find words, and her
delicate skin colored, making her even more beautiful. "Ex-excuse me."
    "I didn't expect you to
still be here, Elissa," King said with a smile that was obviously forced.
    Elissa
played her part to perfection, letting her eyes droop sleepily.
"I'm sorry if I've overstayed my wel come."
    "Don't be absurd," he
replied. "There's no reason you
shouldn't stay if you like. Bess, do you mind...?" he asked the blonde. "There's a guest bathroom just down the hall."
    "I'll...I'll use that one, of course." She
looked to-
    tally flustered, Elissa noted sympathetically. "Excuse me," she
whispered, her voice almost breaking. She turned and nearly ran down the hall.
    King closed
the door and leaned back against it, his face without expression, his dark eyes looking at Elissa without really
seeming to see her. He never gave away much, but that hard face was
faintly pale under
its rugged tan.
    Elissa
climbed out of bed, oblivious to her state of undress. He wasn't looking, anyway. He
paid very little attention to her as a
rule, and if she'd wondered why in
the past, she now had a suspicion. She went to stand in front of him,
her head back, her eyes cu rious.
    "Okay,"
she said. "Why don't you tell me all about it? I'm a clam
when I need to be, and you look as if you need a friend pretty badly."
    His jaw
tightened. He looked down into her blue eyes, and she could
see his control waver, just for an instant, before he got it back. "That's Bess," he
said finally. "My brother's wife,"
he added significantly. After a
pause, he continued tonelessly, "He'll be along in an hour or so;
he's still in a business meet ing."
    She
remembered his mentioning Bobby and Bess, and she also remembered that he never
talked much about them. Now she had a sneaking hunch she knew why. Her
eyes narrowed as she took in his look of utter dejection.

28
    Diana
Palmer
    Fit for a
King
    29

"Is
one of you in hot pursuit of the other?" she conjectured, smiling
gently at his faint surprise. "Since I'm guessing, she's after you, I imagine, and that's why I was shanghaied into decorating
your bed."
    "It
isn't quite that simple," he murmured, searching her wide eyes.
    "Why
don't you try telling me about it?" she sug gested softly.
    Still
gazing intently at her, he seemed to consider that possibility, took a deep breath and then began. "They
came down month before last while Bobby was working to get a
hotel complex started. He's been deeply involved in negotiations, and now he's
final izing the subcontracting bids," he explained. He paused.
    "Go on," Elissa prompted gently.
    "Bess
has been lonely, so instead of going back to
Oklahoma
, she's been
depending on me for amuse ment." He stopped, then continued haltingly, "But a couple of nights ago, the amusement did a
disappear ing act, and things started to get serious." Again
he stopped, then rushed on. "So I started
grasping at straws and told her I was involved with you. If you
hadn't sent me that letter asking me to get the utilities on, I
might still be in hot water. But I knew you'd be in tonight, so I
made sure Bess would come over. To catch you in a compromising
situation, that is."
    "Too bad I wasn't stark naked instead, then,"
she
    said lightly,
trying to cheer him up. She gave him a wicked smile. "Just picture it:
gorgeous me in my birthday suit sprawled out on your satin sheets. That would
have really caught her eye."
    Oddly
enough, that picture made King go