Friends and Lovers Read Free

tell me what it is?”
    “You, least of all, my dear,” he said curtly. He reached out a careless hand and touched a wispy strand of reddish gold hair that had escaped her high coiffure. “Why do you twist your hair up like that? I hate it.”
    “I’m not a gypsy,” she reminded him. “Long hair goes with bare feet, and our hostess would be shocked.”
    “Shock her,” he murmured, and the mustache curled for the first time that night. “I dare you.”
    “The last time you dared me to do anything, I jumped in the river fully clothed and astounded a carload of tourists,” she reminded him. She laughed softly. “Besides,” she added with a sigh, touching her temple, “I don’t feel like doing shocking things tonight. My head hurts; I’m so tired I can hardly stand, and all I want is to go home and go to sleep.”
    “Then why don’t you?” he asked.
    “Walk out on my own party when I’ve been here for less than an hour?” she asked. “Now wouldn’t that be polite, and after Elise has gone to so much trouble, too.”
    “To hell with diplomacy,” he murmured curtly. His eyes searched her wan face. “I’ll drive you home.”
    “And leave your conquest smoldering?” she asked with a pointed glance toward Melody, who was openly glaring at both of them while a man twenty years John’s junior was trying to get her attention. “No thanks. I’ll get Donald to take me.”
    It was the wrong thing to say—she saw that at once. His eyes went from silver to slate in seconds. “Like sweet hell you will,” he growled.
    Suddenly he bent and swung her easily up into his hard arms, a move so unexpected that she gasped.
    “Close your eyes and moan,” he said curtly. His tone was so commanding that she forgot her independence for once and did as he told her. She felt his big arms around her, smelled the soap and cologne that clung to him, felt the warmth and strength of his magnificent body and wondered at the tiny little tremor that worked its way down to her toes.
    “Why, John, what’s wrong with Madeline!” she heard Elise exclaim.
    “Overwork,” he replied flatly, barely breaking stride. “I’m going to drive her home. I’ll send Josito over in the morning to get her car. Thanks, Elise, enjoyed it. Good night.”
    “Uh, good night,” came the stammered reply. “I’ll call her tomorrow and check on her!”
    John went straight out the door and Madeline heard him murmur something as someone opened and closed it for him. Then they were outside in the cool night air, and she was grateful for the warmth of his arms in the spring chill. Her wrap was back in the house, but fortunately she’d kept her dangling little purse on her arm.
    “You can open your eyes now,” John murmured, a soft, teasing note in his voice.
    She did, staring up at him. “You’re terribly strong.” The words slipped out involuntarily and embarrassed her.
    He chuckled, an increasingly rare sound these days. “I’m not over the hill, honey,” he reminded her, “and nobody could call me a desk executive.”
    That was the truth. He still worked around the ranch to keep fit, and he could outlast most of his cowboys.
    She shifted her arms around his neck, feeling him stiffen as her breast brushed closer. “That was a novel idea you had,” she said with a smile. “Nobody could say anything about a woman fainting….” The smile vanished and she gaped up at him. “Oh, my God!”
    “What’s the matter?”
    “Everyone will think I’m pregnant!” she groaned.

Chapter Two
    H is shadowy eyes swept down her slender body as he paused by his black Ferrari and opened the door, propping her on a lifted thigh before lowering her inside.
    “So?” he asked nonchalantly. “Writers are supposed to be unconventional.”
    She glared at him as he went around the front of the sports car and got in beside her. “Who do I spend most of my spare time with?” she asked archly. “They’ll think it’s yours!”
    He laughed softly as he