Lacy Read Free Page B

lizard who led me in
here seems to think you're his private stock. Why?"
    That sounded like jealousy, and her heart
jumped, but she kept her features calm. "George is my friend. He'd like to
marry me."
    "You've got a husband. Does he know?"
    "No," she said carelessly. He was
getting on her nerves now. She went to the decanter and poured herself a china
cup of gin, lacing it with water. She turned back defiantly and sipped her gin,
knowing he'd recognize the smell. He did; she saw it in his disapproving stare.
She grinned at him impishly over the rim of the delicate china cup. "Why
don't you go and tell him?"
    "You should have already," he said, his
voice deep and smooth.
    "What for?" she asked innocently. "To make him jealous?"
    She could see the control he was exercising, and
it excited her. Pushing Cole had always excited her.
    "Lead him on," he dared, "and
I'll kill him."
    Now that was pure possession, and it irritated
her. He didn't want her, but he wasn't going to let anyone else have her. His
flashing dark eyes were telling her so.
    "You probably would, you wild man."
She drew back, lifting her chin to glare up at him, unafraid. "Well, let
me tell you something, Coleman Whitehall. It's a pleasant change to be admired
and sought after by someone after being ignored by you!"
    He stared at her with an odd expression. Almost
amusement. "Where's that temper been all these years?" he taunted.
"I've never seen it before."
    "Oh, I've discovered lots of bad habits
since I got away from you," she told him. "I've decided that I like
being myself. Don't you like being disagreed with? God knows, everybody at the
ranch is terrified of you!"
    "Not you, I gather," he drawled,
taking a last draw from his cigarette.
    "Never me." She sipped some more gin,
feeling reckless. "I'm doing great without you. I have a big, fancy house,
and beautiful clothes, and lots of friends!"
    He finished the cigarette and tossed it into the
burning fireplace. The orange-and-yellow flames highlighted his bronzed skin,
his sharp, well-defined features.
    "The house and clothes don't suit you, and
your friends stink," he said easily, standing erect with his hands on his
slender hips. "You're getting as wild as Katy. I don't like it."
    "Then do something about it," she
challenged. "Make me stop, big man. You can do anything... Just ask Ben;
he's your fan club."
    He smiled ruefully. "Not since you left, he
isn't. Even Taggart and Cherry stopped talking to me once you were gone."
    "Nice of you to come right after me and
take me home," she said sarcastically. "Eight months and not even a
postcard."
    "You're the one who wanted to go." His
dark eyes searched her face quietly, and something flashed in them for an
instant. "You're not happy, Lacy," he said quietly. "And that
crowd in there isn't going to make you happy."
    "What is, you?" she demanded. She felt
like crying. She took another sip of gin and turned away from him, hurting like
she never had. In the quiet, understated elegance of the enormous room, with
its faint odor of lilacs, she felt as out of place as he looked. "Go away,
Cole," she said heavily. "There was never any room for me in your
life. You wouldn't even sleep with me—until that last night." She didn't
see the expression that statement put on his face. "I decided to cut my
losses and go back to the city, where I belonged. I thought you'd be pleased.
After all, the marriage was forced on us."
    His face hardened. "You might have talked
to me before you left." He remembered how it had felt to watch her leave.
She couldn't know that his pride had been shattered by that defection, even
though it was justified. He'd done his best to drive her away, to make damned
sure he didn't lose control again as he had that one night. The memory of the
way he'd hurt her didn't sit well on his conscience.
    He might not have loved her, but he'd missed
her. The color had gone out of his world when she'd left it. He stared at her
now with an expression he was careful