Lady Love Read Free

You’ll hurt yourself.”
    “Not damned likely,” he said darkly, and kept coming.
    “Mrs. Thorpe!” Merlyn screamed, and went tearing off down the hall toward that lady’s room.
    “What?” Lila appeared in her doorway, looking disheveled and drowsy. She gaped at Merlyn cowering against the wall, and then at the big, angry man almost on her.
    “Cameron!” she exclaimed, a smile appearing on her lined face. “Well, what an unexpected delight on a horrible evening like this. Come here and let me look at you, dear!
    “I see you’ve already met Merlyn Forrest,” she continued, smiling at the younger woman pressed against the wall. “Merlyn, this is my son, Cameron.”
    “Your son?” Merlyn blinked. “This is your son?” She stared at the man, who was easily twice his mother’s weight and the exact opposite of her fair coloring.
    “Who is she?” Cameron Thorpe asked coldly.
    “Now, dear…” his mother began.
    “Who?”
    “Merlyn Forrest,” Lila said, exasperated. “Don’t you remember that I was looking for someone to help me do some research on my new book?”
    He stared at Merlyn as if he couldn’t imagine that she had enough brains to be able to read.
    “How did you find her?” he asked curtly.
    “In the Yellow Pages,” Merlyn murmured, “under ‘brilliant research associates.”’
    He gave her a hard look. “Mother?” he persisted.
    Lila sighed. “A friend of yours, in fact, that Jack Thomas. He knew someone who knew someone.…”
    “Does she have credentials?” he asked with a suspicious glance at Merlyn.
    “I have a B.A. in history,” Merlyn said sweetly. “And pretending hostility toward me will not work, sir. You and I were obviously meant for each other—you just won’t admit it.” She batted her long eyelashes demurely. “It was like lightning striking, when our eyes met.…”
    He muttered something she was glad she didn’t really hear, and went back to pick up his umbrella and attaché case.
    Lila was trying not to smile. “Cameron, don’t you dare try to scare off my new assistant,” she said after a minute. “I can’t do this book alone, and I have to have Merlyn for the next month at least.”
    “A month?” He looked hunted.
    “She’ll be company for Amanda and me,” Lila said shortly. “Amanda likes her.”
    So this was the little girl’s father, Merlyn thought. Cameron the Cold Heart. He did fit the image of a businessman who was all business all the time. No wonder the little girl looked so repressed. She didn’t have a chance with a father like that. She studied Cameron Thorpe quietly and wondered how he’d look in red polka-dotted boxer shorts. She had to bite her lip hard to keep from bursting out laughing.
    “I thought children were supposed to be perceptive,” he muttered.
    Merlyn gave him the once-over and tugged her blue robe closer. “I’m so glad you like me, Mr. Thorpe,” she sighed theatrically. She grinned. “I like you, too. Dark, somber men really turn me on.”
    Once again, he looked as though he might explode. His mother, kind soul, moved quickly in front of Merlyn.
    “Now, dear,” she told Cameron gently, “it’s late and you must be tired. Why don’t you get some rest? Can you stay the entire weekend?”
    “Yes,” he said. “And if you could keep Jane Eyre here out of sight while my guests are in residence…?”
    “Guests?” Lila asked.
    “Charlotte and Delle Radner,” he said. “They’re coming up from Atlanta tomorrow.”
    Lila sighed. “Oh.” She didn’t look enthusiastic. “Of course, your friends are welcome.”
    “You’ll get used to them,” he promised her with a slight softening.
    “I suppose I’ll have to,” came the resigned reply.
    “I suppose one of them is your girlfriend,” Merlyn said, letting her full lips pout at him. “Well, I want you to know that my heart is broken, just broken. And I did love you at first sight…uh, what was your name again?”
    He started to speak, then