Man of the Hour Read Free

eyes got worse. “Jealous, Meg?” he taunted.
    “Of you? God forbid,” she said as casually as she could, and with a forced smile. “Of course I do remember vividly the wonderful things you can do with your hands and those hard lips, darling, but I’m quite urbane these days and less easily impressed.”
    “Careful,” he warned softly. “You may be more vulnerable than you realize.”
    She backed down. “Anyway,” she muttered, “why don’t you just take Jane Thingamabob out for a steak and warm her back up again?”
    “Jane Dray is my mother’s maiden aunt,” he said after a minute, watching her reaction with amusement. “You might remember her from the last company picnic?”
    Meg did, with horror. The old dowager was a people-eater of the first order, who probably still wore corsets and cursed modern transportation. “Oh, dear,” she began.
    “She is now horrified that her favorite great-nephew is sleeping with little Meggie Shannon, who used to be such a sweet, innocent child.”
    “Oh, my God,” Meg groaned, leaning against the wall.
    “Yes. And she’ll more than likely rush to tell your great-aunt Henrietta, who will feel obliged to write to my mother in West Palm Beach and tell her the scandalous news that you are now a scarlet woman. And my mother, who always has preferred you to me, will naturally assume that I seduced you, not the reverse.”
    “Damn!” she moaned. “This is all your fault!”
    He folded his arms over his broad chest. “You brought it on yourself. Don’t blame me. I’m sure my mother will be utterly shocked at your behavior, nevertheless, especially since she’s taken great pains to try to make up for the loss of your own mother years ago.”
    “I’ll kill myself!” she said dramatically.
    “Could you fix supper first?” David asked, sticking his head around the kitchen door. “I’m starved. So is Steve.”
    “Then why don’t the two of you go out to a restaurant?” she asked, still reeling from her horrid mistake.
    “Heartless woman.” David sighed. “And I was so looking forward to the potatoes and roast I can smell cooking on the stove.”
    He managed to look pitiful and thin, all at the same time. She glared at him. “Well, I suppose I can manage supper. As if you need feeding up! Look at you!”
    “I’m a walking monument of your culinary skills,” David argued. “If I could cook, I’d look healthy between your vacations.”
    “It isn’t exactly a vacation,” Meg murmured worriedly. “The ballet company I work for is between engagements, and when there’s no money to pay the light bill, we can’t keep the theater open. Our manager is looking for more financing even now.”
    “He’ll find it,” David consoled her. “It’s an established ballet company, and he’s a good finance man. Stop brooding.”
    “Okay,” she said.
    “Do we have time to shower and change?” David asked.
    “Sure,” she told him. “I need to do that myself. I’ve been working out all afternoon.”
    “You push yourself too hard,” Steve remarked coolly. “Is it really worth it?”
    “Of course!” she said. She smiled outrageously. “Don’t you know that ballerinas are the ideal ornament for rich gentlemen?” she added, lying through her teeth. “I actually had a patron offer to keep me.” She didn’t add that the man had adoption, not seduction, in mind, and that he was the caretaker at her apartment house.
    Incredibly Steve’s eyes began to glitter. “What did you tell him?”
    “That I pay my own way, of course.” She laughed. She held on to the railing of the long staircase and leaned forward. “Tell you what, Steve. If you play your cards right, when I get to the top of the ladder and start earning what I’m really worth, I’ll keep you .”
    He tried not to smile, but telltale lines rippled around his firm, sculptured mouth.
    “You’re impossible.” David chuckled.
    “I make your taciturn friend smile, though,” she added, watching