Wildfire Read Free Page B

know how it works."
    Yes, Rae knew how it worked. She had come to Dicton because she found big-city law in a big-city firm too impersonal. She had dreamed of a small practice that would allow her to give each client the personal attention he or she deserved. But one of the drawbacks of small-town life was that everyone's business was everyone's business.
    Less than a month after she had moved here from Fort Worth, Rae had run into a chatty stranger in the drugstore and had been staggered to learn that the woman not only knew what kind of shampoo Rae used, she also knew that Rae wrote to her parents every Monday without fail.
    "I know things about you that you wouldn't believe," Tanner was saying now. "You want me to tell you what you wear to bed? A pink, candy-striped cotton nightshirt. Wholesome gear. Virtuous. But I also know that sometimes in the middle of the night, the little candy-striped nightshirt starts to feel restrictive. So you strip it off. . . and for the rest of the night there's nothing but air and freedom between your body and the sheets."
    Rae felt furious heat flood her face. This time she counted to ten before she spoke.
    "I've heard a lot of rumors about you," she said slowly, "but no one mentioned the fact that you were a Peeping Tom along with all the rest."
    "Didn't they?" He raised one dark brow. "Now that surprises me. I didn't think there was any sin, any deviant behavior, that hadn't been laid on me. As it happens, I haven't been peeking through the windows of your chaste little bedroom. Not that I wouldn't like to. Oh yes, I'll have to give that idea some thought.. . because since the first time I set eyes on you, I've been wondering about that red hair of yours."
    He paused, letting his gaze travel slowly down her body. "I've been wondering if the color runs true. You know, I can close my eyes right now and see how that peculiar shade of red would look against the smooth, creamy skin of your belly."
    Rae had to grip the arms of her chair to keep from flying at him. Tanner had gone too far this time. He was standing in her office—a place of business, for pity's sake—in broad daylight, and he was calmly talking about pubic hair. Her pubic hair!
    She wanted to tell him he had no right to imagine her naked, that he had no right to make her feel so exposed, so vulnerable. But she didn't say any of that. She didn't so much as blink an eye.
    "You mean there's actually something about me that you don't know?" she asked, leaning forward to pick up her pen. "What happened to the famous small-town grapevine?"
    This time his husky laugh held genuine amusement. "Just give me time. You never know, maybe I'll drop by Rusty's Tavern some Thursday night. I think Dr. Vaughn is usually there on Thursdays."
    Mention of the local gynecologist brought Rae's head up sharply. He wouldn't. He couldn't—
    And then she saw the look in his eyes and knew he had suckered her again.
    "Will you please—" she began.
    "Or maybe I'll just leave it to my imagination," he murmured, as though he were actually giving the matter serious thought. "We could make that the ultima Thule of our relationship. They say a little mystery keeps a friendship alive, and to tell you the truth, ours could use some help, because I know so damned much about you and your worthy little life."
    "Tanner, would you please—"
    "You were nineteen when you married the boy next door. Our hero, Johnny." He nodded toward the picture. "He was twenty-three, a brilliant student, an athlete with a room full of trophies, already in law school when you married him. He was being groomed for a career in politics like his father. The next Bobby Kennedy, they said."
    He paused, rubbing his chin with a thumb, as though weighing his next words. "But then when you'd been married for seven months, your Johnny got careless. He dove into a lake, hit an underwater rock, and broke his neck."
    The words, spoken without inflection, brought back a flash flood of