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"All right, you've got it. I'll hold your job for the time being. Now get out of here. You know
weddings give me indigestion," he added for good measure and then spoiled the whole thing by
smiling.
David shook his hand with almost pathetic eagerness. "Thank you, sir!"
"My pleasure. See you in two weeks."
"Yes, sir!" David grinned, at Mari, to whom he hadn't even been introduced, and beat a path out the
door before he could be called back.
He knew his boss pretty well.
"That tears it," Ward grumbled. "What in hell will I do about the mail?"
She stared at him, stunned by his lack of feeling.
"He just got married."
"So what?" he demanded. "Surely the only time he really needs to be with her is after dark."
"You male chauvinist!"
"What are you so keyed up about, honey?" he taunted irritably. "Frustrated because I couldn't finish
what I started before he walked in on us?"
What good would it do to argue? She asked herself as she noisily loaded up the dirty plates and
utensils and took them out to the kitchen without a single word.
He followed her a few minutes later, looking half out of humor and a little guilty.
Standing in the doorway he filled it with his big, tall frame. His hair looked rakish, falling over his
broad forehead, and he was so handsome that she had to fight to keep from staring at him all over
again.
''I've got to ride over and see about my rig on Tyson Wade's place," he said quietly. "Can you handle
the phone?"
"Sure," she told him, walking over to the wall phone. "This is the receiver," she began, pointing to it,
speaking in a monotone. "When it rings, you pick it up and talk right in here-"
"Oh, for God's sake," he burst out. "What I meant was that it rings all day long, with everything from
stock options to social invitations to notices of board meetings! "
She pushed back her bangs. "I've worked in offices since I was eighteen," she told him.
He cocked his head. "Can you type?"
"However do you think I'll manage all the housekeeping and cooking as well as looking after your
appointments and answering mail and: waiting on Aunt Lillian all at once?" She demanded.
His eyebrows arched. "Well, if you aren't capable of it, I'll hire a cook and a maid and a nurse and a
secretary ... ' , Mari could only imagine how her aunt would react to that. She glared at him. "And
break Aunt Lillian's old heart by importing a lot of strangers to keep us apart?'"
.'
He laughed in spite of himself. "I guess it would," he confessed. His green eyes narrowed, and there
was a light in them that disturbed her as he ran his gaze slowly over her slender body. "God forbid
anything should keep us apart."
“Don't you have an oil well to check on?"
"Several, in fact," he agreed. He folded his arms. “But at the moment I'd rather look at you."
"And I'd rather you didn't," she said curtly, averting her eyes to the dishwater.
"I like the way you react to me, Mari," he said softly. "I like the way your body starts to tremble when
I come close. If I'd started kissing you a few minutes ago, we'd still be doing it. I don't even know if I
could stop. And that being the case," he added, levelling with her, "I think you'd better practice ways
discourage me. Lillian won't be around much when she comes back until her leg heals. So you and I
are going to get a bit of each other's company. I'd just as soon manage your little visit without showing
you how good I am in bed."
His blatant speech shocked her. She turned, soapy hands poised over the sink, and stared at him. "Are
you?" she asked without thinking.
He nodded slowly, holding her gaze, his face dead serious. "A man doesn't have to be emotionally
involved to make love well. I've had years of practice. But it’s never meant much, except physically.
It never will.. So you keep that in mind, sprout, okay?"
"Okay," she replied, all eyes.
.
His eyes narrowed at her expression. "Haven't you ever discussed these things with a man?"
"My Parents didn't discuss things like that," she replied. Most of the girls I've known had a distorted
view of it because they did it with so many people. I ... find the thought of it distasteful, somehow.
Sleeping with someone, well, it's intimate, isn't it? Like using someone's toothbrush, only more so. I
couldn't... just do that, without loving.”
She sounded so hopelessly naive. He searched her face and realized with a start that he'd never made
love to a virgin. Not one. Not ever.
And the thought of touching her in all the ways that he'd touched other women produced a shocking
reaction from his body one he was grateful that she wouldn't recognize.
"What an unusual attitude," he said involuntarily. "That isn't the word most people use," she replied,
her eyes dull and lackluster. "Men avoid me like the plague, except to do typing, and answer phones.
I’m what's known as an oddball.”
"Because you don't sleep around?" he asked, stunned.
"Exactly. Didn't you know that the pill has liberated women?" she explained. "They're allowed the
same freedom as men. They can sleep around every night without any consequences. Of course, they
sacrifice a few things along the way that the liberals don’t mention. Things like that deep-seated guilt
that all the permissive ideals in the world won’t change.”
He stared at her. "My God, you are a fanatic, aren't you?" he mused.
She smiled slowly. "How would you like marrying a woman and hearing all about her old lovers?
Meeting them occasionally and wondering if you measured up? How would you like to have a
pregnant wife and wonder if the baby was really yours? I mean, if she sleeps around before marriage,
what's to keep her from doing it afterward? If promiscuity is okay, isn’t adultery okay as well?"
Everything she was saying disturbed him. Caroline had slept around. Not only with him, but, as he'd [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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