Free Body Guard by Unknown Page B

well, unfortunately. Take my word for it he wouldn't be involved in anything like this," she stated emphatically.
    "How can you be so sure?"
    Sabrina's voice hardened as she recalled the image of her handsome, sophisticated ex-husband. "Stan Northrup is the quintessential user of people. I got in his path and I got used. But he's incapable of making any kind of meaningful commitment including the revolutionary or political one which would seem to be required of the type of person involved in threatening my mother's company."
    "On what do you base that?" The question was so gentle, so unthreatening that Sabrina found herself answering it before she stopped to think.
    "His father owned a large company in Seattle. He wanted Stan to settle down and get married before he would let him take over control of the firm. Stan wanted to take over from his father, so he looked around for a simpleminded sort of female who could be seduced into marriage."
    "And found you?"
    "I met him at a party being given by some friends," Sabrina sighed. "I thought it was a case of love at first sight. I was still rather romantically inclined in those days," she added apologetically. " 'Stupid' might be a better word. At any rate I thought he needed me, loved me, and I agreed to marry him. Well, he did need me. He needed me to convince his father he was settled and ready to take over the firm. His father thought I was terrific, which made everything very pleasant. Then his father died unexpectedly."
    "And Northrup no longer needed you?"
    "He much preferred to live an uncommitted sort of life," Sabrina said flatly. "When I came home one day to find him in bed with his secretary, I took the initiative and left him. It suited everyone for me to be gone. He's not a very nice iron, Jake, but he's definitely not the sort to be mixed up in something like this, believe me." For an instant memories of her husband's casual, unemotional lust returned to swamp her mind, but Sabrina thrust them aside. "I can't understand why my mother or Teague would have considered him a viable possibility for the villain in this."
    Jake just looked at her, saying nothing, and suddenly the truth hit Sabrina. Her eyes widened in glittering fury. "My God! You tricked me, didn't you? Neither Teague nor my mother mentioned Stan as a threat, did they? You just wanted to know more about him than I seemed willing to tell you!"
    "I was curious," he admitted softly, eyes unfathomable as he watched her taut features.
    "I can't imagine why!" she blazed.
    "Can't you?"
    She picked up her fork, simultaneously taking a grip on her flaring temper. She would not let this man push her into making a fool of herself. "I thought I made it clear this morning, Jake, that I am not in the market for an affair. I meant it. Don't misread that unfortunate little episode on the banquette at dawn!"
    "Unfortunate little episode," he repeated thoughtfully. "That's not how I remember it Sabrina, I had the first good night's sleep I've had in ages last night because of you."
    "Is that why you kissed me? You were feeling grateful?" she challenged.
    "No. It was a lot more complicated than that."
    "There's nothing complicated about it! You told me yourself that men don't have to feel any noble emotional commitment before they go to bed with a woman. Believe me, I'm already aware of that fact. Let's drop the subject, shall we?"
    He shrugged. "If that's what you want"
    "It is."
    "Just remember I also said that a man who does feel some sort of chivalric commitment to a woman is also going to want to possess her."
    She smiled very brilliantly. "In other words, a poor girl won't be able to tell the noble ones from the ignoble ones, will she? Clearly her best bet is not to let any of them too close. As you keep telling me, Jake, one can't be too careful."
    Secure in the knowledge that she'd put him firmly in his place, Sabrina didn't hesitate to reinforce the lesson after dinner when they moved into the crowded lounge. She