Free Substitute Bride by Margaret Pargeter Page A

other women, the slightest assertion of his undeniable masculinity was all he had ever found necessary to have them practicaly begging at his feet. If he had failed with Blanche, Emma suddenly suspected, it was because he had never realy tried.
    'Are you feeling any better?' she heard him asking savagely, his almost threatening tone forcing her to raise her head.
    'No, I'm not!' she retorted angrily, realising too late she would have been wiser to have pretended she did.
    'Then perhaps we should keep on trying?' his silky voice confirmed her fears. 'Perhaps if we both got rid of a few clothes the situation might improve?'
    She would have hit him then if he hadn't seen it coming and swiftly caught her flying hand. It could be as wel, in future, to remember how quickly he reacted. Again she felt deprived of most of her breath. Her cheeks flaming, it took her all her time to speak. 'I married you and we did have an agreement of sorts. But it didn't include taking my clothes off!'
    'What difference is that going to make?' he snapped. 'We can't get the marriage annuled, as we might have done, had you been an innocent little virgin. With your history, all the money in the world wouldn't convince anybody of that.'
    Almost as angry as he was, she spluttered, 'You won't talk to me like that again!'
    'I wasn't thinking of more talk,' he replied, with brutal frankness. 'It was bed I had in mind.'
    She didn't like the way his cold eyes glittered over her, lingering on her thin face and body as if trying to discover, in spite of himself, what was holding him intrigued. Hating the way her limbs were beginning to tremble, she retorted with fury, 'You wouldn't want to go to—to bed with a plain girl like me.'
    'Plain or pretty,' he ran derisive fingers over her taut lips,
    'what does it matter in the dark?'
    'It matters to me.' Emma swalowed convulsively, suddenly unable to bear his mockery—or having him touch her. 'I refuse to go to bed with a man I hate!'
    As if to punish her he seemed about to drag her swiftly to him but suddenly he was pushing her away. 'You've a lot to learn,' he said cynicaly. 'Sometimes hating or loving doesn't come into it. A lot of things are possible without either. Oliver obviously didn't get far with your education.'
    As she stared at him, full of dazed uncertainty, he added harshly, 'Don't forget, if Blanche comes here, you have a part to play. And heaven help you if you let me down.'
    'Please, Rick!' Emma, her nerve deserting her, was nearly in tears. 'Why not call the whole thing off? I'll go back to England and you can return to your own home. This all seems so sily…'
    'No,' his mouth tightened as he shook his head, his eyes smouldering darkly, 'I may have some regrets myself. It's not something I would do again, but we'll see it through, since we've got this far.'
    In the face of such ruthless determination, Emma could think of nothing more to say, and while she searched helplessly for something else to deter him, Rick turned abruptly and left her. As he quietly closed the door behind him she stared at it, not realy seeing it as his strongly modeled face swam before her eyes.
    Why was he being so insistent? Were all men like that?
    Rick, she felt instinctively, would receive few insults, and the few he did would be mostly ignored. Blanche, obviously, must have dealt a blow to his pride and the devil in him was demanding retribution. This Rick would probably be the first to admit, cynicaly, while refusing to ignore, for once, a desire for revenge. Perhaps if he had given himself time to think at the farm he would have acted differently. But then everything had happened so quickly that common sense had had little chance to intervene. Or had he been too busy planning to ride roughshod over other people's feelings to take any notice? Wel, he might have got himself a wife, and be well on the way towards extracting revenge, but, Emma wondered bleakly, how much joy did he expect to get out of wondered bleakly,