Free The Durango Affair by Brenda Jackson Page A

the future plans that Roger and Melissa Billingslea had for their daughter. But nothing would change my mother’s mind. She thought Jeff Claiborne was the best thing since raisin bread and when they couldn’t convince her that he wasn’t, my grandparents threatened to disown my mother.”
    “Did that work?”
    “No. Mom and Dad were married a few months later.According to Mom things were great at first, but then he lost his job with this big corporation and had to take a job as a traveling salesman. That’s when things started going downhill. Dad began changing. However, it took almost fifteen years for her to find out that he’d been living a double life and that he had a mistress as well as another daughter living out west.”
    Durango took a sip of coffee. Chase had pretty much told him the story one night over a can of beer.
    “It wasn’t easy for me and Rico growing up,” she said, reclaiming his attention. “Some people view children from mixed marriages as if they are from another planet. But with Mom’s help we got past all of that, and eventually my grandparents came around. And it didn’t take long for them to try to take over our lives. My grandmother even paid for me to go to an all-girl high school. But when it came time for college, I decided to attend one of my own choosing and selected Tennessee State. I’m glad I did.”
    Durango took another sip of his coffee. He appreciated her sharing that bit of history with him but felt compelled to ask, “So what does any of that has to do with my asking you to marry me…or why you won’t sleep with me once we’re married?”
    Savannah leaned back in her own chair. “More than anything I want my child to be a part of a large, loving family. I also want my child to know that its father is a part of its life because he wants to be, and not because he was forced to be.”
    A part of Durango reached out to her, feeling her pain caused by a father who hadn’t cared. He was not that kind of man and he was glad she knew it. “I will be a good father to our child, Savannah.”
    She smiled wryly. “I believe that you will, Durango. Now the issue is whether I believe you will be good to me, as well.”
    He lifted his brow. “You think I’ll mistreat you?”
    She shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I think you are a man who likes women but I don’t want to be just another available body to you, Durango. Not to you or to any man.”
    Durango placed his teacup down, thinking that if she expected an apology from him for all the women he’d enjoyed before meeting her, she could forget it. Like he’d told her before, what was in the past should stay in the past, unless…
    His stomach tightened at the thought that she might assume he would mess around on her. He met her gaze. “Are you worried about me being unfaithful during the time we’re married?”
    She met his gaze. “That has never crossed my mind. Should it have?”
    “No.”
    He was glad it hadn’t crossed her mind because even if she did deny him bedroom rights, he would never give her a reason to question his fidelity. He shook his head. If nothing else, since that night they’d spent together, Savannah had shown him that was definitely a difference between women. Some were only made to bed and some were meant to wed. Savannah, whether she knew it or not, was one of the marrying kind.
    She deserved more than a short-term marriage. She deserved a husband who would love and pamper her, for better or for worse and for the rest of her life. A smart man would be good to her and treat her right. Someonewho would treat her like a woman of her caliber should be treated. And more importantly, he should be a man who could introduce her to the pleasures men and women shared, pleasures she was denying herself.
    He would never forget that night when she had gotten an orgasm. She had acted as if it had been her first one and she hadn’t expected the magnitude of the explosion that had ripped through