Free Sweet Enemy by Diana Palmer

never forget what I did.
Don't you think," she asked bitterly, "that I've been punished
enough, Clint?"
    "I'll agree with you on one point," he said curtly. "You
shouldn't have come. Why I let myself be talked into it…"
    "I'll be gone in another week," she reminded him.
    "Back to what?" he asked then, his eyes narrow and assessing.
"Back to the two-timing boyfriend? Back to your old job in his
office?"
    Her lower lip trembled. "Where I go and what I do is none of
your business, Clint Raygen!"
    His smile was mocking. "Thank God," he replied.
    She sighed heavily. "You are, without a doubt, the most
maddening man I've ever known!"
    "So you're going to run out on me," he taunted. "Leave me here
with no secretary and no prospects of finding one before you
leave."
    "You said two weeks," she reminded him narrowly.
    "Make it four."
    "Clint…"
    "Just until Janna comes, little girl," he said quietly.
    She avoided his eyes. "You don't want me here."
    "No, I don't," he said, suddenly serious, "and remind me
one day to tell you why-in about five years."
    "Is it going to take that long to make up an answer?" she asked
pertly.
    He studied her face for a long time. "No," he said finally, "but
it looks like it's going to take that long for you to grow up enough to
understand the answer."
    "Will you still be around then, you poor old doddering thing?"
she asked in mock innocence.
    His hands caught her face and held it in a vise-like grip on the
pillow. "You damned little irritating cat, will you stop throwing
my age at me?''
    "Turn about's fair play," she said sweetly. "You take every
opportunity to remind me of mine."
    "And you've never stopped to wonder why, have you?" he
growled.
    She pushed against his hard chest. "Don't you have a plane or
bus or train or something to catch?" she muttered.
    His lips made a thin line as he glared down at her. "Can I trust
you not to pull any more harebrained stunts until I get back?"
    "Harebrained?" she replied hotly. "And just who upset me in the
first place…!"
    "If you hadn't panicked while I was making love to
you…"
    "You were
not…
!" she gasped.
    His thumb pressed against her lips, stopping the indignant
protest. "I would have been," he said quietly, "if you hadn't
chickened out."
    Her eyes flashed up at him. She jerked her face aside. "You
flatter yourself that I'd have let you!" she returned.
    "Or Philip?" he asked quietly. His eyes narrowed at the color in
her cheeks. "I don't think I've ever known a woman as chaste as you
are. You're so damned afraid of anything physical, Maggie, that I
thought it was coldness for a long time, but it isn't. You're
afraid to let go with a man."
    "Am I?" she returned calmly, careful not to let him see how
close to the truth he was. "Or is it soothing to your pride to
think I am?"
    "You little brat!" he growled, and, leaning forward, he caught
her face in long, merciless fingers, spearing them into the hair at her
temples to hold her. "Was it too close to the truth, Maggie?"
    Her hands went up against his chest, pushing at it helplessly.
"Let go of me! You think you know so much…!"
    The fingers holding her head suddenly released it to catch her
wrists like traps and slam them up over her head, pinning them to
the bed.
    There was something strangely ruthless in the way he looked down
at her struggling, twisting body, in the burning half-smile
that flamed on his chiseled mouth. "Fight me, wildcat," he murmured
in a dangerous, low tone. "I love it when you fight…!"
    She twisted instinctively, but his body went down to half cover
hers, pressing her slenderness into the mattress, leaving only her
eyes free to struggle.
    The look on his dark face frightened her almost as much as the
green fires that burned deep in his eyes, as he looked
    DIAN A PALMER
    down at her with something like triumph. His glittery gaze
shifted to her parted, trembling mouth.
    "Don't!" she protested shakily as his dark head
moved down.
    He only laughed, softly, confidently. "Try being a