Free Lone Star Winter by Diana Palmer Page A

baby.”
    â€œHers, and not yours?” she ventured.
    â€œHers by one of her lovers,” he said bitterly. “She didn’t really know which one.”
    There was an abrupt silence on the other side of the truck. He glanced at her frozen features with curiosity. “What sort of marriage do you think I had? I was a mercenary. The women you meet in that profession aren’t the sort who sing in church choirs.”
    â€œHow did you know I sang in the choir?” she asked, diverted.
    He laughed, shaking his head. “I didn’t, but it figures. You’re her exact opposite.”
    She was still trying to understand what he was saying. “You didn’t love her?”
    â€œNo, I didn’t love her,” he replied. “We were good together in bed and I was tired of living alone. So, I married her. I never expected it to last, but I wanted a child. God knows why, I assumed it was mine.”
    â€œWhy did she marry you if it wasn’t?”
    â€œShe liked having ten credit cards and driving a Jaguar,” he said.
    That produced another frown.
    â€œI was rich, Lisa,” he told her. “I still am.”
    She pulled her coat tighter around her and stared out the window, not speaking. She was shocked and more uncertain about him than ever. He was such a complex person, so multifaceted that just when she thought she was getting to know him, he became a stranger all over again.
    â€œNow what is it?” he asked impatiently.
    â€œI hope you don’t think I agreed to come out with you…that I was eager to let you buy the ranch because…” She flushed and closed her mouth. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to go through the floor.
    â€œIf I’m rich, it’s because I know pure gold when I see it,” he said, casting her an amused glance. “Do you think I’ll assume that you’re a gold digger because you came out with me?”
    â€œI kissed you back, too,” she said worriedly.
    He sighed with pure pleasure and relaxed into the seat, smiling to himself. “Yes, you did.”
    â€œBut it was an accident,” she persisted. “I didn’t plan it…”
    â€œThat makes two of us.” He pulled up at the laststreetlight before they left the city behind and turned to her. His eyes were narrow and very intent. “There are things in my past that are better left there. You’d never begin to understand the relationship I had with my wife, because you don’t think in terms of material gain. When I was your age, you were the sort of woman I’d run from.”
    â€œReally? Why?” she asked.
    He cocked an eyebrow and let his eyes run over her. “Because you told me once that you hadn’t slept with Walt before you married him, Lisa,” he drawled.
    She glared at him. “I would have if I’d wanted to,” she said mutinously.
    â€œBut you didn’t.”
    She threw up her hands, almost making a basketball of her small purse. She retrieved it from the dash and plopped it back into her lap.
    â€œYou’re the kind of woman that men marry,” he continued, unabashed. “You like children and small animals and it would never occur to you to be cruel to anyone. If you’d gotten involved with me while I was still in my former line of work, you wouldn’t have lasted a day with me.”
    â€œI don’t suppose I would have,” she had to agree. She looked through the windshield, wondering why it hurt so much to have him tell her that. Surely she hadn’tbeen thinking in terms of the future just because of one passionate kiss? Of course, her whole body tensed remembering the pleasure of it, the exciting things he’d said…
    â€œAnd you weren’t Walt’s usual date, either,” he said surprisingly. “He liked experience.”
    She grimaced. “I found that out pretty quick. He said I was the most boring woman he’d ever