Free Now and Forever by Diana Palmer Page B

into the slow strains of their last song, she saw Russell walking toward her. Dark and elegant in hissuit, he was the picture of masculine sophistication. But under the polish of that elegance, she could feel the raw strength that hours of hard labor in the fields had given him. She could feel the raw power in him that had its own strange magic, that made her so aware of him it was like stroking an open nerve every time he touched her.
    â€œI don’t want to dance with you,” she protested when he pulled her into his arms and drew her into the dance.
    â€œI know. I can feel it. But I think you owe me one dance, if you can stop being jealous of Nan long enough to relax.”
    â€œJealous?” she burst out, freezing in her tracks.
    â€œShut up and dance. You’re an open book to me, Tish, everything shows in your face.” His arm contracted, drawing her closer. “She isn’t my mistress, if that’s what’s eating you.”
    She stiffened in his warm, strong embrace. “I don’t care how many women you’ve got. It’s got nothing to do with me,” she said tightly.
    He only laughed. “Loosen up,” he murmured against her ear. “I won’t accuse you of trying to seduce me.”
    â€œI don’t know why not, you’ve been accusing me of it ever since I came home, even though you admit I don’t know how,” she said irritably.
    He laid his cheek against her hair, one big thumb caressing the slender hand he held against his silk shirt. “I could teach you how,” he said quietly, and drew her closer. “But it would be a disaster for both of us. I’m thirty-four years old, Tish. You’re barely twenty-one. You need a young man. I’m past the age of accepting limits when I make love to a woman. If you were older…but you’re not. It wouldn’t work.”
    â€œYou…you egotistical, bigheaded…!” she burst out at him in a flurry of embarrassed indignation.
    â€œOpen your mouth again,” he threatened shortly, “and I’ll bury mine in it.”
    Heat washed over her in waves. She lowered her forehead to his chest weakly, hating what he could do to her with words.
    â€œThat’s better,” he said at her ear. “Now listen to me. Don’t let what happened this afternoon put a wall between us. Youpushed too hard and you saw the consequences. It’s over. You’ll remember it, and so will I, but it’ll teach you not to throw that sweet young body at me.”
    Her face went scarlet, then it lost its color until it resembled paper. “I hate you, Russell,” she said coldly.
    â€œBy all means, hate me,” he said with a harsh, bitter smile. “It’ll be a welcome change from having a lovesick teenager hanging around my neck like a chain!”
    He might have slapped her for the look on her face. With a sob, she tore out of his arms.
    A shadow passed over his face, and he grimaced. “Tish, my God, I didn’t mean that…” he said softly.
    But before he could finish the apology—which was as close as he ever came to one—Eileen interrupted them.
    â€œRuss, it’s Lisa,” she said in a whisper. “Something’s wrong. She’s on the phone.”
    He was gone in a flash, and Eileen took a deep breath. “She sounds almost hysterical. I wonder what’s going on.”
    â€œEileen, who is Lisa?” Tish asked, making a grand effort to pull herself together.
    She shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. She calls Russ pretty often, and he goes to Jacksonville every month to see her. He never talks about her, and if I try to ask him anything…well, you know how black tempered he can be.”
    â€œTell me about it,” she said wearily. “How did you find out about her if he didn’t tell you?”
    â€œI overheard him talking to Dad one night after they had had a couple of big drinks.