Free A Tradition of Pride by Janet Dailey Page A

book with a snap, rising restlessly to her feet and walking to the front window in the living room.
    "Don't you like the book?" Trevor inquired, glancing up from his own. "I read it last week and found it very absorbing."
    Lara stared out the window at the blackened landscape. This was one of Trevor's duty evenings that he spent at home with her to maintain his image of a devoted spouse—for her father's benefit, she supposed. She doubted if her father guessed how totally empty their marriage had become.
    "When do you find time for so much reading, Trevor?" she remarked cynically.
    He either didn't hear or ignored the cutting barb in her question. "It's the speed-reading course I took. Novels that used to take me days to read now take only hours, sometimes, minutes depending on their length. You should sign up for the course."
    "No, thank you." Lara sighed, choosing to reply directly to his suggestion and not pursue a course of condemning results. I don t care to read that fast. In a well-written book you would miss the passages where an author weaves the words together to create a spell. You might absorb the gist of it, but you would lose the magic. And when a book is good, I like to prolong reaching the end as long as possible."
    "Is that why you've stopped reading—to prolong the end?" Trevor teased.
    A wry grimace flashed across her face. She should have known he wouldn't understand what she meant. Lara wondered if he read because it was the expected thing for an educated man to do as opposed to reading for the enjoyment of it.
    Glancing over her shoulder, Lara indifferently noted the way the blue shade of Trevor's short sleeved pullover accented the blue black highlights in his hair.
    "I couldn't concentrate," Lara replied with a restless shrug. "I'm not in the mood to read, I guess."
    A speculative gleam entered his dark eyes as he watched her. Thoughtfully Trevor closed his book. "Was there something you would rather do?" he asked with studied casualness.
    Lara shook her head. "No."
    Nonchalantly Trevor rolled to his feet, and strolled toward the window where she stood. "It's a beautiful evening for a drive through the country."
    Impatiently she walked away from him. "I'm not in the mood."
    "Poor Lara." He followed her, a smile of amusement flashing across his mouth. "You really don't know what's bothering you, do you?"
    Folding her arms in front of her, she jerkily rubbed her elbows and the bareness of her upper arms. "Nothing's bothering me. I'm simply not in the mood to read."
    "Something's causing your agitation," Trevor murmured huskily. "And I think I know what it is."
    "I don't know what you are talking about," Lara declared sharply, not liking his sly innuendoes.
    "You are as susceptible as the rest of us to the physical urge to be caressed and loved, no matter how hard you try to suppress it. It's surfacing now with your restlessness. Inwardly you are reaching out for something to satisfy you, although consciously you won't admit it."
    Involuntarily Lara listened to his softly spoken words. The stirrings of dissatisfaction she felt within, the vague feelings that she was incomplete, indicated that Trevor might possibly be right about their cause. Lara firmly told herself that even if it was true, she could control them. She ruled her flesh, not the other way around.
    "Is that what you think?" Lara laughed hollowly. "How disillusioning it will be to you when you find out that a cigarette will cure my unrest."
    As she reached, for the cigarette case sitting on the table, Trevor's hand shot out to stop her, turning Lara to face him and taking hold of her shoulders.
    "I'm right. I know I am," he said.
    His gaze moved suggestively over her feminine figure while, his hands began to languidly caress her shoulder blades. Lara didn't move as he came close, his hands moving down her spine. He aroused only indifference, but his male ego was confident of his ability to make her respond.
    "Lara," he whispered, and let his