Free The Way You Make Me Feel by Francine Craft Page A

to keep it and nurture it always. Just guard my body like the precious jewel it is. I don’t think my mother ever saw it that way.”
    â€œShe lost a lot by not seeing it that way.”
    â€œI get mixed up sometimes. My music just fills every cell of my body and I’m on top of the world—and happy—when I’m with my music. Then something comes over me. It seems I’m too happy and I get scared. And I stop feeling passionate.”
    He smiled. “We’re going to work on that, you and I. We’re going to work on a lot of things. Hey, I love having you around, Toots. Two more laps and we go for a shower and a bite of breakfast.”
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    In the sunny breakfast room, Damien asked Stevie what she wanted for breakfast.
    â€œJust surprise me,” she said. “All that exercise has left me so hungry I’ll eat anything. What’re you having?”
    â€œMediterranean sardines on wheat thins and pomegranate juice.”
    â€œHmmm. Sounds—interesting. I’ve had pomegranate juice and liked it, but just didn’t buy it again.”
    â€œIt’s great for most of what ails you, and the alternative doctors’ve made studies of very old people in certain countries who attribute their longevity in part to eating a lot of sardines.”
    â€œI ate sardines as a child, with soda crackers. What’s a lot?”
    â€œA couple of tins a week.”
    â€œAnd you do?”
    â€œI do. I intend to live until I’m a hundred or more.” He smiled then and his face lit up because he was thinking that with her as a friend, he was going to enjoy living that long.
    â€œYou’re smiling so. What’s on your mind, Steele?”
    He smiled more at her tough stance. She was teasing him and that meant she felt much better. “I’ll tell you why I’m smiling, but not now. I’m keeping you around and I like you in dusty rose. You’ve got an aura I can’t quite define, but I’m drawn. You’re a tender, passionate woman, Stevie, and I hope you never change.”
    â€œI did change with Jake. I had to to protect myself. With you I feel more like me for the first time in a very long while.”
    â€œWhen I get through with you, you’re going to feel every ounce of passion and tenderness you own. I’ll see to that.”
    She thought then about what Jake had said the day before about Damien being a player. And she asked him, “Do you consider yourself a player?”
    He laughed. “You caught me a while back in the middle of my player days. Hell, yes, I was a player of sorts. But I like women too much, have too much respect for them to play them cheap, which is what a player is to me. Respect is a part of my life, Stevie, respect for my whole world and that sure includes women.
    â€œAfter Honi I hurt so bad I couldn’t take it, and seeing other women helped me stanch the pain. But I wasn’t going the love route again. I wasn’t going to find myself near death again. So I became the Dutch uncle, the perfect escort. Yeah, I know I got a rep for holding them and rolling them, but it wasn’t that way. I found women appreciated the fact that I kissed and didn’t tell. I’ve got a lot of women friends, but I want one woman and I want a kid—more than anything.”
    â€œMore than you want a woman?”
    He drew a very deep breath, expelled it. “No, not really—Listen, sweetie, let’s get going. I think you’re looking great.” And he realized that he meant that; Stevie was beginning to seem really good-looking to him.
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    Nubian Gold was one of the showplaces of Nashville’s Music Row. A building fashioned of black granite and cantilevered sandstone and glass, it was award-winning and eye-catching.
    The receptionist, an older woman, greeted them with a big grin. “Mr. Steele, how are you today? And, Stevie, great outfit. Haven’t seen you around in a