Soldier And The Society Girl. Vivian Leiber

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ & Country magazine.

      “I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you,” she said, holding out her right hand to the stranger. “Chessey Banks Bailey.”

      Rather than shake, he gave her the once-over—twice—and then howled.

      “Whooee! I knew there was something I’ve been missing for the past two years!”

      His words were delivered with an inappropriate leer. Chessey bristled and then gaped first in reproach and then astonishment.

      “You’re Lieutenant Derek McKenna!” she exclaimed.

      “One and the same, darlin’,” he said. He uncrossed his ankles, dropped his boots to the floor and rose to take her into his arms.

      Before she could marshal a protest, he kissed her. Full on the lips, enduring her small fists against his chest as he would an annoying but helpless fly. His mouth possessed hers, claimed her as the spoils of a conquering hero and when he abruptly let her go, she felt strangely bereft, as if she were a doll cherished and then discarded by a child.

      She steadied herself with a hand on the back of the wing chair in which Winston sat.

      If she had been given time enough to hope that Winston would come to her aid with gentlemanly rebuke, she was to be disappointed.

      He said nothing.

      Kisses like this didn’t happen to Baileys.

      Nor, she would suspect, to Fairchilds.

      She wondered if Winston might harbor the ridiculous notion that she had provoked the lieutenant. If she were at fault for this appalling behavior. The other men were shocked—shocked!—but they gave her no mind. Indeed, their eyes followed Derek, who sprawled on the couch.

      Winston, on the other hand, shook his head disapprovingly.

      “Totally untrainable,” Lieutenant McKenna announced. “Not suitable for American audiences. Bound to cause more trouble than I’m worth.”

      “Soldier,” the general said sternly.

      Chessey touched her chest to still her galloping heart. Shock was being replaced with outrage, outrage that was all the more potent because it contained the niggling iota of attraction. McKenna barely noticed her, which made her outrage spiral upward like a tornado.

      He had no right, no right at all!

      “You don’t want me, General,” Derek pleaded. “First time I land a kiss like that on a Junior League matron, you’ll have to hide your head in shame for having set me loose.”

      “Soldier,” the general repeated. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense.”

      “I’m telling you, send me home,” McKenna said, with enough pleading in his voice that some of the men looked at their shoes, a single spark of decency within them realizing the unfairness of asking a man who had given so much for his country to simply do more.

      And Chessey’s outrage deflated into a puddle of bewildered pity. He was clearly suffering. A man in pain. All that he went through... Whether from some kind of posttraumatic disorder or the simple and honest longing homesickness, he simply wasn’t in possession of his senses.

      But he kissed me! Her outrage whimpered. He humiliated me in front of these men! And in front of Winston!

      The general nodded in her direction.

      “Ms. Banks Bailey, you deserve an apology for that behavior,” he said. “But I suspect this soldier isn’t going to give it to you. So I will. I am very sorry. He’s acting like a savage.”

      “That’s why we need Chessey,” Winston said.

      Need me? Chessey sat on the oak captain’s chair beside Winston. He handed her a briefing folder. The aide behind the desk passed her a calendar covered with pencil scribbles.

      “Soldier, you’re going out there for one reason and only one reason,” the general said.

      “And just what is that reason?”

      “Because the enlisted men need you,” the general said evenly. “The enlisted men need to know that officers like you will lead them out of harm’s way and that officers like you won’t leave a man behind.”

      “They already know that, just because we’re out of there,” he said. “I’m leaving.”

      He stood up.

      “Get the President on the phone.”

      Derek uttered an oath.

      “Give him the schedule.”

      Winston handed McKenna the appointment calendar, which matched Chessey’s.

      “We can play around with the dates so that you begin in three days,” Winston said. “And Chessey will be with you. You’ve already introduced yourself. Next time you want to introduce yourself to a woman, try shaking hands.”

      Chessey endured McKenna’s frankly hostile gaze. It was hard to believe that moments before, they had been locked in an intimate embrace.

      “Why do I have to take her with me?”

      “She’s an assistant protocol specialist,” Winston said. “You need to be housebroken. She’s the best, like Mary Poppins without an umbrella and that silly hat. Trained the entire delegation to Zanzibar last month on how Zanzibarian table customs work.”

      Chessey squelched a smile at the praise.

      But Mary Poppins?

      “And she’s a member of the Banks Bailey family,” Winston continued. “Can’t get a better pedigree than that. If there’s a right way to do it, the Banks Bailey family knows how—whether it’s tea parties, formal dinners, receptions or meeting a Queen.”

      “I don’t need her,” McKenna said, gazing at Chessey levelly. “On my farm, she won’t do me any good milkin’ cows or driving a tractor. And even if I were to go off on your little tour of America, I’d prefer a woman who looks a little less wholesome than this Girl Scout.”

      The gathering stared at Chessey, seeming to expect her to suddenly make a fire out of two sticks or sprout a green sash. Chessey felt a crimson blush flare on her cheeks.

      “If Lieutenant McKenna needs a party girl to accompany him,” she said, “I am certainly not the appropriate choice.”

      “Party girls he can get anywhere,” the general snorted. “He needs to be returned to a civilized state—being in that Baghdad prison must have warped him.”

      “Or maybe he was always this primitive,” Winston observed. “In which case, Chessey, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”

      “I won’t disappoint you.”

      “I don’t want this woman,” McKenna said, looking at her. “Even if I was going on your tour, I wouldn’t take her.”

      “Soldier, СКАЧАТЬ