Defender. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ he’d realized. He scrolled down the story he was reading online. “Wounded. Odd choice of words there, Isabel.”

      “You’re the only person who ever called me that.”

      “What? Isabel?” He looked up, studying her softly rounded face, her lovely complexion, her blue, blue eyes. “You look like an Isabel.”

      “Is that a compliment or something else?”

      “Definitely a compliment.” He looked back at the computer screen. “I used to love to read about your namesake. She was queen of Spain in the fifteenth century. She and her husband led a crusade to push foreigners out of their country. They succeeded in 1492.”

      Her lips parted. “Isabella la Catolica.”

      His chiseled lips pursed. “My God. You know your history.”

      She laughed softly. “I’m a history major,” she reminded him. “Also a Spanish scholar. I’m doing a semester of Spanish immersion. English isn’t spoken in the classroom, ever. And we read some of the classic novels in Spanish.”

      He chuckled softly. “My favorite was Pio Baroja. He was Basque, something of a legend in the early twentieth century.”

      “Mine was Sangre y Arena.”

      “Blasco Ibáñez,” he shot back. “Blood and Sand. Bullfighting?” he added in a surprised tone.

      She laughed. “Yes, well, I didn’t realize what the book would be about until I got into it, and then I couldn’t put it down.”

      “They made a movie about it back in the forties, I think it was,” he told her. “It starred Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth. Painful, bittersweet story. He ran around on his saintly wife with a woman who was little more than a prostitute.”

      “I suppose saintly women weren’t much in demand in some circles in those days. And especially not today,” she added with a wistful little sigh. “Men want experienced women.”

      “Not all of them,” he said, looking away from her.

      “Really?”

      He forced himself to keep his eyes on the computer screen. “Think about it. A man would have to be crazy to risk STDs or HIV for an hour’s pleasure with a woman who knew her way around bedrooms.”

      She fought a blush and lost.

      He saw it and laughed. “Honey, you aren’t worldly at all, are you?”

      “I’m alternately backward or unliberated, to hear my classmates tell it. But mostly they tolerate my odd point of view. I think one of them actually feels sorry for me.”

      “Twenty years down the road, they may wish they’d had your sterling morals,” he replied. He looked up, into her eyes, and for a few endless seconds, he didn’t look away. She felt her body glowing, burning with sensations she’d never felt before. But just when she thought she’d go crazy if she didn’t do something, footsteps sounded in the hall.

      “So there you are,” Mandy exclaimed. “I’ve looked everywhere.” She stared at them.

      Paul made a face. “Do I look like a suicidal man looking for the unemployment line to you?” he asked sourly.

      Both women laughed.

      “All the same, don’t do that when your dad’s home,” she told Sari firmly.

      “I never would, you know that,” Sari said gently. “Why were you looking for me?”

      “That girl at college who can’t ever find her history notes wants to talk to you about tomorrow’s test.”

      “Nancy,” she groaned. “Honestly, I don’t know how she passed anything until I came along! She actually called up one of our professors at night and asked if he could give her the high points of his lecture. He hung up on her.”

      “I’m not surprised,” Paul said. “Better go answer the questions, tidbit,” he added to Sari.

      “I guess so,” she said. She got off the bed, reluctantly. The way he’d looked at her had made her feel shaky inside. She wanted him to do it again. But he was already buried in his computer screen.

      “There was an attempted horse heist just two days ago up near San Antonio,” he was muttering. “I think I’ll call the DA up there and see if he’s made any arrests.”

      “Good night, Paul,” Sari said as she left the room.

      “Night, sprout. Sleep well.”

      “You, too.”

      * * *

      Mandy led her into the kitchen and pointed to the phone.

      “Hello, Nancy?” Sari said.

      “Oh, thank goodness,” the other girl rushed. “I’m in such a mess! I can’t find my notes, and I’ll fail the test…!”

      “No worries. Let me get mine and I’ll read them to you.”

      “You could fax them…”

      “You’d never read my handwriting,” Sari laughed. “Besides, it will help me remember what I need for tomorrow’s test.”

      “In that case, thanks,” Nancy said.

      “You’re welcome. Give me your number and I’ll call you back. I’ll have to hunt up my own notes.”

      Nancy gave it to her and hung up.

      Sari came back down with the notes she’d retrieved from her bulky book bag. She phoned Nancy from the kitchen, where Mandy was cleaning up, and read the notes to her. It didn’t take long.

      “I’ll see you in class,” Nancy said. “And thanks! You’ve saved my life!” She hung up.

      “She says I saved her life,” Sari said, chuckling.

      Mandy gave her a glance. “If you want to save two lives, you’ll stay out of Mr. Paul’s bedroom.”

      “Mandy, it’s perfectly innocent. The door’s always open when I’m in there.”

      “You don’t understand. It’s how it looks, that easy familiarity between you two. It will carry over to other times, in daylight. If your father sees it, even thinks that there might be something going on…”

      “I don’t do it when he’s here.”

      “I know that. It’s just…” She grimaced. “I don’t know where he put all the cameras.”

      Sari’s heart jumped. “What cameras?”

      “He had it done while you girls were at school. He had three security cameras installed. He sent me out of the house on an errand while they were put in place. I don’t know where they are.”

      “Surely СКАЧАТЬ