Diamond Spur. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ already told you, I’m just going to a few fashion shows, that’s all. I’m not going to have my head turned by fancy living.”

      “It’s easy to say, isn’t it?” he asked with faint cynicism. “I grew up poor, honey. I remember what it was like when we started making money here. But that’s something you’re going to have to find out for yourself, I guess.”

      “That doesn’t make sense,” she said softly.

      “It will. Kiss me good night and go home. Want me to follow you in the Bronco to make sure you get there all right?”

      She was still staggering from his request. Her wide eyes welded to his, she couldn’t be bothered to worry about getting home.

      “Kiss you good night?” she whispered.

      “Don’t you want to?” he whispered back, bending. “This kind of thing can get addictive, especially when it feels this sweet. Come on. Open that soft little mouth and fit it to mine, Katy,” he murmured as his face came closer.

      She obeyed him, trembling as she felt the moist warmth of his lips so close against her own. She parted her lips and nudged them up against his, and moaned when he returned the caress with biting hunger. The sound worked on his blood like fire. He looped an arm around her shoulders and brought her roughly against his chest while the pressure of his mouth pushed her head back onto his muscular arm. Time hung like the stars while they fed on each other, and it was a long time before Jason could manage to drag himself away.

      Jason’s eyes were almost frightening with their hot glitter as they searched Kate’s. “You and your damned soft breasts are giving me hell,” he breathed shakily. “Next time, wear a bra, unless you want to watch me strip you to the waist out of sheer frustration.”

      Her mouth opened on a gasp and he bent long enough to crush his own over it for an instant. Then he let her go and moved back a step. She tried to stop shaking.

      “Jason!” she exclaimed.

      “I’m not made of solid rock,” he reminded her. His eyes went to her blouson, where the sharp tips of her breasts were straining against the thin fabric. “God, that excites me,” he said roughly.

      She blinked, because in some ways, her education was a little faulty. “What?”

      He sighed wearily. “Kate...this.” He brushed the back of his hand softly over her breast, and she jerked back on an inverted breath. “Didn’t you know that a woman’s body shows arousal that way?” he asked her gently.

      “I do now, thanks,” she fumbled, wrapping her arms around herself in a flurry of embarrassment.

      “Stop that,” he scolded gently. “Remember who I am, Kate.”

      “I’m trying,” she replied lightly, her eyes fascinated with him and this new and sudden intimacy. But she moved her arms. Odd, how her body tingled when he looked at her breasts. For one wild instant, she thought about what he’d threatened, about stripping her to the waist and looking at her there....

      “Why the wild blush?” he asked, his voice deep and velvety. He kissed her closed eyelids. “If you want to experiment, I’ll let you do it with me. At least you’ll be safe that way.”

      “Oh, Jason,” she moaned, “I feel so strange...!”

      “And so threatened. And there’s no need.” He pressed his mouth to her forehead. “I’m going to take exquisite care of you. Now go home before things get out of hand. Lovemaking is one thing, but sex is something else again.” He lifted his head and searched her eyes. “I won’t let you sleep with me, Kate. Virginity is something you should save for marriage.”

      “Nobody else does,” she replied.

      “Bull,” he shot back. “That’s another myth. It’s the fashion to be sexually liberated these days, but it’s damned dangerous, too. And I don’t mean just because girls can get pregnant. It’s because there are so many things you can catch that can kill you, or at the very least make you untouchable. You understand me?”

      “Is that why you don’t run around?” she asked, her eyes curious.

      “It’s one of many reasons I don’t,” he admitted. His eyes drew slowly over her face. “Even a man has to be careful these days. I’d cut off my arm before I’d expose you to any kind of disease.”

      “And that’s the only reason you don’t want me to sleep with other men?” she coaxed.

      His face hardened. “I feel the same way about that as you seem to feel about thinking of me in bed with other women.”

      Her eyes fell. “Oh.”

      “Kate, I’m getting in over my head here, and I need a cold shower like hell. So will you please go home?”

      She smiled at the way he said it, delighted at the way he was reacting to her, and at the new relationship they were heading for. “Okay.”

      “Drive carefully.”

      “I will.”

      She peeked at him, but he seemed remote now, unapproachable. With a faint grin, she turned and started toward the steps.

      “I’ll be in Montana looking at Beefmaster bulls for a few days next week,” he said unexpectedly. “And at the end of the month, I’ll be headed for Australia. I’ll bring you back something pretty from there.”

      “You’re doing a lot of traveling,” she said quietly. “Will you be in Australia long?” she asked, sounding miserable because she was.

      He wished he wasn’t going all of a sudden. He studied her face. “I know a man up in the Northern Territory who’s experimenting with some new Indian cattle, crossbreeding them with shorthorns. I’ve been invited to spend a month over there getting familiar with the operation. It’s something I’m interested in trying here, so I’ve accepted, and Gene’s going to run things while I’m away, despite the fact that I had to browbeat him into it. I can’t spare the time, but I need to see about expanding the operation.”

      “A whole month away?” she murmured, trying not to let him see how disappointed she felt.

      “Yes. But not for a few weeks yet.” He smiled. “Don’t borrow things to brood about. Live one day at a time.”

      “That’s easy to say,” she sighed.

      “You’ll get the hang of it.” He put a fresh cigarette in his mouth and lit it. “Watch your speed.”

      She nodded. One last glance at his face was all she got before Jason turned and went back to the swing to sit down. When she pulled out of the driveway, he was still sitting there. By the time she got home, she wondered if she might have dreamed the whole interlude. But her mouth was swollen from his kisses and her breasts ached from the gentle crush of his chest. Kate walked in feeling on air, and only barely managed to camouflage her budding emotions from her mother’s eagle eye. She didn’t want to share her secret just yet. She didn’t want Mary to know what had happened. But life had suddenly taken on new meaning, and she felt alive as she never had before.

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