Read Online Daniel's Desire by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online Page A

this.”
    She almost smiled at that. “Like this? Daniel, they ended years ago. This? This is a piece of cake compared to the way they ended then.”
    “Maybe they should never have ended at all.”
    She stared at him as if he’d started spouting French or some other incomprehensible language. “You can’t mean that.”
    He looked uncomfortable, as if he regretted saying it, but he wasn’t taking it back. She waited and waited, but he let the words hang in the air.
    Maybe they should never have ended at all.
    What was he thinking? Was he crazy? He was the one who’d ended it. He was the one who’d been so insistent that she and their baby would be better off without him. And now, when it was too late to matter, he was saying he’d gotten it all wrong?
    She gazed into his dark-blue eyes and looked for the man she’d once loved, but she couldn’t find him. Didn’t want to find him. Not at this late date. It would make what had happened such a waste, even more tragic than it had been.
    “Leave, please,” she all but begged. “Just for tonight, go.”
    He lifted his hand, almost reached for her, then dropped it back to his side. “Good night, Molly.”
    “Goodbye, Daniel.”
    His lips curved slightly as he noted the hopeful distinction she’d made. “Not goodbye,” he said.
    After he’d gone, she sank onto a stool at the bar and rested her head on her arms. How was she supposed to get through day after day of having him around, deliberately goading her, trying to get underher skin, reminding her of what had once been between them?
    There was only one sure way to get rid of him. She would have to turn over Kendra. But that was not an option. Molly had made a promise and she intended to keep it, even if she lost her own sanity in the process.
    She lifted her head as Kendra quietly slipped onto the stool next to her. Her dark eyes studied Molly intently.
    Molly sighed. “I thought you were with Leslie Sue.”
    “I was, but it’s late. I came back. Seems to me like I got here just in the nick of time.”
    “Why would you say that?”
    “The guy was getting to you.”
    Molly frowned at her, refusing to admit what was obvious not only to her, but apparently even to a thirteen-year-old. “Daniel can’t get to me,” she insisted.
    “Yeah, right,” Kendra said, then fell silent.
    The silence stretched out for what seemed like an eternity before Kendra said, “Tell me about this Daniel Devaney.”
    Molly knew what she was really asking, but she said only, “He’s a child advocate for the state. That’s all you need to know.”
    “He’s not hanging around here just because of me,” Kendra said with confidence. “He’s got the hots for you. And it goes both ways, doesn’t it?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous!”
    “Not that I’m any expert,” Kendra said, ignoring her denial, “but it sure looked that way to me. You get all flushed when he’s around. And I saw that picture you were holding in your room the other night. Itwas him, wasn’t it? He’s the guy who hurt you, the one you never talked things out with.”
    “That doesn’t matter.”
    “Sure it does,” Kendra insisted. “If you two had a thing once, it’s no wonder he gets you all worked up.”
    “He gets me worked up because he makes me furious,” Molly retorted. “He think he knows everything. Have you forgotten that he’s looking for you? He wants to send you home.”
    Kendra paled, and Molly immediately felt guilty for reminding the girl of the threat that Daniel posed, when Kendra was thinking only of his effect on Molly.
    “Sweetie, do you want to talk to him?” she asked Kendra. “Maybe you could explain why you ran away. Tell him that your parents intend to send you away. Daniel would help. He wouldn’t make you go back, especially if your parents were about to abandon you. Believe me, he has some history that would make him very sympathetic to you.”
    Kendra’s expression set stubbornly. “He doesn’t look as if