Read Online Fire And Ice by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online

doggedly on her plate and listened while his chair scraped as he stood up. Then there was a muffled sound followed by footsteps dying away.
    “Well,” Victorine murmured, watching Margie. “What was that all about? Did you two have a falling out?”
    Margie lifted her eyes, grateful that Jan and Andy hadn’t been around to witness the scene. “You might call it that,” she murmured curtly. She sipped her coffee. “He’s just insufferable!”
    “So was his father,” Victorine volunteered. She smiled wistfully. “But I loved the old devil to distraction. I found quite by accident that when he was the most furious and intimidating, I could calm him right down just by putting my arms around him.”
    Margie stared at her. “I’d rather be shot than put my arms around Cannon.”
    The older woman grinned. “Would you, really? Or does he disturb you, my dear?”
    She shifted nervously. “He…frightens me.”
    “Yes, I know. You frighten him, too. He’s never been so hostile to a guest before. I can see him bristle when you walk into a room, and his eyes follow you everywhere.”
    Margie looked hunted. She reached for her coffee cup too quickly and almost upset it, then caught her breath sharply as she righted it again.
    Victorine placed a gentle hand over hers. “Don’t be intimidated by him, Margie. He’s tough, because he’s always had to be. But one thing I can promise you, he’d never deliberately hurt you.”
    She almost disputed that, until she realized she
had
provoked him into that violent confrontation. And then she began to wonder why. Had she known, even then, that if she made him angry enough, he’d touch her? Had she wanted him to?
    “He’s a very lonely man,” the older woman continued.
    “That isn’t what he told me,” she muttered, her eyes narrowing. “He said he had to shake the women out of his bed.” She remembered to whom she was talking and flushed.
    Victorine grinned delightedly. “Now I wonder why he said such a thing?” she murmured. “And it’s not true. Since Della left him—rather since he threw her out—he’s had no deep involvement with any woman. Oh, there are the glittery women that he’s sometimes seen with. He’s a man, after all, my dear. But he’s kept his heart quite deliberately tucked away, out of reach. And he hasn’t allowed anyone close enough to touch it.”
    Margie studied the black liquid in her cup with a preoccupied stare. “May I ask you why his wife…ran around?”
    Victorine smiled wistfully. “Not for the reason you might think,” she said gently. “Della simply liked men—I think there’s a medical term for that kind of obsession with sex. Cannon’s pride took quite a blow before he finally got tired enough of it to do something decisive.” She studied the younger woman intensely. “Your husband was cruel to you in bed, wasn’t he?” she asked quietly, and sighed. “Oh, my dear, all marriages aren’t like that. You had a bad experience, but I’m afraid you’re letting it ruin the rest of your life. You mustn’t, Margie.” She reached over and touched Margie’s hand lightly. “You’re much too young to stop living.”
    Margie’s wide eyes found the older woman’s and all her fears were revealed in them. “The men in my life haven’t been the cream of the crop,” she said quietly. “What I knew of my own father was terribly unpleasant, and my husband was just another disappointment….” She looked up. “I suppose all men aren’t monsters, but how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys before you’ve lived with them?” she murmured wistfully. “I thought Larry was the best in the world. If I couldn’t trust my judgment then, how can I ever trust it again?”
    Victorine looked troubled. “You have to learn to trust again,” she said. “I realize that’s easier said than done, but you may find that it comes naturally when you meet the right man.”
    The younger woman sighed, finishing her coffee. She