Read Online Renegade by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online Page B

had a torrid petting session yet.”
    She cleared her throat. “Don’t get your hopes up. I have a prudish nature.”
    â€œIt won’t last long around me.”
    â€œI call that conceit.”
    â€œYou won’t when you see me in action,” he teased, and his fingers contracted. His voice dropped as he leaned closer. “I know twelve really good positions, and I’m as slow as the blues in bed. If I weren’t so modest, I could even give you references. I am a sensual experience that you’d never forget.”
    â€œAnd so modest,” she teased.
    â€œA man with my skills can do without modesty,” he murmured wickedly.
    She wouldn’t admit it, but the prospect made her utterly breathless. He saw that in her face. The smile grew broader.
    Â 
    T HEY HAD LUNCH in a Japanese restaurant, where Tippy and Rory were fascinated to hear Cash converse fluently with the waiter. He was competent with chopsticks, too.
    â€œI didn’t know you spoke Japanese,” Tippy ex claimed. “Have you been to Japan?”
    â€œSeveral times,” he replied, lifting a piece of chicken to his mouth with the chopsticks. “I love it there.”
    â€œDo you speak any other languages, Cash?” Rory wanted to know.
    â€œAbout six, I think,” he replied lazily. He smiled at the boy’s fascination. “If you ever want to get into intelligence work, languages will get you further than a law degree.”
    â€œNo, you don’t,” Tippy told Rory when he started to open his mouth. “You’re going to get a nice job as a computer technician and get married and have a family.”
    Rory glared at her. “I’ll get married when you do.”
    Cash chuckled.
    â€œBetter yet,” Rory added, “I’ll get married when he does,” and he pointed to Cash.
    â€œI wouldn’t take that bet,” Cash advised Tippy.
    â€œNeither would I,” she had to admit.
    He glanced at her curiously, but he didn’t smile. In fact, he was feeling sensations he’d never experienced in his life, and getting a vicious case of cold feet. This woman made him want things, need things, that he feared more than bullets. He ached to take her to bed, and it was becoming obvious that she would let him. It was a prospect that made his head swim. He could al most picture having that perfect body under his on crisp sheets, feeling her long legs curling around him, her full lips clinging to his mouth. She knew nothing about consensual sex, she’d said, but he could teach her. He had plenty of experience, plenty of skill, and he could introduce her to a veritable feast of physical pleasure. In fact, he was dying to do just that. Could she see it? Did she know?
    Her eyes were full of delight in his company. She might be second cousin to a virgin, but she certainly had the intelligence to see desire in a man’s face, as well as in his body. Of course she knew. He felt trapped.
    He forced himself not to look at her while he tried to decide what to do next. Coming to New York, he told himself angrily, had been a bad idea. He needed to get out, while there was still time.
    Â 
    H IS CHANGE OF ATTITUDE was all too evident to Tippy, who was suddenly very sensitive to nuances of expression in his hard, lean face.
    She withdrew as well. She was polite and cheerful, but the same distance that was in Cash now was also in her.
    They went back up to her apartment, where a boy aboutRory’s age was standing at the door, ringing the bell impatiently. He turned at the approach of the others.
    â€œHey, Rory! Mom says she’ll take us to see that new fantasy flick, and you can spend the night!” He glanced at Tippy and Cash and grimaced. “I guess you won’t want to, though, since you’ve got company…”
    â€œOh, Cash isn’t company, Don, he’s family,” Rory said without hesitation, completely unaware of the expression