Read Online The Harder They Fall by Doreen Owens Malek - Free Book Online

and ran into the hall, dashing for her bedroom as if it were a safe haven. She slammed the door and locked it, putting her back against it as if she expected him to break it down.
    Nothing happened. She listened, her heart pounding, for any indications of movement, but the only thing she heard was her own ragged breathing.
    Finally she lay down on her bed and waited for her heartbeat to return to normal.
    It took a long time.
    * * * *
    Chris remained in the living room, pouring himself another drink and then slumping disconsolately on the sofa.
    Why did he feel like such a heel? He hadn’t attempted rape, for God’s sake. She had certainly consented to what he was doing; she had kissed him as if she were discovering passion for the first time and he had an uneasy feeling that she was. The only thing his “experiment” had proved was that he wanted her as desperately as he ever had, even more now that he had actually felt her eager, untutored response.
    Was it possible that he was wrong about her? The thought kept surfacing, annoying him with its insistence, but he dismissed it once more with a vengeance. So what if Martin had been her only previous sexual experience? That did nothing to prove she hadn’t been using his brother to solve her problems. In fact it made the whole scenario worse: she’d been planning to marry a man for whom she felt no desire, entering into a bloodless pact for mercenary reasons. She was just what he had always supposed and he’d better do exactly what she said and stay far away from her.  
    Because the next time he might not be able to stop.
    * * * *
    “So you’re not talking to him?” Maria de Salvo said, folding the last towel on top of the stack and handing the bundle to Helene.
    “Who?” Helene said, putting the linens in the closet and shutting the door.
    “Who do you think?” Maria said disgustedly. “Chris, that’s who. The silence around here the last few days has been deafening.”
    “I don’t want to talk to him. Or about him.”
    “So you’re just going to let this go on indefinitely?”
    “Maria,” she said, sighing, “every conversation I have with him degenerates into a fight. What am I supposed to do?”
    “You might try giving him a break.”
    Helene turned and faced her. “You, too?” she said dryly.
    “What do you mean?” Maria said.
    “Martin was always telling me to give Chris a break. He was constantly making excuses for his brother.”
    “Perhaps because he knew more about Chris than you do,” Maria said quietly.
    “And you know it also?” Helene asked.
    “I know where he came from,” Maria replied.
    “So do I.”
    Maria shook her head. “You haven’t seen it. You can’t imagine where or with whom he lived.”
    “What does that have to do with his behavior toward me?” Helene asked angrily. She was getting tired of listening to reasonable people defend what she considered to be unreasonable behavior.
    “A lot, I think. My guess is he doesn’t trust women too much.”  
    “Why?”
    Maria ran her tongue over her lips. “Did Martin tell you about Chris’ mother?”
    “He said... he implied that she was an alcoholic.”
    Maria nodded. “More than that, I’m afraid.”
    “What?”
    “A fallen woman, you might say.”
    Helene stared at her, appalled. “A prostitute?”
    Maria shrugged. “Not formally, she didn’t work in a brothel. But she did go with men for gifts and money.”
    “I thought... Chris said she used to be a maid here,” Helene murmured, still trying to absorb it.
    “She was, in the beginning. She was working in the house after Mr. Martin’s mother died. Mr. Murdock, he was alone, and she was young and pretty.”
    “I get the picture,” Helene said. “But why didn’t she tell him about the child?”
    “She discovered she was pregnant while Mr. Murdock was away on a long business trip. When he came back from it he was married.”
    “Oh.”
    “She was proud, you know?” Maria said.
    Helene nodded. Having