Read Online When You Dance With The Devil (Dafina Contemporary Romance) by Gwynne Forster - Free Book Online Page A

thanked her and hurried to the bookstore. “You have this book?” she asked a clerk, and was assured that the store carried that and several other books by that author. Jolene left the store with seven romance novels by an author known for her sizzling sex scenes.
    “It’s a good thing you’re getting off at the end of the line,” the bus driver said to Jolene, “otherwise you’d have missed your stop.” She got off the bus, her face afire, thanks to her newly acquired knowledge of what goes on between a man and a woman. She rushed up the stairs to her room, closed the door and, without opening a window or turning on the air conditioning to temper the ninety-eight-degree heat, Jolene flopped down in a chair with the book she’d been reading on the bus. By the time Fannie banged on Jolene’s door to remind her that she was late for supper, Jolene was well on the way to acquiring a sexual education.
    For the first time, she took an interest in her supper companions, wondering if they did or had done the things she had been reading about. Somehow she didn’t think Louvenia’s pursed and wrinkled lips belonged to a woman who had frolicked in bed with a man, but Barbara Sanders, who clerked at the local movie house and whose skirt hems brushed her knees, was definitely suspect. Did Percy Lucas, a truck driver about fifty-five years old or so, wear his pants tight and walk with a swagger because he could make women scream in bed? And was that the reason why Ronald Barnes, the fishnet maker, always winked at her? Was he telling her something?”
    She finished her dessert as quickly as she could, though she barely tasted it, said good-night and rushed back up to her room and to her reading. As she opened the book, furor blazed up in her. Emma Tilman hadn’t told her one thing about sex, only ranted against men, turning her daughter into a eunuchoid, a sexually deficient woman. A woman without even the urge to have sex, who didn’t know what it was or what it was supposed to mean.
    “You must have wanted it at least once,” she said aloud as if her mother were there with her, “or you wouldn’t have had me. I’m entitled, and I’m not passing up anything that’s supposed to be this great.”
     
     
    At nine-thirty the next morning, Richard walked with Judd up the steps of Pike Hill High School. “You sure we aren’t too early?” he asked Judd.
    “I was a businessman for over fifty years, and I know that when I want to see somebody important, I should make an appointment.”
    If he had paid attention to Judd’s navy blue suit, white shirt and red tie, he’d have spared himself that reprimand. “I stand corrected, sir,” he said.
    “And well you should.”
    They passed security and were escorted to the office of the assistant principal, who informed them that the principal was in Annapolis at a meeting. “It’s good to see you, Mr. Walker,” she said. “I was planning to call you about taking some of our honor students on another expedition next fall. I think the last one you offered was our most popular project ever.”
    “Thank you, Ms. Marin. Mr. Peterson here is a citizen of the world, used to be an ambassador and executive director of an important nongovernmental organization and all that. He’s looking for something to keep him busy, and I told him that you could use a volunteer of his class.”
    She didn’t look him in the eye, and when he let her know that he appreciated her good looks, the blood heated her face. His antenna shot up. Better not get on the wrong side of this woman , his inner sense warned.
    Quickly, Richard cloaked himself in his most professional demeanor, banishing the womanizer he’d once been and leaving her to wonder if she had imagined his signal. “I’d be happy to run a career guidance clinic for you, or to give your seniors a series of workshops on international relations as a possible career. However you think I could best be of help.”
    She followed his lead,