Breath of Scandal(105)

Dillon drained his soda and crumpled the can in his fist. He couldn't imagine the competent, calm, cool, and collected Ms. Sperry being involved in a scandal, especially one of a licentious nature. He didn't want to imagine her in any context, but she frequently figured into his thoughts.

That was natural, he assured himself. She was his boss. He would be thinking about his boss if his boss were a man. If his boss were a man, however, he wouldn't be having the same thoughts as those he often entertained about Jade.

He had been physically faithful to Debra for almost a year following her death. Then, one cold, lonely night in one of the plains states-Montana? Idaho?-he had picked up a woman in a bar and taken her to a motel room. Afterward, he was disgusted with himself and more lonely than before. He cried for Debra in dry, racking sobs. In spite of his emotional disability, his physical appetites recovered and grew to be strong and healthy again. The second time he took a woman to bed, he had less difficulty dealing with it. The third time, it was almost easy. By then he had developed the ability to disassociate the physical act from his conscience. His body could be stimulated without arousing his guilt. He could achieve pleasurable release without involving his heart and mind.

His aloof manner had made him even more appealing to women than before. They found his latent hostility exciting. His wounded demeanor beckoned to their matemal instincts. None, however, had appeased anything except his sex drive. He was just as haunted when he left them as before. Names and faces were never recorded in his memory .

A name and a face were now recurring with frequency in his thoughts. That bothered him considerably.

The mutt outside began to bark. "Shut up," Dillon hollered through the door. Then he heard a car motor and pulled the door open. Jade Sperry alighted from a shiny new pickup truck with the TexTile logo stenciled on the door.

"Does he bite?" she asked, nodding toward the dog.

Breath of Scandal



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"I don't know. He's not mine."

"1 11 don't think he knows that. He's already guarding you.

Bending at the waist, she beckoned the dog forward by making kissing noises with her mouth. "Come here, pooch." The dog stopped barking, whimpered a few times, then crept down the steps toward her. She let him smell her hand. He licked it. She scratched him behind the ears.

"Some watchdog," Dillon remarked drolly. Straightening up, Jade tossed him a set of keys to the truck. "I hope you like it. " He snatched the keys out of the air with one fist. "It's yours to drive for as long as you're on the job."

"I've already got a truck."

She glanced at his battered pickup. "That's for personal use. Anytime you're representing TexTile, use the company truck, please. "

"Yes, ma'am. Anything else?"

She climbed the steps to the trailer. The dog trailed behind her, wagging his tail. She took a gasoline credit card from her purse and handed it to Dillon. "Use this, too." "Thanks. ' I

"The bills will be sent directly to me." "They sure as hell better be."

He was being rude and obnoxious, but it bothered him to take gifts from a woman. It reminded him of being tutored by Mrs. Chandler on how to make love. Do this, do that. Not so hard. Harder. Slower. Faster. Dillon had been a quick learner and, before long, had mastered his own technique. He liked it much better when he had the upper hand.

It was an untimely and unpopular attitude, he knew, but he couldn't help it. He was perversely glad that he was on the step above Jade and she had to tilt her head back in order to speak to him face to face. She might be the boss lady and have the means to buy new trucks, but she wasn't going to bash his masculinity.

"You'll have to drive me home." "Sure. t 9

"I'd like to see the office you've set up first." He didn't



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budge. She smiled up at him with feigned sweetness. "If this is a convenient time, Mr. Burke."

He locked eyes with her, sensing that there was an undeclared war of wills going on. Eventually, he stepped aside and waved her into the trailer. To keep the dog from coming inside, he closed the door, then wished he hadn't. The trailer was too small for two people-at least it seemed that way now that he was alone in it with Jade.

He had never seen her dressed in anything except suitable office attire. She had changed since the town meeting and was now wearing a pair of jeans and a white pullover. If he hadn't known better, he would never have guessed she had carried a child for nine months. Her thighs and ass were firm and slender. Her belly was flat. Her breasts . . .

He cleared his throat. "The phone lines will be installed tomorrow - "

"Good," she said, turning away from her inspection of the desk he had installed. The living area of the trailer had been converted into a compact office. The only items not used for business were a radio and a small portable TV set. "This doesn't leave you much room to live in."

"I don't need much room."

"Are you sure you won't reconsider my hiring a secretary for you?"

He shook his head. "If I decide later on that I need one, I'll let you know. " Her eyes roved beyond him, toward the kitchen and bedroom. "Did you want to check out my bed, too?"