Love on Trial by Diana Palmer Page B

that I shouldn’t have, and I regret them. But I’ve never lost my head with a woman before. It shook me.”
    The admission startled her. “But you didn’t…!”
    He tugged the strand of hair again, more firmly. “I very nearly didn’t let you go,” he said solemnly. “It was good, Siri. It was so damned good, I didn’t want to stop. I was rougher with you than I ever meant to be, and more intimate. It must be my age,” he laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve never stooped to the attempted seduction of innocents before. And I’m going to take you home tomorrow before Itry it again. You’re very…vulnerable where I’m concerned, Siri,” he remarked with a scowl. “It’s damned flattering, but extremely dangerous. One thing I told you I meant—you need to learn about adult relationships with a boy your own age. I’m too old and jaded to teach you in any respectable way. In short, little one,” he added with a mocking smile, “I want it all. Not just nibbles.”
    She blushed, dropping her eyes to the shiny table where her reflection looked back at her. “I shouldn’t have come.”
    â€œIt’s my own fault, baby. I talked you into it.” He leaned back to light his cigarette, only to have to put it out again as the waitress reappeared with two full plates of scallops, tossed salads, rolls, and baked potatoes.
    â€œDon’t dwell on it, sparrow,” Hawke told her with a quiet smile. “Tomorrow we’ll be home. You’ll be back on the job, and swinging at Holland, and all this will seem like a dream.”
    â€œOr a nightmare?” she teased with a little of her old impudence as she glanced at him.
    â€œI wouldn’t go that far,” he said with a considering look. “You left some pretty deep marks on my shoulders.”
    She blushed to the roots of her hair and gasped unconsciously at the reference. She attacked her scallops with a vengeance, ignoring the soft, amused laughter at her ear.
    It was all a game to him, she thought as she ate. Just a game to play with her, and he was a master at it. She wasn’t experienced enough to laugh it off, or throw the taunting remarks back at him. Oh, I wish I was five years older, Hawke Grayson, she thought angrily. I’d pay you back with interest, if I had just a little more experience under my belt!
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    They walked back to the hotel in companionable silence. Siri didn’t dare break it, for fear that he’d start teasing heragain, and she didn’t think she could bear it.
    In one way, it would be good to go back home and leave the danger of being with him like this behind. In another sense, it was going to be horribly painful. Now that she finally knew how she felt about the broad-shouldered, husky man at her side, it was going to be all that much harder to go back to the old routine. Having had a taste of heaven, life was going to be very boring for a long time, maybe forever. She glanced up at him, her eyes resting briefly, involuntarily, on the chiseled curve of his mouth. Why couldn’t he have been ten years younger? Why couldn’t she have been ten years older?
    They were alone in the elevator going up to their suite, and she felt his eyes on her every foot of the short climb. He got to the door first and opened it for her, standing aside to let her enter. She started for her bedroom, as she usually did whenthey came home late. The last time, she thought, this was the last time….
    â€œSiri…” he called gently.
    She turned slowly, her sad amber eyes meeting his across the short distance that separated them. His were dark and strange, smoldering.
    â€œInfatuation dies a natural death when it doesn’t have anything to feed on,” he said. “And that’s all it is, sparrow. You’re growing up fast. I’ve taught you things you should have learned in easy stages, and it’s gone