Renegade by Diana Palmer Page A

what the hell he wanted. “I’m leaving.”
    â€œYou said that,” she said, unspeakably delighted. He was confused, overwhelmed, totally at sea, and she knew why. He felt something for her. Something powerful. Now he was going to fight it to the bitter end. But somehow she felt an optimism that she couldn’t ex plain.
    â€œI’ll be back for lunch,” he said finally. “Just for lunch. I’ll be packed and ready to leave town after.”
    â€œOkay.”
    He hesitated. He looked back at her with dark, quiet eyes. “I didn’t hurt you?”
    â€œOf course not,” she said softly.
    He sighed. Some of the anger drained out of him as he looked at her in the pale light. “Even at the last? I was rough. I didn’t mean to be.”
    â€œI know that. I wasn’t afraid. It was glorious!” She managed to smile. “I never thought…” She shrugged. “It was…almost unbearable.”
    He nodded. “For me, too.” His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “But it was still irresponsible. I should have used something.”
    â€œI’ll remind you next time,” she promised.
    The glare was back. “I’ve told you, there isn’t going to be a next time!”
    â€œThat’s what you said this time.”
    â€œI’m really leaving.”
    â€œDon’t speed,” she chided.
    He gave her a cold glare and slammed out of the apartment. Below, she heard the roar of a wildcat and the furious acceleration out of the parking spot. No wonder they called them Jaguars, she thought, wincing at the screeching tires.
    Â 
    T IPPY DANCED AROUND the apartment, cleaning and polishing and cooking, feeling happier than she’d ever been before. She was crazy about Cash. She couldn’t get the forbidden images out of her mind as she relived over and over again the feverish pleasure of his body against hers in bed.
    Hiding it from Rory was difficult. He wouldn’t understand what was going on. Or he might. But she didn’t want Cash to become lessened in the boy’s eyes. She didn’t want him to think that Cash had taken advantage of her, or hurt her.
    â€œYou’re cheerful today,” Rory commented when she took the turkey out of the oven.
    â€œI feel good,” she mused.
    â€œNice date last night, huh?” he murmured, his eyes twinkling.
    â€œNice,” she agreed.
    â€œWe heard some maniac drive off about dawn,” he mumbled without looking at her. “There are some pretty bad tire tracks in front of the apartment.”
    â€œCash and I had a…disagreement,” she said without meeting his eyes. “Just a little one. He’s still coming to dinner today.”
    â€œSis, he’s not exactly what he seems,” Rory said, solemnly for a nine-year-old. “He’s had some really hard knocks and he has no close friends at all.”
    â€œYour commandant knows him. I forgot.”
    Rory nodded. “I’m crazy about Cash. But I don’t want you to get hurt.”
    He was saying things she’d only thought. Hearing them made her stiffen. She was living in a fool’s paradise. She’d seduced Cash, she was daydreaming about happily ever after. And her nine-year-old brother knew what was going on better than she did. Was she actually thinking that an outcast who’d lived an outcast, dangerous life would rush to get involved with a woman? Especially after a disastrous marriage that had left mental scars he was still carrying?
    Cash wasn’t thinking about happily ever after. He’d even said so. He hadn’t wanted to touch her in the first place. She’d played on his weakness and his need. She’d led him right to her bed and he hadn’t been able to resist. But that didn’t mean he loved her. Not even that impassioned husky plea for a child meant love. It meant that he was lonely and jealous of Judd Dunn and hungry for a child.