Sweet Child of Mine by Jean Brashear Page A

something so obviously painful. If his friends and family hadn’t been able to find a way past his guard, how could she expect to do so?
    But she still wanted to help, so she opened the car door and emerged, following him up the steps. “Michael, maybe it would be good for you to talk about—”
    His hand stilled on the screen door. Slowly, very slowly, he turned. His face was the mask of a stranger, a hard man she didn’t want to know. “Suzanne, get one thing straight. This marriage is a charade we will act out for the benefit of others. I will do my best to get along with you and your son and make this time as comfortable as possible for all of us.”
    Then his voice lost its careful neutrality. “But if you want to stay in this house past the next second, you will never, ever ask me about my wife and son again.” The green eyes that could be soft and warm and funny were hard as malachite now. “Is that clear?”
    She felt like nothing so much as a chastened child. If she hadn’t heard the enormous relief in Jim’s voice that she would be able to take Bobby, she’d turn around right now and walk back to town, right after telling Michael Longstreet to go straight to hell.
    But her son and the good man who loved him were depending on her. So she clenched her jaw and bit out the words. “Very clear.”
    “Fine.” He held the door open for her. “After you.”
    “Fine.” She swept ahead of him in high dudgeon, not sparing a glance for her surroundings. “If you’ll show me my room, I’ll take a look and then you can take me home.”
    He didn’t try to mouth any platitudes about this being her new home. It was abundantly clear now that this would never be more than a way station. She would check first thing Monday morning on getting someone else to help her with gaining legal custodyof Bobby. She would bite her tongue off before she asked this man for the tiniest favor that wasn’t absolutely required by this sham of a marriage.
    She followed him upstairs, mentally making a list of all she’d need to do to get this over with as soon as possible. When Michael stopped at a doorway, she almost plowed right into him.
    He stepped aside and gestured. “Here it is. Bobby will be over there.” He pointed to a room diagonally across the landing.
    She didn’t ask where he would be. In the barn would suit her fine. Then she stepped into the room and almost gasped with pleasure.
    It was a woman’s room, that was obvious. A stunning mahogany four-poster bed was set diagonally in the far corner, its coverlet a pale lavender satin. Fluffy, lacy pillows were mounded at the head. Gleaming oak floors were topped with a beautiful rug in pale cream, mint green and all shades of lavender and rose. An antique vanity with a big rounded mirror stood against the wall nearest the door, and in the corner to her left, a chaise angled by the window, a place to read and dream.
    She’d never seen a more beautiful room in her life. Then an uneasy suspicion grew. “You shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”
    “I didn’t. The former owners sold it to me fully furnished. I’ve remodeled and replaced some thingsin the spaces I use most, but I left this room as it was. I don’t know why.”
    He sounded almost embarrassed, and some of the hurt leaked out of her.
    Be an adult, Suzanne. He has a right to his secrets.
    She was about to turn around, an apology on her lips, when she spotted the door just before the chaise and walked to it, pulling it open, expecting a closet.
    What she found was far too big to be called simply a closet. To her left, she spotted racks of men’s clothing and shelves filled with shoes and other decidedly male gear. To her right were empty racks and shelves. “What is this?” Before he could answer, she spotted a door across from her and was almost certain she knew.
    “It’s a dressing room,” he answered.
    But she hadn’t read a million historical romances for nothing. She whirled and pointed a