Tears of the Renegade by Linda Howard Page B

like that.”
    â€œShe’d do anything to protect her family,” Susan offered in Imogene’s defense.
    â€œTelling you to play up to Cord is like throwing a lamb to the wolves,” he snapped. “You wouldn’t have a chance. What in hell ever gave her the idea?”
    A faint blush crept into Susan’s cheeks, and she looked away from him. “She knows that he kissed me….”
    Preston bolted upright in his chair. “He what?”
    â€œHe kissed me,” she repeated steadily. Did Preston think that was something to be ashamed of?
    He’d turned pale, and abruptly he surged to his feet, running his fingers through his neat hair in an uncharacteristic gesture. “I thought, the night he first showed up, that he was just playing up to you to get back at me. Is that all it is?”
    Susan bit her lip; she honestly didn’t know. Her body told her that Cord Blackstone’s interest wasn’t limited to her name, but her mind worried over the issue. A man’s sexual instincts could be aroused even when he had another motive for seducing a woman, so she couldn’t let herself be confused by the physical responses he’d shown. Yet, he’d responded to her from the very beginning… Just when her heart was beginning to beat faster in faint hope, she saw herself stretching out her hand to him, and heard herself saying, “I’m Susan Blackstone…” No, he’d known from the first that she was a Blackstone, married to either Vance or Preston. Unhappily, she looked up at Preston. “I don’t know,” she said miserably.
    He began to pace around the room. “Susan, please, don’t have anything else to do with him. Don’t see him at all, unless you have to. You don’t have any idea of the type of man he is.”
    â€œYes, I do,” she interrupted. “He’s a hard, lonely man.” How could he not be lonely? He might have built an emotional wall to guard him, but he was all alone behind it.
    Preston gave her a derisive, unbelieving look. “My God, how can you be so naive? You’ve got to stop seeing good in everyone! Some people are bad all the way through. Will you promise me not to see him again, and protect yourself before he has a chance to really hurt you?”
    There was a very real chance that he wouldn’t want to see her , but suddenly she knew that if by some miracle he gave her another opportunity, she’d seize it with both hands. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to kiss him, to try to discover if what she felt for him was a fleeting sexual magic, or if the seeds of real love had been sown. For five yearsshe’d grieved for Vance, and though her love for him would never die, neither would it grow. Vance was frozen in place in her heart, but he didn’t occupy all of it. There was still so much love in her to give! She wanted to love again; she wanted to marry again, and bear children. Perhaps Cord wasn’t the man who would be able to touch her heart, but she already knew that she had to take the chance. If she let the opportunity pass, she’d always wonder about it, and mourn for lost chances for the rest of her days.
    She looked Preston in the eye. “I can’t promise that.”
    He swore softly, and suddenly his shoulders hunched.
    â€œAll of these years,” he muttered. “First you were Vance’s wife, then his widow. I’ve waited, knowing you weren’t over Vance, that you weren’t ready to become involved with anyone else. Damn it, why does it have to be Cord?” The last sentence was a harsh cry, and his chest swelled with the fury inside him. He gave Susan a look so tortured that tears welled in her eyes.
    She found herself on her feet, unable to calmly sit there while he bared his deepest secret to her. “Preston…I didn’t know,” she whispered.
    His clear blue eyes were a little shiny, too. “I