The Cowboy and the Lady by Diana Palmer Page A

her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up, staring at the door, her face bright, her eyes brimming with excitement. Jace! Had it really happened? She touched her mouth and looked in the mirror, as if looking for evidence of the kisses he’d pressed against it. There was a faint bruise high on one arm, and she remembered with a thrill of pleasure the blaze of ardor she’d shared with him. It hadn’t been a dream after all. But had he felt the same pleasure she had? Or had it all been something he already regretted in the cold light of day? Would he be different? Would he smile instead of scowl, would he be less antagonistic? Or would he hate her even more…?
    She got into jeans and a scoop-necked powder-blue blouse and hurried downstairs, her hair loose and waving around her shoulders, her eyes full of dreams.
    It was past ten o’clock, and she hadn’t really expected Jace to be at the breakfast table, but she felt a surge of disappointment anyway when she opened the dining-room door and found only Marguerite and Terry there, Terry looking faintly irritated.
    “There you are.” He sighed. “Look, Mandy, you’ll have to handle this account from here on in. Jackson called me a few minutes ago and he doesn’t like the television spot we worked up—says it’s too ‘suggestive.’”
    “But his son approved it,” she protested.
    “Without his permission, it seems,” Terry grumbled. He gulped down the rest of his coffee and stood up. “Sorry to leave you like this, but if we lose that account we’re in big trouble. It’s the largest one we have—I don’t need to remind you about that.”
    “No, of course not. Don’t worry,” she said with a smile, “I can take over here.”
    “I never did get to talk to Jace last night.” He grinned back at her. “Maybe you’ll have better luck.” Then he thanked Marguerite for her hospitality, reminded Amanda to call him at the airport when she got into San Antonio after she finished discussing the account, and hurried away to get a cab.
    “You don’t sound quite as nervous of Jason as you did,” Marguerite murmured, eyeing her with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “I wonder why?”
    Amanda flushed in spite of herself and burst out laughing. “I’ll never tell,” she murmured.
    “I thought he’d get around to showing you how upset he’d been,” the older woman remarked as she stirred cream into her hot coffee. “I’ve never seen him like that. By the way,” she added, glancing at Amanda, “I have a delightful surprise for you.”
    “What?” Amanda asked, all eyes.
    “It will have to wait a little,” came the mysterious reply, with a smile. “Jason’s at the office this morning, but I think he may be in for lunch. Oh, and Duncan’s at the dentist.” She bit back a smile. “Jason loosened two of his caps.”
    Marguerite left minutes later for an arts council meeting, and Amanda took advantage of her absence to work on the presentation she planned to make to Jace. She hadn’t much hope of his acceptance. He might enjoy making love to her, but she suspected he had a chauvinistic attitude toward women in business, and she was afraid he wouldn’t even listen to her. It would be just like him.
    Her mind kept going back to the things he’d said, to his explanation of the proposition he’d once made her. He’d actually been asking her to marry him all those years before. She sighed, closing her eyes at the thought. To be his wife, to have the right to touch him whenever she wanted, to run to him when he came home at night and throw herself into his arms, to look after him and see that he got enough rest, to plan her life around his, to buy things for him…she might have had all that, if only she’d been mature enough to realize it wasn’t a proposition after all. She’d resented it all these years, and now there was nothing to resent; only something to regret with all her heart. Now she loved him, wanted him, needed him as only a woman