The Temptress by Jude Deveraux Page B

said, “I beg to differ with you, Mr. Sayers. Mr. Tynan has read all my articles. Perhaps he was selective in his reading.”
    â€œNot Mr. Tynan,” Rory said with a smile. “I don’t believe he has another name.”
    Chris could take no more. She couldn’t stand the man’s smugness or his catty remarks. She stood. “I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me as I have a splitting headache. Mr. Tynan, would you please escort me out into the fresh air? I think a walk will help clear my head.”
    Rory Sayers rose, presumptuously taking Chris’s arm. “I’ll take you, Miss Mathison.”
    With all the haughtiness she could muster, she jerked her arm from his grasp. “Sir, I only met you tonight. I do not entrust my safety to men I do not know. Mr. Tynan, would you mind?”
    Rory was aghast. “I’m afraid,” he said with emphasized tolerance for her ignorance, “that you don’t know this man. He’s—”
    Chris hadn’t traveled all over the United States on her own and not learned how to handle all types of men. “I have just spent a great deal of time alone with this man and I know all I need to know about him. I am especially aware of the fact that he has the manners of a gentleman.”
    She turned away to see Tynan standing beside her, an enormous grin on his face, his arm extended. “The lady has taste,” he said to Rory. “Sit back down and finish your meal. I’ll take good care of her.”
    With that, he led Chris out of the hotel and into the moonlit street. But as soon as they were outside, he released her arm.
    â€œWhy did you do that?”
    â€œBecause I can’t stand that type of man,” she said with feeling.
    â€œType? But I thought all women liked that kind of man. Most all of them I’ve ever known do.”
    â€œBut then you’ve never met a woman who could run away from home at the age of eighteen and become a newspaper reporter either, have you?”
    â€œNo,” he said with a grin. “I haven’t. Do you really have a headache? Do you want me to take you back inside?”
    She stopped and looked at him. “If I promise not to be forward, will you take me for a walk?”
    â€œForward?”
    â€œSuch as pursuing you and asking too many questions and, in general, making a nuisance of myself.”
    He gave her a startled look, then grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alleyway. Before Chris could speak, he had her in his arms, holding her head against his chest. “Chris, you don’t understand, do you? Thank you for what you did in there tonight. If four men came up to me aiming guns at my head, I’d know how to handle them, but give me one spoiled rich boy and I’m at a loss. But you made me feel…”
    â€œLike a winner?” she supplied and tried to look up at him but he held her head against him. “Deja vu,” she whispered.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI have a feeling that I’ve been here before, in just this situation. Remember our first meeting?”
    â€œNo man could ever forget a meeting like that. Chris, you have to go back inside. I can’t go walking with you in the dark.”
    Chris wanted to stay with him always and, had he asked, she would have climbed on a horse and ridden away with him—to live in the rain forest for all she cared. But she knew she had to obey him. He didn’t know how he felt about her and she wasn’t about to pursue him.
    â€œAll right,” she whispered with great reluctance in her voice. “Let’s go.”
    He moved away from her slowly, not looking at her, and allowed her to go first back onto the street. Chris took one step around the corner and saw Rory with Asher coming toward them, and they had the look of a vigilante committee out to rid the world of whatever they considered vermin. She turned back to Tynan. “Kiss me,” she whispered