Heartbreaker (14 page)

He frowned. “What does that have to do with dating?”

“Everything, in high school,” she reminded him curtly. “Besides all that, most boys these days want girls who don’t mind giving out. I did. It got around after I poured a cup of hot chocolate all over Barry Cramer when he slid his hand under my skirt at a party.”

“He did what?” he exclaimed, eyes flaming.

The rush to anger surprised her. He’d never shown any particular emotion about her infrequent dates.

“I told him that a hamburger and a movie didn’t entitle him to that sort of perk.”

“You should have told me,” he said curtly. “I’d have decked him!”

Her cheeks colored faintly. “That would have got around, too, and I’d never have had another date.”

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He moved close to the bed and studied her like an insect on a pin. “I don’t suppose you’d have encouraged a boy to touch you like that.”

“Whatever for?” she asked curiously.

His jaw clenched, hard. “Tellie, don’t you…feel anything…with boys?”

She cocked her head. “Like what?”

“Like an urge to kiss them, to let them touch you.”

The color in her cheeks mushroomed. She could barely meet his eyes. “I don’t…I don’t feel that way.”

“Ever?”

She shifted, frowning. “What’s gotten into you, J.B.? I’m only seventeen. There’s plenty of time for that kind of thing when I’m old enough to think about marriage.”

His fist clenched in his pocket. Even at her real age, he’d never seen her get flustered around anything male, not even himself. The one time he’d kissed her with intent, on his own sofa, she’d given in at once, but she’d been reticent and shocked more than aroused. He was beginning to think that she’d never been aroused in her life; not even with him. It stung his pride, in one way, and made him hungry in another. It disturbed him that he couldn’t make Tellie want him. God knew, most other women did.

“Is that what you meant, when you called me a kid earlier?” she asked seriously.

He moved to the foot of the bed, with his hands still shoved deep in his pockets, and stared at her. “Yes.

That’s what I meant. You’re completely unawakened. In this modern day and age, it’s almost
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unthinkable for a woman your age to know so little about men.”

“Well, gee whiz, I guess I’d better rush right out there and get myself a prescription for the pill and get busy, huh?” she asked rakishly. “Heaven forbid that I should be a throwback to a more conservative age, especially in this house! Didn’t you write the book on sexual liberation?”

He felt uncomfortable. “Running with the crowd is the coward’s way out. You have to have the courage of your convictions.”

“You’ve just told me to forget them and follow the example of the Romans.”

He glowered. “I did not!”

She threw up her hands. “Then why are you complaining?”

“I wasn’t complaining!”

“You don’t have to yell at me,” she muttered. “I’m sick.”

“I think I’m going to be,” he said under his breath.

“You sure have changed since I was in the wreck,” she murmured, staring at him curiously. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d advise me to go out and get experienced with men. I don’t even know any men.” She frowned. “Well, that’s not completely true. I know Grange.” Her eyes brightened.

“Maybe I can ask him to give me some pointers. He looks like he’s been around!”

J.B. looked more and more like the storm outside. He moved toward the bed and sat down beside her, leaning down with his hands on either side of her face on the pillow. “You don’t need lessons from Grange,” he said through his teeth. “When you’re ready to learn,” he added on a deep, husky breath, “I’ll teach you.”

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Ripples of pleasure ran up and down her nerves, leaving chill bumps of excitement all over her arms. Her breath caught at the thought of J.B.’s hard, beautiful mouth on her lips.

His eyes went down to her pajama jacket, and this time they lingered. For an instant, he looked shocked. Then his eyes began to glitter and he smiled, very slowly.

She looked down again, too, but she couldn’t see anything unusual. Well, her nipples were tight and hard, and a little uncomfortable. That was because of her sudden chill. Wasn’t it?

Her eyes met his again, with a faint question in them.

“You don’t even understand this, do you?” he asked, and suddenly, without warning, he drew the tip of his forefinger right over one distended nipple with the faintest soft brushing motion.

She gasped out loud and her body arched. She looked, and was, shocked out of her mind.

J.B.’s green eyes darkened with sudden hunger. His gaze fell to her parted, full lips, to the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat. He ached to open her pajama top and put his mouth right on her breast. Unthinkable pleasures were burning in the back of his mind.

Tellie was frightened, both of what was happening to her body, and of letting him know how vulnerable she was. There was something vaguely unsettling about the way he was looking at her. It brought back a twinge of memory, of J.B. mocking her because she was weak toward him…

She brought up her arms and crossed them over her breasts.

“Spoilsport,” he murmured, meeting her shocked eyes.

She fought to breathe normally. “J. B. Hammock, I’m seventeen years old!” she burst out.

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He started to contradict her and realized at once that he didn’t dare. He scowled and got to his feet abruptly. What the hell was he thinking?

He ran a hand over his hair and turned away. “I’ve got to go to town and see a Realtor about a parcel of land that’s just come up for sale,” he said in a strangely thick tone. “It adjoins my north pasture. I’ll send Nell up with breakfast.”

“Yes, that would be…that would be nice.”

He glanced back at her from the door. He felt frustrated and guilty. But behind all that, he was elated.

Tellie was vulnerable to him, and not just in the girlish way she had been for the past few years. She was vulnerable as a woman. It was the first time her body had reacted to his touch in that particular way.

He should have been ashamed of himself. He wasn’t. His eyes slid over her body in the pajamas as if she belonged to him already. He couldn’t hide the pride of possession that he felt.

It made Tellie shake inside. Surely he wasn’t thinking…?

“Don’t beat yourself to death over it,” he said. “We’re all human, Tellie. Even me. See you later.”

He went out quickly and closed the door behind him, before his aching body could provoke him into even worse indiscretions than he’d already committed.

Nell brought breakfast and stared worriedly at Tellie’s high color. “You’re not having a relapse, are you?” she asked, worried.

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Tellie wished she could confide in the housekeeper, or in someone. But she had no close friends, and she couldn’t even have told Marge. She couldn’t talk to Marge about her brother!

“Nothing’s wrong, honest,” Tellie said. “I went to look out the window, and a big flash of lightning almost made me jump out of my skin. I’m still reeling.”

Nell’s face relaxed. “Is that all?” She smiled. “I don’t mind storms, but J.B. is always uneasy. Don’t forget his grandmother died in a tornado outbreak.”

“He told me,” she said.

“Did he, now?” Nell exclaimed. “He doesn’t talk about the old lady much.”

Tellie nodded. “He doesn’t talk about much of anything personal,” she agreed. She frowned. “I wonder if he confides in his fashion dolls?”

Nell didn’t get the point at first, but when she did, she burst out laughing. “That was mean, Tellie.”

Tellie just grinned. She was going to forget what J.B. had done in those few tempestuous seconds. She was certain that he’d regretted it.

Sure enough, he didn’t come in to see her at all the rest of the day. Next morning, he went out without a word.

About lunchtime, Grange showed up. Since J.B. wasn’t there to keep him out, Nell escorted him up to Tellie’s room with a conspiratorial grin.

“Company,” Nell announced. “He can stay for lunch. I’ll bring up a double tray.” She went out, but left the door open.

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Grange moved toward the bed with his wide-brimmed hat in his hand. He’d had a haircut and a close shave. He smelled nice, very masculine. His dark eyes twinkled as he studied Tellie in her pink pajamas.

She felt self-conscious and pulled the sheet up higher.

He laughed. “Sorry.”

She shrugged. “I’m not used to men seeing me in my nightclothes,” she told him. It wasn’t totally true.

He didn’t know, and J.B. seemed to constantly forget, that she’d been almost assaulted by a boy in her early teens. It hadn’t left immense scars, but she still felt uneasy about her body. She wasn’t comfortable with men. She wondered if she should admit that to J.B. It might soften his provocative attitude toward her.

“I’ll try not to stare,” Grange promised, smiling as he sat down in the chair beside her bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” she said. “I wanted to get up, but Nell won’t let me.”

“Concussion is tricky,” he replied, and he didn’t smile. “The first few days are chancy. Better you stay put in bed, just for the time being.”

She smiled at him. “I’ll bet you’ve seen your share of injuries, being in the military.”

He nodded. “Concussion isn’t all that uncommon in war. I’ve seen some nasty head injuries that looked pretty innocent at first. Better safe than sorry.”

“I hate being confined,” she confessed. “I want to get out and do things, but Dr. Coltrain said I couldn’t.

Nell and J.B. are worse than jailers,” she added.

He chuckled. “Nell’s a character.” He hesitated. “Did you know there’s a chef in the kitchen, complete
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with tall white hat and French accent?”

She nodded. “That’s Albert,” she replied. “He’s been here for the past ten years. J.B. likes continental cuisine.”

“He seems to be intimidated by Nell,” he observed.

“He probably is. Gossip is that when Albert came here, Nell was in possession of the kitchen and unwilling to turn it over to a foreigner. They say,” she added in a soft, conspiratorial tone, “that she chased him into the living room with a rolling pin when he refused to make dumplings her way. It took a pay raise and a color television for his room to keep him here. J.B. and Nell had a real falling out about that, and she threatened to quit. She got a raise, too.” She laughed shortly. She’d remembered something from the past! Surely the rest couldn’t be far behind now.

Grange chuckled at what she’d told him about Nell. “She seems formidable enough.”

“She is. She and J.B. argue most of the time, but it’s usually in a good-natured way.”

He put his hat on the floor beside his chair and raked a hand through his neatly trimmed straight dark hair. “When they let you out of here, we’ll go take in a new science-fiction movie. How about that?”

She smiled. “Sounds like fun.” She was curious about him. He didn’t seem the sort of man to be vulnerable to women, but it was apparent that he liked Tellie. “Do you have family here in Jacobsville?”

she asked in all innocence.

His face hardened. His dark eyes narrowed. “No.”

She frowned. She’d struck a nerve. “I’m sorry, is there something else I don’t remember—?”

“There’s a lot,” he cut her off, but gently. “You’re bound to wander into a few thickets before you find the right path. Don’t worry about it.”

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She drew in a long breath. “I feel like I’m walking around in a fog. Everybody’s hiding things from me.”

“It’s necessary. Just for a week or so,” he promised.

“You know about me, don’t you? Can’t you tell me?”

He held up a hand and laughed. “I’d just as soon not get on the wrong side of Hammock while you’re living under his roof. I’d lose visiting privileges. I may lose them anyway, if Nell spills the beans that I’ve been here while he was out.”

“Doesn’t he like you?”

“He doesn’t like most people,” he agreed. “Especially me, at the moment.”

“What did you do to him?”

“It’s a long story, and it doesn’t concern you right now,” he said quietly.

She flushed. His voice had been very curt.

“Don’t look like that,” he said, feeling guilty “I don’t want to hurt you. J.B. and I have an unfortunate history, that’s all.”

She blinked. “It sounds unpleasant.”

“It was,” he confessed. “But it happened a long time ago. Right now, our only concern is to get you well
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again.”

Footsteps sounded on the staircase and a minute later, Nell walked in with a tray holding two plates, two glasses of iced tea and a vase full of yellow roses.

“Never thought I’d get up the stairs with everything intact,” she laughed as Grange got up and took the tray from her, setting it down gently on the mahogany side table by the bed.

“The roses,” Tellie exclaimed. “They’re beautiful!”

“Glad you like them,” Grange said easily, and with a smile. “We do live in Texas, after all.”

“‘The Yellow Rose of Texas,’” she recalled the song. She reached over and plucked one of the stems out of the vase to smell it. There was a delicate, sweet scent. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a bouquet of flowers in my life,” she added, confused.

“You haven’t,” Nell replied for her. She sounded irritated. “Nice of Grange to remember that sick people usually like flowers.”