Read Island Hearts (Jenny's Turn and Stray Lady) for Free Online

are you? ”
    “Damn it, Jake! Let go of me! That hurts!” She jerked back from his hands, sending her chair rolling away from him. “And it’s none of your business!” She eyed him warily, nervous of his violent anger.
    “Are you marrying George?“
    She couldn’t help a nervous giggle. “I don’t think George is going to ask me.” Then her smile died as his face darkened in fury. For a minute she thought he was going to explode, then he stepped back and his face relaxed into a shuttered mask.
    “I don’t believe it,” he said flatly. “If someone had gotten through that damned reserve of yours, I’d know it.” He frowned, studying her, asking, “So what is it? It’s not like you to let your love life interfere with your career. There’s got to be more to it.”
    She shifted papers on her desk, managed to sound indifferent, almost bored. “If it amuses you to speculate, go ahead.”
    “Jennifer, you can’t just take off into the unknown with some man – this isn’t your style, a cheap affair!”
    “A cheap—” She pushed the chair back again and stood up, facing him, glaring at those eyes as the angry brown fires overtook the coolness she’d seen a moment ago. “Look here, Jake, you’re not my keeper! And you’re the last one to talk about cheap affairs!”
    “Well someone sure as hell should be your keeper! You’re throwing away your career – everything – for a shoddy romance. Do your parents have any idea what you’re doing?”
    Her parents! God! She closed her eyes to cover the moment’s hurt at his assumption that her parents would care. “I’m not exactly a child. I’m twenty-eight years old.”
    “You’re sure as hell not behaving like it!”
    “Thanks a lot!” she hissed, “You’re not interested in my well-being! You’re thinking of yourself. It’ll put your schedule out of whack if I quit.”
    “That’s the understatement of the year! It’d be chaos and you know it. How the—”
    “Will you stop swearing?”
    He glared at her, then took a deep breath. “All right. How would you suggest I go about replacing you? Damn it, Jennifer! You’re necessary here!”
    “What you really mean,” she said slowly and bitterly, “is that no one else around here wants to give up all their holidays, their weekends and their evenings, just to make sure you keep the commitments you take on. You say I’m giving up my career! Just what am I giving up?” She jabbed a finger hard onto the desk. “A lifetime as your general dogsbody? I don’t go on location any more. I don’t get to film anything except greasy hamburgers – Jake, a couple of years ago you wouldn’t have taken on junk like that! You’re doing more and more, without thinking about the quality of what you’re doing, giving me all the dirty work, and yourself and Hans the assignments that have some excitement. You’re getting bigger, but you’re not getting better!”
    Silence fell around them as her words echoed in the studio. Jake stared at her, his brown face strangely pale.
    “If that’s how you felt, you should have said so long ago, shouldn’t you? Instead of hiding your thoughts behind those green eyes.”
    “Jake, I don’t—”
    But he was going, turning away, closing that damned door quietly for once, but with a decisive click that made it impossible for her to go after him.
    He didn’t even know the color of her eyes, saying they were green. They were hazel, plain old hazel.
    She’d always known it would be a mistake to start shouting at Jake, that she would say too much. It was a good thing he’d left when he did, before she said even more.
    She felt sick now. She’d seen Jake angry often enough, though usually at other people. He’d never hesitated to speak his mind to anyone; but no matter what Jake had said, she’d kept any angry retorts deeply hidden.

    She met George for lunch.
    “I’m going nuts!” George confessed over a plate of salad. “I’ve got a shopping list for the