were tears in her eyes as she washed it.
If she’d hoped that Cul might soften, even a little, after that wild kiss, she was disappointed. He was as cold as winter stone with her the next day, tossing instructions around like bullets. Once she paused just a second too long before lines, and he went through the ceiling. It didn’t help that she started getting involuntary stares from the rest of the cast. She was being ridden deliberately, and they knew it.
“What have you done to him now, darling?” David teased at the lunch break as she started out the door with her brown bag in hand.
“Still breathing,” she told him with a smile. “Never mind, we’re old enemies.”
“Are you really?” he asked, his eyes openly curious.
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’m off to the park for lunch. See you.”
“Want some company?” he asked hopefully.
She shook her head. “Thanks, but I need to be alone for a little while.”
He stared after her quietly, his dark eyes wistful and sad. She felt that long gaze, and almost turned around to invite him along. But what David was looking for, she couldn’t offer. She had nothing to give him, not even half a heart. Everything she was belonged to Cul, whether he wanted her or not.
She sat down on a park bench and watched children play near the lake, smiling at their antics as they fed the ducks. She could have given Cul children, if he’d ever felt strongly enough about her. Once she’d thought he did.
The last time they were together had been on a day like this, she recalled, looking around at the blue sky and the warm sunshine on the grass. They’d lain together in a secluded spot in an Atlanta park under a spreading oak tree and talked lazily of fame and fortune and the future….
* * *
“What do you want to be, eventually?” she asked him, lying back in the grass. She was wearing a white peasant dress that day, with an elasticized bodice that showed off her golden tan. He was wearing his usual jeans and a burgundy knit pullover that day, a shade that emphasized his blondness.
His green eyes darkened as he let them run from her loosened reddish hair down to her long, slender legs where the skirt of her dress had ridden up over her knees. “Your lover,” he murmured wickedly.
She laughed almost bitterly, her arms thrown back over her head as she closed her eyes. “That will be the day,” she muttered.
She felt him before she saw him. Her eyes opened suddenly as his formidable weight settled over her torso, his forearms supporting him.
“How about today, then, Bett?” he asked softly, bending to her mouth.
They’d kissed before. Soft, clinging kisses. Even a few deep, hard ones. But this was a different way, an oddly sensuous way. His mouth nibbled and brushed and bit at hers in a slow rhythm that made her feel odd from the neck down. Her legs began to tremble as his tongue traced the outline of her mouth and penetrated the soft line of her lips.
He lifted a little, easing onto one elbow so that his other hand had free access to her body. It slid gently over her waist for a long time before it moved up and brushed lightly over her breast. She caught her breath and he lifted his head, but he didn’t move his hand.
He searched her eyes quietly. Seeing the yielding fascination in them, he drew the elasticized bodice slowly down until it rested beneath her breasts, baring them to the sunlight and his darkening eyes.
She held her breath, remembering how it had been. The impact had been frightening; she’d never let a man look at her like that. His eyes were narrowed, glittering and spellbound by the swelling softness of her.
Around them, the deserted park was quiet. Only the soft cries of the birds interrupted the burning silence.
“Oh Bett,” he breathed huskily. His fingers touched the hardening buds as if it were the first time he’d ever touched a woman that way, and they trembled. “Bett, do you even know what it means, when this