Read LovePlay for Free Online Page B

she hated him for the powerful sensuousness of his body and the longing that had never died.
    “Does it?” she asked blankly, staring carelessly at him with an acting ability that was surely Oscar quality.
    He lifted his chin and studied her unsmilingly. “You can’t act with me,” he said after a minute. “I know you too well.”
    She laughed bitterly. “Yes, you know me.” She picked up her coffee and sipped it. If she ignored him, perhaps he’d go away.
    But he didn’t. He eased into the seat beside her with a sigh, and stretched out his long legs.
    “It’s been a long day already,” he remarked. “And we’ve hours to go. I hate damned rehearsals.”
    “Not half as much as I do, especially yours,” she replied, throwing caution to the winds. She glared at him. “Must you make a career of humiliating me in front of the others?”
    He laughed shortly. “I thought we’d come to that.” He let his eyes wander slowly over her. “I want you, Bett,” he said unexpectedly, and with cold anger. “I was sure that six years had blotted you out of my glands, but it hasn’t. Ever since that night in your apartment, I’ve been walking around aching all over.”
    Steady, girl, she told herself. This looks like a trap. She smiled carelessly. “I’m sure you’re not used to women refusing you, Cul, but I have a long memory. I’m still carrying your footprints along my spine.”
    He searched her dark eyes quietly. “It hurt me as much as it hurt you, walking away,” he said. “I loved you.”
    That was something he’d never told her, even though she’d suspected it. To hear it put into words made her want to cry for all the lost years, the lost love. She turned her head away. “Did you?” she asked in a shaky voice, sipping more of her coffee. “You had the strangest damned way of expressing it.”
    “I didn’t want marriage,” he reminded her. “I still don’t. And there you were, with your adolescent dreams of marriage and children and happily ever after.”
    She glanced at him. “Well, pat yourself on the back. You escaped.”
    “Yes, I did. But why haven’t you married, Bett?”
    She smiled poisonously. “You cured me, darling. I’m not capable of emotional involvement anymore. Can’t you see the scars, or is it just that you don’t want to?”
    His nostrils flared. “Don’t try to lay the blame on me,” he said. He crossed his legs impatiently. “You were the one with the dreams. I was honest with you from the beginning.”
    “I was eighteen,” she said. “And you were the first man who made me tremble all over. I came of age with you. I learned what being a woman was all about.”
    He lifted his head arrogantly. “Not quite.”
    She smiled slowly. “Well, not with you, of course,” she continued, meaning to hurt. She felt a pang of triumph when his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “My first lover wasn’t quite in your league, but, then, beggars can’t be choosers.”
    He was white in the face, but if he felt anything, it wasn’t showing in those hard green eyes. He looked away toward the lake. “Did he hurt you?”
    “Of course,” she said, pretending a nonchalance she didn’t feel. “But no one has since.” She leaned back with the empty cup in her hand, sighing. “I suppose I should thank you for helping me over my inhibitions.” She glanced at him, satisfied with the tenseness of his jaw. “That day in the park was an education in itself. Too bad the people had to come along when they did.”
    He looked at her, shocking her with the glitter in his eyes. “Yes, wasn’t it?” he asked coldly. “But, then, the role of tutor never appealed much to me.”
    “Was that why you held back?” she murmured, watching him. “I always thought it was because you were afraid I might deliberately get pregnant, to hold you.”
    A strange, passionate expression crossed his face and darkened his eyes. He laughed mockingly and turned away. “You weren’t the type to