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matter-of-fact manner. He'd wondered for years how she might react when
she learned about what he did for a living. He'd expected everything from revulsion to
shock, especially when he remembered how his former fiancee had reacted to the
news. But Sally wasn't squeamish or judgmental.
    He'd seen
her hand jerk back and it had wounded him.
    But now, on hearing her opinion of his work, his heart lifted. "I didn't expect you to
credit me with noble mo tives."
    "They are, though, aren't they?" she asked confidently.
    "As a matter of
fact, in my case, they are," he replied. "Even in my green days, I never
did it just for the money. I had to believe in what I was risking my life for."
    She grinned. "I
thought maybe it was like on televi sion," she confessed. "But Jess
said it was nothing like fiction."
    He cocked an
eyebrow. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," he mused. "Parts of it are."
    "Such as?"
    "We had a guy
like 'B.A. Barrabas' in one unit I led," he said. "We really did have to knock him out to get
him on a plane. But he quit the group
before we got inventive."
    She laughed. "Too bad. You'd have had
plenty of sto ries to tell about him."
    He was
quiet for a moment, studying her.
    "Do I have a zit on my nose?" she asked pleasantly.
    He reached out and
caught the hand she'd started to lift toward him earlier and kissed its soft
palm. "Let's get to work,"
he said, pulling her along to the mat. "I'll change into my sweats and we'll cover the basics. We
won't have a lot of time," he added dryly. "I expect Jess to call
very soon with an ultimatum about Dallas."
    Jess and Dallas had squared off, in
fact, the minute they heard the truck crank and pull out of the yard.
    Dallas glared at her from his
superior height, leaning heavily on his cane. He wished she could see him,
because his eyes were full of
anger and bitterness.
    "Did you think
I wouldn't see that Stevie is the living image of me? My son," he growled at her.
"You had my

 
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WOMAN
    son! And you lied to me about it and wouldn't ask Hank for a divorce!"
    "I
couldn't!" she exclaimed. "For heaven's sake, he adored me. He'd
never have cheated on me. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I'd had an
affair with his best friend!"
    "I could have
told him," he returned furiously. "He was no angel, Jess, despite the wings
you're trying to paint on him. Or do you think he never strayed on those
overseas jaunts?"
he chided.
    She stiffened. "That's not true!"
    "It is
true!" he replied angrily. "He knew he couldn't get anybody
pregnant, and he was sure you'd never find out."
    She put a hand to
her head. She'd never dreamed that Hank had cheated on her. She'd felt so guilty,
when all the
time, he was doing the same thing—and then judging her brutally for what
she'd done. "I didn't know," she said miserably.
    "Would it have made a difference?"
    "I don't know.
Maybe it would have." She smoothed the dress over her legs. "You thought
Stevie was yours from the beginning, didn't you?"
    "No, I didn't
know Hank was sterile until later on. You told me the child was Hank's and I believed
you. Hell, by then, I couldn't even be sure that it was his."
    "You didn't think—" She stopped
abruptly. "Oh, dear God, you thought
you were one in a line?" she exploded, horrified. "You thought I ran around on Hank with any man who asked me?"
    "I knew very
little about you except that you knocked me sideways," he said flatly. "I
knew Hank ran around on you. I assumed you were allowed the same
freedom." He turned away and walked to the window, staring out at
     
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    DIANA
PALMER
    the flat horizon. "I asked you
to divorce Hank just to see what you'd say. It was exactly what I expected. You had it made—a husband
who tolerated your unfaithfulness, and no danger of falling in love."
    "I thought I had
a good marriage until you came along," she said bitterly.
    He turned, his eyes
blazing. "Don't make it sound cheap, Jess," he said harshly.
"Neither of us could stop that night. Neither of us tried."
    She