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couldn’t bear the way she looked. He got up jerkily and went to the window, lighting a cigarette as he stared out at nothing at all. He drew in a harsh breath of pungent smoke and let it out.
    “I didn’t realize you were a virgin,” he said curtly. “Not until it was too late and I’d frightened you half to death. Don’t you think I know why you don’t go out with men?” He turned, pinning her shocked eyes with his. “Don’t you think I care about what I’ve done to you?”
    She swallowed, dropping her gaze to her cold, nervous hands on the sheet. “It was a long time ago….”
    “It might as well have been yesterday,” he said heavily. “God in heaven, stop pushing me away!” She flushed. “I haven’t.”
    He turned, moving back toward the bed, his face as drawn as her own. He paused beside her. “Tess, I know you’re afraid of me physically. I’d have to be blind not to be aware of it. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want you where you’ll be taken care of until you’re back on your feet again. Beryl will be at the ranch if I’m not.” “I don’t know Beryl. Helen says I can stay with her….”
    “When Helen isn’t at work, she’s at ballet class. If she has any free time at all, she’s eating pizza with her friend Harold. She means
     
    The Case of the Mesmerizing Boss35 well, but you’d be alone most every evening, and all day while she’s at work.” “I’d be all right by myself.”
    He moved closer, hating the way she stiffened. “Listen,” he said through his teeth. “You saw a drug deal go down. You’ll have to testify. The policemen didn’t actually see the drugs being passed, do you understand? You’re the only witness who actually saw them. One man is still loose, and he almost certainly knows who you are by now. Do you get the picture?” “You can’t mean what I think you do,” she said slowly.
    “The hell I can’t! I dealt with this kind of vermin for ten years. I know what lengths they’ll go to. You aren’t going to be safe until they apprehend the second man and bring them both up for trial. I want you where I am, where I can take care of you. When I’m not home, my ranch manager is. He was a ranger back in the forties, and he’s almost as good a shot as I am.”
    She put her face in her hands. It was agonizing to have to agree to what he wanted. She’d almost rather have taken her chances with the drug dealers.
    “Hate me, if it helps,” he said. “But come with me. Don’t throw your life away.”
    She smoothed back her long, disheveled hair. “What kind of a life do I have?” she asked miserably. “Work and television don’t add up to much.”
    “You’re twenty-two,” he said. “Years too young to be that cynical.”
    “Oh, I learned from an expert,” she said, lifting her face. “You taught me.”
    Her expression made him uncomfortable. “I’ve never had anyone of my own,” he said shortly. “My father left when I was a boy. He couldn’t take the pressure of responsibility. I worshiped him, but my mother hated him, hated me because I looked like him. Jane said she loved me when we were first married, but she walked out on me and didn’t look back.” He leaned over her, his eyes black as coals. “You wanted to love me, and I wouldn’t let you. I hurt you, made you afraid of me. Don’t you get it, little girl? I don’t know what love is!”

36
    Diana Palmer
     
    “You needn’t look at me as if I’m any threat,” she said defiantly. “I gave up on you years ago.” “Yes. I know.”
    She averted her eyes. “I don’t love you. I had an inconvenient fascination for you that you put into perspective for me. You won’t have to fight me off ever again.”
    His lean hand went to her face. He touched her cheek lightly, catching her chin when she tried to jerk away. His eyes probed hers relentlessly.
    “That goes double for me,” he said. “I won’t ever touch you that way again.”
    She watched him, too aware of the