Blind Promises by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

walk along the shore and watch the whitecaps roll against the damp sand. Lorraine never minded her brief absences, but when Gannon discovered what she was doing, he made a point of seeking her out one Friday evening on the beach.
    “Nurse!” he bellowed, pausing on the last step that led down from the house, his hand clenched on the railing.
     
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    She rushed back toward him, her loosened hair flying, afraid he’d tumble down in his anger.
    “I’m here,” she said breathlessly. “There’s no need to yell.”
    “May I ask what you’re doing down here?” he grumbled, staring in her general direction.
    She studied his ferocious scowl while his hair and her soft green dress blew wildly in the cool ocean breeze. “I’m walking on the beach, Mr. van der Vere,” she said calmly.
    “On my time,” he agreed.
    “Excuse me, sir, I thought I had ten minutes a day to myself,” she said with polite sarcasm.
    “A live-in nurse is supposed to be within call every minute,” he snapped.
    “I was,” she pointed out. “Didn’t I come running?”
    He drew in a sharp breath. “The beach is dangerous at night,” he said after a minute, as if it annoyed him that he’d had to show any concern for her. “There are transients down the beach who like to party. You’re not sophisticated enough to cope with drunken men, Miss Steele. Will you come in the house, please.”
    The concern touched her. Only her mother and Jenny had ever shown any for her over the years.
    “Lost your tongue?” he growled after a minute. She shrugged. “I’m not used to people worrying about me,” she said finally.
    He seemed to hesitate, his hand curling slowly around the banister. “Your parents do, surely?”
    The question cut in a new way. She averted her gaze to the sea and tried not to cry; tears were so close to the surface these days, the grief was so raw and unfamiliar. “My mother died in a wreck a few months ago,” she said softly.
     
    “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Your father?”
    “We have very little contact,” she admitted. “It’s my fault as much as his. I’m not good at relationships, you see. I’m wary of letting people get close.”
    “Even family?” he burst out “My God, are you fearful of contamination?”
    He made her sound odd, and she didn’t like it “Fearful of being hurt, if you must know,” she shot back, her eyes blazing. “I’d rather be alone than cut to ribbons emotionally, and what business is my personal life to you?”
    His heavy blond brows shot straight up. “Claws,” he murmured, and a corner of his mouth curved. “Well, well, you land on your feet, don’t you, for all your repressed virtue.”
    She stared at the sand. “You irritate me,” she bit off.
    “We’re even, because you irritate me as well. Now, will you come in, before I yield to temptation and toss you into the surf to cool you off?”
    She drew in an angry breath and started past him, but his hand shot out at the sound of her steps on the stone and she was dragged against his powerful body.
    Her tiny gasp was audible even above the thunderous surf, and she was aware of every cell that came in contact with him. He smelled of expensive cologne and soap, and the hand around her waist was big and very warm. His breath was on her forehead, his chest was rising and falling with a curious heaviness and her knees threatened to collapse.
    He felt her hair blow against his face as it bent, and he brushed at long, silky strands of it with his free hand. “Such soft hair,” he remarked quietly. “Blond?”
    She swallowed. “Yes, sir.” Why was her voice quavering like that? What was happening to her?
     
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    His hand brushed her shoulder and moved down her back to her shoulder blades. He drew her close with aching tenderness until her cheek was pressed against his warm, broad chest over his silky blue shirt.
    She