Eye of the Tiger by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

Mildred to go home with him to Ireland. That man could get funding from Congress for a fruit-fly-mating program. I’ve never seen the beat.”
    “You set me up!” she groaned.
    “It’s your own fault,” he replied. He led her to his brightred Porsche and put her in on the passenger side. “You wouldn’t come with me when I invited you.”
    “I didn’t want to! I still don’t!”
    He got in beside her and, flashing a dazzling smile, started up the little convertible. “Mary June’s got roast beef and potato salad and homemade yeast rolls in the basket,” he coaxed. “And she made fried apple pies for dessert.”
    She glanced at him mutinously. “I’ll get fat.”
    “Is there hope?” he asked wide-eyed. “You’ve lostten pounds since you came back home, and you were never heavy to start with.”
    “I like me the way I am,” she fired back.
    “I’ll like you better twenty pounds heavier,” he replied. “There. That looks like a nice, private spot.” He pulled into a parking space in the deserted picnic area and cut off the engine. “Nice view. No people.” He stared at her musingly. “You could make love to me if you wanted to.”
    The unexpected remark made her grow hot all over. She practically dived out of the car, avoiding his eyes.
    He brought the picnic basket and bypassed the tables. “This looks good,” he remarked, scanning the area. He put the basket down under a huge oak tree overlooking the lake. Far away, the white and multicolored sails spread like tiny map indicators over the blue, blue water. “We can eat and watch the competition all at once.”
    She sat down reluctantly in the pleasant shade, watching him spread the cloth and lay out the food. It did look delicious, and she knew Mary June’s reputation as a cook. She and her father had been invited to barbecues and other special events that the Tabers hosted annually for their employees on the farm, and she’d tasted the housekeeper’s cooking many times. Mary June was something of a family institution. Like her father, a treasured employee. The thought made her feel bitter, and she sighed, staring down at her hands in her lap.
    “Don’t curdle the dessert by glaring at it,” he teased. “Eat something!”
    He handed her a plate and busied himself pouringsweetened iced tea into plastic glasses from a huge jug that contained crushed ice.
    She held out her hand for it and sipped the cool liquid with a dreamy smile. “How delicious!”
    “I’m partial to it myself.” He filled a plate for her, handing it over and ignoring her dubious expression as he filled another for himself. “Nothing like a picnic to make you hungry, I always say. Eat, for God’s sake, Eleanor!”
    Her dark eyes pinned him. “Must you always sling out orders? Can’t you ever just ask?”
    “Not my nature,” he said between bites of beef. He sipped tea and watched her for a minute as she began to eat.
    “No, that’s true,” she said after she cleared her plate. “You’re a born manipulator. You’re only happy when you get your own way.”
    “Aren’t most people?” he asked. He put the plates aside and refilled her glass and his own with iced tea. Then he sprawled back comfortably against the huge tree trunk and crossed his long legs with a sigh. He looked as at ease here as he did at a formal party. Keegan never put on airs or lorded it over anyone. He seemed at home anywhere.
    Eleanor sipped her tea, looking out over the lake. “I’ve never been here before,” she remarked. “Dad and I drove past it on our way to see one of my great-aunts once, but we never stopped. We always go fishing on the river.”
    “There’s a lot of bass and crappie in this lake,” he replied, smiling. “So you like to fish, do you?”
    “Dad does. I go along for the ride, and the peace and quiet. You don’t get much of that in a hospital.”
    “What made you choose nursing?” he asked unexpectedly.
    She held the cool, frosty cup in both hands and