Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It by Lucy Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

do you mean?"
     
    "How to play in the big leagues. What if I said that my price for that silence was for you to sleep with me?"
     
    There was a split second of silence and then the phone clicked with ominous finality in his ear.
     
    Damn. He'd said it. He'd actually threatened to blackmail Ronnie back to his bed. He couldn't believe he'd let it go that far and, worse, he couldn't believe how much the idea annealed to him. Decent men did not blackmail women into sleeping with them and virile men didn't have to. He'd always considered himself both.
     
    The receiver in his hands started to beep.
     
    Oh, hell. What had he done?
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
     
     
     
    Veronica stared at the green cordless phone in her hand and wondered if it would bite her.
     
    No. Of course not. Phones didn't bite. It wasn't a dog, or a man rabid for a taste of revenge.
     
    She'd been feeling on the edge of her sanity for a while now. Had she finally gone over? Or had Marcus actually attempted to force her back into his bed? She could not make herself believe that he had just threatened to tell Mr. Kline about her past if she didn't sleep with him.
     
    She shook her head in denial of the euphemism. No, not sleep. Never sleep. He wanted sex, plain and simple.
     
    When she and Marcus had shared a bed in the past, sleeping had been the furthest thing from either of their minds. Not that she would have objected to waking some morning in the security of his arms, but Marcus didn't do things that way. It was all part of the no-ties package. Sleeping, really sleeping, together might be construed as some kind of commitment.
     
    Still, a carefree and easy bachelor who had a thing against commitment in any form was a far cry from a man who would blackmail a woman into his bed. Wasn't he?
     
    She felt herself tremble and carefully laid the phone down on the sofa table before she dropped it.
     
    The scent of beef stew simmering in the Crock-Pot registered at the same time as her sister's voice singing silly songs to Aaron in the other room. Mundane things… everyday occurrences that made it no easier to come to grips with the unbelievable conversation she had just had with Marcus.
     
    The man had tried to blackmail her.
     
    But it was more than that. He had shown more interest in her personal life than he had eighteen months ago, when they'd been lovers.
     
    She couldn't understand it any more than she could comprehend the seductive feeling of hope curling up in her insides. Could she truly be hoping for some sort of reconciliation?
     
    Only a besotted fool would be feeling hope after that conversation, she lectured herself.
     
    The fact that Marcus was threatening her was bad enough, but what was beyond her comprehension, what made her shake with real fear, was how tantalizing she found the prospect of being intimate with him again. She'd missed him so much the months they had been apart.
     
    Leaving him had opened a gaping hole in her heart that neither her son's birth nor the remission of her sister's disease could fill. She'd never had another lover, and if she were honest, she would admit she never wanted to make love with anyone but Marcus.
     
    She sank onto the overstuffed green couch she'd gotten for a song at a garage sale from a retired couple intent on moving into a smaller home. She usually felt a certain satisfied gratitude whenever she sat on the comfy cushions, being reminded how lucky she had been to get good furniture at such an affordable price. She'd bought several other things from the couple, but right now gratitude for her windfall was the furthest thing from her mind,
     
    Marcus's threats brought images that she'd tried hard to suppress over the past months rushing to the forefront of her mind. Memories of her first time with Marcus washed over her. They were so intense that for a second she imagined she could still feel the pressure of his lips from the simple kiss that went so far out of control.
     
    They'd