His Girl Friday by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

corner and get the takeout she'd ordered. She usual y ate at her desk except when one of the women from the other offices in the building invited her to join them, and that wasn't too often these days. It seemed that everyone was suffering from work pres ure.
    "Can I bring you anything from the Chinese place?" Danet a asked Cabe politely, pausing in the open doorway of his office.
    "No, thanks," he said with forced indifference. He was stil having hel trying to keep his distance from her after yesterday. "I'm taking Karol to lunch." She nodded and started to leave, stopped by his curt, "Dan?"
    She turned, grateful to hear even that hated nickname if it meant he was mel owing a lit le. "Yes, sir?" His blue eyes narrowed and with helples fascination he studied her slender figure in the gray crepe dres . "You've been very quiet today.'
    "I've been busy," she said. "And I didn't get much sleep last night."
    He scowled. "Why not?"
    He had no right to ask, but the answer popped out automatical y. "I had company. Wel , until just before dawn,„ anyway," she began, wondering how much she should tel him about Jenny. r
    The look on his face was almost comical. It seemed to actual y pale. He sat Up, his expres ion going from mild surprise to anger in the space of seconds. "I thought one-nightstands weren't your style."
    "One-night. . Oh, I see. No, not a man," she blurted out. "My cousin, Jenny."
    He made an odd gesture with one hand, looking as surprised as she felt, because the question shouldn't have been asked or answered. His eyes caught hers and held them, and that long, sweet electricity flowed between them as potently as it had the day before. Her smile faded and she felt her heartbeat racing in her throat as his eyes darkened. She saw the muscles in his firm, stubborn chin clench as he stared back at her with blue lightning flashing in his eyes, as if he were struggling for control. In fact he was, but before he could move or speak, Karol walked in, wearing a light colored, gauzy dres with a matching ribbon in her long, silky blond hair. Cabe got to his feet with quiet grace, tearing his eyes away from Danet a and forcing a smile for Karol as she joined them.
    "Wel , wel , what a pret y decoration for my office," he murmured, his voice fal ing an octave as Karol nodded and smiled coolly at Danet a before she walked past her to Cabe.
    "You flat erer," Karol said.
    "I wouldn't cal it flat ery," Cabe returned. Danet a was beginning to get under his skin in a big way, and he couldn't have those long, soulful looks coming at him day after day without doing something about her. He had to show Danet a that she meant nothing to him, for her own sake. He could hurt her badly if he let this go any further. He couldn't afford the luxury of get ing involved with a naive lit le virgin who didn't know beans about men or life. And there was one sure way to do that, he thought with sudden insight.
    —'He reached out to Karol, caught her close and bent to kis her with fierce, rough ardor, right in front of a shocked, embarras ed Danet a.
    "I'd bet er go," Danet a stammered, managing somehow to drag her eyes away from them and creep out the door without anyone noticing. Al the way down the elevator, and to the restaurant, she couldn't get the sight out of her mind. It hurt, and she didn't understand why. Cabe, with that beautiful woman in his arms, his mouth so violently hungry on hers, his arms corded around her, pres ing her to every lean inch of his powerful body. Danet a almost groaned out loud at the memory, wondering how it would feel to have him treat her that way. She had to stop this, she told herself firmly. She was let ing his charm blind her to what was underneath it. Karol was just a conquest, like al his other conquests, and Danet a's parents hadn't raised her to be just a name in some man's black book. She deliberately took her time get ing back to her office, so that Cabe and Karol were gone when she returned with her lunch. She