MacKenzie's Lady by Dallas Schulze Read Free Book Online Page A

you filled a notebook with a guy's name, you had a terrific crush on him. And this time, it's a guy you just met?" She shook her head gently. "Tell it to someone who hasn't known you as long as I have."
    "I knew it was a mistake for us to share an apartment," Holly grumbled. "One should never move in with someone who thinks she knows you. It's worse than if I were living with my brother."
    Maryann shook her head. "You're not going to distract me, Holly. Come on, spill it. After all, you told me all about Dick Orman," she coaxed.
    "That was different," Holly wailed, knowing that she was fighting a losing battle. "I was infatuated with him. You always tell your best friend when you've got a crush on somebody. This isn't like that."
    Maryann sobered slightly. "So tell me what it is like. Who's Mackenzie Donahue? I can't remember your ever mentioning anyone with a name like Mackenzie, except that guy who helped you in Tijuana last month. Wasn't his name Mac or Mick or something like that?"
    Holly nodded, keeping her eyes focused on the table.
    "That's a coincidence, meeting two men with names like that in the space of a month," Maryann went on. "Mac could be short for Macken—" She stopped and stared at her friend's bent head. There was a moment of charged silence, and when she spoke again, her voice had dropped to an incredulous croak.
    "Holly Reynolds, tell me I'm nuts. Tell me that this Mackenzie Donahue that you 'just met today' isn't the guy from the bar in Tijuana."
    Holly maintained a stubborn silence. Maryann's voice rose to a stunned squeak. "Do you mean to tell me that you're looking all starry-eyed over some giant pimp?"
    "He's not a giant," she protested mildly, keeping her eyes down so that Maryann could not read the amusement in them. She hadn't decided definitely to tell Maryann about Mac, but since the decision had been taken out of her hands, she was going to have fun with it.
    "He's not a giant!" Maryann all but shrieked. "I don't care if he's Tatoo or the Jolly Green Giant. The point is that he's a pimp. Do you know what that means? How can you live with what he does for a living?"
    Holly shrugged, her wide mouth tucked into a repressed smile as she struggled to keep the laughter out of her voice. "As long as he doesn't try to enlist me, I don't feel I have any right to make judgments." She managed to put just a hint of anguish in her words, trying to convey the impression that she was willing to set aside her morals to accept him.
    Maryann all but tore at her hair. "Holly, you're not thinking like a rational person. I know you said he was attractive, but think of what kind of person he must be to be able to use women like that. And even if that doesn't bother you, consider the fact that prostitution is illegal. How are you going to feel if he gets arrested? How is your family going to react? For Pete's sake, James is a diplomat. What kind of effect could this have on his career?"
    She broke off as Holly raised a laughing face. "I'm sorry, Maryann. I shouldn't have led you on. It's just that I so rarely get to put one over on you."
    Her friend was so relieved she forgot to be upset. "I should have known better than to think you could be attracted to a pimp."
    Holly flushed and shifted a little in her seat, remembering how hard it had been to tell Mac that she couldn't accept his line of work. Her conscience had won out in the end, but not without a battle.
    Maryann got up and moved into the kitchen to fill the teakettle. "I shouldn't be drinking tea just before going to bed, but after the shock you just gave me, I need the caffeine to calm my nerves. Now tell me who Mackenzie Donahue is."
    "He's the guy who came to my rescue in Tijuana last month."
    The teakettle hit the stove with a thump. Water splashed out the spout and hissed angrily against the open flame of the burner. Maryann ignored this minor flood and spun around to look at Holly. She fixed her friend with a stern look in her gray eyes. It was a look