Notorious by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page A

coma.”
    “You shouldn’t have bothered him.” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “I was just tired.”
    “Exhaustion, anemia, severe nervous tension,” Sabin enumerated. “In short, within a hair’s breadth of a nervous breakdown.”
    “I’ll have to have a talk with the good doctor.” She made a face. “There’s such a thing as patient confidentiality. Besides, the man worries too much. I’m fine.”
    “Are you?” Sabin’s gaze raked her face. “Is that why you look as delicate as a willow leaf? Is that why you slept for twenty-four hours?”
    “That long?” She glanced away from him. “Jet lag.” Her slim fingers clenched the sheet nervously. “And a few other shocks to my system.”
    “I had a few shocks too.” He paused. “For instance, your virginity. What the hell—”
    “I’d rather not talk about that right now,” she interrupted quickly. “I think I’m hungry.”
    His gaze narrowed on her face. “We’re goingto talk soon, Mallory.” He stood up and moved toward the door. “But right now you do need food more than I need answers. I’ll send Nilar in with a tray.” He paused at the door to look back at her, and for the first time a smile that held no bitterness softened his harsh features. “I’m glad as hell you’ve come back to me. Don’t you ever do that again.”
    Then, before she could reply, he was gone.
    The room appeared to lose color and vitality, yet Mallory welcomed that loss. She had to think, and she couldn’t do it with him sitting there looking at her. Now the tension gripping her eased a little. In her weakened state she was better off without any confrontations with Sabin Wyatt. His effect on her was as unsettling now as it had been in the library when—
    She blocked the thought, but it was too late to halt the tingle of heat and anger at the memory of what Sabin had done to her. She could accept the anger as her right, but she mustn’t remember her response.
    So what was the next move? Did she go to Sabin and rant and rave as he obviously expected?She didn’t have the strength to set off the fireworks she would like to light under him, and she had never found anger as successful as reason when confronting anyone of intelligence. No, it was better to submerge the anger and maintain control of the situation.
    Control? Her lips twisted as she lay back down on the pillows. She hadn’t done too well at maintaining control since she had walked in the front door at Kandrahan. Okay, face it, she told herself. She had made a mistake, but it was no great tragedy. What had happened had been a combination of cause and effect that would never occur again. Shock, exhaustion, pills, the liquor, and Sabin’s sexual charisma at full power.
    But she was fully herself now and should be able to handle both Sabin and the situation.

THREE
    M ALLORY FINISHED THE meal Nilar brought her, slept, ate once more, and went back to sleep. It was three o’clock in the afternoon when she awoke again and, for the first time in weeks, she felt fully rested, even energetic.
    Two hours later she had showered, shampooed and dried her hair, put on a trim dark blue dress, and set out to find Sabin. She found him sitting at the big mahogany desk in the library carefully studying a document on the paper-strewn blotter. He looked up when she opened the door, and she could feel the sudden tension that gripped him.
    “Well, hello.” He smiled crookedly as his gaze went to the businesslike dress. “Is that supposed to deter all my lustful tendencies?”
    She carefully avoided glancing at the huge television screen dominating the far wall as she closed the door and came toward him. “I like this dress.”
    “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. It’s just the kind of thing my personnel offices recommend for our secretaries. Definitely no nonsense.” He leaned back in his chair, his gaze appraising. “You look better.”
    “I am better.” She braced herself. “And I’d like to leave