Reckless Moon by Doreen Owens Malek Read Free Book Online Page A

thing I’ve ever done in my singularly ignoble life.”
    “Are you saying my father was right?”
    “He was right about my unsuitability for you at that time.”
    She stared at him in dumb disbelief, then shook her head. “The two of you, so wise, so knowing, so male, deciding what was best for me. What about what I wanted?”
    Bram looked back at her, unmoving.
    “I tried to get your address from everybody who knew you after you left,” she said quietly. “Nobody could tell me where you were. Then I told myself that surely you would call me, contact me when I was home from school, get my dorm address from Mindy, do something. But when the days passed and then the weeks and the months I finally realized that I was just an evening’s diversion for you.”
    Bram’s fist slammed into the wall behind him. “Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve been saying?”
    “Oh, yes, I heard. A touching story, full of nobility and self sacrifice. But didn’t you leave something out?”
    Bram watched her, his brown eyes intent.
    “I scared you, didn’t I?” she went on softly. “You knew that it couldn’t be one night and then goodbye forever with me, you sized up the situation very well. I was a kid and kids don’t understand about mature relationships that allow for sex but bypass commitment and what it implies. I wanted it all, and you weren’t ready to give it.”
    Bram dropped his eyes, and she saw that she had struck a nerve.
    “And why didn’t you contact me later, when I was older and had acquired some of the experience you seemed to think was so important? I’ve had years to figure it all out; you still weren’t ready for the kind of relationship I wanted. And you aren’t now.”
    He said nothing.
    “What made you so cynical, Bram? Who convinced you that women aren’t to be trusted?”
    He glared at her stonily, but didn’t answer.
    “Was it Anabel?” she asked suddenly, on a hunch.
    His reaction betrayed him. His mouth thinned and his eyes became as hard as flint at the mention of his stepmother’s name.
    “Leave her out of this,” he snarled.
    “What did she do?”
    “I said to drop it. She has nothing to do with me and you.”
    “I think she does. Why did you leave home to get away from her? Was she so intolerable?”
    “I’m not on the witness stand,” Bram countered. “Don’t try to cross examine me.”
    “I wish I did have you on the witness stand,” Beth said fervently. “I’d get the truth out of you.”
    “The truth is no mystery,” Bram said, looking away from her. “My mother died and my father married somebody I didn’t like. It happens every day. Don’t you watch television?”
    Beth shook her head. “There’s more to it than that.”
    Bram’s brow darkened furiously. “Stop probing! God, you’re infuriating. Is this what maturity did for you? I liked you better at sixteen.”
    “When I believed everything you told me?” Beth inquired archly.
    His fists clenched, but he didn’t respond.
    “I believed it all,” Beth repeated. “And remembered it. Shall I recite it for you now?”
    “Beth...” Bram said warningly.
    “Let’s see,” Beth went on musingly. “Something about my not being ashamed of what had happened between us because my feelings were natural and normal. Wasn’t that it?”
    He took a step toward her, his eyes blazing.
    “And oh yes, someday I would be a wonderful lover for some lucky man. Have I got it right?”
    The fingers of his right hand flexed.
    “Go ahead and punch me,” Beth cried. “That’s what you usually do when somebody makes you angry, isn’t it? Don’t hold back on my account.”
    He reached out for her, and she struggled. Without hurting her he managed to subdue her and pull her into his arms.
    “I don’t want to punch you, I want to make love to you,” he murmured, tangling his fingers in her trailing hair and turning her face up to his. “I’ve wanted nothing else since I saw you at your sister’s