Separate Cabins by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page A

long will it take you to dress and fix your hair?” he asked.
    “Why?”
    “So I’ll know what time to meet you topside for some morning coffee.”
    “It won’t make any difference how long it takes for me to get dressed, since I won’t be meeting you for coffee,” Rachel replied, stung that he was so positive she would agree.
    “Why?” he asked in a reasonable tone.
    “It hardly matters.” She swung impatiently away from the bathroom door, the silken material of her long robe swishing faintly as she moved to the center of the sitting room. When she heard himfollowing her, Rachel whirled around, the robe swinging to hug her long legs. “Hasn’t anyone ever turned down an invitation from you?”
    “It’s happened,” Gard conceded. “But usually they gave a reason if only to be polite. And I just wondered what yours is?”
    Her features hardened with iron control. Only her eyes blazed to show the anger within. “Perhaps I’m tired of men assuming that I’m so lonely I’ll accept the most casual invitation. Every man I meet immediately assumes that because I’m a widow I’m desperate for male companionship.” Her scathing glance raked him, putting him in the same category. “They’re positive I’ll jump at the chance to share a bed with them—or a cabin—just because they can fill out a pair of pants. According to them, I’m supposed to be frustrated sexually.”
    It didn’t soothe her temper to have him stand there and listen to her tirade so calmly. “Are you?” Gard inquired blandly.
    For an instant Rachel was too incensed to speak. The question wasn’t worthy of an answer, so she hurled an accusation at him instead. “You’re no better than the others! It may come as a shock to you, but I’d like to know something about a man besides the size of his shorts before I’m invited into his bed!”
    She was trembling from the force of her anger and the sudden release of so much bitterness that had been bottled up inside. She turned away from him to hide her shaking, not wanting him to mistake it as a sign of weakness.
    “What does meeting for coffee have to do with going to bed together?” he wondered. “Or has your experience with men since your husband died been such that you don’t accept any invitations?” There was a slight pause before he asked, “Do you want to be alone for the rest of your life?”
    The quiet wording of his question seemed to pierce through the barriers she had erected and exposed the need she’d kept behind it. She wanted to love someone again and share her life with him. She didn’t want to keep her feelings locked up inside, never giving them to anyone.
    When she swung her gaze to look at him, her gray eyes were stark with longing. She had lived in loneliness for so long that she hadn’t noticed when it had stopped being grief. His dark gaze narrowed suddenly, recognizing the emotion in her expression. Rachel turned away before she showed him too much of the ache she was feeling.
    “No, I don’t want to be alone forever,” she admitted in a low voice.
    “Then why don’t you stop being so sensitive?” Gard suggested.
    “I’m not,” Rachel flared.
    “Yes, you are,” he nodded. “Right now you’re angry with me. Why? Because I think you are a very attractive woman and I’ve tried to show you that I’m attracted to you.”
    “You came for your shaving kit,” she reminded him, not liking this personal conversation now that she was becoming the subject of it. “You have it, so why don’t you leave?”
    She tried to brush past him and walk over to open the door and hurry him out, but he caught at her forearm and stopped her. His firm grip applied enough pressure to turn her toward him.
    “I’m not going to apologize because I find you attractive and say things that let you know I’m interested,” Gard informed her. “And I’m not going to apologize because I have the normal urge to take you in my arms and kiss you.”
    She looked at him