Touch the Wind by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t the least bit interested in what she wanted. Brad was the one who had decided that Juárez was not good enough for him. Juárez was for the tourists, and Acapulco was the resort spot for the moneyed class. And Brad had elevated himself to that group by marrying her.
    “I don’t care about going to Acapulco,” she said tersely.
    “You are forgetting, my love—whither thou goest, I will go,” he quoted mockingly. “Come on. It’s going to be a long drive. You get up and get packed while I go check us out of this dump.”
    “There is nothing wrong with this hotel,” Sheila insisted, but Brad was already walking to the door.
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” He laughed at her, his hand poised on the doorknob. “I want to give you a real honeymoon. So don’t argue.”
    With my money,
Sheila thought as he stepped into the hallway. A bubble of hysterical laughter welled in her throat. She choked it back and threw off the bedcovers to rise.
    In the bathroom, Sheila washed quickly. She took no pains with her makeup, applying brown mascara to the curling sweep of her lashes and a dusty-rose shade of gloss to her lips. A quick brushing to rid her streaked hair of its tangles, and she was finished. The bathroom mirror showed that the minimum of makeup did not lessen her natural beauty.
    Emerging from the bathroom, she searched through her suitcase for clothes, wanting to be dressed before Brad returned. As quickly as her throbbing muscleswould allow, she pulled on a pair of panties and stepped into brown slacks. The door opened and Brad walked in, eyeing the soft curves of her figure.
    His interest waned in a surge of impatience. “You aren’t even dressed yet,” he accused.
    With a toss of her head, Sheila faced him, a brassiere in her hand, her fingers curling into a lacy white cup. “Brad, we don’t have time for a honeymoon now. We both have classes to get back to, and you have your job.”
    “We have all the time in the world,” he insisted.
    Sheila frowned. “But what about college? Your degree?”
    “Who needs it? There isn’t anything those professors can teach me. Besides, it’s not what you know—it’s
who
you know and how much money you’ve got.” He patted the bulge in his trousers pocket. “And we have enough to live like royalty here in Mexico.”
    Her mouth opened, although Sheila didn’t know why she was surprised by his statement. There had been a lot of clues. She had just not been as willing to see them as her parents had.
    “That money won’t last forever,” Sheila reminded him stiffly. “Sooner or later, it’s going to run out, even in Mexico.”
    Lazy, strolling strides carried Brad to stand in front of her. “It will last us easily until you receive your inheritance. You’ll be twenty-one in a few months.”
    “Do you think I’m just going to hand it over to you?” The cat-gold flecks in her eyes flamed brightly.
    Brad seemed to find her display of anger amusing. “We’re married. What’s yours is mine. And what’s mine is mine, too,” he joked.
    But Sheila didn’t find it laughable. All her glorious plans for their future were disintegrating one by one. She was beginning to realize that they had always been “her” plans. Brad had simply endorsed them, probably because he knew it was what she wanted to hear.
    “Don’t you have any ambition?” There was a sarcastic curl to her lip even as her chin trembled.
    “It’s going to be a full-time occupation being married to you.” He fingered the strap of the bra in her hand, his eyes touching her breasts as they returned to regard her face. “For a while, at least.”
    “Then what?” Sheila challenged.
    I’m sure your father can find me a position that will be suitable employment for his son-in-law.” Brad smiled complacently.
    “Something that pays very well but doesn’t take up too much of your time,” she concluded, widening her eyes with false innocence.
    “That’s the idea exactly.” He grinned.