She tried not to let her enthusiasm show, but she failed miserably. “Oh, I’d like that,” she whispered.
“So would I.” He let his eyes run slowly down the length of her body, admiring it with sensuous candor. “You’ve been off-limits for a long time, Kate,” he mused, catching her gaze suddenly. “But Margo’s out of the picture now; there are no more barriers.”
She didn’t understand. “What?”
He laughed softly, but it wasn’t humorous. “We’ll talk about that sometime. Are you in the phone book?”
“Yes,” she replied. “My first initial and my last name are listed. I’m in the Carrington Apartments.”
“I’ll find you.” He turned away to glance at Tom, who was still hovering. “Can I give you a lift to the airport?”
Tom joined them, smiling. “Thanks, but we’ve got a rental car.”
“Those do come in handy. I’ve got a train to catch. Nice to see you again, Tom.” He extended his big, lean hand and shook Tom’s. Then he glanced back at Kate with a peculiar smile. “I’ll see you.”
She nodded. “Have a nice trip.”
“I usually do.” He turned and strode off, while Kate watched him with her heart in her eyes.
“If he sees the way you’re looking at him, the game’s up,” Tom teased, holding her by the arm to propel her to the Ford he’d rented. “Come down out of the clouds, girl. We’ve got to make tracks if we’re going to catch our plane on time.”
“Yes, of course.”
“What were you talking about?” he probed.
“He comes to Chicago on business sometimes,” she murmured, glancing out the window and catching sight of Jacob as he passed them in his big Lincoln. She sighed. “Oh, Tom. He wants to take me out to dinner.”
“Horrors,” Tom exclaimed, pulling out into the street. “Watch out.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“For God’s sake, Kate. Margo’s married and you’ve just gone on the endangered-species list. Or hasn’t it occurred to you that he’s wanted you for years?”
Her heart skipped. “Me?”
“Of course, you,” he grumbled. “Jacob looks at you as if you were a juicy steak with his name branded on it. He always has. My God, if it hadn’t been for the fact that you and Margo were best friends, he’d have seduced you years ago.”
“It isn’t like that—”
“The devil it isn’t,” he persisted. “Listen, honey, I’m a man. I know how men think. Now that Margo’s out of the picture, Jacob feels free to pursue you, and I do mean pursue. He’s never believed you about that Gerald boy; he never will. As far as he’s concerned, you’re a city sophisticate, not a shy little country maiden. So watch it. I’ve heard stories about that man all my adult life, and I believe them. He’s a mature, sophisticated man with a line of women an arm long, and he doesn’t drag his feet. Did you really think that he was celibate all this time?” he added as he caught a glimpse of her shocked face.
“Margo said he never brought anybody home.” Her voice faltered.
“Of course not—he wouldn’t flaunt his conquests around Margo! Or don’t you remember what a peculiarly old-fashioned man he is when it comes to women and liberation?”
“I remember all too well,” she sighed, leaning back against the seat as she recalled his reaction that long-ago afternoon to the sight of her in a man’s arms.
“Then keep it all in mind. He isn’t in the market for a wife, honey,” Tom added softly. “I know how you feel about him. But don’t let your emotions blind you to the truth. What he wants is to satisfy a temporary hunger. When he marries, if he marries, it will most likely be Barbara Dugan, whose father owns the Double D Ranch adjoining his. It will be a nice merger and double his holdings, and Barbara isn’t half bad to look at.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right, Tom.” She felt sick all over. How was she going to manage to say no to Jacob when the time came and he asked her out? She loved him so desperately that even a few minutes of his company would last her starving heart for years. She looked at her brother helplessly. “Maybe he cares about me, a little.”
“Maybe he does,” he said. “But don’t you ever forget his mother and how he feels about the whole female sex because of her. He’ll never marry a woman he’s slept with.”
She flushed despite herself and turned her eyes back to the road. “His mother ran around with everyone, from what Margo said. And poor old Hank just sat and did nothing.”
“She was a wild woman, Grandmother said. Nothing like Hank, who was easygoing and pleasant and not very ambitious. She got tired of having nothing and went after the rainbow.” He sat deeper in the seat as they approached the city. “I guess she found it eventually. She married that Texas oil magnate and lived happily until she died. But Jacob hated her for what she did to him and his father and brother, and he hated the humiliation of having to live down her reputation.”
“He hasn’t had a good impression of women,” Kate said quietly.
“Keep that in mind. He won’t let his emotions get in his way.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” she promised.
He started to say something else. But he just smiled and reached over to pat her hand where it lay on her purse. “How about some lunch before we catch the plane? What would you like?”
“Something adventurous,” she said, quickly following his lead. “How about squid?”
“Yech! How about something civilized?”
She sighed. “Steak and potatoes, I guess?”
“Civilized,” he emphasized. “Like a McDonald’s hamburger!”
“Now, that’s civilized.” She laughed. “Drive on!”
Tom kept her mind occupied with wild tales about his advertising job in New York, and about some of his more eccentric clients—like the soap magnate who liked to listen to Tom’s presentations while taking bubble baths with a background of Mozart pieces, or the chewing gum heiress who brought her purebred collies to each meeting, to make sure her beloved pets approved of the ad campaigns.
Her brother was the only living relative she had now, and she tended to lean on him the slightest bit. She felt guilty at her own rebellious feelings when he criticized Jacob. Perhaps it was a fair warning, although she didn’t like facing that possibility. She preferred to think that Jacob had only just noticed her and wanted a new beginning for the two of them. So that was what she was going to think, whether or not her older brother approved.
She waved him off to New York soon after they landed in Chicago, and caught a cab back to her apartment. The sense of loneliness that washed over her was nothing new. She felt alone every time she walked away from Jacob. She wanted him, so badly. Would it be very wrong to have an affair?
Her father’s harsh recriminations came back on cue. That kind of woman, he’d raged, his daughter wasn’t going to become. He was going to make sure of it. And he’d harped on permissiveness, on the ills of modern society, on the terror of unwanted children, until he’d poisoned Kate’s young mind. When she and Tom were in high school and went to live with Grandmother Walker, there was no free will left. Kate often wondered what her life would have been like if only her mother hadn’t left. Her mother had been like Jacob’s, according to her father. Her father had often sworn that Kate wasn’t really his child, anyway, but she and Tom looked so much alike that Kate tried not to think too hard about it. That part of her life was over, anyway.