Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Vienna nodded. “Yes. That was a possibility, but one I discarded. I can’t see Mitzi, that’s my mother, kidnapping a baby. There was money in the early days, supporting us. Then, suddenly, it was gone. I never asked Mom where it came from, or where it went. I should have, although I doubt she would have said.”
“You’re going to see her?”
Vienna heaved a sigh. “Yes. I’m going to have dinner with them. I’m hoping Mom will thaw a bit each time I see her and don’t bring up anything about where I come from. I was going to wait until after the final round in the tournament, but I want to see her sooner.”
“Don’t you want to know?”
“Yes, but I want my relationship with my mother back more than I want to know where I originally came from. I have a friend who might be able to help me figure that out. She’s good at that sort of thing. I decided I’d ask her to help me and leave Mom out of it altogether. If I never find out, it isn’t the end of the world. I have a good life. I don’t like that I don’t have my mom or her partner in it. They should be.”
“When are you having dinner with your mother?”
“I thought tomorrow evening. Somewhere away from the Strip. Somewhere quiet.”
“Let me go with you, Vienna. She knows you won’t bring up anything to do with your past if you have me along. It will put her at ease. I can be charming. She’ll want to meet with you because she’ll wonder who I am to you.” He propped his head on his hand.
“That would make it a problem. She’ll think you’re in my life. I’ve never brought anyone to meet her.” Why didn’t she just firmly say no? Because she wanted him with her. Because spending time with him like this was wonderful even when it was heartbreaking.
“Don’t you see how perfect that is? She’ll be at ease and you can establish exactly the atmosphere with her you’re hoping for. And just for your information, I am in your life, you just refuse to acknowledge me. I can be at the restaurant already. Then show up at your table and pull up a chair if you prefer. Would that make it easier than telling her you’re bringing a friend?”
Vienna laid her head against the padded headboard, refusing to look at his face. That gorgeous, sensual face that was all angles and planes that made up perfection. It wasn’t that he was so handsome in the way most women might consider, but she looked for outdoor rugged, toughness. She wanted masculine. Even his long eyelashes couldn’t deter from that dark edge he had. Closing her eyes didn’t help because he was branded inside her mind.
“No, Zale, it won’t make it easier. Nothing about you makes anything easier and you know it.”
His fingers moved on her thigh. He drew little circles and then began to write something in long looping letters across her leg. She found it distracting. Intriguing. He’d done the same thing multiple times when they were in the tent at night in the dark and she had to guess what he was writing to her. He had cheated more than once, writing his message in a foreign language.
“I want to meet your mother and her partner.”
“I’m trying to repair my relationship with her. Meeting you and then having you disappear will only cause more problems.”
Zale continued to write letters on her leg from her knee to the very top of her thigh. Far too close to the junction of her legs. She should stop him.
“I don’t have to disappear altogether.”
A painful clenching in her chest nearly took her breath away. She was a nurse and she knew she wasn’t having a heart attack, but it felt like it anyway. A vise squeezing down and not letting up, the pressure nearly debilitating.
“Don’t say things like that to me. You can get any woman you want to sleep with you. There’s a smorgasbord of women right out that door. Go to the bar, Zale, and find somebody. I was honest with you when I said it hurt when you left. That should satisfy your ego enough that you don’t have to come back for more. Find someone else.”
“What did I write on your leg?”
His voice. So quiet. Gentle. Almost tender. She took a deep breath. That was a mistake. She drew him in. The scent of fresh snow. Fresh rain. The woods. Cedar and pine. He was . . . Zale.
“ ‘You’re not listening to me.’ That’s what you wrote on my leg. ‘You’re not listening to me.’ And something else, but it was in another language.”
“I wrote the same thing in French and Italian.”
“You’re such a show-off. I am listening.” She wasn’t. Or she was trying not to.