Magnificent Folly Read Online Free PDF Page B

only want to do what’s best for both of us.”
    “I know.” Cassie looked up and smiled. “Me too.”
    Lily’s lips twisted. “And do I have Mr. Ramsey to thank for this display of affection?”
    Cassie shook her head. “He didn’t tell me to do anything. He just said that if you love someone you ought to tell them … because sometimes they forget.”
    “Very wise advice,” Lily said slowly. She gave Cassie another hug and pushed her away. “Will you make the hamburger patties, love? I have a telephone call to make. It shouldn’t take long.”
    “Sure. Professor Kozeal?”
    “No.” Lily turned to the phone on the pine table beside the Early American sofa. “I have to call an old friend I knew before you were born.”
    When Lily took Cassie down for her swim the next day, Andrew was sitting in exactly the same spot where she had left him the previous evening.
    Cassie ran on ahead to meet him, and Lily watched them curiously. This was Cassie’s father,who had given her those bright hazel eyes. Instead of Andrew’s dark gold hair or Lily’s chestnut, Cassie’s was a sandy compromise. Together Lily and Andrew had made Cassie what she was. It was strange to realize that her own body had protected and nurtured this stranger’s seed.
    Andrew’s gaze lifted to meet hers over Cassie’s head. She inhaled sharply and stopped as if struck. Overpoweringly sexual, invading, stirring. Lust.
    Then his gaze quickly lowered to Cassie again, and he displayed only affection and amusement.
    But Lily hadn’t imagined the emotion she had seen there.
    Cassie was running out into the surf, and Andrew watched her for a moment before turning again to face Lily. “I blew it, didn’t I? Gunner always said I was transparent as hell. You don’t have to stand there as if I turned you to stone. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
    Lily started toward him. “I’m not afraid of you.”
    He gazed at her skeptically. “You’re shaking in your shoes. You want to run away and hide.”
    “Nonsense.” She wanted to wipe her damp palms on her shorts but forced them to remain at her sides. “Why should I be nervous?”
    “Because now you know I want to go to bed with you,” he said simply. “No, you know I’m crazy to go to bed with you and you’re afraid I’ll make you crazy enough to do it.”
    Lily tried to laugh. “I’m not one of the coeds you probably had panting after you. I’m a mother who has responsibilities and who—”
    “Put her sexual feelings in the deep freeze before Cassie was born,” Andrew finished her sentence. “Well, it’s time somebody pushed the defrost button, Lily.”
    “You?” Lily deliberately injected a note of scorn in her voice. “Hardly.”
    “Me.” For the first time she detected a steely determination in the softness of his voice. “Definitely me. Did you call Henry last night?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then you know I’m not someone who’s going to hurt you. What did he say?”
    “That you were probably the most remarkable man he’d ever met and that I should trust you.”
    “And were you going to trust me before you found out I wanted you?”
    She was silent a moment before admitting reluctantly, “Yes.”
    “Then nothing is changed.”
    “Everything is changed.”
    “What? I’m going to seduce you, not rape you. I understand the word
no.”
His eyes twinkled with sudden mischief. “I just want you to learn how to say yes. Since we’re going to have Cassie for a chaperone most of the time, it’s going to be difficult as hell for me even to get the chance to teach you.”
    “You’re treating me as if I’m some kind of emotional retard,” Lily said. “I assure you I’m perfectly normal and far from frigid.”
    Andrew shook his head. “I know, love. You’re very passionate, and that’s the problem. You’re afraid of losing control again with any man, afterwhat Baldor did to you.” He smiled coaxingly as his gaze moved over her face caressingly. “But you’re