Man of the Hour Read Online Free PDF Page B

left.”
    “That’s right. Your mother decided,” he corrected, and his eyes glittered coldly. “She yelled frog, and you jumped. You always were afraid of her.”
    “Who wasn’t?” she muttered. “She was a world-beater, and I was a sheltered babe in the woods. I didn’t know beans about men until you came along.”
    “You still don’t,” he said flatly. “I’m surprised that living in New York hasn’t changed you.”
    “What you are is what you are, despite where you live,” shereminded him. She looked down again, infuriated with him. “I dance. That’s what I do. That’s all I do. I’ve worked hard all my life at ballet, and now I’m beginning to reap the rewards for it. I like my life. So it was probably a good thing that I found out how you felt about me in time, wasn’t it? I had a lucky escape, Steve,” she added bitterly.
    He moved close, just close enough to make her feel threatened, to make her aware of him so that she’d look up.
    He smiled with faint cruelty. “Does your good fortune compensate?” he asked with soft sarcasm.
    “For what?”
    “For knowing how much other women enjoy lying in my arms in the darkness.”
    She felt her composure shatter, and knew by the smile that he’d seen it in her eyes.
    “Damn you!” she choked.
    He turned away, laughing. “That’s what I thought.” He paused at the doorway. “Tell your brother I’ll call him tomorrow.” His eyes narrowed. “I hated you when your mother handed me the ring you’d left with her. You were the biggest mistake of my life. And, as you said, it was a lucky escape. For both of us.”
    He turned and left, his steady footsteps echoing down the hall before the door opened and closed with firm control behind him. Meg stood where he’d left her, aching from head to toe with renewed misery. He said he’d hated her in the past, but it was still there, in his eyes, when he looked at her. He hadn’t stopped resenting her for what she’d done, despite the fact that he’dbeen unfaithful to her. He was in the wrong, so why was he blaming Meg?
    “Where’s Steve?” her brother asked when he reappeared.
    “He had to go. He had a hot date,” she said through her teeth.
    “Good old Steve. He sure can draw ’em. I wish I had half his…Where are you going?”
    “To bed,” Meg said from the staircase, and her voice didn’t encourage any more questions.
     
    Meg only wished that she had someplace to go, but she was stuck in Wichita for the time being. Stuck with Steven always around, throwing his new conquests in her face. She limped because of the accident, and the tendons were mending, but not as quickly as she’d hoped. The doctor had been uncertain as to whether the damage would eventually right itself, and the physical therapist whom Meg saw three times a week was uncommunicative. Talk to the doctor, she told Meg. But Meg wouldn’t, because she knew she wasn’t making much progress and she was afraid to know why.
    Besides her injury, there was no work in New York for her just now. Her ballet company couldn’t perform without funds, and unless they raised some soon, she wouldn’t have a job. It was a pity to waste so many years of her life on such a gamble. She loved ballet. If only she were wealthy enough to finance the company herself, but her small dividends from her stock in Ryker Air wouldn’t be nearly enough.
    David didn’t have the money, either, but Steve did. Shegrimaced at just the thought. Steve would throw the money away or even burn it before he’d lend any to Meg. Not that she’d ever ask him, she promised herself. She had too much pride.
    She’d tried not to panic at the thought of never dancing again. She consoled herself with a small dream of her own, of opening a ballet school here in Wichita. It would be nice to teach little girls how to dance. After all, Meg had studied ballet since her fourth birthday. She certainly had the knowledge, and she loved children. It was an option that