Mercenary's Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

the other way and giving the punching
bag hell. He took Sally's own finger and drew it across her taut breast. He looked
straight into her eyes as he said softly, "That's why."
    She realized that it must have something to do with

MERCENARY'S WOMAN
    DIANA PALMER

being aroused, but no one had ever told her blatantly that it was a visible sign of desire. She went scarlet.
    "You
greenhorn," he murmured indulgently. "What a babe in arms."
    "I don't read those sort of books," she said haughtily.
    "You should. In fact, I'll buy you a
set of them. Maybe a few videos, too,"
he murmured absently, watching the expressions come and go on her face.
    "You varmint...!"
    He caught her top lip
in both of his and ran his tongue lazily under it. She stiffened, but her
hands were clinging to him,
not pushing.
    "You remember
that, don't you, Sally?" he murmured with a smile. "Do you remember what
comes next?''
    She jerked back from
him, staggering. Her eyes found Stevie, still oblivious to the adults.
    Eb's eyes were blatant on the thrust of
her breasts and he was smiling.
    She crossed her arms
over her chest and glared up at him. "You just stop that," she
gritted. "I'll bet you weren't born knowing everything!"
    He chuckled. "No, I wasn't. But I
didn't have a mother to keep my nose clean,
either," he said. "My old man was military down to his toenails, and he didn't believe in gen tle handling or delicacy. He used women until the
day he died." He laughed
coldly. "He told me that there was no such thing as a good woman, that they were to be enjoyed and put aside."
    She was appalled. "Didn't he love your mother?"
    "He wanted her,
and she wouldn't be with him until they got married," he said simply. "So they got married.
She died having me. They were living in a small town outside the military base where he was stationed. He was overseas on assignment and she lived alone,
isolated. She
     
    went into labor and there were complications.
There was nothing that could have been done for her by the time she was found. If a
neighbor hadn't come to look in on us, I'd have died with her."
    "It must have been a shock for your father," she said.
    "If it was, it
never showed. He left me with a cousin until I was old enough to obey orders, then
I went to live with him. I learned a lot from him, but he wasn't a loving man."
His eyes narrowed on her soft face. "I followed his example and joined the army. I was lucky
enough to get into the Green Berets. Then
when I was due for discharge, a man
approached me about a top secret assignment and told me what it would pay." He shrugged. "Money is a great temptation for a young man with a
domineering fa ther. I said yes and he never spoke to me again. He said that what I was doing was a perversion of the
military, and that I wasn't fit to be any officer's son. He disowned me on the spot. I didn't hear from him again. A
few years later, I got a letter from
his post commander, stating that he'd
died in combat. He had a military funeral with full honors."
    The pain of those
years was in his lean, hard face. Im pulsively she put a hand on his arm.
"I'm sorry," she told him quietly. "He must have been the sort
of man who only sees one side of any argument."
    He was surprised by
her compassion. "Don't you think mercenaries are evil, Miss Purity?"
he asked sarcastically.
     

DIANA PALMER
    41

Chapter Three
    Sally looked up into pain-laced green
eyes and without thinking, she lifted her hand from his arm and raised it toward his hard
cheek. But when she realized what she was doing, she drew it back at once.
    "No, I don't
think mercenaries are evil," she said quickly, embarrassed by the impulsive
gesture that, thank fully, he
didn't seem to notice. "There are a lot of coun tries where atrocities are committed, whose governments don't have the manpower or resources to protect
their peo ple. So, someone else gets hired to do it. I don't think it's a bad thing, when there's a legitimate cause."
    He was surprised by
her