Now and Forever Read Online Free PDF

pleasure.
    The slender little black woman held her tight, bending her gray head over Tish’s shoulder. “Lordy, I’d forgot how pretty youare, sugar cane,” she laughed. “It’s good to have you home again!”
    â€œIt’s good to be home again,” she murmured, her eyes searching the porch and finding the same swing she sat in as a child, the big rocker where Russell used to hold her and rock her late in the evening as the family sat here.
    Joby came through the door. He looked a little more stooped in his walk than before but was still proud, even in his advancing age. Grinning from ear to ear, he took Tish’s outstretched hand and held it warmly between both of his.
    â€œWelcome home, Miss Tish,” he said. “It sho’ will be good to have you here. Miss Eileen don’t make enough noise to liven this old place up.”
    â€œI wouldn’t take bets, if I were you,” Russell said darkly. “Two more hours of that hard rock last night, and I’d have pulled the fuse box. Damned tape player could wake the dead.”
    â€œShe’s only seventeen, Russell,” Tish protested.
    â€œThat’s the same thing Baker used to tellme about you, and I didn’t buy it then either, did I?” he taunted.
    She glowered up at him, noticing the dark tan that gave him a vaguely foreign look, the whipcord slimness that hallmarked a body as tough as leather, the broad shoulders and hard chest that once pillowed a little girl’s head. A sensuous aura of masculinity cloaked him, and suddenly she felt like running.
    â€œYou’re a tyrant, you know,” she told him, hiding her fear in antagonism.
    â€œAnd you’re a little insurrectionist,” he said with a slow, lazy smile. His eyes, narrowed to slits, glittered down at her. “Exercising your claws on me, kitten?”
    â€œMust you patronize me, Russell?” she shot back.
    â€œYou better call over at Miss Nan’s,” Mattie said quickly, stepping between them, “and tell Eileen you’re here. In all the excitement, I just plain forget to tell you she wasn’t home.”
    â€œI’ll surprise her instead,” Tish said. She glanced at Russell, who was standing quietly with a smoking cigarette in his hand, justwatching her. “Can I borrow your car?” she asked.
    â€œHell, no.”
    A tiny smile tugged at her lips. “I do wish you could just give me a straight answer,” she said.
    Once he would have smiled at that, but his face was as smooth as glass. The only expression was in his narrowed eyes, and it made her ankles melt.
    â€œFlirting gets you nothing from me,” he said grimly, “or doesn’t your memory stretch that far?”
    She blushed to her heels. Behind her, Mattie mumbled, “Here we go again,” and Joby headed for the kitchen.
    â€œI wasn’t…” she protested.
    â€œWhile you’re upstairs,” he went on relentlessly, his eyes sweeping to the exposed curve of her full breasts, “put on another blouse. That getup may be suitable for a resort beach, but you’re a long way from the ocean now.”
    â€œTook the words right out of my mouth,” Mattie murmured, quickly heading out behind Joby when she caught the flash of fire in Tish’s wide gray eyes.
    â€œRussell Currie, I won’t…!” she started.
    â€œShut up.” The words were very quietly spoken. He didn’t raise his voice. The look in his eyes was enough. She’d seen him stop fights between the field hands with it without ever saying a word.
    â€œWe’d better understand each other from the start,” he said quietly. “Playing is one thing, I enjoy it as much as you do. But flirting is something else. Save it for Tyler. I don’t want any repeats of last summer.”
    Her lips trembled with suppressed fury. “Neither do I,” she said with as much cold dignity as she could