To Have and to Hold Read Online Free PDF Page A

won't make demands I can't meet. Someone just to talk to and do things with...."
    "My God, maybe I ought to just adopt you!"
    She jerked her eyes up to his, puzzled at the anger there. "But you just said...."
    "Never mind. Never mind, I said," he growled as she opened her mouth. He gulped down his coffee. "Thanks for the pie. I've got a few phone calls to make."
    She bent her head, staring down into the black, glimmering liquid in her coffee cup, stung almost to tears by the whip in his voice, the anger that she couldn't understand. She couldn't answer him, not without having him hear the tears in her voice.
    "Burgundy?" he asked gruffly.
    She shook her head, trying to convey in that non-verbal message that there was nothing wrong.
    She heard his footsteps move closer, until he was standing beside her, his hands clenched into fists in his pockets.
    He sighed deeply, and one big hand came out of the pocket to tip her face up, very gently, to his view.
    "I'm forty years old," he said tightly.
    She forced a tremulous smile to her lips. "I won't kick your crutches out from under you, if that's what you're worried about," she whispered.
    His eyes closed, and an involuntary deep chuckle shook his chest. "Oh, my God, what am I letting myself in for? Eat your pie, you impudent little upstart. I'll see you later."
    ❧
    Several days passed. They had waved to each other a few times but it was the middle of the week before she spoke to him again, and in the most unexpected way of all.
    She was sprawled on the couch, feeling the day's tension drain slowly out of her, when the jangle of the phone burst onto the pleasant silence like a broken record.
    With a muffled curse, she went to answer it.
    Resenting the intrusion, she picked up the receiver reluctantly and put it to her ear. "Hello," she said dully.
    "Tired, Burgundy?" came a familiar deep voice, and her pulse unexpectedly ran away. "What are you doing?"
    "I'm...what do you want?" she countered lightly, with a glow on her face that would have shocked her if she'd seen it in a mirror.
    "Company," he said flatly. "The walls are shrinking over here. How about coming over for that steak I owe you?"
    "You can cook?" she asked impudently.
    "Can I cook?" he echoed incredulously. "My God, I can make snake taste like pheasant under glass!"
    "I only asked. How soon do I have to be there?"
    "Ten minutes. And, honey, don't dress up," he added. "I'm so damned sick of evening gowns and long dresses...I haven't even put on a tie."
    "Listen, I have this terrific overall ensemble with suspenders..." she began enthusiastically.
    But she was talking to herself. He'd hung up. Muttering about impatient men, she pulled on a pink V-necked top over a pair of white slacks, ran a brush through her long auburn hair and pinned it on top of her head, and added the slightest touch of makeup.
    Cal answered the door, casually dressed in white slacks with a deep blue silk shirt that showed his muscular arms to advantage and which hung slightly open in front to reveal black, curling hair and bronze skin. Everything about him was intensely masucline, even the musky cologne that clung to his hard strong body as she brushed past him.
    "Five minutes," he said, glancing at his watch. "I've never known a woman to be so punctual. Are you that efficient on the job?"
    "I try to be," she said with a smile as he motioned her into the rich deep brown decor of the living room with its pale carpet and brown and off-white drapes. It had a faintly African flavor, right down to the hand-carved statuettes of lions and gazelles.
    "I spent some time in Africa years ago," he said, noticing her preoccupation with the furnishings. "I like the art particularly."
    "So do I. Very much."
    He came away from the tall, mahogany bar with two glasses in his hands and set one in front of her on a coaster on the coffee table. "It's a Tom Collins," he said. "I hope you like gin."
    "I...uh," she faltered, "I don't exactly know how you're going to take