Guilt by Association Read online

  The thoughtless words slipped out, and instantly she regretted them. He stared at her, then nodded as he said in a hard-edged voice, “Maybe that’s so, but since we’re putting all our cards on the table, Miss Dani Ross, I’ll just tell you the truth. You want to know the real reason why I won’t work for you?”

  Dani hesitated and nodded slightly. “Yes, I’d like to know.”

  The quarrel had touched him, and she saw the rashness buried beneath his cool exterior. “You’re bound and determined to be somebody you’re not,” he said. “You want to be an old-fashioned type of woman, gentle and soft—but you can’t, because no private eye can be that. So you try to be tough and hard. Someday,” he added, “you’re going to find out which woman you really want to be.”

  She blinked suddenly and said, “That’s my private life!”

  “Yeah? Well, so was Florrie my private life—but you’re right, it’s your business. Only I don’t have to stay around and watch it.”

  He turned to go, but she caught at his arm, and when he came to face her, she said, “We can be a good team, Ben. All I’m asking is that we work together.”

  “You keep out of my life, and I’ll keep out of yours,” he said roughly. Anger boiling over, he put his arms around her and drew her close before she could move. She instantly placed her hands on his chest and tried to pull back. He watched her struggle, then said, “I wouldn’t mind working for a woman, Dani,” he said. “But you’re not a woman—you’re some kind of cause!”

  “Let me go!” she cried out, for the touch of his hands wrecked her ideas of putting their relationship on a purely business footing. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Sure, I’m just a roughneck, no sensitivity,” he jibed and pulled her even closer. “But let me tell you something. That time I kissed you, in the silo. . . .” He paused, seemed to struggle for words, then said in a quiet voice, “I—I saw something in you, Dani, and it was real for me. For the first time since—since Florrie. But then you looked at me like I was something thaf d crawled up out of the sewer!”

  “Ben, I didn’t mean it like that!” Dani whispered.

  He dropped his arms, his face grim. “Look, this is no good. What are we? I’m a roughneck, and you’re brainy. I think women ought to be feminine, and you’re trying to be a man. I can’t trust a woman because one of them let me down. And you can’t be a woman because you’ve decided to become a nun and spend the rest of your life in a convent!”

  Dani stood there, and his words struck her hard. She stared at him, trying to escape, but could not. Against her will she thought of their days together—and the time he’d kissed her. She struggled to summon arguments to offset his charges, but none came.

  She could only say, “Ben, don’t run away. We can work it out.” She had to struggle to get the next words out, and they came with a breathless quality. “I—I need you, Ben.” Without willing it, she threw her arms around his neck. “And I think you need me.” She was trembling in his arms, but courage filled her eyes.

  “We’d drive each other crazy in a month!” he muttered.

  Dani had never liked to beg—not for anything. But now she felt as if she was about to lose something priceless. She looked into his eyes and pleaded, “Ben, don’t leave! If you don’t like what I am, help me to change.”

  His arms went out, and he pulled her close. She pulled his head down and kissed him fully on the lips. For one moment she clung to him, letting him see what she was—a woman beautiful and shaped by life and longing for all that she had never had. Then she stepped back.

  “Will you stay?” she asked.

  Shaken by the kiss, he looked at her, then nodded slowly, and a smile came to him—an easy smile, drawn from the real humor interwoven with his spirit. “Always wanted to have a hand in making a woman into what she ought to be.”

  She laughed, took his arm and swung into step with him. “Funny you should say that, Ben, because I’ve always thought I could make something out of you, if I had the chance!”

  He grinned at her with something in his eyes that she couldn’t read then made one more comment: “Well, maybe we can make something of each other, boss!”

  Books by Gilbert Morris

  * * *

  One Shining Moment

  The Quality of Mercy

  A Season of Dreams

  Revenge at the Rodeo

  Race with Death

  Guilt by Association

  The Final Curtain

  Deadly Deception

  Winds of Change