Page 57 of Frankly, My Dear

“I don’t understand.” The icy expression in James’s eyes frightened Selene. A suffocating sensation tightened her throat. How could he go from hot passion to cold revulsion so quickly? Selene had put up with so much verbal abuse from Devon over the years. He would appear to want her, would seduce her with soft words, then ridicule her with cruel taunts after she’d surrendered her body to him.

Oh, Lord, please don’t let this man be the same. James had made her feel feminine and desirable for the first time in such a long time. She didn’t think she could bear condemnation from him now.

But what if she’d mistaken his ardor? What if he’d felt sorry for her? Maybe he’d just been…well, horny…and she was convenient. Now he was repelled by her.

She had to know the truth. Swallowing the bitter taste of despair in her throat, she pleaded hoarsely, “James, please don’t say that you regret our kiss.”

“Kiss? You call what just occurred between us a kiss?” He slanted her a look of utter disbelief and dragged his fingers through his hair distractedly.

“What do you call it?” she asked in a low voice, willing herself not to cry.

“We were making love, Selene,” he told her, spacing his words slowly and carefully, as if instructing a small child. “The fact that the act was not consummated doesn’t make it any less lovemaking, and you know it.”

She nodded. “Then why are you acting so…strange now?”

“Strange?” He regarded her gravely. “I’ll tell you what’s strange. Me. How could I forget who you really are?” He shook the ballgown in her face for emphasis. “Any minute now, you could slip this garment on and slide out of my life. Without a backward glance.”

Selene inhaled sharply with sudden understanding. He was right, she realized with horror. At least, about the possibility of her leaving this time period…and him…without a moment’s notice. But he was wrong about the backward glance.

“I’ll tell you what else is strange,” he continued, dropping the gown to the floor with revulsion and beginning to pace the floor in agitation. “My lack of control. Mon Dieu! I have fifteen thousand arpents of standing cane and one hundred slaves out there, and I’m rolling around on the floor like a brainless lad with an equally brainless witch from the future.”

“James, I understand. Please let me explain.”

“I’m thirty-four damn years old,” he continued, ignoring her plea, “and I’m behaving as wildly as my son, who is clearly in much more need of a father than you are a lover.”

She gasped.

“I warned you about seducing me. I told you my responsibilities were stretched to the limit. Oh, don’t look at me with such outrage, chérie. I take equal blame for this seduction, but it must stop. Now.” He grabbed her by the upper arms, lifting her toward him. “Do you understand?”

Her unfastened dress began to slip off her shoulders, and for a moment Selene thought he was about to pull her into his arms again as his eyes fastened on her bare shoulders and lower. But he made a savage hissing sound and dropped his hands, turning away from her, clearly agitated.

“I’m going mad,” he muttered.

“James, listen to me,” she said, putting a hand on his arm in sympathy.

He shrugged her away. “Do…not…touch…me.”

Selene drew her hand away, but she was not insulted. She understood the bolt of electricity that seemed to shoot between them with just a mere touch. “I wasn’t thinking, either, James. And I accept what you’re saying now, but surely you don’t think I take these…feelings…between us lightly. That I could leave here and have no regrets.”

He looked at her intently, his mouth tight and grim. “Are you saying that you won’t leave?”

Selene’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.”

“Would you destroy the gown, cutting your bridge back to your own time?”

“No!” She clapped a palm over her mouth at her too-quick retort.

James’s lips twisted cynically.

“I mean, not yet.”

“Ever?”

She winced at his scathing tone. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

A dark cloud seemed to settle over them.

“Tell me this, Selene. Are you taking those birth control pills that were advertised in your magazine?” He threw the icy words at her like stones.