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He heard little moans against his mouth, and her tongue took off on an adventure of its own. His body reacted violently. Drawing his hands out of her panties, he lifted her by the backs of her thighs. She splayed them automatically and wrapped them around his hips. As she gripped his shoulders, he realized he’d started to sweat. If he didn’t stop right now, he was going to forget who she was and take her right here on the floor of his mother’s living room. A room, he reminded himself, with a set of unlocked doors and the portrait of an innocent child looking on.
“Gracie . . .” He eased her legs from around his hips to set her back down, then reached up to unlock her arms.
“Sweetheart, we’re going to have to slow down a little here.”
“I don’t want to. I want you to show me what happens next.”
“I can see that. But the fact is, you’re not ready for anything more than kisses right now.” He set her firmly away from him and bent over to pick up her clothes, adjusting himself when his back was turned because he didn’t want to shock her to death.
He coaxed her into her clothes not a moment too soon because he’d just fastened her skirt when the doors slid open and his mother came in.
“How’s she doing?”
Before he could reply, Gracie gave a loud, offended sniff “Your son is no gentleman. He refused to have sex with me.”
Suzy patted his arm, her eyes dancing with amusement. “Words to warm a mother’s heart.”
Bobby Tom had definitely been around females long enough for one night. He turned to Gracie. “Now listen to me, sweetheart. You’re going to sleep here tonight, and I don’t want you to worry about a thing. Willow will be coming around to see you first thing tomorrow morning.”
Once again, Gracie peered past him to Suzy. “You don’t happen to have any dirty movies in the house, do you?”
Suzy shot her son a disapproving look, then linked Gracie’s arm with her own. “The two of us are going to take a little walk upstairs now.”
To his relief, Gracie went along without protest.
He followed them into the hallway and retrieved his hat from the rack. As they began to mount the stairs, he looked up at his mother. “Just how many of those wine coolers did she drink?”
“She had three,” Suzy replied.
Three! Bobby Tom couldn’t believe it. After only three drinks, she’d stripped off her clothes and demanded that he have sex with her.
“Mom?” He shoved on his hat.
“Yes, dear.”
“Whatever you do, don’t let her anywhere near a six-pack.”
Aspirin burned in Gracie’s belly and the late-morning sun knifed her eyeballs as she let herself out the sliding door that led to Suzy Denton’s patio. Bougainvillea grew along the back of the house and honeysuckle trailed over a rustic fence on one side of the yard, which was shaded by an old pecan and several magnolias. A colorful annual garden in a sunny spot held frilly pink and white petunias, geraniums, daisies, and periwinkles. A sprinkler hissed near some low shrubbery, and everything smelled clean and fresh from its morning watering.
Her hostess, wearing khaki shorts and a brightly colored T-shirt with a parrot on the front, knelt on the ground be-fore a small herb garden. She looked up and smiled. “Did Miss Craig leave?”
Gracie nodded and immediately regretted making such a drastic movement with her head. She winced, then walked slowly to the end of the patio where Suzy was working.
“Willow wants to hire me back.” She gingerly lowered herself to sit on the top step.
“Oh?”
“But not as a production assistant. As Bobby Tom’s assistant.”
“Oh.”
“I told her I’d think about it.” Gracie tucked the skirt of her sadly crumpled navy suit around her legs, all she had to wear since her suitcase was still tucked away in the trunk of the Thunderbird. She swallowed hard. “Suzy, I can’t tell you how sorry I am about last night. After all you’ve done for me, I abused your hospitality and embarrassed you in your own home. My behavior was reprehensible, the most reprehensible thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Suzy smiled. “You really have been sheltered, haven’t you?”
“That’s no excuse.”
“You had a bad shock yesterday,” Suzy said kindly. “Any woman would have been upset.”
