Eve - Iris Johansen [20]
“I had a choice.” He paused. “And you’re not like your mother, Eve. She’s not a bad woman, but she’s weak. There’s nothing about you that’s weak.”
“I know that,” she said. “But when I see her like that, I have to keep reminding myself. And how can I be sure that she wasn’t stronger when she was my age? Was she like me? Can life beat me down and turn me into what she’s become?”
“Not if you don’t let it.”
She drew a deep breath. “That’s right. I’m not thinking straight right now.” She turned around to face him. “Sometimes I get scared, but it doesn’t last long. Do you ever get scared, John?”
“Now and then. Usually it’s about being trapped somewhere and not able to get out.”
“And that’s why you’re going to join the Army and see the world. You’re going to avoid all the traps,” she said. “I don’t have to see the world. I’m going to make my own world.”
He smiled. “And what a world it will be. I’d like to stay around and see it.”
And she would like him to be there to see what she could accomplish, she realized. He would give life an edge, an excitement.
What was she thinking? That edge and excitement were what was most dangerous to her. She needed steadiness and focus to reach her goals.
He was looking around the room. “Very clean, very neat. It looks like you.”
“It’s the only way I can stand it. I taught myself to keep house, but I’m still a lousy cook. Strictly TV dinners.”
“I like to cook. It relaxes me.”
“Another thing your uncle taught you?”
He nodded. “He never got married. He had to do for himself. I’d like you to meet him someday.” His gaze was on the wall beside the window. “That’s a nice sketch on the wall. It’s Manuel, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I did it when I sat with him while Rosa went to the store. I’m going to give it to her when she starts her GED study. It’s sort of a bribe.”
“It’s good. Is that what you’re going to study?”
“Art? No way. I’ve heard too much about starving artists. And people who starve end up in places like this. I’m going to study engineering. That’s solid.”
“You have something there.” His gaze was still wandering. “One bedroom. Where do you sleep?”
“On the couch. It’s pretty comfortable.”
His gaze went to the paisley-covered couch across the room. “Cushy. Yeah, I can see you lying on it.” His eyes shifted back to her. “I’m glad I’ll be able to picture you there.”
Heat again. Out of nowhere. Just a few words, and that tingling tension was back.
“You’d better leave.”
“I’m going. I knew I said the wrong thing. I was making headway. We’ve gotten to know more about each other. You’re not thinking of me as a threat to you any longer. I should have let it go at that, but I couldn’t do it.” He added, “But I didn’t want to let you forget what’s going to be important to us.” He turned toward the door. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night.”
“Don’t you ever give up?”
“If I’d taken you at your word tonight and left you when you handed me my walking papers, then it would have been a hell of a lot more difficult for you.” He opened the door. “You can never tell when I might come in handy.”
“One-in-a-thousand chance.”
“When it comes, I’ll be there.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Do you know how I’m going to be thinking of you lying on that couch?” he said softly. “Naked, Eve. Naked and moving.”
He shut the door.
Damn him.
A wild kind of chemistry.
Searing hunger, mindless need. She was feeling all of those emotions that very moment.
Her hands were clenched as she stared at the door. The hell he was no longer a threat. Yes, they had gotten to know more about each other. Though he had become more knowledgeable about her than she was of him. He had caught her at a susceptible time, and she had revealed a vulnerability that she had shown no one before.
All she had learned about him was that he could be even more brutal and dangerous than he had shown her with that encounter with Larazo. That he had effortlessly made himself a necessity to Sandra and