Amanda sat rigidly on his lap and remembered Hank saying, “Taste me.” “I believe I coul
d learn,” she said.
“Then relax, Amanda,” he said in the voice of Taylor-the-teacher.
Acting out of reflex from years of being obedient, she slumped against him and put her head on his shoulder.
He snuggled her against him, seeming to be content, while Amanda had the absurd idea that they didn’t fit together. She thought she might be too heavy for Taylor’s thin body, and she also sensed that, although he said he wanted her to relax, he’d be appalled if she turned to him and caressed his ear with her tongue. She couldn’t help thinking of Hank: she seemed to weigh nothing to him as he tossed her over fences and lifted her in and out of cars, and nothing shocked him.
“Are you willing to give me a chance at being your lover instead of your tutor?” Taylor asked.
“Of course,” Amanda said. “If we are to be married—”
“If!”
“When we are married, we will be l-lovers.”
Taylor chuckled. “My shy little flower. I will introduce you to love. I don’t mean to brag, but I have had some experience.”
Me, too, she wanted to say, but she was sure that wouldn’t go over too well.
He held her away to look at her. “We’ll start tonight. I’ll pick you up at your Union Hall—I should see where you have your little job—and we’ll go to the carnival in Terrill City.”
“The carnival?” Amanda gasped. “But—”
“Is there something wrong with the carnival? Perhaps you’d rather go somewhere else. A dance, perhaps. A motion picture? We could just walk in the moonlight. Perhaps a moonlight picnic? That would be nice. We could take a chocolate cake. I know how you love chocolate.”
Amanda could bear no more. She got off his lap. “The carnival will be wonderful. I really must go now to my”—she hesitated—“to my little job. I will see you tonight.”
“No kiss goodbye?” he asked lightly.
She bent forward to kiss him and he put his hand to the back of her head and turned her head to give her a hard, openmouthed kiss while his other hand moved down her arm to touch the side of her breast.
She jerked away from him abruptly.
He chuckled. “See, I can be something besides a teacher. Go on now. I’ll see you this evening.”
Stiffly, Amanda left the dining room. Moments later she was in the back of the limousine on the way to the Union Hall. Now she had everything she wanted out of life: Taylor loved her; he was treating her as an adult and not a schoolgirl, and tonight she was going to a carnival with a man she had loved since she was a child. She was the most fortunate, the luckiest woman on earth.
So why did she feel as if her life were over? Why did she feel like hiding in her room and never coming out?
By the time she got to the Union Hall, her body and face were rigid with unshed tears. The first person she saw was Hank, and for a moment his eyes met hers and caught fire. She looked away.
He came to her desk and leaned over her. “You’re late,” he whispered. “Out late last night?”
Just his breath on her ear sent chills along her body. “You may take the time out of my wages,” she said coolly, moving to the other side of the desk. “Wages which you haven’t paid me, I might add.”
Hank moved next to her. “Has something happened? If that bastard Taylor did anything to you, I’ll—”
“Taylor told me he loves me and he’s taking me to the carnival tonight, Dr. Montgomery. I really do thank you for your tutoring of me. It looks as if it’s worked perfectly.” She held out her hand for him to shake. “I will owe you my undying gratitude.”
He looked at her, then at her hand. “You’re quite welcome,” he said just as coolly. “If you need any more…help”—he looked her up and down in an insolent way—“let me know.” He took his wallet from inside his coat pocket and pulled out two fives and slapped them on her desk. “For services rendered. Now, are you planning to work or has the rich Miss Caulden more important things to do today?”
“I can do more work in a day than you can in a week,” she said, wishing he’d just get out of her sight so she wouldn’t have to remember kissing him or dancing with him, or making love with him.
“We’ll see about that.” He turned away and went to his own desk.
Everyone in the hall had heard, of course. Joe looked at Reva and shook his hand as if to say, hot one. Reva looked away and smiled, but the smile didn’t last long. She’d got Amanda away from Hank, but she didn’t like to think of that lovely Mr. Driscoll with Amanda. Either man, Amanda couldn’t lose. The fact that she had both of them enraged Reva.