Call Me Irresistible (Wynette, Texas #5)(99)

He pulled off his socks. "I should have been up front with you earlier, but Sunny says I can be too blunt. My mind works faster than most people's. She says I don't always give people enough time to get to know me."

"She's right. You should listen to your daughter."

"Cut the bull, Meg. You've had plenty of time." His fingers worked at the buttons of his blue oxford dress shirt. "You think all I want is a roll in the hay. I want more than that, but you won't stay still long enough to hear me out."

"I apologize. I'll meet you in town for dinner, and you can say whatever you want to." 

"We need privacy for this discussion, and we won't have that in town." He unfastened his cuffs. "The two of us have a future together. Maybe not marriage, but a future. Being together. I knew that the first time I met you."

"We don't have a future. Be real. You're only attracted to me because of my father. You don't even know me. You just think you do."

"That's where you're wrong." He took off his shirt revealing a gruesomely hairy chest. "I've been around longer than you have, and I understand human nature a lot better." He stood. "Look at you. Driving a fucking drink cart at a third-rate public course that calls itself a country club. Some women do just fine on their own, but you're not one of them. You need someone picking up the check."

"You're wrong."

"Am I?" He came toward the riverbank. "Your parents brought you up soft. It was a mistake I didn't make with Sunny. She worked at the plant from the time she was fourteen, so she learned early on where a dollar came from. But that's not the way it was with you. You had all the advantages and none of the responsibility."

There was enough truth in his words to sting.

He stopped at the riverbank. A raven called out. The water rushed around her. She shivered from the chill and from her vulnerability.

His hands dropped to his belt buckle. She sucked in her breath as he pulled it open. "Stop right there," she said.

"I'm hot and that water looks real good."

"I mean it, Spence. I don't want you here."

"You just think you don't." He pulled off his pants, tossed them aside, and stood in front of her. His hairy belly hung over white boxers, pasty legs protruding beneath.

"Spence, I don't like this."

"You brought it on yourself, Miz Meg. If you'd gone to Dallas with me like I wanted yesterday, we could have had this discussion on my plane." He dove in. The splash hit her in the eyes. She blinked, and within seconds, he'd surfaced beside her, his hair plastered to his head, rivulets of water running through his blue-black beard. "What's the real problem, Meg? You think I won't take care of you?"

"I don't want you to take care of me." She didn't know if he intended to rape her or if he merely wanted to make her submit to his authority. She only knew she had to get away, but as she backed toward the riverbank, his arm shot out and he grabbed her wrist. "Come here."

"Let me go."

His thumbs dug into her upper arms. He was strong, and he lifted her off the rocky bottom, exposing her breasts. She saw his lips coming toward her, those big square teeth aiming for her mouth.

"Meg!"

A figure shot out of the trees. Slim, dark-haired, dressed in hip-hugging shorts and a retro Haight-Ashbury T-shirt.

"Haley!" Meg cried.

Spence jumped back as if he'd been hit. Haley came closer, then stopped. She hugged herself, crossing her arms over her chest and clutching her elbows, unsure what to do next.

Meg didn't know why she'd shown up, but she'd never been so glad to see anyone. Spence's heavy, drawn eyebrows jutted ominously over his small eyes. Meg made herself look at him. "Spence was just leaving, weren't you, Spence?"

The fury in his expression told her that their love affair was over. By puncturing his ego, she'd moved to the top of his enemies list.

He pulled himself out of the water. His white briefs clung to his buttocks, and she looked away. Haley stood frozen in the shade, and he didn't spare her a glance as he jerked on his pants and shoved his feet into his shoes without his socks. "You think you got the best of me, but you haven't." His voice was almost a growl as he snatched up his shirt. "Nothing happened here, and don't either of you try to say otherwise."



       
         
       
        

He disappeared up the path.

Meg's teeth were chattering, and her knees had locked so she couldn't move.

Haley finally found her tongue. "I've-I've got to go."