Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,24

by being close to her.

“You ready to go?” he asked. “We must both be insane. A drive-in movie and it’s just a week until Halloween! It’s cold, even for south Texas!”

“I love drive-ins,” she said softly. “And I don’t care if it snows.”

He chuckled. “Me, neither, kid.” He took her hand in his and felt her catch her breath. He felt just the same. “Come on. I’ve got something a little less noticeable than the limo to go in.”

A little less noticeable, she thought with surprise when she saw what he was driving. It was a luxury convertible, very pretty and probably very fast.

“Oh, my,” she said.

“It goes like a bomb,” he said, as he helped her inside the late-model Mercedes convertible. It was a deep blue color. The interior was leather, with wood trim on the steering wheel and the dash. She sank into luxury as she fastened her seat belt.

“Oh, my,” she said again as he touched a control and her seat heated up and began to massage her back. “This is heavenly!” She closed her eyes and smiled. “Just heavenly!”

He chuckled. “I’m glad you like it. I go first-class, kid. Always have, even when I was young and full of pepper.” He didn’t like remembering exactly how he’d gone first-class. She made him feel guilty about the things he’d done in his pursuit of wealth. She didn’t seem to covet wealth at all.

“I’ve never ridden in a car that had heated seats,” she said excitedly. “And even a massage! It’s just amazing!”

He smiled. He hadn’t considered how uptown the car was to someone who probably rode around mostly in cabs that barely had heaters and air-conditioning. “Don’t you drive?” he asked.

She felt the words all the way to her feet and averted her eyes so that he couldn’t see the sadness in them. She couldn’t have afforded a car. “I used to,” she said softly. “Not anymore.”

“You should go back to it,” he replied as he pulled the car out into the street and accelerated. “I love to drive.”

“This car must go very fast.”

“It does. I’d demonstrate,” he teased, “but you’d have to come bail me out of jail.”

She laughed, the old fear and guilt subsiding. “I would, you know,” she said softly. “Even if I had to sell everything I own.”

He flushed.

“I mean, I’d find someone who could...” she began, all flustered because of what she’d blurted out. She was horribly embarrassed.

His big hand reached out for her small one and tangled with it. “Stop that,” he chided gently. “You shouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying somebody’s company. Especially not mine.” His hand contracted around hers. “I’m used to women who want what I’ve got,” he added coldly.

“What you’ve got?” His fingers tangling gently with hers had her confused and shaky inside.

“Money, kid,” he replied. “I’ve got enough in foreign banks to see me well into old age, even if I spend myself blind.”

“Oh.” Her hand stiffened in his.

He glanced at her and chuckled. “Now you think I suspect that you’re only going out with me because I’m rich. Not you,” he added in a deep, husky tone. “You’re not the sort of woman who prefers things to people. I knew that right off. Proud as Lucifer, when you fell in front of the car and I made sarcastic remarks about how you’d fallen.” He sighed sadly. “Worst mistake of my life, thinking you were like that. Believe me, I felt about two inches high when Santi found that cane you used.”

She bit her lower lip. “I’m clumsy, sometimes,” she said. “I fall over nothing when I’m having flares. I wish I was healthy,” she added miserably.

“My little grandmother would sit and cry sometimes when the pain got really bad,” he recalled quietly. “I’d fill a hot water bottle for her and read her stories in Greek to take her mind off it.”

“You can speak Greek?” she asked.

“Greek, Italian, a little Spanish,” he replied.

“I learned to read Greek characters,” she said. “They’re the Coptic alphabet, like Russian.”

“Nice,” he said, glancing at her with a smile. “Yes, they are. Hard for some people to learn, too.”

“I love languages. I really only speak English and Spanish.”

“Spanish?”

“Well, we deal with a lot of bilingual people, but some of the older people who come from countries south of ours don’t understand English as well as their children. I can translate for them.”

“Brainy,” he teased.

“Not really. I had to study hard to learn the language, just like I had to study hard