“Not if you’re calling,” she assured him.
“You should be here at home, where I can see you properly protected,” he snapped. “I should have known better than to expect you to take a reasonable course of action. Thankfully, Carolyn’s son might be a pervert, but he is trained where you’re lacking. ”
Boy, was that the truth. Kimberly grinned at the sensual knowledge, though she knew her father was talking about an entirely different matter.
“Yes, I’m alive. Jared is alive. The bad guys haven’t won yet. Anything else?”
There were days she felt a flare of guilt for the animosity she showed the man who should have been her father. His caustic attitude and sniping tone never failed to dissuade her from the feeling though.
She heard the shuffle of papers through the phone line, felt the tension that suddenly invaded it.
“Stay out of his bed, Kimberly. ” His voice, when he spoke again was hard and icy cold. “I’ll never approve a marriage to him and I doubt seriously that a man of Jared’s temperament will be willing to wait the required five years. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can play him as easily as you think you can play everyone else. ”
Why did it still hurt? For a moment, she was amazed at the ever-present slice of pain that struck her chest whenever he revealed his contempt of her.
“Did you receive the doctor’s report last week?” she asked him rather than answering his accusation.
“Of course,” he snarled. “They are sent directly to me. ”
“Then I will assume you are aware I am still a virgin,” she said sweetly. “Until the reports say otherwise, anything I do and whoever I do it with is none of your concern. Correct?”
The blatant, falsely sweet tone of her voice would have his face turning red, his hazel eyes nearly bulging. She felt a flare of satisfaction at that thought.
“You think this is about no more than the tests?” he raged. “You are as corrupt…”
“Don’t say it. ” She couldn’t bear to hear it. Not now. “I’ll hang up the second you do. If you don’t have anything pertaining to this assignment to say, then I’ll hang up so fast you won’t know what’s hit you. ”
“He shares his women, Kimberly, shares them with his friends and God knows who else. No daughter of mine will be part of that. ”
She wished she wasn’t his daughter. It would have made things much easier on her.
“When you’re ready to be a father, rather than a moral barometer, be sure to let me know. ”
She disconnected the call slowly as she stared across the corral at Jared. He was staring back at her with a frown, one that didn’t ease when she sent him a quick smile. Her father’s accusations flitted through her mind, reminding her of who and what Jared was. A member of The Club. A man whose sexuality was so far advanced, so out of any other male’s league, that the sheer scope of it sent her pulse racing.
Yes, if he possessed her, he would share her. He would pick a third, just as the other members of The Club did, and he would share her, stroke her every fantasy and give her a freedom to enjoy it that most women could only dream about.
Did it make her love him less? It made her love him more. It made her hurt more, because no matter how she might dream, or how often she assured herself that five years wasn’t that long, she knew better. It could be a lifetime.
“Kimber. ” He stood on the other side of the fence now, watching her worriedly, his brow furrowed into a concerned frown. “Everything okay?”
“Fine. ” She swallowed tightly as she stemmed the tears and the knowledge of everything she was being denied. “Are you hungry yet? Lunch was an hour ago, Jared. I think I’m starved, it’s been hours since breakfast. ”
She knew by the narrowing of his eyes that she wasn’t hiding anything from him. For the first time in her life she was faced with someone she couldn’t fool.
“Kimber. ” He reached across the fence, his hand cupping her cheek and only then did she feel the slight dampness that had fallen from her eyes to her cheeks.
Her smile fell.
She licked her lips, staring up at him regretfully, aware of the rising emotion that began to fill the air.
“I want too much,” she finally whispered. “As always, I just want too much. ”
She turned away from him then and rushed across the barnyard, heading for the house. She couldn’t face him any longer. Couldn’t face the past, the future without him, or the demands suddenly whipping through her. She couldn’t face Jared, or she would never survive the choice she had sworn she would make.
Chapter Fourteen
Jared watched as Kimberly stalked back to the house. He could see the tension in every line of her body, had seen the hopelessness blooming in her gaze. He propped his hands on his hips and shook his head helplessly.