Morosely she stood staring at the glass door of the washing machine, watching as the clothes sloshed around. For some reason the scene that day by the village stream flashed into her mind and she remembered Judd’s expression as he’d finally figured out that she was playing a game with him, a game he could win. For just a short while, there had been traces of genuine laughter in those glittering dark eyes. And she, idiot that she was, had assumed from such limited evidence that the man was human and that he could be reached on a human level.
Honor turned away from the sight of the spinning clothes. The last thing she wanted to recall was her own weak, very human and all too female nature! How could she have been so emotionally stupid as to read so much into that single night in his arms? She had actually awakened the next morning believing herself to be falling in love with the man!
And all he’d felt was male satisfaction at having conquered a woman to whom he’d been attracted.
Honor didn’t lie to herself now. She knew Judd was right when he accused her of romanticizing what was merely a straightforward physical relationship. Well, she’d learned her lesson. What in hell had made him think she’d stick around for more of the same? In rising disgust Honor realized she was having to dash away more dampness from her eyes.
* * *
The business of setting back into her normal round of activities began within twenty-four hours of her return to Phoenix. Honor threw herself into the task with a vengeance, knowing she needed outside stimuli to help her recover both emotionally and physically from the weeks of feeling hunted.
There were a lot of complicated explanations to make, too, she soon discovered. Her unannounced departure to Mexico had taken all her friends by surprise. Many had assumed she was still in Hong Kong. No one knew she’d been south of the border.
Not wanting to go into a long, involved explanation of her absence, Honor brushed off the questions by saying she’d wanted some time away after her return from the Orient. Steve Melbourne, however, demanded a bit more in the way of explanations.
“So you’re finally back from Hong Kong?” her former boyfriend began without preamble when she phoned him the morning after her return. “Sylvia told me you were back in town. And without that guy Prager, too. Can I hope for the best? Are you free tonight, for example?”
Honor took a deep breath and then smiled to herself. “Oh, yes, I’m quite free tonight, Steve.” She had never felt so free in her life!
“And Prager?”
“I’m not seeing him anymore,” she murmured feelingly.
“Great! Pick you up at seven. We can toast each other’s freedom.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not seeing Evie these days?”
“She took that job in Denver. I guess she’s made her priorities pretty clear, hasn’t she?”
“Steve, you know she would have been a fool to turn down that promotion,” Honor chided gently,
“What about me? What the hell was I supposed to do? Give up my job and follow her to Denver?”
“One of you had to do something or give up the relationship. I gather you’ve chosen to abandon the relationship.”
“I’ll tell you all about it tonight. I could use a nice shoulder to cry on.”
Steve Melbourne wasn’t crying when he arrived at seven o’clock that evening, but it was obvious he’d been under something” of a strain. They had developed an easy friendship since the end of their romance, and Honor sympathized with him, although she had felt powerless all along to help the situation between him and Evie Newcomb.
“It’s this damned women’s lib business,” Steve complained over drinks in a pleasant fireside lounge. His light blue eyes were meditative and somewhat resentful. Steve was a good-looking man in his early thirties, a very corporate-looking man, Honor had often thought The kind you couldn’t imagine in anything besides a three-piece suit, even here in Phoenix where people tended toward the casual. His tawny hair and tanned features fit well with the business image. He was also very good at his job of comptroller for a large Phoenix firm. He’d go far, but so would Evie Newcomb. It looked as if they weren’t going to make the journey together.
“Come on, now, Steve, one of the things you’ve always admired about Evie was her brilliance on the job. It was natural she’d be faced with this kind of decision sooner or later. You must have seen it coming.”
“Yeah, I suppose so. I was living in a fantasy world thinking we could have it all. You can’t have it all these days, can you, Honor? Maybe you never could.”
“You can still make your own choices,” she reminded him.
“You mean follow her to Denver?”
“You could get a good job there. It probably wouldn’t hurt you at all careerwise,” Honor pointed out gentry.
“If she loved me she would have stayed here in Phoenix!”
“If you loved her you’d go to Denver.”
Steve shrugged uneasily. “Looks like a no-win situation. But I really didn’t bring you out tonight to spend the whole evening talking about me and Evie. Tell me what you’ve been doing for the past few weeks. No one knew when you were coming back. No one was even sure where you were. We just assumed you’d stayed in Hong Kong for some extra sightseeing.”
“I, uh, had some time, so I did a little traveling,” she told him dryly. For some reason she simply didn’t feel like going into all the details. Not yet. Her reticence seemed to make him all the more curious, however, and she found herself deliberately looking for ways to switch the topic of conversation.
“Is it Prager? Are you upset about not seeing him anymore?” Steve finally asked commiseratingly.
‘To tell you the truth, I hope I never see that man again!” Honor saw the astonishment on her friend’s face and laughed ruefully. “I’m not working for Garrison and Prager anymore, Steve. As a matter of fact, I shall be pounding the pavement soon, looking for a job. Any ideas?”
“Sure. How about Evie’s old job?” he shot back wryly.
“Oh, she’d love to hear that I was working in the same firm as you! I think she was always a little jealous that I knew you first.”
“Maybe it would bring her back to Phoenix,” he hazarded wistfully. “You know, there was something to be said for the good old days when a man could just pick out a woman, hunt her down and drag her back to his cave and keep her there.”