“Did you win?”
“No. I lost. I played a lousy game. Are you happy?”
Sam wasn’t happy. He hadn’t been happy since Susan had stormed out of his home the Wednesday before. Straightening, he took a step back and said in a very quiet voice, “Get out of the car.”
“What for?” she snapped. Being near him, but not near enough, pained her. She didn’t think she could take much more.
“Get out of the car.”
“Are you charging me with something?”
“No, I’m simply asking you to get out of the car.”
“And if I don’t, what will you do? Charge me with violating an order of a police officer? For God’s sake, Sam, can’t you do better than that?” She reached for the ignition. “It’s late. I’m going home.”
Suddenly a long arm crossed in front of her. Her hand was imprisoned and removed from the keys, which were as quickly removed from the ignition. The next thing she knew, her door was opened, Sam had taken her arm and all but lifted her out. Seconds later, she stood against the car, imprisoned by his flanking arms.
“Please, Sam,” she whispered. “Let me go.”
“We have to talk.”
She gave a small shake of her head. “I think everything was said last week.”
“And you’re satisfied with that?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Not for a minute. Not for a minute since you left have I been satisfied.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she wailed softly, “Oh God, don’t do this to me.”
“Do what?” Sam demanded.
Her eyes opened with a snap and she focused sharply on his face. “Talk of satisfaction in that tone. Bring it down to its lowest form. Make it physical. Because it was more than that, Sam. Always. I’m a living, feeling person, not a sex object. If you think that my sole purpose in life is to satisfy your urges—”
Sam’s look was just as sharp. “Ineverthought that. For Christ’s sake, what do you take me for?” His lips thinned, and he dropped his arms to his sides. “Stupid question, Craig. She told you what she takes you for. She takes you for a dumb cop. A Neanderthal, without a touch of class.”
The words haunted Susan, particularly as they came from Sam’s mouth. She had hurt him—which was precisely what she’d intended at the time, only now the hurt boomeranged. “I don’t take you for that,” she rushed out.
“You said it.”
“I was angry. You’d just told me that I only appealed to you in bed.”
“Nuh-uh. I never said that. I said that I only appealed toyouin bed.”
“But that’s not true.”
“That’s what I felt. You made me feel it, coming in the way you did, trying to change everything about my life.”
“I didn’t do that. I didn’t want to change everything. All I wanted to do was to decorate your house. I mean, what else could I do? I’m not good for much else. I’m not a great cook or a great cleaner, not that you need either of those things since you do them just fine by yourself. I don’t have a career for you to respect like Savannah—”
Sam cut her off. “Don’t bring her into this, Susan. This is between you and me. Savannah’s irrelevant.”
“Okay, but still, what do I know? I know how to plan fund-raisers. Does that impress you? Of course not. I know how to arrange flowers, but you’re not a flower person. And I know how to decorate. I was trying to be useful. That was the only thing I could think to do. So I thought wrong.”
“You sure did. You made me feel like a bush-league nothing. It’s bad enough that you’re loaded. I’m not. Never have been, never will be. I can’t begin to measure up to the other men you know when it comes to assets. I can’t give you anything you don’t already have—”
“I’ve neveraskedyou for anything—”
