What a Woman Wants by Brenda Jackson

know your sister. I think she has an idea already about how you might feel.”
    Zach laughed before conceding, “Yes, she might, but I still want to do things my way.” He checked his watch. “Well, I’d better get going if I’m to leave for Virginia in the morning.”
    His parents stood and his mother crossed the room and gave him a hug. “I wish you the best of luck where Anna is concerned. I knew from the first time I saw the two of you together that one day this would happen, and I’m happy for you.”
    “Same here, son,” his father said, also giving him a big, strong hug. “Anna is a very special young woman.”
    “I know. And that’s the reason I fell in love with her.”

6
    “
If he was
that hot, I’m surprised you didn’t jump his bones when you had the chance,” Faith said, grinning after Shannon told her about the guy she’d met at the auto repair shop.
    Shannon, sitting on the sofa, crossed her legs, at the very thought. She smiled. “The idea did cross my mind, but I decided to make this an adventure, work up my level of expertise before I go in for the kill. Besides that, I have to make sure the guy clearly understands this will be a summer fling and nothing more than that. I don’t want him to get any ideas.”
    “Oh, and what kind of ideas are you talking about, Shannon?” Monique asked, coming to sit in one of the chairs in the room to join them. They had eaten dinner, each doing their own thing. Now Monique wished she’d had a salad like the one Faith had prepared instead of the hot dogs and fries she’d grabbed on the way back from town. She needed to purchase a few new jogging suits. She and Lyle had been meeting each morning, going jogging for almost a week, and if she was going to continue to do so, the least she could do was look good while getting all hot and sweaty.
    “
Several ideas,”
Shannon answered.
    “And of course the main one being that there’s no way Dr. Shannon Carmichael can even think about getting serious with a blue-collar worker. She only involves herself in relationships of intellectual compatibility,” Monique recited.
    Shannon frowned, not liking the way Monique had talked to her but then having to admit that what she’d said was true. “So what’s wrong with that?”
    “For you, nothing.”
    Her eyebrows rose in obvious displeasure. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
    Monique glanced over at Faith, who gave her an eye that said,
Please, let’s not go there tonight,
but Monique ignored that look because she
wanted
to go there. Maybe it would be hopeless to try to make Shannon see just what a snob she could be when it came to dating, but still, it wasn’t a topic they hadn’t tangled with before. No one had been more passionate about it than Cely, but no matter what they’d said to Shannon, she refused even to consider that when it came to men, their annual income didn’t matter. Shannon’s defense had always been that her parents raised her in such a way as to eventually marry well, and falling for a guy—no matter how decent, honest, and attractive he might be—who didn’t make at least twice as much as what she made was not a good match, definitely a step down.
    “It means, Shannon, that you still have a lot of growing up to do.”
    “Why, because I’m selective when it comes to men?”
    “No, I think we’re all selective. You just take the selection process to a whole other level. You have this stubborn assumption that a woman has to become seriously involved only with someone she considers her professional equal—or better yet, her superior. Knowing your parents, I’m sure from the time you could talk they drilled it into your mind to marry a doctor, a lawyer, or definitely someone who could keep you in all those name brands you like. I’d bet the money I have in my bank account that qualities like honesty, loyalty, integrity, and sensitivity in a man were never discussed. All I’m saying is that you should consider all