Commitments by Barbara Delinsky Page B

innocence and serenity, and she'd done it today. She touched him, heated him, made him ache. - Arms folded rigidly beneath his head, he stared at the shadowy cracks on the ceiling. Like a Rorschach test, they took shape, forming a slender body in a large sweater and long skirt with a chic belt and -imported boots. And there was more. In the cracks he saw her 62 She wore it in a vague pageboy - vague because it mussed by the wind, by the collar of her coat, s even by her fingers. And she didn't seem to since not once did she attempt to neaten the d riot. And there was more; he saw the slenderness' her neck, the gracefulness of her wrists, the gentle of her breasts beneath a sweater that should have everything but didn't. And jasmine perfume. q, not perfume. It had been too light, too delicate. poo, perhaps. Or body cream. _' He squeezed his eyes shut and took several deep, ed breaths. He thought about the pathetic somethat had masqueraded as hamburger at dinner, t the guard he'd seen kick an inmate whose sole 0eason for not rising from his cot that morning had @@.@een acute appendicitis, about Crazy Louie's latest
    - "@nd dumbest - escape attempt. in time the swelling tween his legs eased. Only then did he open his eyes. The cracks on the ceiling were back to being cracks on the ceiling. But, damn it, he could still smell her. She was all style and class. Everything about her - --,clothes, jewelry, makeup - was understated and very Z1,obviously of fine quality. Page 21
    Barbara Delinsky - Commitments
    The difference between her and the other visitors in that room had been ludicrous. She shouldn't have come. She didn't belong here. ,..'@,,-But God, she'd looked lovely. Tired, perhaps, and tense, but he'd seen all that before. She'd still been lovely. And he ached for her as he hadn't ached for a woman in months and months, which was absurd. This woman was as off-limits as any woman could get. Item one, she had problems. She had a child who needed every last bit of her love and attention. And she had a husband - not just any husband, but one who had a fair amount of prestige and power. Derek wasn't sure where she found the strength to contribute 63 to that particular relationship once she'd finished taking care of her son, but that wasn't his worry. The fact was, she was married and married well. Item two, he had problems. He was a man standing at the crossroads of life, looking down one bleak path after another. He was in prison, stuck there for at least another nine months and beyond that at the whim of the parole board. He was a man with talent and no place to use it, if the grim predictions of his agent were to prove correct. And he was from the wrong side of the tracks. Lord, how he'd fought that. He'd left home at eighteen, on the day of his high school graduation, and he'd been determined to put as much distance between himself and his past as possible. He'd enlisted in the Marines, done a stint in Vietnam and been thoroughly disillusioned. But he'd been in too much of a rush to take the time to protest the killing and maiming of innocent people. If gaining distance from his roots was his goal, he had too far to go to-dally. He enrolled in college, earned a degree in political science, then one in communications. Long before graduation, he was delivering on-the-hour middle-ofthe-night news summari s at a local radio station. From there, he made a steady climb. He bounced from city to city, which was fine since he loved travel and adventure; but more important, each move meant a job that was one step up the ladder. At the age of thirty-five he was named one of the three principal correspondents on Outside Insight. That had been four years ago. The sense of triumph he'd felt then had been incredible. He'd made it. He'd hit the big time in a big way. An honest way. A lawful, respected way. That was one of the things that hurt most now - it 64 n a goddamned waste of time and effort. Held his tail off all those years. Held