Darling Enemy by Diana Palmer

chance to reply.
    “King, taking you to Banff?” Jenna laughed when they were upstairs. “My gosh, miracles happen every day, don’t they?”
    “You aren’t half as surprised as I was,” Teddi said, pausing at the door to her room. “And I’m still not sure why. Maybe he wants some privacy so he can give me the devil and I won’t have any hope of rescue.”
    “Maybe he’s mellowing,” Jenna suggested.
    “Maybe the chickens will give milk.”
    “Well, he didn’t sound sarcastic or anything.”
    Teddi smiled wistfully. “You didn’t hear him before you came in. He was giving me a scolding about that televised fashion show I was in.”
    “How interesting,” came the amused reply. “Because when we watched it, he sat there staring like a man possessed. He didn’t take his eyes off you, and he didn’t say a word.”
    “He was probably busy trying to think up nasty things to say about it the next time he saw me,” she countered, flushing.
    “That wasn’t how he looked,” Jenna murmured thoughtfully, recalling the strange, intense look in her brother’s eyes at the time.
    “How did he look?”
    Jenna met Teddi’s curious eyes levelly. “He looked like a starving man.”
    Teddi turned away before Jenna could see and question the wild color in her cheeks. “It was televised before dinner, wasn’t it?” she murmured. “Well, good night. See you in the morning.”
    “Inevitably,” came the gleeful reply. “Another fascinating chapter of your ongoing war with King. I wish you two got along better,” she added, suddenly serious. “I can’t understand why he’s so down on you. He isn’t like that about another single person.”
    “Maybe I remind him of a woman he used to hate.”
    Jenna shook her head. “There aren’t that many women in his past. Very few in his present, too.” She grinned. “And no one at all since Easter,” she added. “I wonder why?”
    “Good night!” Teddi said quickly, darting into her room.
    * * *
    She rose after a restless night, her eyes full of dreams and hopes. It was the most exciting morning she could remember, because the day promised a whole afternoon in King’s company.
    Time seemed to fly as they all went to church together, and Teddi stood next to King, listening to his deep, pleasant voice as they sang hymns in the same Presbyterian church where his father and mother had married years before.
    And then, church was over, and Teddi was feeling as if she could conquer the world as she sat beside King in his low-slung black Ferrari on the way to Banff. Her eyes wandered restlessly from the winding road between sky-high pines to the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains against an azure sky.
    “It’s as big as the whole world,” she murmured, spellbound. “Everything out here seems gigantic, and the air is so clean.”
    King chuckled softly. “Cleaner than most places, thanks to our provincial government. We have stringent basic environmental standards that new developers must meet, to preserve our clean water and skies.”
    “Georgia has a fine environmental protection division, too,” Teddi replied, “and equally stringent air and water conservation requirements. We like to think they’re some of the best in the nation.”
    He glanced at her. “I always associate you with New York,” he murmured dryly, “despite that Southern accent.”
    “Why, because I model?” she asked defensively. “It’s just a job, King.”
    “A job is something one does out of necessity,” he fired back without looking her way. “You model because you like the glamour of it and the excitement.”
    How wrong he was, she thought dejectedly. She modeled because it was the only profession she was suited to that would earn her enough to stay in school. Dilly gave her nothing toward her tuition. But, of course, King didn’t know that, and probably wouldn’t believe her if she told him so.
    “Just don’t forget,” he continued coldly, “that the excitement won’t