Dream's End by Diana Palmer Page A

notice?”
    â€œPart of it was. We had a terrible argument the next morning,” she admitted. “He…he said some pretty rough things about me. I suppose, added to what I’d overheard, it was really the last straw. And Jim’s been trying to get me over to his place for over a year. I finally gave in.”
    â€œHe has a son,” Amanda said.
    â€œJeff. He’s thirteen, and the image of his dad,” she laughed. “And Maude, Jim’s sister, keeps house for them. She’s quite a lady.”
    â€œSounds like a ready-made family,”Amanda remarked. She took a draw from her cigarette and blew smoke out of her perfect, red mouth. “Children are the one problem I’m going to have with Curry. I can’t risk a pregnancy for quite a few years if I’m to go on working, and I can’t give up modeling. I’ve worked too hard, too long, to get where I am.”
    â€œYou’re very good at it,” Eleanor said genuinely.
    Amanda smiled lazily. “It’s demanding, and it gets rough, but I love every second of it.”
    â€œYou couldn’t take time off for a baby?” Eleanor asked.
    â€œBabies give me goose bumps,” the model said drily. “I’m twenty-five, you know. And I’ve only got a few years left in modeling before the wrinkles start to show too much. Diapers and tears are a poor trade for spotlights and the salary I draw. Curry will understand. We’ll both have to make a few compromises, but it won’t be a bad marriage.”
    Curry didn’t make compromises, but apparently Amanda hadn’t found that out, yet. Eleanor had a feeling she would before very much longer.
    â€œYou must love him very much.” Eleanor smiled.
    â€œLove, my child, is highly overrated.” Amanda laughed. “I’m fond of Curry, but I want him more than I love him. And he wants me. And,” she added with narrowed eyes, “the day he puts the right ring on my finger, he’ll get me; not before.” Her gaze flicked to Eleanor’s stunned face. “Shocked, darling? It’s the only way any woman’s going to land Curry. He isn’t the love-forever-after kind. He’s a virile, sensuous man who wants a woman to match that volcanic passion of his. I’ve held him off so far, but it won’t take much longer, and I’ll have him in the palm of my hand.”
    â€œYou make it sound…cold.” Eleanor frowned.
    Amanda shook her head. “It isn’t. I’llgive Curry everything he wants, and in my own way, I’ll care about him. But he doesn’t really need a loving, possessive wife—he’s too damned independent. He needs a woman in his bed occasionally who’ll leave him alone the rest of the time, and I can give him that. Very few women could live with him on those terms, and you know it. A woman who loved him would literally smother him to death. I won’t.”
    Grudgingly, Eleanor had to admit that the model was right. Curry wouldn’t like possession, or being clung to, or depended on. He was so independent himself that he wouldn’t want a woman who wasn’t the same way. The thought made her sad. It wasn’t really much of a future.
    â€œOh, darling, there you are!” Amanda said suddenly, crushing out her cigarette as Curry came into the den, freshly showered, his hair still damp. He looked like a fashion plate in the gray suit that just matched his eyes. “I thought you’d forgotten,” Amanda teased, hugging him.
    â€œI don’t forget much, baby,” he said with a half smile. He glanced toward Eleanor, who was avoiding his eyes with a vengeance.
    â€œHave you got enough to keep you busy until I get back from Houston?” Curry asked Eleanor with an edge on his voice.
    â€œOf course,” came the calm reply. Still she wouldn’t meet his eyes, feeling her heart running wild just at the sound of his voice as