Impulse by Candace Camp Page A

you.”
    His words reminded her forcibly of exactly how closethey had been years ago, and color flooded her face. She tilted up her chin, as if he had insulted her.
    â€œI am sorry,” he told her quickly. “I did not mean— Well, I did not intend that as it sounded. I was talking about the fact that you had called me Cam since you were eight years old.”
    â€œWe are hardly in the same positions, however. You are a grown man, and one, moreover, who holds the future of Bridbury in his hands. I can hardly address you as a child does a groom.”
    â€œI am still Cam.”
    â€œAll right, then. Cam.” She looked away as she said it, unable any longer to meet his gaze.
    There was a moment’s silence while he studied her. Finally he said, “I think ’tis time we talked. No more intermediaries. What do you say?”
    â€œAll right.” She turned back to face him. “However, I am afraid that we have little to say. My answer to you is the same as it was the other day. I will not marry you.”
    â€œIndeed? I had thought you were a woman of greater common sense.”
    â€œCommon sense? Is that what you call giving in to coercion? I know some who would call it cowardice.”
    â€œâ€™Tis common sense to marry where there is money. Look at it logically. You are facing living in genteel poverty. If you marry me, you shall be living in luxury. You married for money before. Why balk at it now?”
    Angela blanched. His casually cruel words were like a slap in the face. She stood up abruptly, pushing back her chair. Her hands tightened into fists. “I did not marry Dunstan for money. However, I know that you will think what you will, no matter what I say. You always have.I thought I had good reasons for marrying him, but despite that, I regretted it bitterly.”
    â€œSo I have heard.” He looked at her levelly.
    â€œI will not make that mistake again. I will not sacrifice myself, even for Jeremy.”
    â€œWould marrying me be such a sacrifice?” His face tightened, and he rose to face her. “Once you were willing enough to come to my bed.”
    Angela gasped. “How dare you! I never—”
    â€œNo. But can you say that you stayed away of your own volition?” His voice was as hard as steel.
    Angela could say nothing. He spoke no less than the truth. She had been like wax in his hands back then; he could have done anything with her that he wanted, and she would never have said him nay. When Cam kissed her, her body had thrummed with desire. Her skin had been like flame to his touch. Even now, remembering that time, she could almost feel a stirring of warmth.
    â€œNo,” she admitted in a low voice. “To my shame, I cannot say that it was my virtue that kept me from your bed.”
    â€œNor from any other man’s, apparently.”
    Angela stiffened as if a red-hot poker had been laid against her skin. She struggled to keep her voice neutral. “You have heard, then, of the allegations of my divorce.”
    â€œYes. I read a report about the proceedings. I read on what grounds your husband sued for divorcement, and I read the testimony of the three men.”
    Angela hated the surge of anger and hurt that poured through her, hated most of all that it should hurt for Cam to think her promiscuous. But she had endured worse things without showing the pain. She had borne the testimony of Dunstan’s friends, knowing that with it shegot what she wanted, freedom from him. And now, in the same way, she would use it again to help herself.
    She shrugged elaborately. “I should wonder, then, that you would want to marry a woman such as I am. Hardly the unblemished wife most men seek.”
    â€œI am not looking for a virgin. There are an ample number of them around. I could have found many in the United States.”
    â€œYou do not care if your wife is unfaithful to you?”
    â€œI know you married a man you