From the Heart

nearly long enough. Will we drown?”
    “Probably.” His hand ran down her side, to her hip, to her thigh and back to her waist. “Do you care?”
    “Not at the moment. Just kiss me again. Just kiss me and don’t say anything.”
    She couldn’t bear it. By that time the next day she would be on a plane. She wouldn’t be able to reach out and touch him, to feel his hands on her. She would have the taste of him only in memory. These three months out of her life would be swallowed up by whatever was to come. How could she leave? How could she stay? Already the price she was going to have to pay seemed overwhelmingly high. Then she’d take something else for the bargain, she thought. One last night. One full, last night.
    “Jordan, let’s not go to that party tonight.” She drew away from him, wanting to see his face. “I need to be alone with you, the way we were in New York. Can’t we go someplace,just for tonight? Tomorrow’s a whole new year. I want to spend the last night of this one with you. Just you.”
    “A suite at the Hyatt?” he murmured. “Champagne and caviar? I seem to recall you’re rather fond of caviar.”
    “Yes.” Her grip around his neck was quick and desperate as she brought her cheek to his. “Or pizza and beer at the Last Chance Motel. It doesn’t matter. I love you.” She couldn’t stop herself from saying it. “I love you so much.” Her mouth fastened on his before he could speak.
    “Jordan!”
    Beatrice’s voice broke through the quiet. Jordan drew his mouth from Kasey’s without hurry.
    “Mother.” He glanced up, keeping an arm around Kasey.
    “Back so soon?”
    “What are you doing?”
    “Why, I’m swimming,” he told her easily. “And kissing Kasey. Was there something you wanted?”
    “You’re aware that we have servants who could wander out here at any time?”
    “Yes. Was there something else?”
    Beatrice’s eyes flared, but she kept her dignity. Kasey was forced to admire her for it. “Harry Rhodes phoned. He needs to see you in an hour on business. He says it’s quite important.”
    “All right. Thank you.”
    “You’ve made her angry, Jordan,” Kasey commented when Beatrice left them.
    “I’ll probably make her a good deal angrier,” he mused. It was time for some changes, he thought. Some definite changes. The house was his inheritance, but it might be wise to turn it over to her and take Alison elsewhere. And Kasey . . . Kasey was something else. Well, they had the whole night to talk about it, he decided and pulled her close again. “If you’re ready when I get back from talking to Harry, we can start early.”
    “Talk fast,” Kasey told him.
     
    Kasey had just dried her hair when the knock came at her bedroom door. “Come in.” She opened her closet. The greendress again tonight? she wondered and pulled it out. “Hello, Millicent.”
    The maid hovered in the doorway. “Miss . . .” Millicent folded her hands in front of her and looked uncomfortable. “Mrs. Taylor would like to see you—in her sitting room.”
    “Now?” Kasey fingered the material of the dress she held.
    “Yes, please.”
    I might as well get it over with, she thought and hung the dress back in the closet. It was going to be unpleasant. If she hadn’t known it already, the maid’s face told everything.
    “All right, I’ll go right now.”
    Millicent cleared her throat. “I’m to take you.”
    Kasey sighed. She could hardly blame the maid. “Lead on,” she invited, and followed her.
    Millicent knocked on Beatrice’s door, turned the knob, then hurried away. Kasey took one last deep breath and entered.
    “Mrs. Taylor?”
    “Come in, Miss Wyatt.” Beatrice never turned from her ivory toned desk. “And shut the door.”
    Kasey obeyed and found herself itching for a cigarette. The room was oppressive and, she thought, as difficult to live with as the woman. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Taylor?”
    “Sit down, Miss Wyatt.” She waved her hand toward an Edwardian chair. “It’s time we had a chat.”
    Kasey seated herself and awaited the inevitable.
    “You’ve stretched your time here as far as possible.” Beatrice turned to her now and folded her hands on the desk.
    “Are you concerned with Jordan’s research, Mrs. Taylor?” You can’t hurt me today, she told herself. It’s my last one. “Why don’t you tell me just what’s on your mind, Mrs. Taylor, and spare us both,” she said aloud.
    “I’ve checked your