This Love Will Go On Read Online Free Page A

your car outside.”  His voice was cool and matter-of-fact.  “I just thought I’d stop in and see if you had decided to go with me tomorrow night.”
    Marc slid his arm around Raine’s waist and pulled her around to stand next to him, facing Jade.  “We were just talking about it.”
    “So I…saw,” Jade murmured dryly.
    Raine fought to keep her body from tensing.  He smiled an indulgent smile that lifted the corners of that attractive, cynical mouth.  “What did the lady decide?”
    “She didn’t really give me an answer.”  Marc turned to her.  “How about it, Raine?  Want to go?  Big brother’s footing the bill, remember.”
    She met Jade’s eyes and saw a flare of emotion, but what it was, she wasn’t sure.  It was a betrayal of his feelings, though.  As if Jade were aware that something had gotten past his carefully composed face, he shuttered his eyes with amber gold lashes.
    Did he want her along, or did he hate the idea of her going with them?  She couldn’t begin to guess.  She only knew she wanted to be with him.  “I…yes, thank you, I’d like to go.”
    This time, there was no mistaking the mockery in Jade’s smile.

Chapter 2
    In the darkened auditorium, Raine sat between Jade and Marc.  They were hardly into the first act when Marc grasped her hand and pulled it over into his lap.  She felt the warm strength of his thigh, and wished desperately that it was touching him that made her heart beat faster.  But it wasn’t. It was sitting next to Jade, being so aware of him that she could almost feel the movement of his breathing under the soft caramel-colored suede jacket and the white silk shirt he wore.  Against Jade’s trousered leg, the ruffles of her peach-colored sundress lay like bright swatches of light.  It was incredibly intimate to sit next to him and listen to the soft sound of his breathing, to hear him chuckle as the inept hero sank deeper and deeper into trouble.
    Then Michele made her entrance, and his breathing pattern altered.  Raine could feel his nerves tighten as if they were an extension of her own.  She hardly recognized Michele, and it wasn’t just because her sister was made up for the stage.  Michele was Tiffany, she moved and talked like a woman accustomed to a wealthy, luxurious life.  Even Raine was aware that the audience loved her, and that Michele almost stole the show.  She had…what did they call it?  Presence.
    When the play was over and the lights in the auditorium came on, Jade said, “The cast is driving over to Okoboji in Iowa.  We’re meeting Michele at the Outrigger.  It’s a restaurant and bar on the lake.
    Marc’s protest was immediate.  “Holy cow.  That’s eighty miles away.”
    “To theatrical people the night is young,” Jade said dryly.
    “I’ll bet most of them have to get up and go to work at their day jobs just like we do.”
    “Some of the cast are amateur volunteers like Michele, but the leads and the director are professionals from New York City,” Raine said.
    Jade gazed at her.  “Yes.”  How could he say so much with that one tiny word?
    The trip seemed endless.  Her nerves alive with tension, Raine sat in the front between the two men and knew this was the last time she would ever willingly spend an entire evening with Jade.  His closeness made erotic fantasies spin through her brain like cobwebby threads of bright light.  She saw herself touching his hands, playing with the fine gold hairs that grew on the backs, turning his palm over and pressing a kiss in it.  She saw herself tracing the hard outline of his face, the square contour of his jaw, discovering the prickly roughness.  Michele complained about his beard constantly, wondering aloud how a man who was so fair could have such a rough nighttime skin.  Raine had lain awake nights afterwards, her mind alive with vivid mental pictures…pictures of Jade, gloriously male and naked in a softly lit bedroom, inviting her to touch him