That Tender Feeling Read Online Free

sheepskin coat.
    She sailed out of the swinging door. Only then could she relax. No, she couldn’t. She heard his step pounding after her. That was unbelievable. To be looked at was one thing, but to be chased after—wow! She might not have had Cinderella’s fairy godmother on hand to deck her out in the kind of impression -making clothes she would have liked him to see her in, but she must have done something right.
    Wrong again. In her confusion, she had only walked out without paying her bill—and it was with that transgression that he was about to confront her. Not that she knew it straightaway, but when the realization was bluntly driven home to her, it made her feel even more of a fool.
    His mantle of self-assurance was firmly back in place as he trapped her wrist in a blood-stopping grip and inquired in the most sardonic drawl she had ever heard, ‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’
    Still it didn’t click. She checked. Handbag, gloves, scarf. ‘No, I appear to have everything, thank you.’
    â€˜Enjoy your meal, did you?’
    â€˜Yes, it was very—oh, my goodness!’ At last, it dawned on her. In the kind of ‘pale’ voice that went with vividly flushed cheeks, she choked out in alarm, ‘I walked out without paying.’
    â€˜Precisely. It’s a quaint British custom that unfortunately must be observed.’
    â€˜You don’t think I did it on purpose, do you?’
    â€˜Oh, no, I wouldn’t think anything of the sort,’ he said in a tone that hinted at just the reverse. ‘I’m quite sure it was an oversight.’
    â€˜It was.’ How dare he be so insulting! Damn his mocking, arrogant smile. That smile? It teased the edge of her awareness. She was more certain than ever that she knew him from somewhere. It rankled that she couldn’t remember where. ‘And even if it wasn’t, what’s it got to do with you?’
    â€˜Nothing. I’m just a public-minded citizen doing my duty.’
    He soon made it known to her what he considered that duty to be—to accompany her as she suffered the ignominy of having to go back inside and rectify her shameful omission. And did he have to keep such a tight hold of her wrist? She was returning voluntarily. She didn’t need the assistance of a jailer. Yet even in her temper, she registered the thought that it was a nice hand, large and strong, dependable. The kind of hand you’d want on your side in times of trouble.
    Attempting to thrust it off, she said, ‘Do you mind! I’m not about to run away.’
    That secured her release and allowed her to skip a pace ahead of him.
    The waitress looked coyly amused and brushed aside Ros’s apology, saying, ‘Please don’t give it another thought. It’s easy to tell that you usually have an escort to pay for you.’
    The girl meant to be kind and said that to put Ros at her ease; but her awareness of his wry nod of agreement added to her frustration. In these days of equal pay, she did not go through life sponging off men but accepted the sharing of expenses as the fair price to pay for women’s much-prized equality. She knew that not all women thought this way; some chose to accept the liberation but shun the liability. Glenis, for example, brought her own logic to bear on the subject and never paid even when her man friend earned less than she did. She justified that by saying that women’s expenses were higher and she needed her money to buy the pricey cosmetics and clothes to make herself lovelier for her male escort. She said that men liked to be seen with a well-dressed, expensively turned out woman, and therefore they should pay for the privilege.
    Ros settled the offending bill. Then, angered by his mocking assumption that she was the same as those women, she added a monstrously generous tip, to make up, and left.
    This time no pounding steps followed her. She didn’t know