Page:Restless Earth.djvu/43

I appeal to your baser nature—and that only when I am near you. I should not have spoken this afternoon—I should never have come into your home.”

“Pat———”

“I am adept at seducing men,” she continued defiantly, “but I cannot hold them. Perhaps I have not tried seriously—and I am not going to try now. I am rotten in heart and habit, and I’m going away. I am easily forgotten. If you do not believe that, ask the men who have known me. Well, I’ve got what I deserved. I’m not going to cry about it. I’m only sorry for Grace. Tell her that, will you? I’m going to the other end of the world to try to forget—both of you.”

Again she turned away, and this time he had to run to overtake her. He seized her roughly, and crushed her in his arms.

“No, you don’t,” he growled through his clenched teeth. “You belong to me, and I’m going to keep you! I don’t care a damn how many men you have hunted and caught! You were merely hunting for a man who could catch you, and you’ve found him! You’re mine! Mine! And God help anyone who tries to take you from me!”

His eyes flamed as he crushed her lips with his. Superbly arrogant, his brutal strength, roused by overmastering passion, bruised her body and delighted her soul. She gave him kiss for kiss, clinging to him, murmuring softly in the ecstasy of complete surrender.

Becoming conscious of the amused regard of bathers some distance away, Harley released his woman, frowned upon his audience, and, with a gesture of authority, bade her precede him to the concealment of the sand-dunes.

“Jimmy! Jimmy! You poor, blind fool!” she breathed shakily as she sank down by his side upon the warm black sand.