Nothing But Trouble

“Try to stay out of trouble, will you, for both our sakes?” Stepping away from Tallie, Peyton dropped his hands to his sides. His stomach tightened into knots when he looked at her. Those big, pale brown eyes, that full, pouty mouth, that stubborn little chin. Damn, why couldn’t he feel this way when he looked at Donna?

“I never mean to cause trouble for you, Peyt.”

“I know, Tallie. I know.”

“I guess you’d better get back to your date and let Spence and Pattie watch the rest of the ball game,” Tallie said.

“I suppose you’re right.” Turning around, Peyton hesitated before walking away from her.

“Oh, Peyt.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“I like Donna. She’s a very nice lady. She’s just perfect for you.”

“Yeah, you’re right. She is perfect for me,” Peyton said. She’s everything I could want in a wife. There’s only one problem. She doesn’t turn me inside out the way you do, little heathen.

Tallie watched Peyton walk away, back to where Donna stood by the bleachers waiting for him. He was where he belonged—with a woman he could be proud of, a woman his intellectual and social equal, a woman who could help his political career, not rip it to shreds.

Three

Sprawled out in the fat, navy-blue leather chair, Peyton sat alone in his Jackson apartment, a glass of Scotch in one hand, a half-smoked cigar in the other. He’d taken Donna home forty-five minutes earlier, after making a total fool of himself by coming on to her. She’d gently but forcefully told him that they were not going to have sex. He supposed he should be grateful to her for having more sense about the matter than he did, but damned if he could, considering his state of arousal. It had been quite some time since he’d been with a woman. In the past, his casual relationships with women had afforded him protected and uncomplicated sex. Donna was a different matter. She’d told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t about to play stand-in for another woman. When he’d told her there was no other woman, she’d laughed in his face.

Donna was a smart lady. Too damned smart. She’d figured out right away that his interest in Tallie Bishop was a lot more than big brother protector. Of course, he had denied that wanting Tallie and knowing he couldn’t have her kept him in a state of sexual frustration most of the time.

During the past ten years, he’d been able to keep his desire for Tallie under control, first by telling himself she was just a kid, and then by making sure he always had a willing bed partner in his life. But things had changed in the last few years. Tallie wasn’t a kid any longer, and his bed partners had, by his own choice, become few and far between.

The problem was that he wanted Tallie, but he didn’t dare allow himself to love her. Although she’d make most any man a good wife, Peyton couldn’t see Tallie as first lady of the state. She wasn’t the kind of woman who’d make a good political partner. No, Tallulah Bankhead Bishop might be the sweetest, prettiest, most desirable woman he’d ever known, but she wasn’t suited to the kind of life-style he’d chosen for himself.

And he was as ill suited to Tallie’s life-style as she was to his. He could never be the kind of man she needed. He was far too set in his ways, far too entrenched in his family’s traditions to break free. He was not the rebel his younger brother had always been. No, Peyton Marshall Rand played the game by the world’s rules. He was an expert at unemotional combat. He knew what it took to win and was willing to pay the price. That’s why he never lost.

Controlled by her emotions, Tallie Bishop lived by her heart’s desires, always championing the underdog, always trying to right all of life’s wrongs. Never considering the outcome, she jumped into situations with both feet.

If Tallie hadn’t once fancied herself in love with him, he might have already thrown caution to the wind and bedded her. But he couldn’t take the chance that she’d really fall in love with him and he’d wind up breaking her heart. Tallie deserved better than a brief affair—an affair he could use to work her out of his system.