A Woman's Heart by Gael Morrison Page B

displeasure crossing Peter's face as he realized that everything wasn't necessarily going his way.
    "Did I interrupt something?" Mitch murmured, after she had withdrawn from Peter's arms.
    She didn't answer, simply watched as Peter walked slowly back to their table.
    "You looked as though you needed rescuing," Mitch added gently.
    "Just dance with me," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck.
    "Gladly," he agreed.
    Her heart felt heavy and her body did too, as though her usual lightness of spirit was imprisoned within. Mitch's scent wasn't Peter's scent, and his warmth not Peter's either.
    She'd been so relieved to be free of Peter's presence, and now, an instant later, was filled with regret. If only for the space of a single dance, she wished she could expunge Claire's brother from her mind and soul.
    The dance with Mitch was both too long and too short, Jann decided, when they returned to the table. Peter was sitting there alone. It caught her heart, his aloneness, and she became wrenchingly aware that he needed Alex as much as she.
    But Alex needed a mother, she told herself determinedly, and no matter how much Peter tried, he couldn't take a mother's place.
    "I'm going home now," Mitch said, pulling out Jann's chair for her, but not sitting down himself.
    "Don't go," Jann protested. She didn't want to sound desperate, but prayed her friend would know that she was.
    "Glad to have met you," Peter said briskly. He stood and shook Mitch's hand.
    Jann glared at Peter, the looked back to her friend. "You haven't eaten yet, Mitch."
    "I'm not hungry," he replied, "and you both look as though you've got things to say."
    "Nothing I wouldn't want you hearing," Jann insisted.
    "Should my lawyer be present as well?" Peter asked.
    "I told you," Jann snapped, "Mitch isn't here as my lawyer."
    Peter's eyebrows rose.
    "He's here as my friend."
    "And your friend is going home," Mitch said firmly. "I've got an early start in the morning."
    He took hold of Jann's hand and held it for a moment between his palms. His touch soothed and comforted, then, dropping her hand, he threw her to the wolf.
    "Call if you need me," he said, waving goodbye.
    "Nice fellow," Peter said.
    "He can be very tough in court."
    "Glad you warned me," Peter said, with a smile.
    "Don't underestimate him," Jann warned. "Or me either."
    "Not a mistake I'd make again." His expression sobered. "Are you and that lawyer an item?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "Are you going together, dating?"
    "No," Jann said, suddenly wishing that they were. Maybe with the possibility of a real family, a real home, her position as Alex's mother would be strengthened.
    "He's interested in you," Peter said, his eyes narrowing shrewdly.
    She shrugged. She hadn't dated Mitch seriously for the same reason she dated few men more than once. She couldn't risk that sort of bond in her life right now, couldn't risk the kind of pain it was sure to bring.
    "So what's your type if it isn't Mitch?"
    "I don't have a type." Crossly, she noted that her heart was racing again, and that all it had taken was a look from Peter's eyes.
    "Tall, short, blonde, or dark?"
    "My type is men who don't ask questions they have no business asking."
    "Everything about you is my business."
    "What do you mean?"
    "For the moment you've got my baby. I want to know who you are."
    "The same holds true for me." She looked at him appraisingly. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Although, surely if he did, he wouldn't have kissed her.
    "What makes you think I'm not married?"
    The beating of her heart seemed to stop with a thump. Impossible to imagine him forever joined to another woman, one, who if Peter won, would become the mother of her child.
    What sort of woman would she be? Dark like Peter or blonde in striking contrast? Would she be petite and in need of protection, or tall and slimly elegant? And would her voice echo Peter's flawlessly enunciated Boston accent?
    Then Jann felt relief as the realization hit her. "If you were