Yesterday's Love by Sherryl Woods Page A

scream.
    â€œExactly.”
    He shook his head. “Sorry.”
    â€œBut the hospital qualifies as a charity,” she protested vehemently.
    â€œJeannie doesn’t.”
    â€œYou don’t know Jeannie,” she mumbled.
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    Her flashing gaze met his. “She’s barely making ends meet, and she wanted to do something nice. I was only helping her out.”
    â€œAnd it was a wonderful gesture, but you can’t deduct it,” he said firmly.
    â€œOh, okay,” she said, her voice edged with disgust. “Lordy, you people are picky.”
    â€œWe’re just following the rules.”
    Victoria sniffed and looked at him as though she’d like to tell him exactly what he could do with those rules. Tate promptly felt like an absolute rat and wished he’d gone into another profession. By the time the interview ended, he was worn out, and he knew his report to Pete Harrison was going to read like something from an anthology of science fiction.
    Pete is never going to understand this, he thought, absolutely dazed and more intrigued than ever by this latest encounter with Victoria’s logic. Something was happening to him and, for the life of him, he couldn’t understand it. A sheer physical attraction he could deal with, but it was more than that. He was actually beginning to look forward to Victoria’s slightly twisted train of thought. She was like the first crisp breeze of fall after a long, hot summer, a refreshing change that he’d never realized how much he’d longed for. Other women suddenly seemed so…ordinary. He grinned as he realized that he’d never before thought of that as an insult. He gazed at Victoria and something inside him seemed to snap. It was as though a belt that had been restricting the flow of blood had been suddenly loosened. He felt freer, happier than he’d felt in ages.
    â€œAre we finished?” she asked him at last, blushing under his intense inspection.
    â€œFor now.”
    â€œAnd I can go?”
    He stared at her, his expression clearly reflecting his disappointment. “Do you have to? I promised you a dinner.”
    Victoria’s eyes widened. “You still want to take me?”
    â€œOf course. I’ve been counting on it,” he admitted, realizing it was true. He’d been thinking of nothing else all day long, and that was a first. Any woman who could get him to forget about his work, forget about business protocol for that matter, was a woman he needed to know better.
    Or, he thought more rationally, one from whom he ought to be running like crazy.
    He looked at Victoria, sitting across from him in her bright blue dress edged with black, her thick, red hair swept up in a Gibson girl style that emphasized her delicate features, and his breath came more rapidly…as though he’d already run a very long, very important race. And lost.

Chapter Six
    S eated across from Tate in a lovely old restaurant where the lighting was seductively dim, the service impeccable and the food outrageously expensive, Victoria found herself relaxing and forgetting all about how totally inappropriate Tate was for her. The ambiance encouraged thoughts of romance. In fact, she had a feeling the tuxedo-clad waiters would escort anyone who seemed to be interested in anything else from the premises. Responding to the atmosphere, Tate’s questions had lost the harsh edge of an inquisition and turned to more personal topics. It was as though he finally wanted to get to know her, not her tax status. He was going out of his way to be charming, displaying a surprising sense of humor and a willingness to poke fun at himself that she’d never suspected existed under the straitlaced exterior.
    For the first time she had an idea of what it might be like to really date him, to feel his eyes sweep over her in a lingering visual caress, to hear his low voice whisper to her in a romantic