“I see,” Amanda said. She was trying to keep this conversation on an intellectual basis, but her skin was beginning to feel strange. At lunch? In the daylight? She wondered what he looked like when he had no clothes on. She knew the feel of him but not the look. Were those shoulders of his as wide as they felt? Were his thighs—She cleared her throat. “I had no idea. Thank you so much for telling me.”
“Anytime,” he said pleasantly. “I’ll show you, tell you, whatever you want.”
“Very, ah, kind of you.” She smiled weakly and looked at the dirty platters on the ground. All she had to do was say she wanted a different kind of lunch and he’d take her away in that little yellow car of his and then his hands would—
“You ready to go back?” Hank said.
“Yes,” she answered, swallowing and starting to rise.
Hank put his hand on her arm. “You want to tell me what happened between you and Taylor the day you lost the bet? What happened to cause him to be repulsed by you and to punish you with calculus?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” she answered.
“Maybe I could help you prevent its happening again, but I can do nothing if you don’t tell me what went wrong.”
She didn’t like to remember that afternoon. “I kissed him. He was standing in front of me and I stood on tiptoe and kissed him.”
“Just like that.”
She didn’t know what he meant. “What other way is there? We had that awful wager, and I thought I was doing it for the ranch, because you said you’d leave if I could make Taylor show passion, so I kissed him. How else was I to do it? If I kiss you, you—” She stopped. “You understand what I mean.”
“I understand perfectly. You acted like a schoolgirl and he no doubt treated you like one.”
“Schoolgirls don’t kiss their teachers. Or perhaps your female students do.”
“Never, but if one did, I’d treat her just as Taylor did you.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling that all the pain of the last few days really was her fault. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“Come on, let’s go back. We can spare a few minutes and I’ll show you how to seduce a man. The proper way to do it.”
She hesitated.
“I thought you wanted me to teach you about being a modern woman.”
“I had motion pictures in mind or maybe that you’d teach me to tango.”
“Reva knows about men. I’ll bet if Reva kissed Taylor he wouldn’t punish her with calculus.”
Amanda felt her ring finger with her right hand, meaning to feel her engagement ring, but she found she’d left it at home again. Reva had helped Taylor choose her ring. “Let’s go, Dr. Montgomery,” she said. “I’m not good at many things but I am an apt pupil.”
He watched her pick up the tray of dirty dishes and walk toward the back of the restaurant. So far he hadn’t found much of anything that she wasn’t good at. Grinning, he followed her. He had a lesson to teach.
Chapter Fourteen
They walked across the dusty, hot street of Kingman in silence. Amanda found she couldn’t speak in anticipation of what was to come. It was just a lesson, she told herself, a lesson she could transfer to Taylor. After all, it was Taylor she was interested in, wasn’t it? Taylor was the man she’d loved for years. Taylor was the man she was going to marry. She needed to learn how to change herself in his eyes from a child to a woman. And Dr. Montgomery was kind enough to teach her.
“In here,” he said, opening the door to the broom closet.
“Here?” she asked.
“Only place private. Come on, we’ve been away too long as it is.”
She had the distinct impression he wanted to get this duty over with. The problems of the people upstairs were of course much more important than hers. She stepped inside the closet and he locked the door behind her.
Hank turned a big bucket upside down and sat on it. “First of all, you’re at a disadvantage if he’s standing, because he’s taller than you. Wait until he’s sitting down, then you have the upper hand. Now, pull the string and kill that light and come sit on my lap.”
“But—” she began.