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She ignored the blinding pain that thought brought in its take, her voice hollow as she said, 'I can't be what you want me to be, Travis You must know that by now Deep inside'

He swore, softly but savagely, and for aother than yourself I never have I thought I had made that perfectly clear'

'You wanta deal?'

'Yes, for est thing in the world, if you want to know And I can't do it It's as simple as that I can't trust you'

'Wrong' In comparison he was deadly calm 'You won't do it There's a difference'

'Can't, won't, whatever' Her whole body was tre

Again he swore but this time it was exasperation rather than fury When he walked over to the sofa and raised her up into his arms Beth didn't have the will to resist But he didn't try to make love to her as she had -expected Instead heshield of his body, his voice soft above her head as he said, 'Why are you doing this to yourself right noeetheart? There are no time limits except in your mind; surely you know that'

It was the 'sweetheart' that did it She could have with¬stood his conteer but not the tender quality to the endearment It pierced the last of her control Tears spilled over on to her cheeks and she wrenched herself away, covering her face with her hands as she sobbed 'Go, please go I don't want you here This has to end now Please, Travis'

He ain but his voice was in¬flexible when he stated, 'I a, Beth'

'Please' She had never felt such pain, such hopelessness

'No' And then she was in his arain 'Not until I've talked sense into that crazy head of yours I' to let what that fool of an ex-husband of yours did ruin both our lives These last weeks you've been happy, I know you have OK, I ht or wrong, and we are right together Perhaps I shouldn't have waited, perhaps I should have taken you to bed weeks ago, but that can be re I wanted to wait, give you ain, but you've forced the issue I don't want an affair with you, Beth I never have I've had enough open-ended relationships to knohen the real thing hits'