A MAN CALLED BLUE Read Online Free PDF Page B

coughed.
    She glared at him. "Out!" she said.
    Out he went. She turned on Blue.
    "You' re not gay," she accused, knowing absolutely it was true and—deep down somewhere—not at all disappointed.
    Smiling, he started doing up the buttons on his shirt."Picked up on that, did you?"
    "It wasn't easy," she snapped.
    "Ouch! Low blow, Miss Doucet." He grimaced broadly, loosened his zipper, and tucked the shirt under the waistband of the slacks.
    "You should have told me." She couldn't believe she was standing here watching a man, a too damned virile man, casually zip up his fly after knowing him less than twenty-four hours.
    "I thought I did," he said.
    She stared at him uncomprehendingly.
    "I guess that towel provided better camouflage than I thought," he said.
    "The towel? I don't know what—" She colored to fuchsia.
    He grinned and went back to dressing.
    Momentarily struck dumb, she watched as he did up his top button and started to thread a black belt through the loops. When he bent his head, a hank of his long, sun-streaked brown hair fell forward. It made Simone think of night earth and moonlight. He lifted his head and she looked into the deep blue of his eyes.
    "No hard feelings, I hope," he said, then stood there, barefooted, hands on hips, waiting for her to respond.

 
     
     
    Chapter 3

     
    Simone glared at him, angry at her own faulty logic. Her assumption that because Nolan was gay so was Blue was ridiculous. The man was unmistakably heterosexual. Overpoweringly so. Hadn't his strong hands massaging her neck told her that? And hadn't her reaction to his hands spoken louder yet? A reaction so long buried she'd hardly recognized it.
    She warmed suddenly, her senses enlivened, the deeply female part of her humming with sexual expectancy. Her next thought hit her like a slap. Blue was every woman's walking wish list. A fact Josephine was sure to notice. She could hear her endless admonitions even now—as if she needed them. Simone rubbed her forehead. This was quickly turning into the business trip from hell.
    Blue's smile faded. "Are you okay?" he asked, keeping her under the sights of those damned laser blue eyes of his. His look was one of puzzled concern, and it snapped her back to the present.
    "I'm fine." She gripped the heavy fabric of the curtain and yanked it back."And as for your question about hard feelings? I don't have any feelings for you—hard or otherwise. Understand that and we'll get through the next few weeks without leaving too much blood on the floor." She'd intended her words to be harsh, commanding, but knew they sounded weak, maybe even desperate.
    He gave her a thoughtful look. "Fair enough." He slipped his bare feet into a pair of soft leather shoes and followed her from the dressing room.
    "Don't you ever wear socks?" she snapped.
    "Not if I can help it." He grinned. "I like naked."
    She shook her head wearily. "Figures."
    * * *
    At eight-thirty Blue and Simone arrived at Claridges, their Rolls-Royce one of many lined up outside London's most celebrated hotel, a frequent choice of foreign royalty and heads of state.
    They went directly to the private room reserved for the Anjana Enterprises dinner. Blue estimated the crowd at eighty, give or take a couple. By the look of things, he and Simone were among the last to arrive.
    Simone. She confused him, one minute the tough, demanding executive, the next a lost kid looking for a hug and a security blanket. She was getting to him, touching him in some way, and it unsettled him.
    Earlier, waiting for her in the library, he'd been dreading the evening ahead. One look at her changed dread to anticipation. She'd drifted in wearing a white satin thing that polished every curve of her body, then swirled at her ankles like sea foam. She was perfect—and damned if his hand hadn't shook enough to rattle the ice in his drink:. She'd done nothing but given him a curt appraisal, told him he'd do, then calmly held out a beaded evening jacket for him to