A Scandalous Melody Read Online Free PDF Page A

friendship and love. Please…”
    Chase took her chin with a firm grip, frightening her at first. Then he leaned close enough that she could hear his ragged breathing and could smell his desire. The man still wanted her. After everything she’d done.
    The shock of realization and the breathlessness of staring into his deep-gray eyes kept her silent too long. Chase must’ve sensed the weakness and moved in.
    â€œFriendship and love, huh? And those are things the poor kid from the bad side of town would know nothing about, is that it?” He inched even closer.
    She wanted him to kiss her. They were so close that another centimeter would bring their lips together. Dreams of one more kiss from Chase had kept her going in the darkest hours.
    But tonight it wouldn’t be the same as in her dreams. Tonight the rage in them both would make it all wrong.
    The panic drove her back in time to become once again the ten-year-old girl who’d run away from homeand found a scary but perfectly safe shelter with an old drunk and his twelve-year-old son. She’d wanted Chase to kiss her then, too, because he’d been her white knight and savior.
    But he hadn’t kissed her that night. It wouldn’t have been right when they were children—and it wouldn’t be right now when they were both so tense.
    She reared back out of his grasp and shoved at his arms. The coffee mug he’d been carrying all this time slipped to the granite tile floor and shattered into a million pieces.
    â€œOh, I’m sorry,” she cried as she kneeled to clean up the mess. She quickly gathered up a few broken shards and then looked around for some kind of cloth to wipe up the cold coffee and the tiny silvers.
    â€œJust let it go, Kate.” He was kneeling beside her and took her arm. “Are you all right?”
    â€œHuh?” She must be in some kind of desire-filled daze, because she couldn’t quite understand his meaning.
    He gently pried the broken ceramic from her hand and put it aside. “You’re bleeding.” His big hand encompassed her smaller one, but with a touch so light it nearly brought tears to her eyes.
    â€œIt’s nothing.” She tried to tug her hand away, but he tenderly turned it over to reveal the jagged cut on her middle finger.
    Chase’s gaze locked with hers as his hard, glinting concern turned in seconds to pure lustful longing. “You need to stop the bleeding first, then clean the wound.”
    Turning his attention back to her bloody cut, Chase lifted her hand to his lips and slipped the oozing finger into his mouth before she could stop him.
    She heard herself gasp and then moan as the sensation of his tongue and lips on her finger became sensual and demanding. Everything else but the two of them and this minute faded into the background.
    But a boom of thunder cracked through the air just then and the skies opened up for one more splash of rain. The sound and the chill dragged her back to the present in a hurry.
    She tugged on her hand again, and Chase released her. “I’ll have it bandaged when I get home.”
    He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Come under the terrace cover, Kate. You’re getting soaked.”
    â€œI won’t keep you much longer. It’s getting late,” she told him as they ran for a drier spot. “But I…I still have to plead with you to let Shelby and her daughter continue to stay in the guest cottage. I don’t care about myself. I can find somewhere else to go, but for them…”
    Dragging her up close to his body, he leaned down to whisper in her ear so that she could hear him over the noise of the rain. “What’s it worth to you, chère? ”
    She stiffened and looked up at him. Their bodies were touching. Sweat, heated rainwater and passion came off them in waves, steaming up the air between them. Coming here tonight had obviously been a big mistake.
    But she had to