A Weekend Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Fine, but make it quick. I’m late for a Tylenol. Mr. Superbroker gave me a throbbing headache.”
    He nodded. In his cold, calculating win-everything voice, he said, “I propose we fly to my private island and spend one week together, exploring each other, so when the trip is finished, this minor fascination will burn out.”
    She sighed. “You sure do know how to romance a girl. Good thing you have looks and money, because your silver tongue is completely tarnished.”
    He smiled. “Think about it. I want to know what you’re like. You want to know what I’m like. So much so that we aren’t able to untangle ourselves from the attraction to find the right mates. We’re both obsessed with what’s been left undone.”
    “You think this so-called obsession we have will go away after one week?”
    “I guarantee it. At the end of the week, any naive fantasies we have about each other will die in the light of day. We’ll be free.”
    “Free. Why do you want to get married, Joel? Do you want to pass on your empire? Do you want children?” She hugged her purse closer for protection. She wasn’t going to let Joel make love to her. Shut up hormones .
    “No. I don’t want children.” He flexed his jaw.
    For a second, she’d swear she read a flicker of pain deep in his eyes. But then he blinked it away, and she wasn’t so certain.
    “I want good sex and good companionship, nothing more.” His tone was frozen, business-like.
    “Sex, not love? Don’t you think sex would be better in the company of love?”
    “No, I don’t. Once a man falls in love, he changes. He becomes controlled by emotion, and that leaves him open to making mistakes.”
    Because of what she’d seen with her father, she believed the opposite. Before he’d died, her father had never allowed his family to control his emotions. Or any part of his life. Her father had abandoned her frazzled mother to raise three kids on her own, while he’d done exactly what he’d wanted when he wanted.
    Just like Joel.
    So if she knew Joel was just like her father, why was she obsessed with him? What if she did let him make love to her? Would that kill her need for him? Was his sexual allure just a fantasy propelled by unfinished business?
    “We’re leaving in three days. At nine a.m., on Friday. Be on time.” He motioned for the waitress and slid her his credit card, paying for Ava’s entire bill.
    If the waitress hadn’t been there, batting her eyes as she took the card, Ava would have tossed her purse at Joel’s perfect Roman nose. How dare he order her to be on time to the airport when she hadn’t even agreed to go in the first place.
    “You’re attracted to me, therefore, you will come,” he said as if he could read her mind. Maybe her indignant thoughts were plastered on her face.
    “You need help with your over inflated ego,” Ava snapped.
    “I need help with one thing, and you’re the only woman I want to help me.”
    Before she could find a suitable insult, the waitress returned with his credit card, and he towered to his feet.
    As he left the restaurant, Ava’s gaze moved from his dark head, to his broad back, down to his perfect male butt. He was a gorgeous man, who wanted her to be his vacation fantasy.
    The glass door closed behind him, and Ava was left alone at the table, her mind spinning. What the hell was she going to do? It wouldn’t be smart to go away with Joel. He only wanted to use her.
    Unfortunately, for the first time in her life, she wanted to be used.
    If she went and she started to care about him, he’d cut her heart to pieces. But only if she fell in love with him.
    No, she wasn’t that stupid. He wasn’t a man who wanted any type of emotion, let alone love. He didn’t want children. And worst of all, he was a man like her father, with heart-stabbing secrets.
    But even though she listed all the logical reasons to avoid him, her body craved Joel Stanfield. Did she really want to say no? Surely one week on an