Bedding The Wrong Brother (Dalton Brothers Novels) Read Online Free PDF Page A

look so relieved, either.  But we both know I’m not a femme fatale.  I don’t want to be.  I just want to get married.  Have a family.”  A big one.  She wanted lots of children, not an only child who would grow up lonely and longing for the type of sibling relationship that Max had with Rhys.  “I don’t want to wither up and die surrounded by a bunch of bugs.”  She dropped gracelessly onto her coach and leaned her head back against the cushion.
    His expression grew suspicious.  “Is this about your biological clock?  Honey, you’re still young.  There’s plenty of time for you to start a family.”
    When she didn’t answer, he dropped down next to her and took her hands.  “I thought you liked your bugs,” Max said quietly.  “Are you that unhappy?  Why didn’t you tell me?”
    She shook her head.  “I love my job, but I—but I want to be—”  Her voice hitched.  “I want to be loved.  I want someone to love me.”
    “Your parents love you.  Rhys and I, we love you, Melina.”
    “My parents and you, maybe.  Rhys I’m not so sure of anymore.  And anyway, it’s not enough.  I want a partner.”
    “But you’re talking sex.  Mechanics.  Not love.”
    “One leads to the other,” she insisted.  “With guys, sex comes first, then emotion, right?”
    He looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.  “Well, I guess.  To some—”
    “To you, right?”
    “But I’m not the one you want to make fall in love with you.”  He said it hesitantly, as if he wasn’t sure what her answer would be.
    “No.  But you’d certainly be demanding.  In bed, I mean.”
    He raked a hand though his golden hair.  “Jesus, Melina—”
    “I’m just saying…” she soothed.
    “What’s causing all this?  You got your eye on someone specific?”
    Her fingers plucked at the chorded edge of one of the sofa cushions.  Despite Lucy’s fervent belief that she’d be settling with Jamie, there was something about the man that called to her.  A sort of off-beat humor.  A serious stare that pierced into you and made you wonder what he was thinking.  And whether he was thinking about you.  The way Rhys’s stare did.  But unlike Rhys, he’d expressed interest in her.  Asked her out for drinks after the conference next weekend.  And she wasn’t going to mess up her opportunity with him. 
    Not this time.  “Sort of.”
    “Sort of is a wimpy answer.”
    She pounded the sofa cushion with her fist.  “Okay, I do.”
    “Let me guess.  He’s an academic?”
    “Well, of course.  The sex thing is necessary in the beginning—”
    “And in the middle and end,” Max said drolly. 
    “—but after that, we need commonality to build on.  I mean, he’s not just smart.  He’s sexy, too.  And he’s interested in me.  There’s a conference next week that we’re going to be presenting at—”
    Max eyes widened in that expression of disbelief again.  “You’re presenting at a conference?  Since when?  The last time you tried speaking at a public event, you almost passed out.”
    “Thank you for that reminder,” she gritted out, but without much heat.  He was right.  She didn’t do well in the spot light.  At the workshop Max was talking about, she’d stepped up to the podium only to become paralyzed with terror.  She’d morphed from confident scientist into Cindy Brady, staring at a blinking red camera light despite the audience surrounding her.  It wasn’t an experience she’d ever sought to repeat again.   That’s why she’d chosen research in the safety and anonymity of her lab.  That’s what she was used to.  That’s what she was comfortable with.  But with Jamie, things were different.  He’d urged her to come out of her shell and surprisingly, she’d agreed, confident that he would step up if it was too much for her.  That alone must mean something, shouldn’t it?  “Anyway, Jamie shouldn’t be as hard to please as…say you