Betting on Julia (A Melville Sisters Novel) (Entangled Covet) Read Online Free PDF Page B

himself away for a while, then come back with a new identity and start again. But he always came back. He loved the city.
    “I’m sure I will. I was actually on my way over to see you when you appeared on the doorstep.”
    “You were?” She gave another smile, and his gut twisted. She was so damn perfect.
    “Umm, I wanted to apologize for giving the wrong impression yesterday,” he explained.
    Her arched brows drew together. She really had the most expressive eyes. “You did?”
    He took a sip of wine and leaned one shoulder against the wall. “I came on a little strong, but really, I’m not looking for anything like that at the moment.”
    “You’re not?”
    “I recently broke up from a long-term relationship—I wanted to settle down; she didn’t.” Was he oversharing? God, did he sound like a chick? Probably, but all he could see in her face was sympathy. She was really, genuinely, sweet. There was that stab of guilt again. He ignored it and pushed on. “She broke it off, and I came here. But I’m not in the market for another relationship right now.”
    “You want her back?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know what I want. But I’m not ready to start something new. You needn’t worry I’ll come between you and your girlfriend.”
    She pulled a face and took a large gulp of wine. “You won’t. You can’t. We’re over. That’s what we were arguing about the other night. She phoned yesterday and said she was leaving me for someone else. This six-foot woman with a crew cut and more muscles than you have.”
    Bastian somehow doubted that, but he couldn’t stop the thundering of his heart. She was available. And he wanted her. Bad. “So we can cheer each other up.” He raised his glass. “Here’s to being good friends.”
    Something flashed across her face but was gone before he could identify it. She raised her own glass and clinked it against his. “Just good friends.”
    So far, so good.
    Okay, that was phase one out of the way.
    On to phase two, where hopefully, Julia would quickly realize that she wanted far more than friendship between the two of them.

Chapter Four
    Bastian placed his glass on the table and waved toward the god-awful cream-and-blue flowered sofa. “Why don’t you take a seat?” As she sat down, he shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it on the chair behind him. He loosened his tie and pulled it over his head, dangled it from his fingers for a moment. An image flashed in his mind of Julia Melville sprawled on the big brass bed upstairs, her wrists tied above her head with his tie, while he…
    He jolted out of the daydream to find her watching him, her lips pursed. He tossed the tie on top of the jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and came across to stand over her. She was staring, which was good.
    “More wine?”
    She swallowed the rest of her wine in one gulp and held out her glass. After topping off both, he sank down on the sofa beside her, leaving a good foot between them. All the same, she inched away a little more until she could go no farther, before turning to study him, a slightly calculating expression in her eyes.
    “So you’re looking to settle down?”
    Hmmm, what was the right answer to that one? “No. Definitely not anymore. I’d just like to meet some nice people, make some friends, and concentrate on my career.”
    She took another gulp of wine. “Yeah. Me, too.”
    “What do you do?”
    “I’m a journalist. For a woman’s magazine.”
    Hmm, probably wrote about makeup and clothes. That would go with her image.
    “What was her name?” Julia asked. “Your girlfriend, I mean.”
    Shit. He hadn’t thought of that one. He grasped around. “Melanie. Her name was Melanie.”
    “Sweet name.”
    “She was. Sweet, I mean.” An image flashed up in his mind of a naked Melanie chained to his bedroom wall, complete with ruby nipple rings and a tattoo of “Eat Me” scrawled across her flat stomach. He couldn’t fight the grin stretching his face at