Born to Be Wild Read Online Free PDF Page A

thwack. She spun around and plastered the files against his chest.
    “First of all,” she said, her hazel eyes turning a very intoxicating shade of green, “if there
was
someone to send inappropriate signals to, he would trust me implicitly, so there would be no need for your concern.” She ducked neatly under his arm and marched to the door. With one hand on the doorknob, she pivoted back to face him. “And secondly, you are assuming quite a bit if you think you’ve got this job in the bag. I’ll expect a full report on every detail of the weekend trip before I decide whether to go with you or not.”
    Zach closed the distance between them in three easy strides. Chin tipped up, brown hair dancing in soft waves around her small face, eyes blazing, and back ramrod straight. He took in every detail, unsure what it was about her that had him more turned on than he could ever recall being. And he’d had a lot more provocation from a number of far more willing partners.
    Maybe it was the coffee stain peeking out from behind the lapel of her genderless foundation blazer; maybe it was seeing those irises change color again and knowing he was the one responsible for it; maybe it was the whitened knuckles of her fist gripping the doorknob that announced she was far less composed than she’d like him to believe.
    And maybe it was some genetic predetermination that mandated he couldn’t be around Dara Colbourne for any length of time without finding his control completelypushed to the limit. Only the limits he was pushing as a man had entirely different consequences than those he’d pushed as a boy.
    Whatever it was, it was damn exciting. And challenging. And he’d never been one to walk away from a challenge.
    He braced his hand on the door above her head and leaned in close, unable to keep from pushing, testing. From discovering for himself where the margin of safety ended and the temptations of risk began.
    “You’ll go up that mountain with me, Dara. And you’ll approve the trip.” Her lips parted as if she were about to speak, but Zach proceeded, his body tightening, recognizing and enjoying the thrill of walking the fine line between safety and danger. “And you’ll have the best damn time of your life doing it too. That’s a Brogan guarantee.”
    She took an audible breath, her chest brushing ever so slightly against his. Feeling a distinct wobble in the high wire he was balancing on, Zach knew it was time to pull back. Past time. He laid his hand on hers, turned the knob and pulled the door open.
    She tugged her hand from beneath his, but he instinctively caught it and curled his fingers over hers, enclosing her fist in his.
    Her skin was soft, her fingers strong. He rubbed his fingertips lightly over the pulse on her inner wrist. The rapid pulse. He grinned. “It was good seeing you again, Dart. Call me after the board meeting.”
    He shot her a wink, then laughed as she yanked her hand away, the tempest in her eyes warning him to retreatfor the day before he was nursing a black eye. Or worse.
    He was whistling as he approached his truck, breaking into a smile as he eyed the words slashed in vivid red along the shiny black side of his pickup.
Born To Be Wild
.
    “Some days more than others,” he said, then chuckled as he climbed into the cab, the fatigue from his thirty-six-hour trek from Chile to Virginia suddenly a distant, nonexistent concern. He slapped the folders down on the seat, dug out his Steppenwolf cassette and punched it in the tape deck as he revved the engine. Oh yeah, seeing Dara Colbourne again had been mighty fine indeed.
    “Yes,” Zach repeated into the phone the following afternoon, “that’s exactly what I want. Four big wheels, good on average to mildly rough terrain, average inclines, completely hand operable.”
    Zach doodled another parachute in the margin of the yellow legal pad, his attention only half on the conversation. The other half was wondering how Scotty and Cortinez