Bound by Tinsel Read Online Free PDF Page B

her mouth even as her mind was screaming no. This was a huge mistake, and would probably land her in a world of trouble. “But you have to promise not to laugh at me.”
    When he laughed, she growled, surprised at the sound. “Sorry about that, but the deal’s off.”
    “No, I was just getting it out of the way now,” he said. “I promise not to laugh.”
    “You’ve already done that, but since you’re paying for it…” She let the words trail off before she took a deep breath. “I have three goals in life. First, I have a list of classic novels I want to read, so that when someone brings them up in a conversation I can say: I’ve read that.”
    “Not bad.” There was the sound of him taking another drink. “How far along on the list are you?”
    “I picked two hundred books, and I’ve read thirty of them. I just came up with this when I was twenty-four.” She wanted to tell him that all her friends had laughed at her, told her that was a stupid goal, but she hadn’t care. She loved to read, and she wanted to have this list under her belt.
    “What are you reading now?”
    She looked toward her bedside table. “
Treasure Island
. Believe it or not, I didn’t have to read it in school.”
    “I love that book.” The excitement in his voice made her tingle. “We could get into a great discussion about it, but that would take up all our time. What’s next on the goal list?”
    “I want to visit every state.” She shrugged, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “Right now I’ve seen eleven of them. To tell the truth, I’ve added to this goal, in that I have several other places I’d like to visit, too:
England
,
France
,
Italy
,
Spain
and
Egypt
.”
    “I’ve been to two of those places,
England
and
Italy
.”
    Then take me there, please. She kept those words to herself. “I’m jealous. Was it fun?”
    “Beautiful.” She wanted him to say it would be much more fun if she’d been with him, but he didn’t. “What is the last goal?”
    The last one was stupid, and sort of juvenile, so she’d kept it to herself. “That was it, really. I pushed two of them together, the foreign and domestic travel.”
    “Liar.” His voice deepened with authority. “Do I need to take off my belt?”
    “Now we’re getting somewhere. Do you want to spank me, Mr. X?”
    This time he was the one who cleared his throat. “Let’s see if I can guess. You want to fall in love.”
    “No, I’ve given up on that.” The minute the words were out of her mouth she cringed. That opened up a whole kettle of fish that she didn’t
    “Why?” He sounded genuinely interested, and that made her want to tell him. But she wouldn’t .
    “I just have. Now, about that spanking…”
    “Love is a beautiful thing, you know. Even when it’s over, and you get over the pain of it, you remember the good things. All people should experience it at least once.”
    “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
    Fallon settled down amongst her pillows, wondering why she wasn’t putting a stop to this. Phone sex artists were taught to end calls that were going in the wrong direction. The client would be refunded his money if she reported it. But she didn’t want to do that. She was enjoying this too much. The sound of his voice was addictive and she wanted to hear it as much as possible.
    He was right about the memory thing. When she’d finally got the courage up to refuse his calls she would be able to recall his deep, melodious voice and how it made her feel.
    “I was in love once.”
    His admission made her stomach roil. She wasn’t sure why. A man as handsome as him had to have attracted a million women over the years. Of course he would have been in love with at least once of them.
    “But it didn’t work?”
    “No.” He didn’t sound sad, just matter of fact about it. “She wanted a husband who was a rich lawyer. I was a lawyer, but the money wasn’t coming in quick enough for her. She pushed and