Cherished: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

wouldn’t.”
    Will walked to the door and let his sister out. “I don’t even want to know what that means.”
    She winked his way and he shut the door behind her.
    And Bridget felt the trap close. She was alone with Will Daley in his very nicely decorated condo. All alone with him and apparently he didn’t have a harem. He had meddlesome sisters and a bad mom. Her curiosity was at war with the deep need to preserve her own dignity. She set the glass down. “Well, I’m sure you have better things to do with your night.”
    The door locked with a decisive click. “As a matter of fact, I don’t. I’m off call and it would be nice to have someone to talk to.” He stared at her for a moment. “Do you hate me so much you can’t even sit down and have dinner with me, Bridget? What did I do to offend you? I would appreciate the chance to make it up to you.”
    Yep. The walls were closing in and the ground was shaking under her feet. She decided to go with complete and utter denial. Besides, it was true. She didn’t hate him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t have a problem with you. I barely know you.”
    His eyes narrowed and she worried she’d fallen into another trap. “Yes, that was my point. You barely know me, but you avoid me at every given opportunity, and that seems strange to me when we have so much in common. We live in the same building and have the same friends.”
    “Lots of people live in the building. I don’t spend a ton of time with any of them. Except Mrs. Magnussen. Somehow she corners me at least once a week and tells me about her grandson in Sweden. I think I might have a date with him.” She’d seen a picture and unlike most Swedes, Olaf was short and deeply unattractive. She was kind of happy there were whole continents between them.
    He crossed to the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing a bottle of beer and flipping the top off. “All right. I’ll grant you we live in a time when not everyone knows their neighbors, but then we come to the problem of the club. You have to admit you avoid me at Sanctum. We’ve had what—two whole conversations? I’ve invited you over here for a drink three times now.”
    “I was busy.” She’d been afraid she would walk into a big old orgy. Except the harem consisted of his sisters.
    “You work a lot? I’m going to put together a salad. Romaine or butter lettuce?” He pulled out a big wooden salad bowl.
    Unless she wanted to run out of the condo screaming, she wasn’t sure how she exited at this point. “Romaine, please. And yes. I have to. My income is directly tied to production, so I’m pretty much always working.”
    “Writing? You’re a writer. You type all day?”
    “Among other things. There’s more than writing. There’s promo and social networking and e-mails and dealing with my agent and publishers.” Some days she was lucky to get her word count in.
    He worked efficiently, washing his hands and then tearing the lettuce with a precision and grace that spoke of his profession.
    “So I heard you’re a brain surgeon.” She was utterly fascinated with his hands. She couldn’t stop watching them. He finished the lettuce and then used a knife to cut the cucumbers.
    “I’m a neurosurgeon and Lisa’s insane. She’s the dumb one. I scored near perfect on my SATs. She was several points behind me.”
    He was a freaking brain surgeon with a perfect SAT score. She hopped onto his barstool, utterly unwilling to leave now because she sniffed a good story. “Lisa’s younger than you.”
    “Very observant. What gave it away? The frown lines?” He was ridiculously cute when he grinned. With short, dark hair and emerald eyes, he should have been on the cover of a men’s fitness magazine, but he also had a brain in that pretty head of his. Yes, that really did do something for her.
    “We call those laugh lines where I’m from.” She’d talked about using Botox once and Chris and Serena had a fit. They