Dodging Temptation (The Retreat) Read Online Free PDF Page A

want to piss her off.”
    “Or me,” May said. “She ’ s here at my request, and you ’ re not to try to bully her away. She ’ s in a delicate place in her life.”
    Dodge snorted. Harper was about as delicate as a briar patch made out of titanium.
    “I ran into her the other night in the kitchen,” Hale said. “That one is stress eating quarts of French vanilla during midnight fridge raids.” A look passed between his parents, and Hale followed up in a rush with, “Not that there ’ s anything wrong with that.”
    “It ’ s better than her taking it out on his ugly mug.” Griff nodded his chin toward Dodge.
    He ate the comeback on the tip of his tongue. If he was going to find her weakness so he could exploit it and get her the hell away from The Retreat before the reporters sniffing around her picked up Garth Hampton ’ s scent, there wasn ’ t much of a better way to do it than to strike while she had the ice cream spoon halfway to her lips. Without meaning to, he imagined her mouth—all dewy and pink—and all the things he ’ d like to do with it. The list was long, lurid, and totally unobtainable. Harper Conner wasn ’ t meant to be that kind of conquest for him. Tonight would be all about business.

Chapter Three
    M int chocolate chip was the only thing that would cure Harper ’ s day. Rocky Road would work in a pinch, but only if it had actual chocolate pieces mixed in with the creamy goodness. She shuffled through The Retreat ’ s empty, dimly lit kitchen in her PJs and bunny slippers, pausinglong enough to swipe a spoon out of a drawer before continuing on to the walk-in freezer. It wasn ’ t like she didn ’ t have the route memorized by now. She should probably just get a mini-fridge in her room instead of storing her chocolate-dipped stress relief in here.
    Food in her room …now that was something that would give her mother a conniption fit. Harper giggled as she imagined the look on her mother ’ s Botoxed face and pulled open the freezer door.
    “Looking for this?” A deep voice echoed off the restaurant-grade stainless steel appliances, making it sound as if it came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
    Screaming like the banshee her father had often accused her of being after The Slap, Harper spun around to face the invader, holding the silver spoon over her head like a weapon. The ice-cold wash of panic receded as quickly as it hit only to be replaced in an instant with an embarrassed flush.
    Dodge Loving smirked at her and held out the small carton of Moose Tracks ice cream with her name scrawled across the lid in black marker. “Unless you wanted another flavor? You ’ ve got a collection going in there.”
    The old Harper would have slunk off to her room to listen to her stomach grumbling in private rather than be even the slightest bit embarrassed. It was amazing how slapping her lying, cheating, dirtbag of an ex-husband on national TV changed a woman. “Actually, I wanted the mint chocolate chip.”
    His gaze dipped down to the carton as if reading the name for the first time. “If you grab me a spoon, I ’ ll swap out the cartons.”
    “Why?” He had an agenda—everyone always did when it came to her. Her parents had wanted a photogenic princess to parade in front of the press. Her ex-husband had wanted entry into the political elite. “You ’ ve already told me you want me gone so what ’ s with the nicey-nice act?”
    “Because you have good taste in ice cream.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, pulling at the fine weave of his crisp white button-up shirt. “And because we got off on the wrong foot.”
    From his polished Italian leather shoes to his titanium cuff links—even at midnight, Dodge looked every bit like a man she should stay away from. Type A. All about control. Way too used to getting his way for his own good. Still, there was just enough Wild West in him to snag her attention anyway. Not that she planned on doing anything about it no