Gentle Pirate Read Online Free PDF Page B

as himself. "I find that that sharp little tongue of Kirsten's keeps a man on his toes, don't you, Ben?" Neither man looked around at their subject's infuriated gasp. They were too busy trading man-to-man glances. Which only served to annoy her further.
    "Kirsten has a mind of her own," Ben acknowledged with apparent ease. "It's one of the things I like about her. You can talk to her!"
    "Thank you, Ben," Kirsten interjected with forced pleasantness. "Remind me to use you instead of Mr. Kendrick for a reference when I start job hunting again!" In an instant she had the undivided attention of both men.
    "Job hunting? Do you mean that, Kirsten? You've only been with Silco a couple of months!" Ben was obviously taken aback.
    "I think I'm being viewed as a chunk of fat that needs trimming." She smiled innocently, shifting her equally innocent gaze toward Simon. Let him make of it what he wished! The man simply returned her look with a level one of his own that said more clearly than words that she had no business discussing the matter of the library's future at a cocktail table. Kirsten was surprised to find herself wishing she had kept her mouth shut, but refused to let him see it.
    "Fat," stated Ben with gratifying firmness, "is one adjective that could never be applied to you!"
    "No, but loose-tongued is!" Simon Kendrick said grimly, lifting his glass. For the first time Kirsten saw that he was drinking brandy also. Unwillingly she remembered her own comment that the stuff belonged on pirate ships. Or was it rum that pirates drank? With every ounce of willpower she could summon, Kirsten refused to let her look wander to the softly gleaming steel that served Kendrick for a left hand.
    "Tell me something, Williamson," the pirate continued with a twist of his hard mouth, "how do you intend to handle this scratchy little kitten?"
    "With kid gloves!" Ben chuckled, warm brown eyes meeting Kirsten's, who now felt exactly like the cat Simon Kendrick had labeled her and was finding Ben's glance rather like an affectionate, admiring pat.
    "I agree gloves would be useful," her tormentor went on mercilessly, "but I'd suggest velvet ones. With enough iron inside to ensure she doesn't get carried away with nipping the hand that strokes her."
    This was too much! Furiously Kirsten whirled on him, nearly upsetting the brandy glass in front of her. "How dare you! Just because Silco thinks you're indispensable and has made the mistake of giving you more power than you ought to have, don't get the idea all of the employees will put up with your sarcasm!" she spat, sounding, she hoped, like an angry woman and not like a snarling cat.
    Something very brilliant gleamed in the hazel eyes and she knew she was about to be devastated by a scathing comment. And then salvation appeared in the form of a sleekly dressed, flame-haired woman on the arm of a darkly good-looking man.
    "Good evening, everyone!" Liz Wilford's greeting was delivered in the husky, attention-getting voice she had perfected on countless Silco clients. Normally, Kirsten couldn't stand it, but tonight found herself quite happy to hear the seductive tones. "I'd say, fancy meeting you all here, but since there aren't that many places to go in town, I can't really claim to be amazed to find familiar faces, can I? You've all met Roger Townsend? He's one of the managers in the instrumentation department, Simon." Long, beautifully polished nails settled on the arm of Townsend's expensively casual coat.
    "We've met," Simon remarked, rising to shake the other man's hand. As usual, he dwarfed the newcomer, Just as he dwarfed everyone he came in contact with, Kirsten noticed. But what Roger Townsend lacked in height, he more than compensated for in polished, executive manners and looks. Perfectly styled black hair, sophisticated aviator glasses, and handsome features were accented by a self-confident manner that said clearly that he was a man on the way to the top. Kirsten knew he was well aware