Hiding Jessica Read Online Free PDF Page A

good to tell me your name,” she informed him coolly as she unzipped the first bag. “I don’t bother to learn names.”
    The words were so arrogant, so completely cold, they practically begged to be challenged. And Mitch Guiness was not a man who passed up challenges.
    He found himself moving forward before he formed a conscious plan. He didn’t stop until he was a mere six inches from her, the movement bringing her head up.
    This close, he could see the faint filter of emotions flickering across her eyes. Only one could he pinpoint directly: wariness. Her chin came up, and she looked ready to meet his challenge head-on.
    He raked her up and down, his eyes penetrating and intense. Leaning even closer, he caught the faint hint of a light fragrance. Peaches, he thought abruptly. He smelled peaches. And damned if it wasn’t the sexiest thing he’d ever smelled.
    “By the end of this week,” he uttered softly, “you’ll know my name, Jessica Gavornée. And you’ll know it well.”
    Her chin came up even higher.
    “You may leave now,” she informed him coldly, her eyes not giving any ground at all. “I have things to do.”
    Oh, he wanted to press her further, he realized suddenly. He wanted to take another step forward until his face was inches from hers. He wanted to push her until the arctic control gave way, and he was looking at the woman instead of the carefully constructed Ice Angel.
    He wanted to kiss her until the ice melted into passion, until she clung to him and whispered his name in fiery heat.
    The thought came out of nowhere, and slammed into his gut with a fierceness that almost staggered him. What was he doing, having such thoughts about a witness?
    Stunned at his own reaction, he took a step back instead. She watched him move back, and once again nothing flickered in her eyes.
    The woman would drive even a saint to madness, he rationalized to himself, shaking his head like a man just emerging from a stupor. He moved back to the relative sanity of the doorway.
    “Dinner will be in two hours,” he informed her over his shoulder as he left. He didn’t bother to see if she agreed or not.
    Somehow she thought that might be a sign of things to come.

Chapter 2
    “Y ou realize, of course, that if you ever reveal your true identity, you will be eliminated from the Witness Protection Program,” Mitch was saying in clipped tones. For the last hour and a half he’d been going over all the guidelines of the program, guidelines she’d heard enough times in the past five months to recite in her sleep.
    She didn’t bother to hide her impatience as she nodded yet again.
    “I’ve been over all this before,” she pointed out coolly. “Since it’s getting late, I’d just as soon cover new ground or no ground at all.”
    Mitch frowned at her. “I know you’ve heard it before,” he replied firmly. Fifteen years of Northeast living had eliminated most of his North Carolina drawl, making his words curt and fast enough to match her own. “But the point is, do you absolutely understand? Because up until now it’s just been talk. Here is where the rubber hits the road. We’re talking about a new name, a new identity. We’re talking about cutting all your ties with the past. Your family, friends, lovers—they don’t exist for you anymore. Can you do that? Are you truly committed to that process?”
    Her blue eyes remained emotionless. “I’m committed to staying alive,” she informed him levelly. “As for friends, family and lovers, you ought to know as well as I do how few of those there are.”
    This was true, and he was aware of it. What amazed him was that not only was she aware of it, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all. Then again, if dinner had been anything to go by, she certainly wasn’t a social creature.
    She’d come down when he’d requested her for dinner. By then she’d changed into a pair of designer jeans, covered by a long, thickly woven sweater. She’d accented the