High Tide Read Online Free PDF Page B

said that she’d rather wear poison paint.
    She wasn’t prepared for his reaction. As fast as a snake’s tongue, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall. “Listen to me, Miss Snooty New Yorker, I’ve had all I can take from you. You destroyed something that took me and everyone else in this park three years to earn enough money to buy. And you don’t care one damned bit that you did it. All I’ve heard is that
you
don’t like it here, that this place is not up to
your
New York standards.”
    Though it didn’t seem possible, he leaned even closer toher, and he had to bend down somewhat to put his nose so close to hers. “I want you to listen to me and listen well. I don’t care why you’re here or what Roy Hudson wants from you. All I care is that in the next three days—
on this boat trip
—he’s going to decide if he wants to invest some of the profits of his TV show into this park. This place may not look like much to you—you’ve made that abundantly clear—but this place is
my
life.”
    His voice lowered. “So help me, if you screw up this trip with your snot-nosed arrogance, I will sue you for everything you have, everything you will earn, and for what you plan to leave your children. Am I making myself clear?”
    He paused a moment, but when Fiona didn’t reply, he pressed her harder against the wall.
    She could feel the pressure of his big hands, and she could feel the power of his huge body so close to her own. She’d had intimate contact only with Jeremy, and Jeremy was about half the size of this man.
    â€œYes,” she managed to say from dry lips.“I understand.”
    â€œAll right,” he said, then stepped away from her as though he couldn’t move fast enough, then turned away. “Get into those clothes,” he said, his voice somewhat softer. “I’m going to try to find you some shoes.” At the door he turned back, strode across the room, picked up her cell phone off the bed, then put it into his pocket. “Don’t try to leave,” he said at the door. “There are some nasty creatures out there.”
    â€œOut
there?”
she managed to gasp, but he was already out the door.
    Fiona took the three steps across the room to the bed then collapsed, trembling. She didn’t know if she was afraid orangry. She had never been talked to the way that man had just addressed her, and she’d certainly never been shoved up against a wall.
    Survive, she thought, that’s what she had to do over the next three days—survive. She had no doubt whatever that the man’s threats were genuine. Hadn’t even Jeremy thought that the man had a right to sue her?
    It was amazing how a person’s life could change in seconds. Had she left the plane earlier, she might have seen that the alligator was fake, then she wouldn’t have …
    â€œStrength,” she said aloud, then made herself get off the bed and look at the clothes. What had he meant when he’d said that he liked women to be
women?
She’d never before had any complaints about her appearance.
    After a quick look around to see if there were spying eyes, she stripped down to her underwear, then quickly put on the man’s clothes. The jeans were too big in the hips and in the waist; the shirt was too long in the sleeves. But she wasn’t a New Yorker for nothing, she thought as she went into the closet to look for a belt. Fashion was her forte.
    It was a big walk-in closet, but it was mostly filled with bird books and bird … things. She had no idea what most of the stuff was, but she was sure it all had to do with birds. In one corner hung three pairs of trousers and four shirts. There were two of those gray uniforms, like the one he had on today, folded on a shelf. Whatever else he was, he wasn’t a clotheshorse.
    Fiona found a cowboy belt with a fancy silver