Hotbed Honey Read Online Free PDF Page A

his life.

    * * *

    Max's Porsche hugged the curves of the road that led from Kimberly's apartment toward Beverly Hills . Out of the corner of her eye, Kimberly watched him drive. His strong hands gripped the wheel tightly, but he leaned his long, sturdy body back in the seat like a man completely comfortable with himself. That was Max, she thought. He'd never lacked confidence.

    "Nice day, huh?" she asked.

    "Yeah." Short and clipped.

    Yep, he had plenty of confidence, but manners had never been his strong suit.

    She tried again a few minutes later, asking how his parents were doing. "Fine," he replied, eyes glued on the road.

    All right, she got the hint. He wasn't disposed to making small talk.

    And it was probably just as well. After all, they weren't buddies. They weren't pals. They were two people doing a job together. That was all.

    "You should put your seat belt on," she told him anyway. She'd always been big on seat belts and always noticed when people weren't wearing them.

    But he simply cast her an annoyed look in reply.

    "The way you drive, you'll need it. Put it on."

    After an irritated sigh, Max reached over his shoulder for the belt, muttering something below his breath.

    "What?" Kimberly snapped. "I couldn't quite hear you."

    "I was just saying," he enunciated insultingly, "that I forgot what a seat belt fanatic you are."

    Kimberly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, then turned to peer out the window.

    "We should probably talk about our covers," he said then, surprising her with even that bit of conversation and the almost cordial tone, too.

    She nodded. "All right."

    He gave her a short glance, then looked back to the road. "We'll keep our first names and my last one, making you Kimberly Tate."

    Kimberly nodded again, wishing she didn't like the sound of that so much. This was not a good way to start her freshly reactivated plan of not thinking about him like that.

    "I'm a stockbroker. I work for Finch and Company downtown, and I bring home half a mil every year. I've been with the company for ten years and was made a partner after five. I'm a Los Angeles native and so are you. We met in college at UCLA. As for our families, should it come up, we'll keep them as they are—same names, same backgrounds, same everything. It'll be a lot less for us to remember."

    "What about me?" she asked.

    "What about you?"

    "What do I do?"

    "You sit at home all day and be rich. You bask in luxury."

    What a drag, Kimberly thought. Then an idea hit her. "Maybe I'm bored with you."

    He turned to glare at her.

    "Tate, the road!" she snapped.

    He turned his eyes back to driving and Kimberly said, "See what I mean about the seat belt?" He ignored her, so she went on. "Anyway, I was thinking about why I would be interested in sleeping with this guy. So maybe it's because I'm bored. Bored with my life of luxury. Bored with you."

    "Not possible."

    His voice came without inflection as it had last night when he'd told her how hot she was. And she thought of arguing that it certainly was possible in the given scenario, but then she remembered the way Max made love. Polite he wasn't, but generous in bed—yes. He put his whole self, his whole soul, into the act. And she didn't know if he was thinking about the same thing, too—the way they used to make love for hours at a time until they were both exhausted and completely sated, but all things considered, she decided it would be simpler not to argue. "Okay then, if that's not the problem, why would I consider sleeping with this guy?"

    "Maybe you're getting back at me."

    "What did you do?"

    "Cheated on you."

    "You wouldn't," she said, fearful that it sounded more like a jealous plea than a statement. Asinine thoughts of the mysterious Julie came to mind.

    "Why not?"

    She took a deep breath and felt something slightly wicked, and slightly seductive, shroud her attitude. "Wait until you see me in the dress I'm wearing to dinner tonight, Tate," she told