Hunting Lust (Orion the Hunter Part Three) Read Online Free PDF

spoke deliberately calmly and tried to keep my tone light.
     
    “Of course I’ve enjoyed it – I’m with you,” he said as if there answer was obvious.
     
    I flushed with pleasure at the sincerity of his words.  “But that doesn’t tell my why you don’t usually enjoy it.  Is it because you aren’t in a relationship?  Because that doesn’t matter – I love going out with Angel or with the boys.  Socialising with friends is great.”
     
    “I don’t have any friends.  Or family,” he said wryly.
     
    “Ah.  There’s your problem then.  You must know loads of people that you could be friends with.  All those people who work for you?  All the contractors that you use?”
     
    He sighed, clearly irritated now.  “You can’t consider employees as friends.”
     
    “I would have thought that with your wealth and status, you would have so many connections with the rich and famous.  The gossip magazines are full of young, rich and famous people every week.  You could be out partying with them, being one of them.
     
    “I could think of nothing worse.  It makes me cringe, the way that some of them court publicity – doing outrageous things just to get their name mentioned in a gossip column.”
     
    “I probably shouldn’t be admitting to this but when I found out who you were, Angel and I Googled you to find out whether you were the phantom that I’d seen. We found your name mentioned in relation to construction projects but no information about you, no gossip, no photographs … nothing.  It was almost as if you didn’t exist.”
     
    “And that’s just the way I need it to stay, at least for now,” he muttered, almost to himself, and I just knew that there was more that he wasn’t saying.  I didn’t know why I knew it, but I did.
     
    I opened my mouth to challenge him but the hostile look he gave me sent shivers down my spine.  I closed my mouth and decided to leave it … for now.
     
    “I can’t believe you Googled me,” he said, as he finished off his wine.  “What were you hoping to find when you went snooping?”  His eye had a mischievous glint and he had a playful smile on his face.
     
    I was a little taken aback.  Hostile one minute, playful the next … it was like being with someone with a personality disorder. 
     
    “I wasn’t trying to find anything out.  I was searching for a photograph for Lucas Hunter after Clarke had mentioned your name as the only person who matched my phantom’s description and the only person who could have left flowers in my office without him knowing.  I wasn’t prying – just looking through publicly available information.  And anyway, you can talk about snooping!”
     
    He toyed with his wine glass but avoided looking at me.  “What do you mean?”
     
    “You let yourself in to my office using your master key.  Surely that was grossly abusing your position as the owner of the building.  Not to mention a gross invasion of my privacy.”
     
    He gave a slight smile.  “Don’t overreact, Issy.  I unlocked the door, placed the bouquet on your desk and left, locking the door behind me.  I promise that I didn’t snoop at all.”
     
    “Aha – but how did you know my name?”  I’ve got you now!
     
    He shrugged, but I knew he wasn’t innocent.
     
    I stared at him pointedly.  “You must have looked through my application for the office and found the copy of my birth certificate.  Only one person has ever called me Isobella.  A man I loved who is lost to me forever.  And I was determined that he would be the only one who ever did.”
     
    Lucas closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  He seemed angry – probably kicking himself for not covering his tracks. Then, abruptly, the stem of the wine glass snapped in his hand and the top part fell and I heard it smash on the floor.
     
    I sat open mouthed as he dropped the bottom half of the glass onto the table, thrust his chair back and stood up.
     
    “We need to