Intimate Strangers Read Online Free PDF Page A

so suspicious of me? I want to understand."
    "You’ve invaded my property, you’re demanding to be given information I do not have, and you refuse to leave. I consider your behavior aggressive and intrusive."
    She laughed, pure disbelief in the sound. "What do you call what you’ve been doing to me for the last half hour?"
    "Protecting what is mine. Like any territorial animal."
    "You’re a man, not an animal." And you’ve been wounded one too many times, she realized with the insight of a woman who’d spent most of her free time during the last ten years dealing with battered children.
    "And you’re trespassing," he repeated in a voice riddled with tension and distrust, "which is a violation of the law and my privacy. People are shot for less in this part of the country."
    Hannah shifted, inadvertently bringing her hips into even more intimate contact with the blunt ridge of male flesh pressed against her pelvis. She froze, her eyes darting to his face. A sudden flood of heat consumed her, sucking the air from her lungs, searing her veins, and making her more than a little lightheaded.
    "You’re so… large," she whispered faintly as he loomed over her.
    He smiled at her—a slow, hot, and completely unexpected smile that threatened to unhinge her senses.
    "So I’ve been told, but usually by my lovers."
    Embarrassed by her thoughtless comment and annoyed by the sexual gleam in his eyes, she protested, "That’s not what I meant, and you know it."
    "Freudian slip?"
    "No, damn it! I meant that you’re really big… you know, tall, muscular, broad shoulders… big!" She clamped her lips together and tried to wiggle free of him. Exasperated when she failed to dislodge him, she muttered, "You’re also very heavy."
    Nicholas drove his hips against her, pinning her down and drawing a muffled gasp from her. "And you’re a fool to squirm beneath a man who hasn’t had a woman under him in a very long time."
    "You wouldn’t harm the sister of a friend." At his skeptical expression, she added, "I can prove my identity, if you’ll let me."
    "You’re presuming an awful lot, aren’t you?"
    "Instinct," she snapped. "You’re protective of Sean, not angry with me. It’s not in your nature to harm an innocent person, if you can help it. Your conscience won’t let you." The expression on his face assured her that he knew she was speculating, but she didn’t intend to admit the truth even if he challenged her.
    "Proof," he prodded.
    "I have photo albums with pictures of Sean before he left home, as well as pictures of the entire Cassidy clan. I thought he’d want to see them. I also brought some of the letters and postcards he sent to us." She glanced at his knife and then up at his face. "Family pictures don’t lie."
    "Everything can be manipulated. People, situations, photographs, you name it. There are a thousand and one potential versions of the same truth, Hannah Cassidy, if that’s even your real name."
    "I want to sit up."
    "No sudden moves," he cautioned.
    She nodded. Amazed by his wariness, she looked first at the gleaming blade he gripped and then back at his hard–featured face.
    Finally, he shifted to one side, grabbed the front of her sleeping bag, and jerked her upright. He made her feel as inconsequential as a sack of grain.
    Hannah kept her eyes glued to his face as he slowly lowered the zipper of the sleeping bag. Although still clad in a heavy sweater and leggings, she breathed in sharply when she felt the back of his hand skim down the center of her chest.
    Nicholas halted the zipper at her waist. "Keep your palms open and exposed as you lift your hands to a position just above your head."
    "I’m not a criminal." Despite her comment, she followed his order. She stiffened, shocked as he conducted an upper body search with a clinical efficiency that both startled and enraged her. His hands felt cold and impersonal. For the first time that night, she felt violated. She finally grasped the depth of his