Just Before Sunrise Read Online Free PDF Page A

painting against the bumper and climbed up into the back after Otto. Garvin grabbed her shawl just before it hit the wet pavement. Annie Payne seemed oblivious to anything but getting her dog to move. She went in on her hands and knees, leaving Garvin with a view of her shapely behind.
    Grumbling and cursing, she pushed the huge dog's paws in an apparent attempt to get him to flop over onto his other side. He didn't budge, just kept staring at her with those enormous brown eyes.
    "I'm taking you to dog obedience school," she warned him.
    Otto seemed unimpressed. He opened his mouth—one designed for crushing—and yawned, frothy white slobber creeping over his jowls.
    "There'll be no treat for you tonight, bub, if you don't move."
    Garvin wondered what a dog as big as Otto would consider a treat. He folded the large, beautiful, but rather unusual, shawl. It, too, didn't fit his mental image of an uhrasophisticated, wily gallery owner.
    Annie Payne, it seemed, had her own way of doing things.
    Her tone changed as she tried cajoling, talking to her dog as if he were a recalcitrant toddler. "Roll over, Otto. Come on, buddy. Yes, roll over. Otto." Her tone sharpened, her patience unquestionably exhausted. "Otto. Roll over."
    Otto ignored her.
    She backed out, ducking her head to keep from banging it on the liftgate as she dropped back onto the pavement. Garvin handed her the shawl. She sighed, defeated. "He's paying me back for not taking him to the auction. I'll just have to wait him out." She squinted up at the gray sky. "I hope the rain holds off."
    "What if you let him out of the car instead of trying to get him to shift position? Then you could slide the painting in and let him in again."
    She shook her head. "He's not moving."
    "Isn't it worth a shot?"
    "I suppose." But she clearly didn't think anything would work. She turned back to her dog, patting her hip with one hand in an attempt to coax him. "Come on, Otto. Want to go for a walk? Here, boy. Come."
    The big dog blinked at her, then stretched out his long legs, if possible taking up even more of the back of the little station wagon.
    Annie Payne regarded Garvin without surprise. "You see? He's stubborn and stupid."
    In spite of her disgust, Garvin had no doubt of her affection for her rottweiler and knew better than to agree with her assessment. This, he thought, was not his fight. She'd bought herself a painting for five thousand dollars. She could get it home on her own. "Well, I hope things work out."
    "Oh, they will. Otto knows sooner or later I always get my way."
    She smiled, a dimple appearing in her left cheek, giving her expression an irreverent, sexy touch that suggested that maybe Annie Payne wasn't as innocent as she looked. Garvin found himself intrigued and just a little suspicious. Given his experience with her so far, he wouldn't be surprised if she did always get her way.
    She certainly had today.
    "Good luck," he told her. "By the way, if you decide you don't want the painting after all, give me a call. I'm over in Marin. My number's in the book."
    "All right. I'll do that. But don't get your hopes up. I doubt I'll change my mind."
    Garvin narrowed his eyes on her, unable to dismiss the sudden impression that Annie Payne was hiding something. He thought he saw her squirm, just for the flash of a second, under his scrutiny. Definitely, he decided, she was hiding something.
    But he needed to regroup, rethink his strategy, before pouncing on her.
    The sexual connotation of the image hit him hard, shot urges through him that had nothing to do with paintings or suspicions. He could feel his throat tighten, his body tense. Well, what the hell did he expect? An undertone of sex was the raw, inevitable result of their sparring in the auction room.
    He wondered how shocked Annie Payne would be if she knew what he was thinking. Even if he wouldn't act on such an impulse under the circumstances, the thought of going to bed with her seemed perfectly