Just One Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page A

striding through the wide double doors. "I'll see her." Ten paces took him to the drawing room, where he was afforded the first glimpse of his caller.
    He'd been dead wrong. It flashed through his brain that here was no dowdy matron. Instead she stood near the mirror, a slender, smartly dressed figure in dove gray. She half turned, at last facing him fully. No, Morgan thought vaguely, she was not at all what he'd expected…
    Clearly she felt the same.
    He was, in fact, totally unprepared for his effect on her. Huge green eyes grew wider still. Her expression was a strange mixture of confusion and unquestionable disappointment. Vexed though he was, he was also unwittingly amused. Her eyes locked on his.
    "Dear God," she gasped. "Who the devil are you?"
    One winged brow quirked upward. "Simmons informed me you wished to see me."
    "You? Why, I don't even know you!"
    "I might say the same of you," came his dry response. "But it was you who came to my home. Therefore I trust you have business with me. I confess, however, I am most curious as to the nature of that business."
    Her eyes had yet to waver from his. Morgan had the oddest sensation that she thought him the devil himself.
    "There must be some mistake," she said faintly. "I was told this was the O'Connor residence."
    "And so it is."
    She stared at him as if he were half-mad. "No, you don't understand. I'm trying to find the man who owns O'Connor Shipbuilding."
    Morgan linked his hands behind his back. The merest smile lurked about his lips. "The very same, madam."
    "No. No, that cannot be." She looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment. "I-I've come all the way from London! I-I can't go back, I just can't! I have to find Nathaniel O'Connor."
    Morgan's smile vanished. In the instant between one breath and the next, everything changed. He spoke gruffly. "Well, you won't find him here. It's my understanding he's not in Boston."
    Her fingers clutched at the strings of her reticule. "You know him then? You know Nathaniel?"
    Morgan's laugh was gritty. "Oh, yes, I know him well. I am his brother."
    She paled visibly. Her lips parted, yet no sound escaped. Then to his utter shock, before he could say more, she pitched forward into a dead faint.
     
    It was lucky for her Morgan's reflexes were so quick. He caught her mere inches before her head struck the floor. Twisting her around, he slipped an arm beneath her knees and lifted her to the nearest settee. "Good Christ!" he muttered. "What next?" Morgan's first thought was that the girl's collapse was nothing but a ruse—a display of feminine wiles—whatever the reason might be. Curbing his impatience, he sat beside her and gently slapped first one cheek and then the other, fully expecting her to vent her anger with an outraged shriek.
    She moved not a muscle.
    Morgan frowned. Had the girl simply laced her stays too tight? Why women wore such contraptions, he didn't know. To men who wanted to dispense with a woman's clothing as quickly as possible, they were nothing but a nuisance. Easing her to her side, he nimbly unfastened the myriad hooks on the back of her dress until he was able to reach inside and loosen her laces…
    Again, to no avail.
    It was then he noticed for the first time the warmth emanating from her body, even through the silk of her dress. What the devil was wrong with her? He pressed the back of his knuckles to her cheeks once more. He swore suddenly. Christ, what an idiot he was! The girl was burning up with fever!
    She moaned then. Morgan gripped her shoulders and gave her a little shake, fumbling a little as he sought to recall her name. "Elizabeth! Elizabeth, wake up! Are you ill, girl?"
    Her eyes opened slowly, dazed and glazed with pain.
    "Elizabeth, tell me," he demanded. "Where do you hurt?"
    Her fingertips came slowly to her brow. "Here," she said faintly.
    "Anywhere else?"
    Her hand fell to her breast. "Here, too." Her whisper was feeble, as if the effort cost her every bit of strength. "It