Lessons in Rule-Breaking Read Online Free PDF Page B

seen in the press—and at his studio—he was more of a leggy-blonde type of guy.
    And that suited her just fine. Absolutely fine. Couldn’t be finer.
    ‘Don’t worry, I’m taking a break from seducing innocent young journalists, so your virtue is safe with me,’ he joked, his mouth quirked in a playful smile. ‘I am interested in your body, Jess, but only on an artistic level.’
    Jess pulled her arms across her chest. ‘You can’t blame me for being wary when you make provocative-sounding statements like that. You do have a reputation for being a bit...’
    ‘A bit what?’
    She paused, searching for the right word. ‘Wild.’
    He gave her a bemused grin. ‘I promise to be on my best behaviour,’ he said, making a crossing motion over his heart. ‘And if I slip up you have my permission to lick me into shape.’
    Oh, my God , the images he’d just conjured in her mind.
    She really needed to get out of here before she totally lost her cool.
    ‘Come over for dinner tonight at eight,’ he continued, going over to a rock where he’d left his towel and swiping it along his long, lean arms, ‘and we can get better acquainted.’
    He flashed her one last beguiling smile before turning and walking away up the path, the bright drops of lake water that still clung to his broad back shimmering in the sunlight.
    An overwhelming urge to pack up and go home, where she didn’t have to deal with these weird and disturbing feelings he provoked in her, besieged her. But she wasn’t going to leave. She was determined to keep her job at the magazine, no matter what it took. She was going to brazen it out here and ignore the blatant innuendos he seemed so keen to tease her into a jittery mess with.
    He was a player all right, but she wasn’t about to let him play her .
    * * *
    In total contrast to the villa where Xander was staying, her hotel was the most run-down, sleazy-looking pit Jess had ever had the misfortune to set eyes on. She could have sworn she saw a rat run around the corner of the building as she parked her hire car in the tiny, litter-strewn parking lot. The thought of it made her shudder. She wasn’t good with rodents. Or spiders. Or any type of insect if she was totally honest.
    It looked as if they were doing building works on the place, too, judging by the mess of rubble and steel piled haphazardly against the peeling walls of the hotel, but there didn’t seem to be anyone doing any actual work out there. Jess prayed she wasn’t going to be woken up in the early hours by workmen banging the hell out of the wall next to her head.
    A disgruntled receptionist with long, lank hair and a sweat-stained blouse checked her in and handed over her key, motioning her to walk through the rather run-down reception to a door on the ground floor, next to what appeared to be a kitchen.
    The Ritz it was not.
    Her room wasn’t in a much better state than the reception, but at least it had a decent-sized bed and its own en-suite bathroom—even if she did have to turn sideways when in it to get the door closed.
    Okay, well, it was all she needed. She was only going to put up with it for two nights. Surely it wouldn’t take longer than that to get enough info to write a decent piece on Xander?
    Kicking off her shoes, she flopped down onto the bed, ignoring the unnerving sway of the bed frame, and pulled her mobile out of her back pocket. Time to do some more research on the man himself.
    She’d already had a cursory look through the search engines for his name, but not much of any use had come up, mostly gossip pieces about the women he’d dated and the parties he’d made a scene at. In fact he seemed to have been in a constant state of drunken debauchery for an entire year. There were a handful of articles about his last couple of exhibitions as she trawled lower, though, the last of which had been a bit of a critical flop, as Pam had mentioned.
    She wondered how his colossal ego had dealt with that. Judging by the