McDonald_SS_GEN_Nov2014 Read Online Free PDF

younger version always had.
    “Yoo-hoo—earth to St. Nick—I said hello and you still haven’t responded.”
    Nicolas snorted at her teasing and turned away from her amused, crinkling eyes to stare out the window instead of at her for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get through dinner tonight when every movement Megan made aroused him.
    “Sorry for staring. Your appearance surprised me. Thank you for going to so much trouble for dinner with my insane, dysfunctional family.”
    Megan snorted at his backhanded compliment. “Well stop being surprised. I did dress up once in a while, even when I was in the Marines. I can even do the full blown girl thing when necessary—dress and all.”
    “Are you comfortable in a dress?” Nicolas asked, grinning at her shrug.
    “No. But I just think of it as a uniform and tough it out.”
    He let his gaze travel over her until it landed in her cleavage. “Your proficiency at the full blown girl thing is obvious to anyone with eyes, no matter what you’re wearing. My eyes are working fine right now, which could be a problem for us.”
    Megan couldn’t help but laugh at his confession, but it made her blush a bit too. “I’d return the compliment, but I don’t think I could ever say something so nice to you and keep a straight face. How about I just say you look really good in your suit? Oh. . .and tell me what kind of cologne you’re wearing.”
    Nicolas smiled. “Cologne? Do you like my cologne?”
    “Do you always have to answer every question with another question?”
    His smiled widened at her disappointed tone. “If you think I smell good, why don’t you just say so, Megan?”
    “See. You’re doing it again.” When he sidestepped her query a second time, Megan turned to stare out of the window, pretending a lack of concern about whether Nicolas ever answered or not. He laughed softly as she ignored him. The sound of his amusement bounced off the windows and seemed to shrink the space where they were. Her stomach tightened in awareness. Nicolas had always had that effect on her. Five minutes in his presence and she was a tongue-tied teenager again.
    “It’s okay, you big chicken. You don’t have to admit it, but one of us needs to show some guts. So here goes— I think you smell good too ,” he whispered, struggling not to laugh at her discomfort.
    Megan lifted both hands and cracked her knuckles before she turned to face her tormentor.
    “I volunteered to be your escort tonight because I wanted to check out your family. It’s easier to interrogate people when they think you’re someone’s date. This has nothing to do with whether or not I smell good to you—or—or— vice versa .”
    Nicolas shrugged, more pleased than he could admit by her semi-confessed interest in how he smelled. He tried to restrain his grin so he wouldn’t make her seriously mad. “You’re one of the bravest women I know, so I don’t understand why you can’t just admit something so simple. I like thinking I smell good to you.”
    Megan turned her head and glared at him for pushing the subject when she was trying to change it. Her gaze instantly zeroed in on his mouth and lingered, like his had on hers moments before. Attraction hummed like current between them. If this kept happening, the stalker would pick them both off while she daydreamed about indulging a decade’s worth of fantasies. She was functioning no better than Crystal would have. David would most certainly raze her to hell and back if he knew. Worse, she wouldn’t even be able to blame him.
    Dual turquoise laser beams pinned her to the seat, demanding an answer she wasn’t ready to give him—much less admit to herself.
    “No. My being here has nothing to do with the way you smell. Tell me about your family,” she ordered. Bypassing their silly argument seemed the best tactic to take for the moment.
    Nicolas sobered as he finally let Megan deflect his lame attempts to charm her. Thoughts of