My Man Michael Read Online Free PDF Page B

she had a bunch of wusses in her colony. What kind of men would sit home while the women went out to fight?
    To distract her from her pique, he lifted the viewer. “Why don’t you just use this to keep up with your enemies?”
    “The viewer only goes back in time, not across time, and not forward.”
    Mallet studied the little box again. “How’s it work?” When she didn’t answer, he glanced up to see her blushing again. One brow lifted in question.
    “I don’t know the specifics of it.”
    “You don’t know?” Assuming her story ran short on those details, he snorted. “Figures.”
    Rather than scramble to make her tale more believable, she snatched the viewer out of his hand and returned it to the strap in her belt. “How do your microwave ovens work?”
    Hell, he didn’t know. “You push a button and it cooks food.”
    “But how is that accomplished? What does the pushed button do?”
    He shrugged. “Um . . . microwaves? They cook the food somehow. Hell, I’m not a chemist or anything. I’m a fighter.”
    She slanted him a smirk of her own. “How do your video cameras capture an image, save it onto a selected format, and allow you to play it back again?”
    Giving up, Mallet held up his hands. “No idea.”
    “And your ancient cell phones that you all seem to carry without fail? How do they permit you to communicate through space?”
    “You’ve got me. I’m clueless.”
    Satisfied, she gave a nod of her head. “And so it is. Each generation has made use of tools and toys available to them with no concept of how they actually function.”
    She had a point. “All right, let’s let that go for now.” He eyed her, and went with a different source of curiosity. “You don’t consider yourself a hottie?”
    Her chin went up. “Compliments are not necessary, I assure you. I take great pride in being honest with myself. I am strong and fast and brave. But no, I am not blessed with the appearance that draws men.”
    “Really?” Sure as hell drew him. In a big way. His injuries had all but incapacitated him, yet she got a rise out of him anyway.
    “I have endeavored not to let that flaw affect me as I meet my fate for my colony. My mother has two other daughters to fill the ranks with offspring who will carry on our family’s destiny. I am needed only to keep the peace, not the standing of our name.”
    Mallet took extreme pleasure in saying, “I think you’re gorgeous. And that’s not the same as being hot. A chick can be hot, but not beautiful. Vice versa, too.”
    Kayli frowned a little. “You’re saying that she can be beautiful but not . . . hot?”
    “Yeah. And for the record, hot means doable, as in easily fucked.” He watched her waver, saw the color that first leeched from her skin, then flooded back, red hot and ripe. “You, Kayli Raine, are both.”
    She shook her head in frantic denial. “No, I’m not—”
    “Yeah, you are,” he interrupted. “Very.” He watched her blanch. “You aren’t going to disappear on me again, are you?”
    She again shook her head, but remained mute.
    “Cat got your tongue?”
    That confused her. She put a hand to her chest. “My heart is racing. You disconcert me.”
    Sounded fair, considering what she did to him. “And maybe I turn you on a little?”
    More confusion swam in her mellow eyes. “Turn me on? I am not a machine. We already established that.”
    Mallet chuckled at her misunderstanding. “No, turn you on, as in make you hot?”
    She put a hand to her cheek. “Yes, you do bring a fever to my skin with your brazen way of speaking.”
    Enough teasing already. With his blood stirring over his sexual intent, Mallet lowered his voice. “Come here, Kayli.”
    Gaze flaring, she backed up a step. “Oh, no,” she said, and then added with great wariness, “Why?”
    Mallet watched her. “I want to see if I turn you on.”
    “No.” She denied him with a raised hand. “My instincts tell me that I should keep a fair distance from