Niko's Stolen Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

foot of the stairs. A groan rose in her throat. Her office was just down the hall from Frank’s. She bit into the apple again, viciously ripping off a chunk. She liked her job at the marketing firm and liked most of her co-workers. She’d be damned if she allowed Frank one more victory over her feelings or her life. If he couldn’t handle being in the same office with her, let him find a new job. She was staying right where she was.* * *Niko told himself not to go looking for trouble, but Kara was a guest on board the ship and she’d appreciate a warning that they were close to their destination. It had been easy to avoid contact with the woman for the last couple of hours. She and Eduardo had prepared a simple breakfast while he and George piloted the ship through the straights around Sanibel Island and out into the open water of the Gulf of Mexico. He’d eaten in the pilot house, then turned the controls over to Eduardo and busied himself with checking out every inch of the vessel.
    Even so, he’d been aware of Kara’s presence on the ship. He’d smelled the lingering hint of her perfume when he walked through the main cabin and heard her laugh as she talked with the other men. George was twenty years old and had recently moved from Greece for a stint in the U. S. offices in Miami. He was hoping to improve his English so that he could work on the tourist boats when he returned home. What he lacked in communications skills he made up for with a flashing white smile and obvious appreciation for an attractive female. The sound of their laughter grated on Niko’s nerves and interfered with his concentration as he made a list of minor repairs, making him wonder if he’d chosen the right course.
    The rush of attraction that he felt for this woman had left him disturbed, restless with unsatisfied cravings. Still, it had been good to discover that a woman existed who could spark his interest with nothing more than a dance. His recent relationships had been brief, mutual agreements to seek physical release. Not one woman had managed to creep into his every thought. Until now.
    He watched Kara from the other side of the darkly tinted sliding glass doors. She’d changed into a swim suit top and a pair of shorts and found a novel from the selection kept for guests. She was lying on a recliner on the aft deck, within the high protective walls of the ship’s sides that blocked the worst of the stiff breeze and the salt spray whipped up by their passing. He sighed as he felt the inevitable tightening in his lower body when she was near. He was a leg man, and this woman had a delectable pair just the way he liked them; toned, but not bulging with muscle. Even better if they were wrapped around his waist.
    He knew less of her body than the women who crawled all over him at night clubs, inviting him to touch and squeeze them there in the darkness. Yet he yearned with an odd intensity to sit beside her and soothe her skin beneath his palms from the tip of her pink-tinted toenails to the silky golden-brown of her hair. What had he been thinking when he’d agreed to spend the day with her? Everything about her was a temptation that he must resist. He’d thought he could take what he wanted from her, giving pleasure and forgetfulness in return, but that was before he’d seen her face when presented with Eduardo’s misunderstanding and the decorations in the cabin.
    She was a different woman, a different place in time, but the pain was the same. She was suffering and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he took advantage of her. Lifting one hand, he ran it through his short hair, then slid open the door.
    She looked up, her eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses as she placed one finger in the book to mark her place. She didn’t smile, but drew in her knees to allow him room to sit on the end of the padded recliner. He accepted the silent invitation, leaning toward her with his forearms resting on his thighs.
    “We dock in