No Holds Barred Read Online Free PDF Page B

he was gay and swore me to secrecy. The secret of course is out now, it was his bachelor party I called you from at two in the morning. He’d just told me I was an ass for letting you hold me off for so long.”
    “He sounds protective.”
    “Yeah,” he looked up from his bowl, fork in mid-twirl and frowned. “You might not want to piss him off either.”
    “Sounds like I might have already.”
    “No, he was pissed at me—not you. Tell me what scared you most as a kid?”
    “Aunt Rita’s curse.” She arched an expressive dark brow, playful once again.
    “Are we talking evil eye here?”
    She shook her head, laughed. “When I was five I overheard Aunt Rita tell my mother that if Uncle Tony even looked at her she got pregnant. I spent years avoiding looking boys in the eye.”
    “Did it ever occur to you to just ask someone if it was true?”
    “I didn’t want anyone to think I was stupid on top of everything else. What about you?”
    On top of everything else? “Boredom.” He slapped down the word like a gauntlet. “I was terrified I’d run out of things to discover, that nothing would challenge me. You challenge me, Ella and I don’t know how anyone could mistake you for stupid unless they weren’t paying attention.”
    She laughed out loud, “Oh, you really have always been handsome and charming, haven’t you?”
    “I just clean up good,” he said with a shrug but his gut clenched when she shook her head and set her wineglass down.
    “No. I clean up good. You look like the cover of a romance novel. All you need is a wind machine.”
    “I’m too lazy to carry around a wind machine.” He gulped a slug of wine. “I thought we’d gotten past all that ‘you’re prettier than me’ crap.” He watched her draw back from picking up her wineglass. Her fingers were shaking.
    “Since the beginning females have looked for the strongest mates, the best hunters the most capable provider. It was survival and even with women’s liberation, I think on some level that still influences our choices. On the other hand, males traditionally have fought over the most aesthetically pleasing female and I don’t think much has changed in that respect either.”
    He leaned across the table. “Ella, you are an artist’s dream. You’re all sharp angles and soft curves, perfectly proportioned, perfectly balanced. I could spend a lifetime painting you and never be bored.” She covered her surprise quickly but it was there and it was real.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever been described…quite that way before,” she said and Jake heard the awe she tried to conceal.
    “I don’t see a downside, so why do I hear a but ?”
    She wiped her mouth on her napkin and sighed. “You’re new territory Jake. And I’m not just talking the ten-year age difference. You know my track record with long-term alliances. As much as I know it’s time for things to change between us, I think I’m a little afraid of what happens next.”
    “I’ll make you a deal. You don’t treat me like a kid, I won’t act like one—that takes care of the age thing. The track record thing isn’t my fault and I’m not paying for it, period. I don’t want to change any physical part of you. No diets unless they include oysters and green tea ice cream. If you go near your nose with a knife you’d better have gone through a windshield. And don’t even think about liposuction. Trust me. Trust yourself.”
    “Stop,” she groaned. “I’m starting to feel pathetic. I’ll even help you load the dishwasher if it will get us back to tearing one another’s clothes off.”
    “That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said, standing up. “Who knew analysis could be so freeing?”
    “Just about anyone who’s ever paid three hundred dollars an hour to an absolute stranger so that no one else knew their secrets,” she said handing him a bowl. “I think we should explore something else now if you don’t mind.”
    “Well, we can go back to tearing