Ruby's Fantasy Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.
    He walked over to her and put his arms on her waist. ‘Which is it, Princess?’
    Her heart made a leap. She wanted him so badly, yet a myriad of thoughts snapped through her mind. She’d always depended on herself, determined not to be the simpering kind of woman her mother had been, pandering to her father’s every need before she had run off.
    â€˜How did you appear so quickly like that?’ she asked, pulling away from his arms and walking across the floor. She grabbed the broom where he’d left it leaning against the wall. ‘I mean one minute I hear glass smashing and the next you’re climbing in the window like Rambo.’
    He gave her a long, penetrating stare before picking up the clothing sale bin that stood in the middle of the shop floor, so she could sweep away any residue glass. ‘I was next door.’
    Pausing, she reached up and rubbed the frown between her eyes. He worked late but then his business probably ran all hours.
    â€˜Come on, let’s fix the last of this mess before we go to bed,’ he said.
    Bed! She watched with longing as his arm muscles bulged and flexed when he replaced the clothing bin. He had to have the hottest, most finely tuned body she’d ever seen. ‘Thanks for your help. I planned to rush the intruder with the bat. Goodness knows if it would have worked. I think you scared him off.’
    He flashed her one of his smiles that made her go weak at the knees and stepped up onto the window box. ‘Want to help me tidy up the mannequin, Princess?’
    Did she want him touching the sexy satin and lace material? She knew what lingerie did to a man. Instantly, her gaze flicked down to his jean level. He was hard.
    He caught her gaze and shot her a wolf-like grin.
    A yearning sensation rose in her, so intense that her throat dried. ‘Don’t you know how to arrange a corset?’ she asked.
    â€˜I know how to take them off.’ He pulled at the silk ties on the corset with big fingers, but they bunched on the mannequin’s torso.
    Under her own nightgown, Ruby felt her nipples harden to stiff peaks. ‘That’s not how you do it.’
    â€˜Come teach me,’ he growled.
    Heat seared between her legs. She put the broom aside and climbed onto the window box, pushed aside the robe to tidy the lingerie. A stone wrapped with white paper dislodged from the robe and rolled across the window box.
    Bending, Jake picked up the stone and extracted the paper and flattened it out.
    Ruby stood close to him so she could read the words written in blood. Die Bitch!
    She gasped. Black spots of panic flickered in front of her eyes. Turning, she stepped off the window box, miscalculated the depth of the step and fell forward. Thump! Her knee hit the floor but she saved herself by slapping her hands down hard and breaking the fall. A sharp pain pierced her foot. Looking around she saw blood and a splinter of glass. When she pulled it out bright beads of blood welled on her instep.
    â€˜Princess!’ In a moment Jake was by her side, his hands moving over her, checking her limbs until he caught sight of the blood. He took her foot in his hand, a frown creasing his handsome face as he examined it. ‘There could be more glass in there.’
    â€˜I have tweezers in the first aid kit upstairs,’ she said. With him so close, his strong fingers examining her foot, she felt safe. Yet she wasn’t foolish enough to know she was safe.
    Someone wanted her dead. Correction—someone wanted Emerald dead. Dread froze her heart until her blood turned to icicles.
    â€˜Let me get you into better light and I’ll take care of it.’ Jake bent and scooped her into his arms as if she weighed nothing. ‘And while I’m doing it you can tell me who you really are.’

Chapter 3
    When Jake scooped the woman up into his arms, the guilty expression on her face said it all. This woman wasn’t Emerald. Sure, she