RUNAWAY Read Online Free PDF Page B

Izzy rise from her chair to perch on the arm of his.
    “Not only property,” she said, touching his shoulder. “You save lives, too.”
    But not Jerry Palmer. That knowledge rushed in on Owen in a sudden, cold wave. Nausea churned his stomach and he felt clammy again.
    “Owen?” His father was looking at him with concern. “Are you all right, son?”
    Glancing around their small circle, he could see identical expressions on the faces of Izzy and his mom. “I’m fine,” he said, forcing a half-laugh into his voice. “Well, except for the fact that I’ll have to put off beating you at golf again for a few weeks, Dad. Though by the time you get back from your cruise I should be up to it.”

    When the other three continued to study him with narrowed eyes, he lifted his hands, even the casted one, and pasted on what he hoped was a grin. “What’s there to be upset about? I have an unexpected vacation, a fire in the fireplace, the company of a beautiful woman and my loving family.”
    Maybe his grin worked. His mother gave a little nod and then turned to Izzy again. “Speaking of family…I’d like to hear all about yours, too.”
    “What can I say?” Izzy’s smile looked as effortless as his had been difficult.
    What could she say? It occurred to Owen that she’d never said. Not in Vegas—where admittedly they’d been living in a moment that had little room for family histories—and not in the three days she’d been in this house with him, though he’d been sleeping a lot as he tapered off the pain meds.
    He slanted a glance at her now, happy to keep the conversation steered away from himself and how he was feeling. Guilty. Queasy. Damn downcast. None of these made for good conversation.
    “Izzy?” he prompted when she still didn’t speak.
    She shrugged, that smile still curving her mouth. “I’m Italian.”
    “Yes,” his mother said. “And your mother and father—”
    “I have the pair of them,” Izzy confirmed. “Can I get anyone more to drink?” She made to rise.
    Owen placed the weight of his cast over her thighto hold her down. “You wait on me too much as it is,” he said. “People can help themselves.”
    “That’s the point of me being here, Owen,” she answered. “To take care of you.”
    “A wife doesn’t consider taking care of her husband a burden,” his mother said. “And a husband would feel exactly the same way. Wouldn’t you be there for Isabella if she was stuck in bed, Owen?”
    He looked up into Izzy’s face and the answer to his mother’s question struck him with full force. No matter how mad he was that she’d left him, if Izzy was stuck in bed, if she couldn’t get away from him like she’d done in Las Vegas, he’d use the opportunity to do more than make her meals or bring her the remote control. If she were on that bed over there, he’d be doing his damnedest to seduce her into letting him have more of those sweet kisses they’d once exchanged. He’d be exerting all his influence to let her let him undo those little buttons marching down the front of her shirt until he could look his fill at her pretty breasts.
    Yeah, some things didn’t stay in Vegas. Like lust.
    Her thigh hardened under his touch and he heard the little catch in her breath. Her tongue reached out to make a nervous flick along the fullness of her bottom lip.
    He’d want to do that, too.
    “I’d like to give them a call,” his mother was saying.
    Izzy’s eyes went wide and her gaze shifted fromhis face to the older woman on the couch. “What?” she said.
    “If you’d give me their number, I’d like to phone them and introduce myself as your new mother-in-law. Maybe they’re available to come for a visit soon so we can all get acquainted.”
    “Oh…well…” Her thigh started jumping as her knee bounced in a jittery movement. “That’s not, um…”
    Not a good idea? He supposed she’d kept the news of their wedding as secret as he had. And while he could mention