Sun Kissed (Crane Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned out to resemble tiny lobsters.
    “Come on,” he said, “try one.”
    He forked up some of the white meat, dipped it in butter, and offered her the dripping morsel. Of course she could say no and push it back at him, but she could see that’s what he expected of her. Somehow she didn’t feel like giving him the satisfaction of being predictable, so she opened her mouth and let him feed her in a gesture she pretended she found neither tantalizing or intimate. Then her taste buds started getting blissed out and she almost moaned.
    “This is fantastic.”
    “You see? It’s good to try new things.” He leaned closer, and his eyes crinkled at her. “You can discover all kinds of pleasures you didn’t know existed.”
    Her heart banged against her ribs and for a second she couldn’t pull her gaze away from his.
    “Everything all right?” asked their waiter, and she had a moment to pull herself back together.
    While Cam answered, she turned to look at the harbor. When the waiter had moved on, he slipped back into casual mode. “This is where they used to let the convicts off.”
    “Is that how your family came to Australia?” she asked in her blandest tone.
    He grinned at her. “No. The law-breaking in my family is more recent.”
    And that was something personal she did want to discuss. “If your temper is an issue in any way, I need to know it ahead of time.”
    “What? You want to know if I’m a drunken lout?”
    “I wouldn’t have put it in quite those terms, but you did clock that photographer. If you come to the States I need to know—”
    “That I won’t get pissed, trash my hotel room, and drop my dacks in public?”
    She nodded. “Pretty much.”
    “Well, I won’t.”
    She toyed with her sparkling water. “Since we’re on the subject, there are some holes in your resume. I wonder—”
    “Christ, I thought this was a date, not a bloody job interview.”
    “It’s a working lunch,” she said, holding on to her even tone with difficulty. “As I believe I mentioned, I’m engaged to be married.”
    “When’s the wedding?” he asked so abruptly she blinked.
    “We haven’t set a date yet, but—”
    He snorted. “If you were mine, I wouldn’t let you traipse off halfway ’round the world without even having a date set to tie the knot.”
    “I can’t believe you’re the kind of man who chases married women.”
    “I’m not. You’re single, darl. Fair game.”
    “As flattered as I am,” she said glaring at him to make it clear she was anything but, “I am not game to be hunted. I’m here to do a job.”
    She slipped a notebook and her solid gold Mont Blanc pen from her bag. She hadn’t intended to conduct business so blatantly but he needed constant reminders, and, besides, Mark had given her the pen. She twiddled it to be certain the Aussie game hunter could see the engraved script.
    “Nice pen,” he said as though cued.
    “Thanks. It was a gift.”
    “From a grateful client?”
    “No. From my fiancé, Mark. For my birthday.”
    Instead of backing off as she’d expected when faced with this proof of her fiancé’s thoughtfulness, he threw his head back and laughed, white hunter’s teeth gleaming in the sunshine. She put down the pen, picked up her fork, and stabbed a piece of lettuce viciously, but couldn’t restrain herself from asking him, “What is so funny?”
    “Jennifer, a man who buys his woman a pen is looking for a business merger, not a wife.”
    He was trying to rile her. She knew it, so why did she want to use her pen to stab him somewhere soft and full of nerve endings? She drew a breath.
    “Mark is practical. It’s one of the traits we have in common.”
    “A man doesn’t buy practical gifts for the woman he’s bedding. He buys jewelry, champagne, black sexy things you put on in order to tear them off.”
    His gaze moved to hers and there was a sexual intensity that had her forcing herself not to lick her lips. She didn’t have the same