Sweeter Than Revenge Read Online Free PDF

this moment with this woman was irrelevant, including his new boss.
    “When do you go back to New York?” he asked, praying both that she’d sayright now andnever.
    “I’m moving back here,” she said breathlessly. “I want to come home.”
    “Good.”
    . soft, bewitching smile curled her lips and he stared, feeling life as he’d known it slip away to be replaced by life in a world with this amazing woman in it. “Why are you working in Cincinnati?” she asked. “Why not New York or Philadelphia?”
    “I’m from Cincinnati. My father still lives here.”
    “And where’s your mother?”
    David felt his facial muscles clench a little with that familiar tightness, but he went ahead and told her the ugly truth he’d only ever discussed with a handful of people in his entire life. “She walked out on me and my dad. And then she got killed in a car accident.” He swallowed, cleared his throat and wondered why on earth he was telling his life story to this perfect stranger. “Long time ago.”
    “I’m sorry,” Maria said, and in her eyes he saw perfect understanding. “My mother died, too. Long time ago.”
    Too stunned to speak, he could only stare as the silence lengthened. What was happening here? Was he dreaming? Was it magic? Maria was a sorceress, maybe, or a witch or, at the very least, a hypnotist. That had to be it. What other explanation could there be for this powerful, delicious spell she put on him? For the pull he felt toward her, and the excruciating lust? Surely a mere woman couldn’t affect him like this. He spoke without thinking, apparently no longer in charge of his own thoughts, words or body.
    “You’re incredible.”
    She flushed and something troubled appeared in those dark eyes, but he also saw warmth and excitement. Interest. Intense attraction.
    “What’s your name?”
    It took her forever to speak, as if she were answering a question far more important than the one he’d asked. Finally she took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
    “Maria.”
    “Nice to meet you, Maria.”
    He held out his hand, forcing contact. A pathetic manipulation well beneath his dignity, but how else would he get to touch her tonight? She hesitated, as if she wanted to refuse but couldn’t think of a reason to do so.
    When she slipped her soft, cool palm into his, electricity arced between them, as vivid as a rainbow at the foot of a waterfall. And then he caught her intoxicating scent—flowers with a hint of lemon—and knew his life had changed forever.
    Voices intruded, and then Miss Beverly came into the room, breaking the spell between them. Maria snatched her hand back, dropped her gaze and furtively looked away, as if she’d been caught downloading kiddie porn.
    David couldn’t take his eyes off her.
    “George is here, honey,” Miss Beverly said before disappearing back into the kitchen.
    Reality jerked David back to his senses and his gut turned to lead. A man walked in behind Miss Beverly, bringing with him a haze of jealousy that grabbed David in a stranglehold and clouded his vision until he could barely see.
    The man was probably in his mid-thirties, which, as far as thirty-year-old David was concerned, was way too old for Maria. Medium height, medium build, mustache. Silk shirt and pants that cost more than David paid for two months’ rent. The smarmy, satisfied smile of a man to the manor born with a beautiful woman on his arm.
    David despised him—deeply and eternally—on sight.
    “Hi, baby.” He went straight to Ellis’s daughter and leaned in to kiss her on the lips, but at the last second she turned her head and gave him her cheek.
    “Hi.” She smiled—it was strained and tight, nothing like the glorious one she’d given David a few seconds ago—and kept her eyes lowered.
    George noticed him for the first time and his gaze flickered over David’s dark suit, which was nice but certainly not of the caliber the young prince here wore. David glared but the man didn’t