The Bronzed Hawk Read Online Free PDF Page A

challenges. She’d merely provided him with a little more than he’d bargained for.
    She was striding back to the bedroom when she halted abruptly. Her ring! She turned andhurried back into the bathroom and retrieved the dainty jade and gold ring from the plastic vanity tray on which she had placed it before taking her shower. Sighing in relief, she slid it on her finger. It would have been a minor disaster if she’d forgotten her lucky ring on this particular jaunt. She had an idea that a woman would need all the luck she could get on a hot air balloon trip with a man like Nick O’Brien.
    It took only five minutes to finish packing her zippered khaki duffel bag. She carefully put her Leica camera into the bag along with several rolls of film. She had changed into olive green denim jeans and matching long-sleeved shirt before Paul and Simon had arrived, and it took only another moment to change into her dark green canvas shoes and grab up her white leather jacket.
    At the bedroom door she stopped for a moment and listened anxiously for any sounds of turbulence from the living room. It was almost ominously quiet, and her brow creased in a perplexed frown. She flipped off the bedroom light,then peered out cautiously into the living room. It was deserted.
    “I just checked to make sure all your appliances were turned off,” O’Brien said briskly, as he strolled out of the kitchen. “Do you have any regular deliveries? Milk? Newspapers?”
    Kelly shook her head. “No. And my next-door neighbor will collect my mail while I’m gone.” She looked warily around the apartment. Where the devil were Paul and Simon?
    “Good,” O’Brien said tersely, taking her duffel bag and propelling her toward the front door. “Let’s get out of here.” He flipped off the living room light, closed the door, and waited while she locked it. “We’ll take the company jet as far as Brownsville,” he said casually, as he crossed the hall and pressed the button for the elevator. “I have the pilot standing by at the airport.”
    “How did you get rid of them?” Kelly burst out, unable to contain herself any longer, her jade eyes wide with curiosity.
    “Your two belligerent lovers? Well, I didn’t throw them out the window, if that’s what you’re worried about.” His vivid blue eyes weredistinctly cool as they regarded her. “That’s really all you’re entitled to know, Goldilocks. You opted out of the situation, remember?”
    Kelly looked away guiltily. “Well, you did offer your services,” she reminded him. The doors of the elevator slid open, and they quickly entered, but she was not prepared for the overwhelming intimacy she felt when the doors slid shut enclosing her in the narrow space with him. Nick stood looking down at her, his face oddly hard and stern. He was so close that she could see the pulse beat in the hollow of his throat and smell the warm, clean scent of soap and a vaguely woodsy fragrance that she thought must be his shaving lotion.
    “And you took advantage of them,” he said slowly. His hand reached out to stroke the silky curve of her cheek, and she inhaled sharply at the almost electric shock she’d received from that casual touch. “But I never said that the offer was without strings. You owe me, Kelly, and I always collect.”
    “Not very gallant,” she said, laughing shakily and moistening her lips nervously. “I would havetaken care of the matter myself if I’d known you’d get so uptight about it.”
    “I don’t like being used, and I detest being set up,” he said curtly, and at her shocked protest, his eyes zeroed in on her with the cutting force of a laser ray. “Don’t even try to deny it, Kelly. You received a little too much pleasure out of turning me loose on your ardent admirers. You wanted to see how I’d react to the sight of you surrounded by your lovers. Did it excite you to know that you’d aroused the caveman in all of us, Kelly?”
    “You’re crazy. I only wanted