The Groom's Revenge Read Online Free PDF

adventurous?”
    Mollie shrugged, letting him choose his own answer from the vague gesture. Adventurous? Hardly. More like “tiresomely sensible.” Except that less than a minute ago she’d almost pressed her lips to his. She wondered what he would have thought of that, considering his claim that everything was to be strictly business between them.
    “Any particular wine you like?” he asked.
    She shook her head. She’d had maybe five glasses of wine in her whole life. The box she clutched seemed to weigh a ton. Had he looked inside? Were her secrets no longer secrets? She must have been really nervous not to notice the box sitting out when she’d first brought him upstairs. She’d gotten used to it being there over the past several months, since her last birthday—the day she’d stopped believing in making wishes. She’d been working up the nerve to throw the box into the trash.
    “I need to get back to work,” she said, aware of his watchful silence.
    She hurried into the bedroom and shoved the box into a drawer, sliding it under her lingerie, a fancy name for her plain, practical bras and panties. But then, she was a practical person.
    Mollie mumbled goodbye as she hurried through the living room and down the stairs, fighting images of Gray seeing just now practical she was. She knew there wasn’t a chance in leaven that he would be interested m someone like her, someone so unsophisticated And computer illiterate—a major strike against her, undoubtedly.
    Don’t mix business and pleasure. How many tunes had she heard that? And if she took a chance on letting things become personal between them, then he rejected her, would she lose not only the job, but her dreams? For the past month she’d spun fantasies about him without any fuel other than magazine and newspaper stories and photos.
    She needed him to fill up the emptiness. She also wanted to know the real man beneath those glossy pages.
    There had to be some reason why she’d chosen him as her obsession when she’d never even had the slightest crush on anyone before, not even a movie star or singer. Gray was a businessman. A genius. An international icon—
    Who had the prettiest blue eyes, the nicest smile and the most ncredible body she’d ever seen. And for the first time in months, she wasn’t lonely.

Three
    M ollie’s mouth caught fire. So much for her first foray into adventure, she thought as she swallowed half a glass of Char donnay to douse the flames.
    Gray had ordered Thai takeout, and while most of it was jus a little spicy and really delicious, the chilies in one dish burned her mouth, her throat and anywhere that the fumes alone touched. She didn’t care much for his amused smile, or the way he continued to eat the blistering dish as if it were macaroni and cheese.
    “You said—” she panted “—it was hot.” She took another swig of wine. “But I didn’t expect fire. Your taste buds mus be cauterized.” She took her plate into the kitchen, grabbed a Popsicle from the freezer, then plopped back onto the sofa bedside him. She’d already consumed two glasses of wine, and the room seemed draped with gauze.
    “It’s an acquired taste.” He closed the cartons with their left overs and carried them into the kitchen.
    “Grab a Popsicle, if you want,” she said, then moaned as the frozen treat numbed her mouth at last.
    “I’m okay, thanks,” he called out
    She heard water running and realized he was rinsing the dishes, something she should be doing, but nothing could have induced her to put aside her icy first aid. Warm and lazy from the wine, she snuggled into the cushions and closed her eyes.
    After a minute she felt him sit beside her.
    “Something tells me you aren’t exactly ready for computer lessons,” he said, humor in his voice.
    “Whose fault is that?”
    “I didn’t know that two glasses of wine would put you under.”
    “Now you know.” She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
    “Your lips are