The Harder They Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

was becoming increasingly difficult to keep his distance from her. Suddenly he regretted the image he’d projected to her. “I’m not working today,” he said. “Other than here, that is.”
    She shrugged her shoulders in a way that lifted her dress to alarming heights on her trim thighs.
    Hunter forced his gaze up to her face. A flash of deep sorrow, of repressed fear, crossed her face, gone so quickly he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t imagined it. What in the world was wrong? Whatever it was, had he caused it? “I want to clear out this apartment,” he said slowly.
    “You do?”
    “Was there anything in here you wanted?”
    She looked around at what had been Eloise’s apartment, then sadly shook her head. “No, thank you, but ... no.”
    She wanted to say something else, he was sure of it, yet she’d changed her mind. “You sure?”
    Turning, she made her way to the door. “Sure enough. You renting this apartment out?”
    He hesitated. Tension emanated from her in waves. He hated the brief flash of need he glimpsed in her eyes, hated the sympathy that rose within him.
    “I’m not breaking my lease, you know.” She seemed suddenly small, vulnerable.
    “So you’ve said.”
    “You’re stuck with me.”
    “I’m beginning to realize that.” Having seen her place, he was sure she would leave for the right price, but didn’t mention that. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her pride. Hunter understood pride well.
    Shrugging as if it didn’t matter, when he could see so clearly it did, she said with false cheer, “Well, I’ve got to go.” But she stood there, clinging to the doorknob. “You know, I didn’t expect to see you again.”
    “Did you think I was going to just disappear?”
    “One could hope,” she murmured. She bent, hiding her face as she petted Duff, who’d just strutted into the room.
    “Trisha—”
    She turned away, ignoring him.
    He bit back the urge to start counting, knowing she’d get a real kick out of that. “I can’t just vanish. I’m responsible for what happens here.”
    She scooped the cat close. “This isn’t your kind of place.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    She lifted a dark brow. “I saw your face last time you were here, Dr. Adams, you can’t deny that you were ... disgusted.”
    “Hunter. And it wasn’t disgust.”
    Her red lips curved as she smiled in polite disbelief. He could remember the slippery feel of her in his arms, remember the startling realization that she’d caught him with his fly open. Could remember, too, how he’d felt touching her new shipment of silk, and picturing her in it. Oh, yes, he’d felt many things that day, but disgust hadn’t been one of them.
    “Dr. Adams—”
    “Hunter,” he repeated.
    Her eyes sparkled. “So casual,” she said. “And we’ve seen each other only three times.”
    She was laughing at him. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Okay, he could. But he was no longer gawky, skinny, too tall, and twelve. “Not all scientists are stuffy, you know.”
    “Really.”
    Her eyes dared him and he couldn’t resist. “Really.”
    “When was the last time you went line dancing?” she asked. “Or got a body part pierced?”
    He felt the color drain from his face, and she laughed.
    “You’re turning green, Hunter.”
    “Body piercing doesn’t appeal to me,” he said in a chilly voice that would have had his associates backing off in fear for their lives.
    Not Trisha.
    “Hmm.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Bought any CDs lately? Or traveled—just for the heck of it?”
    “Just last week I went to China,” he said triumphantly.
    She shook her head and set down the black cat. “I saw that on the news. You went to promote international support for your program. And to solicit funds, which definitely doesn’t count”
    “Why not?”
    “I meant traveling for pleasure. Pleasure ,” she said again, slowly, making the word roll off her tongue in a sinful way that had his