The Mysterious Stranger (Triple Trouble) Read Online Free PDF

bought into her act. The questions in her eyes, the faint trembling of her fingers, the way she kept tugging her robe belt tighter and tighter. All excellent devices designed to distract him from her true purpose.
    She might be the best, but he was prepared. No one was going to get past his defenses again. If she thought she could use his niece to get to him, she was wrong.
    “Dinner sounds like fun,” he said, trying to keep his voice light. “I’ve been working too many hours lately. I think I’ll join you.”
    “Really?” Anna Jane stared up at him, obviously thrilled.
    He felt a pang of guilt and again questioned his sister’s wisdom in naming him the guardian of her only child. Anna Jane would have been better off with nearly anyone else. What did he know about raising a young girl?
    He would have to learn, he told himself. His niece deserved the best he had to offer. Starting with his protection from unscrupulous females. At least he’d had the sense to come check on her. He’d lingered in the hallway before coming into the room. He’d heard the mystery woman’s conversation with Anna Jane. The one in which the woman had said she wouldn’t mind being a princess and living in a castle. He might not have a title, but he had plenty of land and money. More than enough to make certain kinds of women fantasize about happily ever after.
    “Would you rather I stayed in my room?” the woman asked. Her expression bared her thoughts. She’d obviously figured out that he didn’t want her alone with Anna Jane, but she wasn’t sure why. Or she wanted him to think that.
    “You’re a guest in my house,” Jarrett replied coolly. “Please make yourself at home.” Which didn’t really answer her question.
    “I wish you knew your name,” Anna Jane said. “We have to call you something.”
    Jarrett thought of several names, but none of them were suitable for a child’s ears.
    The woman shrugged. “Believe me, I wish I could remember, too.”
    “Maybe we can guess.” The nine-year-old tilted her head. “You must have a pretty name. Like Heather or Julia. Sarina? Hannah?”
    “None of those sounds right.”
    Anna Jane continued to try to come up with a name. Jarrett watched the two of them, watched the strange woman. Who was she? What did she hope to get from him—or Anna Jane? Despite the note, he doubted her motives were altruistic.
    His gaze rosé from her bare feet to her shapely calves, to her thighs, covered in part by the robe. Her upper body was concealed in the thick folds of terry cloth, but he remembered what she’d looked like on the beach, when she’d been wearing a bathing suit and shorts. As John had mentioned, she had a tempting figure. Her face was lovely, even with the bruises. She didn’t look that old. Mid-twenties, maybe.
    Something flickered low in his belly. For a second he thought it was recognition, then he realized it was something worse. Not to mention more dangerous.
    Wanting. A whisper of heat blew across his dormant desire, causing slumbering need to stir restlessly. It was the last kind of trouble he needed in his life, and he firmly squashed the reaction. If he wanted a woman, he would return to the States and find an appropriate one. The kind of woman who understood that there was no potential for a long-term relationship.
    Yet he wouldn’t be leaving. Not only because he didn’t want to abandon Anna Jane, but because he instinctively understood that the kind of woman he usually sought would not be able to help him this time.
    “None of them sound right?” Anna Jane asked.
    “I’m sorry. I wish I could think of my name.” The woman rubbed her temples. “I can’t believe this. It doesn’t make sense.”
    Tell me about it, Jarrett thought grimly.
    “Then we’ll have to pick one,” Anna Jane said. “Did you have a favorite?”
    “You decide.”
    “Uncle Jarrett?”
    “I’m staying out of it.”
    Anna Jane pursed her lips. “You were in the water, which is