Trouble In Triplicate Read Online Free PDF Page A

charms—"
    "How true!"
    Caine sent her a quelling glance and continued. "But we do share a common goal—to end Miranda and Grant's unhappiness." He heaved a weary sigh. "For our own sakes as much as theirs. I know I can't take much more of Grant's misery. He's carrying a torch as big as China for your sister and I feel for him. I really do. But last night he played 'Send in the Clowns' forty-three times in a row. One day he played it sixty-seven times. I counted," he added glumly.
    Juliet couldn't help sympathizing with him.
    "Randi has a whole stack of torchy, weepy songs she plays over and over again. Liwy and I call it music-to-commit-suicide-by."
    "Things can't go on like this, Juliet. They've got to meet, to talk things over ..."
    "Not if Grant really did spend a weekend in Richmond with Darla Ditmayer. If he did that, Randi's better off with her sad songs than with him."
    "But what if Grant and Miranda are the innocent victims of some nasty little scheme of Sophia's?" Caine paused. "What then, Juliet?"
    "Then I think we should do everything in our power to straighten things out between them," she said thoughtfully.
    He smiled. It was the first genuine smile that Juliet had seen from him, and it had a devastating effect upon her senses. Her stomach lurched and her pulse raced. She seemed to glow inside. It was impossible not to smile back at him.
    "That's what I was hoping you'd say," he said huskily. She was smiling at him, a warm, sweet smile, and he felt his breath catch in his chest. His gaze was riveted to her face and he couldn't seem to look away. She was so beautiful—that exquisite bone structure, that flawless complexion, those intriguing eyes. Warning signals went off in his head. He'd never reacted so intensely to a woman's smile!
    "I'll talk to Sophia," he said, struggling to sound cool and nonchalant. "I'll let you know what she says."
    Juliet nodded. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "even if Sophia did cause the breakup, it's not going to be all that easy to get Grant and Randi back together again."
    "I know. They've been apart a whole month, they've gone through the trauma of a canceled wedding—and there's the serious matter of
    Miranda's total lack of trust in Grant. It's not going to be easy, Juliet, but I think we've got to try."
    "If only to avoid listening to 'Send in the Clowns' forty-three more times, hmm?"
    He laughed. "Shall we shake on our tentative alliance?"
    He held out his hand. Juliet hesitated a moment, then placed her small hand in his big one. With one fluid movement, he pulled her toward him. Still holding her hand, he cupped her chin with his other hand and took her mouth with his.
    Juliet was too stunned to protest. She hadn't expected Caine to make that kind of a move. Nor had she expected his hard, sensual mouth to feel so soft and gentle upon hers. For a split second she stood stock still while Caine's lips moved lightly, questioningly over her own. And then, as if of their own volition, her eyelids fluttered shut and her lips parted.
    His tongue slipped into her mouth to probe the moist warmth within, and rubbed against her own tongue with a seductive intimacy that made her limbs go weak. A hot swell of excitement rolled through her, and she trembled with awakening urgency.
    She was vaguely aware that Caine had dropped his hands to fold her deeply within his embrace. Her body surged against his and a small, soft moan escaped from her throat. Her breasts swelled and her nipples tightened as they pressed against the muscular wall of his chest. His warm hands smoothed over her back, massaging and stroking, sliding around to her sides to tease along her ribs, stopping tantalizingly, maddeningly, at the undersides of her aching breasts.
    The kiss deepened, insistent and intimate, and pure, raw pleasure filled her. Her senses were full of Caine, of the taste and feel and scent of him.
    Driven by a compulsive need to be even closer, Juliet's arms wound around his neck, and she