Two Against the Odds Read Online Free PDF Page A

being audited. But she was good at putting unpleasant things out of her mind. Maybe a little too good.
    He dug through the box, shaking his head as he lifted out nail clippers, a pencil sharpener, a broken pedometer, a small wooden bowl, assorted colored pencils, marbles, paper clips and matchbooks.
    He had eyes that slanted down at the outer corner,an aquiline nose and a mouth that was far too sensuous for someone who worked with columns and rows.
    Glancing up, Rafe noticed her sketch pad on her upraised knee. “What are you drawing?”
    â€œNothing. Just playing around.” Lexie started on his ear. Every person’s whorls were different, like fingerprints.
    â€œPlaying?” he repeated as he piled everything back into the box. “Perhaps you don’t understand the seriousness of your situation.”
    Lexie stretched her legs along the length of the couch, wriggling her bare toes.
    Rafe’s gaze, drawn to the movement, lingered on her bare calves. Their gazes met for a fraction of a second. Lexie’s mind flashed back to the outline of his thigh muscle under his pants. She drew her skirt down. Rafe glanced away.
    He cleared his throat. “You need to—” He broke off, frowning. Apparently he was having trouble formulating the sentence. “You need to find those receipts if you want to offset expenses against the income from the paintings you sold to the American. If not, you’ll be charged the maximum amount of tax.”
    Lexie stilled. “What would that be?”
    He started piling things back into the box. “Tax on the forty thousand dollars, with minimal deductions, would be around fifteen thousand.”
    Fifteen thousand dollars.
    â€œWhere am I going to get that kind of money?” she demanded. She may have sounded angry, but she wasn’t. She was scared.
    He shrugged. Not his problem, in other words.
    She had to find those envelopes.
    But she also had to finish Sienna’s portrait. It was the best thing she’d ever done and she really thought she had a shot at winning the Archibald Prize and the fifty-thousand dollars that went to first place. Fear speared through her. She had to win the cash prize. She would need it to pay her tax bill.
    Lexie closed her eyes and slowly breathed out all the way. Calm. Peace. Light.
    â€œUtility bills?” Rafe reminded her.
    Ooh.
    â€œI’ll go look for them now.” She set her sketch pad aside and rose. He was going to be in her house for days, possibly the rest of the week. Even without being blocked it was hard to see how she was going to get any work done.
    Lexie went down the hall, past her bedroom to the spare room where she kept a small whitewashed desk and a single bed covered in a patchwork quilt. Her early paintings, seascapes mainly, covered the walls. Rifling the desk drawers, she came up with…nothing. This was ridiculous even for her. She knew she didn’t have five years’ worth of household bills, but she’dkept some. They must be with her tax envelopes. Where were they?
    She opened the double doors of the closet. Piles of old clothing she would never wear again, jigsaw puzzles—mostly with one or two pieces missing—and the hair dryer that sparked. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t throw away broken and useless items? It was no wonder she could never find anything. Pretty soon she’d have to rent another house just to store the things she didn’t use.
    What was this? She pulled out a small antique clock. She’d forgotten she had this. It had a hand-painted white enamel face and was mounted on a rosewood base. She’d been attracted to it originally because the mechanism was exposed. Every cog, wheel and spring was visible and could be seen moving. When it worked.
    â€œThat’s a skeleton clock.”
    She leaped back and almost dropped the thing. How long had he been standing in the doorway? “You have to stop sneaking up on