Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? Read Online Free PDF Page B

in herself. Three years of keeping her nose clean. Of focusing on work to the exclusion of all else. Of not even giving a man the time of day. And the very first one she decided to give a little flirt to was married.
    Her stomach dropped.
    To her boss’s sister.
    So much for a harmless tryst. She couldn’t think of a single person who wouldn’t be hurt here.
    Okay, damage control time. She hadn’t known Jake was Jackson or she would have run for her life. But, even so, she didn’t see Amanda being all that understanding. Obviously it would be in Jake’s best interests to keep the sordid details on the down-low. But what about her? Could she live with herself if she didn’t confess what had happened—if she knowingly participated in the deception of another woman? Sure, they might not have had actual intercourse, but it wasn’t because Jake had thrown up a hand and said no way. He’d been ready to go. He’d wanted to take her home—back to her place, of course.
    Oh, he was scum.
    No, she definitely could not live with that kind of secret. Even if it meant she’d be sacrificing London—her career. And there was every chance that was exactly what this tawdry little rendezvous had cost her. Because Amanda wasn’t a machine. She was a flesh-and-blood human being, with emotions, who might not be able to put reason ahead of hurt .
    Why hadn’t she just walked out of the bar last night? With her track record, why had she pushed her luck and let a manget that close at all? Hadn’t she learned how easily men came between her and her future?
    This one was trouble, Jake thought, meeting the flash of Cali’s cold stare. She shifted and her bound curls caught the light streaming through the window, making the soft mass gleam like gilded silk. And for a moment he could see it wound around his fist, thick between his fingers as he pulled her head back.
    That was the wrong line of thinking, considering he’d decided she was off-limits. And she’d decided he was an ass.
    But, even with a disdainful sneer marring her lips, she made a pretty picture. Faded jeans hugged the sexy lines of her trim hips. A sleeveless shirt was tied behind her neck and ruffled out, accentuating her lean, athletic build, as well as the natural curves he’d had pressed against him all too briefly the night before. Her body was fit, with an arsenal of feminine dips, hollows and swells—enough to make any man’s mouth water.
    She was a siren, all right. And at that moment a particularly hateful looking one. Of course the outrage might have something to do with the blatant full-body assessment he’d just concluded.
    “Nice,” she hissed.
    He was an ass. “Sorry,” he acknowledged, with an unrepentant smile.
    Cali’s eyes rolled. “Right. Whatever.” Scrunching up her face like a raisin, she fisted her hands against her eyes, muttering, “Stupid, stupid…. One night— sure , no problem…stupid. Stupid !”
    Jake raised his brows at her self-directed tirade, concerned by the intensity of her dismay. That was until she spun on him.
    “And you—you’re the epitome of every bar-side scavenger I’ve ever heard about. You revolt me!”
    Jake stiffened, his concern rapidly evaporating under thescalding lash of her tongue. “What?” Scavenger ? Man, that got under his skin. And he revolted her? This from the woman who had begged him for just one more kiss? “Were you even there last night?” No wonder she hadn’t gotten much lip action lately—she was insane.
    Glaring daggers, she snapped, “To my eternal regret.”
    Where in the hell was her outrage coming from? This couldn’t be the same woman who’d tied him up in knots and nearly brought him to his knees. He didn’t understand—and he hated that.
    He waited for enlightenment to smack his forehead.
    It didn’t.
    There had to be an answer. “Are you on drugs?”
    “Get lost, Jackson. ”
    And now with the Jackson business? Nice. Yeah, you first. “Seriously, Cali, what’s