Read Online A Man of Honor by Miranda Liasson - Free Book Online Page B

wrong. And she’d come up in the red.
    She shrugged. “I’m not a risk taker. What’s wrong with that?” Preston sipped his coffee, his arm muscles flexing against the sleeves of his shirt. He had big muscles, even bigger than she remembered. She wondered if, since his leg troubles, he was working his arms out double time.
    The tail of that dragon tattoo curled around his biceps as he held his cup. She knew now that it spread across his torso, its tail crawling across his shoulders and down his left arm. It was dark and dangerous, just as he was. He’d always been a bad boy. A risk taker to the max. It made no sense that someone like her who never colored outside the lines would be so attracted to someone like him. But she was. Oh my, judging by the way she’d just cranked up the air-conditioning, she certainly was.
    He was sitting back, assessing her carefully. “Maybe you are but you just don’t know it.”
    She snorted.
    “Taking risks can be very…freeing.”
    Her knuckles turned ice white on the wheel. His words excited her against her will.
    “Life is about more than risks,” she said. “It’s about faithfulness and staying the course. Those are things that make for a real relationship. But then, you wouldn’t know about any of that.”
    “You’re right. I don’t come from squeaky-clean genes like you do.”
    “Don’t insult my family.”
    “I’m not insulting them. I’m only pointing out that someone like me doesn’t do long-term relationships. Yet I think I understand enough about people to be of some guidance to you.”
    “I don’t need your guidance.”
    “Maybe you do, Cat. I think there’s a part of you that enjoys risk.”
    He was such a puzzle, like his drink order. How for months he’d seemed to want her so badly, how sometimes he could still flash her the most smoldering of looks, yet act like there was never anything between them. Like it was all a fantasy she’d made up in her mind.
    “All I want is to survive this next week,” Cat said. “I promised to play along with dating you, but I really don’t need your help finding someone to date. So you can keep your editorials to yourself.”
    A smart-ass smile curved the corner of his too-full mouth. “All I’m saying is that maybe there’s a part of you, deep down inside, that not only wants to play with risk, but craves it.”
    The way he looked at her, with a slow burn in those Siberian husky eyes, made her shudder. “W-what are you talking about?”
    “Or you never would have shown up at my place like you did.”
    She stared at him openmouthed. His eyes flashed with amusement. She was not about to sit here and take that.
    “You may have been a brave soldier, but relationships scare you shitless, don’t they? It’s a shame, because whatever you’re going through might be easier to handle if you let people in.”
    There, take that . He was so know-it-all, she wanted to shake him. Break through the concrete wall he’d built around his heart. She had no idea if what she’d said had penetrated, because all he did was narrow his eyes and stare at her for a long second.
    “I didn’t sleep so great last night,” he said. “Think I’ll close my eyes for a while. Wake me when we get there?”
    Maybe. That is, if she didn’t decide to abandon him somewhere on the side of the road first.
    …
    Cat was a half hour early when she pulled into the medical office building’s parking lot and turned off the ignition to wait for Preston to be done with his appointments. Her hands were shaky, and she couldn’t focus on checking email on her phone. She was sweating in her suit, and her feet were sticking to the bottoms of her heels.
    Calm down, calm down , she told herself. It was only a job interview. One she’d walked out on. One she’d needed. Hell, she needed any job at this point. She couldn’t afford to be picky, especially when there’d been nothing wrong with the job they were offering. She simply couldn’t shake