Read Online Born to Be Wild by Donna Kauffman - Free Book Online Page A

Before she could say hello, a deep male voice rumbled in her ear.
    “Julia Roberts, eat your heart out.” Husky laughter followed her sudden intake of breath. “Playing hooky, Dart?”
    “Zach?” She swung around, scanning the lot again, but still didn’t see his truck. He had to be nearby. The music—
    Dear Lord, he’d seen her strutting her stuff across the lot! Surprisingly, the idea that he’d watched herwasn’t as embarrassing as it was … stimulating. She didn’t welcome that bit of news.
    “Third pillar to your right, Dara.”
    Zach moved out from behind the large round brick column and leaned back against it, cellular phone propped between his ear and his shoulder. He wore a black baseball cap backward, a sleeveless white gym shirt, and black gym shorts that displayed a pair of tanned, well-muscled thighs. For some reason, her gaze strayed to his crossed ankles with sloppy socks and loosely laced black leather high-tops.
    She stifled an unexpected giggle. Either it was hotter in the car than she’d thought, or she’d definitely been cooped up for too long if she was being turned on by a pair of oversize beat-up sneakers.
    The heat in her cheeks began a swift downward rush, and she lifted her gaze back to his face only to find that sin-sexy smile. There was something about staring at him from the confines of her car that felt strangely … safe. Her reaction to the wink he sent her way, however, didn’t come within spitting distance of safe.
    “It’s Saturday,” she answered his question finally, speaking into the phone. “I don’t think you can legally play hooky during non-business hours.”
    Zach pushed away from the pillar and strolled toward her car, the phone still at his ear. “And here I thought you didn’t have any non-business hours.”
    “I just came in to get a few things that I need to review over the—” She broke off. “Why am I defending myself to you? You wouldn’t know a business hour if you tripped over one, so who are you to go—”
    “Don’t go fire breathing again, Dart, it’s too hot forthat already.” He’d leaned down and propped his elbows on her open passenger door window, still talking into the phone—which somehow seemed endearing rather than silly.
    Then he opened the passenger door, tossed her tote to the backseat, and got in. He threw his baseball hat on the dash, then hung up her phone. “And don’t tell me you haven’t been here all day. I’ve been calling your house since seven o’clock this morning.”
    “You’ve been calling? At my home?”
    “Of course at your home. Which is where, silly me, I thought you’d be on a Saturday.”
    “You called at seven on a Saturday? You could have woken me up!”
    “I won’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind, say, a dozen times or so.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Accompanied by some pretty vivid mental images, too, I must say.”
    “No, you mustn’t say,” she shot back hastily. This was already getting out of hand. And did he have to fill up her car with his tanned muscles and windblown hair and … and white teeth?
    “Why were you calling me?” she asked. “You wouldn’t by any chance be backing out and letting me know about the decision as soon as possible, would you?”
    His wounded expression was entirely too convincing, and for a split second she actually wished she hadn’t sounded so excited by the prospect of his quitting. Of course, if he had even an inkling about how easily he did excite her.…
    “Actually, no,” he said. “And before you ask, I got your home number from Dane.”
    “Such an accommodating brother.” Dara made a mental note to spray paint her twin’s private number on the next overpass she came to. “What was so urgent you had to talk to me on a weekend?”
    “You said to call when I had the trip finished. When I couldn’t get you at home, I figured you were at work. I tried that, but—”
    “The switchboard is shut down during the