Read Online Bravo Unwrapped by Christine Rimmer - Free Book Online Page B

aren’t meant for marriage, that a bad marriage is never a good thing, for the child, or her parents….
    She kept those arguments to herself. This was much too dangerous a subject to get into right now.
    Chewing on another roll, she watched him as he ate his salad, thinking, I am now going to turn on the tape recorder and get on with the interview.
    But then again…
    Okay. She had to ask. “You, too, Buck? You’d marry some woman you didn’t care about, didn’t…love, just because she was having your baby?”
    He speared a tomato wedge. “Bowie does love Glory. He said so.”
    â€œWell, yeah. To convince her to do things his way.”
    â€œUh-uh. I don’t think so. I think he really does love her.”
    â€œAnd you determined this, how?”
    He considered a moment. “Call it an informed opinion. He’s my baby brother. I grew up with him. It’s my informed opinion that he meant what he said. He loves Glory.”
    There was a moment. They looked at each other and B.J. felt…sparks. Heat. That burning energy, way too sexual, zipping back and forth between them.
    Why this guy? she thought, as she’d thought a thousand times before. Why, always, in the end: Buck?
    Nadine appeared with their steaks. She served them and took their salad plates away.
    Buck started in on his T-bone. B.J. sipped her waterand told herself not to go there—after which, she promptly went there. “And anyway, I wasn’t asking about Bowie. I was asking about you. If you got a woman pregnant, would you think you had to marry her, whether you really wanted to or not?”
    â€œWhy do you ask?”
    â€œJust curious,” she baldly lied.
    Those eyes of his seemed to bore holes right through her. And then he lifted one hard shoulder, sketching a shrug. “Honestly, I can’t say for certain. It hasn’t happened.” Then he frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me something?”
    â€œNo. No, I’m not.” Well, it was the truth. Barely. She wasn’t trying to tell him. Not now. Not yet…
    â€œI’ll say this much.”
    She gulped. “Yeah?”
    â€œAny kid of mine is going to know his dad and know him well.” His steak knife glinted as he sliced his T-bone.
    B.J. realized she’d been holding her breath and let it out. Slowly. “Buck?”
    He set the knife aside. “Yeah?”
    â€œWhy are we doing this?”
    He arched a dark brow. “Because it’s dinnertime? Because we have to eat—by the way, your filet’s getting cold.”
    Stop, a voice inside her head commanded. Drop it. Now. But her mouth kept right on talking. “No. I don’t mean dinner. I mean this whole thing. You and me, here in your hometown. Why did you find it necessary to drag me across the country with you? We both know there’s no reason you can’t write this damn piece yourself.”
    â€œNo denying it now,” he said wryly. “You are talking to me.”
    â€œAgainst my better judgment,” she shot back, thencut the sarcasm enough to ask, “And will you please answer my question?”
    He looked at her in a measuring sort of way. The seconds ticked by. At last, he said, “Eat your steak so we can get out of here.”
    â€œAnd then?”
    â€œYou’ll get your answer.”
    Â 
    Buck said nothing after they left the restaurant. In the chilly Sierra darkness, they strolled down the street, around the corner and across the bridge. The stars overhead, no city lights to mute them, shone thick and bright against the black-as-velvet night sky.
    At the Sierra Star, the curtains at the front window were still open. Inside, as they mounted the steps, B.J. could see Chastity, sitting alone by the fire, reading a paperback book, an orange tabby cat curled in her lap.
    Buck opened the door and ushered B.J. in—still without saying a word. Evidently, he’d