Read Online Crushed Velvet by Leanore Elliott - Free Book Online Page A

would’ve.”
    Keep him away from you, Daize . “Stop right there!” Bluff him out…it’s your only card.
    Rand kept smiling. “God dammit you look—?”
    “Old?” she piped in.
    He shook his head. “Nope. Gorgeous as always.”
    Too many God dammed aces up this man’s sleeve . Daisy huffed. “Well, you still look…”
    “Yes?”
    “Never mind. Just leave!”
    Rand stood his ground.” Nope, ’fraid not.”
    Daisy stomped her foot. “I just can’t see you—I can’t!”
    Rand chuckled. “You’re seeing me right now and the ground hasn’t opened up yet.”
    There it is, more charm with that humor of his and he’s stacking the deck. She was close to hyperventilating . I really do expect the floorboards to collapse at any moment. I’ll fall again and things will never be the same. “I mean it. I’ll…” She looked all around the room.
    “Yeah? You’ll what? Stop me?”
    Daisy became desperate and she turned, picking up her Tiffany lamp.
    Rand’s expression remained calm, as if he expected the move.
    Raising it up, she took a deep breath. I’m callin’ and he’d better duck!
    “It’s awful pretty to be breakin’ just to warn me, Daize.”
    Nope, not playing your game, Mister sexy man . Daisy hefted it and threw it his way.
    Rand caught it in his large hands and raised it up. “Expensive weapon.” He snickered.
    “Dammit!” Daisy stomped her boot again. “I’ll call the cops!” Another bluff.
    Rand stared at her blankly for a few seconds and then he laughed hard.
    “I mean it, I will!’ she threatened.
    “Go ahead.”
    Daisy swallowed heavily again. Callin’ my bluff, damn the man!
    “But…you’d better tell them to bring the paddy wagon too.”
    Her eyes met his. Whoa now, Daisy, do not look into those blue devil eyes, do not!
    “They’ll have a lot of people to round up, especially the male kind who will be cryin’ in their little speedos as they’re hauled away to the hoosegow.”
    With his calling her bluff, Daisy sighed. I always hated gambling. If luck was a bright penny, then I would be a tarnished dime.
    “Then there’s the Madame of it all, seeing that this supposed bed and breakfast is a house of…” He looked around. “Beef for sale, is it?”
    “Now, you listen here!”
    “No!” he retorted in a louder tone. “You’re raisin’ my daughter in a house full of male prostitutes?”
    Daisy backed up. He trumped me. He knew about it all along.
    Rand didn’t look amused anymore.
    “I knew it!’ Daisy shouted. “You just came here to put me down!” She knew better though; he was the kindest man she’d ever known.
    Rand stepped close and he was gaining ground in the space between them. “I would never do that.”
    “Oh yes, you would! All men are the same; they don’t think a woman can---”
    “Shut the hell up!” Rand stated in a low voice.
    He knows me too well and trumped me again. She closed her mouth. He never yelled and he never demanded anything at all; he didn’t have to. Him, just being Rand, always made her want to fall to her knees.
    “Don’t play all that arrogant men stuff on me. I never judged you or tried to change you. God dammit, Daisy, can we just talk?”
    Daisy knew she couldn’t stay in the same room with this hell fire angel of a man. She would spontaneously combust and turn to a dust of ashes. Shaking her head, she stepped back again. Time to admit I’ve lost this hand.
    Rand sighed. “Well, how about I talk and you listen?
    “No!” she blurted out. His voice was the sound of addiction—an addiction to pleasure, like sweet harps on the clouds. Smooth as silk and twice a nice. She wanted to slap her hands over her ears just to play it safe.
    He seemed to get a glint in his eye and he took a step back. “Well, then let me just look at you. I won’t say a word.”
    She knew she couldn’t take a Rand stare . It would surely be the beginning of the end. In the old days, he could seduce her with just his eyes. Yeah, she