Read Online Double Dealing (2013) by Linda Cajio - Free Book Online

around the room. Ten people could have lived in it, he thought, and never touched each other once. “Was that why you hung around so much whenever I was working here? You were lonely?”
    “
I
was being friendly!” she exclaimed indignantly. “And believe me, Jed, you looked like you needed a friend.”
    “More than likely,” he admitted. “I was one of those moody teenagers. You grew up on an estate like this one, didn’t you?”
    She frowned at him. “I did a lot of growing up here, Jed.”
    “So you did.” He wondered what it was like to grow up with such wealth and luxury. His parents had had a comfortable house in a development, where the homes came in only three styles and the streets were named after the fifty states and their capitals. True suburbia, and worlds away from her, he acknowledged. Or maybe not. Despitetheir differing backgrounds, they’d both been lonely children.
    “Could I get up now?” she asked, breaking into his musings.
    He gazed into her eyes for a long moment. “No.”
    His sudden kiss took her by surprise. His mouth was warm and coaxing, and Rae found herself responding to it just as she had the night before. His arms were around her, safe and comforting, and she forgot everything—the estate, her anger, his slick ways. Her lips parted at his tongue’s tender invasion, and a languid heat started deep inside her belly and spread outward along her veins. She wound her arms around his neck, plowing her hands through his thick hair. She moaned into his mouth as his palm cradled her breast, and his demanding fingers brought it to a hard aching peak. Clutching at him, she moaned again in supplication. The kiss turned white-hot, and she dimly realized that she wanted more and was terrified, all at the same time.
    The want and fear fought each other for a brief instant, but before the outcome could be resolved Jed gently broke the kiss.
    “I don’t think I want to get ransomed,” he murmured.
    In spite of the panic she felt roiling inside, a giggle escaped her. Deep down, though, she knew she was in trouble. She shouldn’t be enjoying his company. Worse, she shouldn’t be so attracted to him. This time when she tried to get up, he let her go. She headed for temporary refuge by the piano. Somehow, she had to put even more space between them, and telling herself over and overhow his every move was designed to get her to sell her home didn’t seem to help. She needed something more.
    A feeling of excitement mixed with dread washed over her, as she watched him rise from the sofa and come toward her. She told her feet to move, but a sensual anticipation kept her traitorous body rooted to the spot. No man had ever affected her like this, she thought wildly.
    When he stopped in front of her, she finally found her voice. “I’d better find Burrows and get him to pick up a few things while he’s out.”
    “Coward,” he said softly, as she slipped by him and hurried toward the door.
    “With a big yellow stripe down my back,” she muttered to herself, her feet racing even faster across the Brussels carpet. In the safety of the hallway she decided that after she found Burrows, she’d call the dogs inside. She would need all the help she could get to stay away from Jed. Then she’d call her brother and borrow her nephews for the weekend.
    It was definitely time for a meeting of the Barkeley Club.

Six
    “You heard right, Ross. I’m staying at the Barkeley estate.”
    Jed chuckled into the telephone as his acquisitions manager excitedly shot questions at him. He finally broke through the rapid-fire quizzing. “You’d never believe me if I told you, so I won’t bother. Listen, Ross, I’m sorry to be calling on a Saturday, but there are a few things I want you to do for me before Monday.”
    “Go ahead.”
    Jed knew the man was still brimming with curiosity, and he appreciated that Ross didn’t pursue the subject. Leaning back against the kitchen counter, he said, “I need copies