Read Online Eden Burning by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online Page A

Bobby’s big hand didn’t let go of the silken fire of Nicole’s hair real soon, Chase would remove that hand himself.
    Stupid thing to do, to feel. He knew that, too. But his normal self-control had gone down under the primal thunder of drums and the sexual heat of the dance.
    “Hell of a dance, Pele. Good-good!” Bobby smiled at her from his much greater height. “Damn near set the place on fire.”
    “That’s what you always say.”
    “Mean it tonight, sure- sure, ” he said, shaking his head. “Son of a bitch, but that was hot!”
    “Then thank Dr. Wilcox, not me,” Nicole said, kissing Bobby’s cheek. “His drumming was as strong and wild as the volcano itself.”
    “Call me Chase.” He smiled rather dangerously at her. “Anyone who dances like you do can’t be long on formality.”
    Bobby let go of Nicole and gave the other man a fast, speculative look. The words should have been a compliment, but they didn’t quite sound like one.
    She heard the edge beneath the words, too. Her chin lifted in subtle challenge. “Really? Just how do I dance?”
    “Like hell on fire.”
    She hesitated, searching his rain-clear eyes. “Sounds dangerous.”
    “Yeah,” he said huskily. “And sexy. Untamed. Goddess of the unleashed volcano. But you know that already. That’s why you dance.”
    She blinked. “Thank you—I think. But my name is Nicole, not Pele. Other than my hair,” she added matter-of-factly, “there’s nothing startling or unusual about me.”
    Chase gave Bobby a sidelong Did you hear that? glance. “Does she expect me to believe that?”
    “You bet, haole. Why shouldn’t you? It’s what she believes.”
    Icy, measuring eyes went from the fiery crown of Nicole’s head, then down her lush curves, to her bare, golden-brown feet. Chase had seen more conventionally beautiful women. A lot more. Hell, he had married the most beautiful one of all. In fact, he preferred women like Lynette—small, delicate, and coolly flawless rather than tall, flashy, and frankly female.
    At least, he had preferred fragile and petite. But not tonight. Maybe not ever again. He had never felt anything as hot as Nicole’s strong body arched against him, fitting him perfectly, flesh matched with flesh, female heat with male hunger.
    And she had known just how he felt. It had been right there against her belly.
    That isn’t good, Chase admitted to himself. She was dangerous, sexy, and completely untamed. He had to keep himself on a real short leash. That was the only way he would win.
    Pele had met her match. She would burn in his arms, not in Dane’s. She wouldn’t even know that she had lost her chance at the Wilcox wealth until it was too late. She was way too hungry to be cautious about having an affair with one brother while pursuing the other.
    And this Wilcox brother had the bitter experience required to keep the upper hand in the sexual battle to come.
    “Did you get your stuff moved in?” Bobby asked Chase.
    Reluctantly he pulled his glance from Nicole’s flushed, moist lips and looked at the man he had known for only a day and already liked, despite the irrational stab of jealousy. “Yes. Thanks. The cottage is perfect. But your mother isn’t.”
    Bobby grinned. “Talked your arm off?”
    “Nope. She was just damned stubborn.”
    “Insisted you call her Grandmother?”
    “I don’t mind that. It was when she refused to accept cash, credit cards, or traveler’s checks that I got my back up.”
    The Hawaiian’s laugh rumbled like a sleepy volcano. “We don’t charge rent to family.”
    Beneath the dark mustache, Chase’s lips softened into a whimsical smile. “Bobby, even if you checked all the way back to the Garden of Eden, I doubt you’d find much blood in common.”
    “So? You need a transfusion or something?”
    Chase gave a bark of laughter before he shot back, “I need someone to take my damned rent money.”
    The smiling giant shook his head. “Ask Nicole about blood and family