Read Online Fair Play by Tracy A. Ward - Free Book Online

as I took off the trench and placed it on the bench beside me, I noticed Ashlyn was on the move.
    “Gotta go.” Promptly ending the call with Quinn, I left my coat and followed her.
    What the hell was she up to?
    She wore a full white skirt that stopped just above her knees and a fitted button-up top the same shade of blue as her eyes. And then there were the cowboy boots, giving a rustic edge to her appeal. Her sexy auburn hair hanging loose in the breeze had me wanting to sink my fingers in and hang on, all while burying myself between those milky thighs. I was getting so wrapped up in sexual fantasies that could never, ever happen that I almost missed her turn and go down Main Street.
    The plan was supposed to have an element of surprise. She didn’t know when I’d strike, or where. Or what I’d do when I caught up to her. Well, rather, what Andy Rich would do when he caught up to Caroline.
    But by the time she reached the chiseled columns of the limestone theater, Ashlyn knew I was tailing her. But rather than going into the safety of the theater’s front door, she slowed her pace, headed to the rear entrance. By the time I reached the back of the building, she was nowhere in sight.
    I walked up to the back door, put my hand on the doorknob, and looked around. Had she scrambled inside and up the stairs? Or had she skirted around the opposite end of the building? Before I could make a decision on which path to pursue, the knob jerked from my grasp. The stairwell door opened from the inside, and I found myself facing Ashlyn, who wore an odd expression on her face.
    Before I could say something, she grabbed my shoulders and hauled me in. Her chest heaved from the effort. I waited for her to speak, tried to read thoughts that buzzed around her frenzied behavior.
    Ashlyn wasn’t acting afraid of me, like she should had she been playing the part of Caroline.
    Was the game over?
    Or was this just the beginning?
    “You’ve been tailing me since the post office,” she said, her voice different. Odd. Caroline’s voice, I assumed.
    “Longer than that.”
    Her hands slid from my shoulders, down to my chest. “Okay, so that’s creepy,” she said in her regular voice.
    I whipped my sunglasses off and hung them by one arm from the neck of my tee. Was I supposed to be me, or Andy Rich? I threw out a line either of us would ask. ”Why didn’t you run?”
    “I watch Animal Planet,” she said. “Running is a fatal mistake. A wildebeest can’t outrun a lion. The only chance it has is to stay calm and out-maneuver it.”
    “You’re no wildebeest.” I couldn’t tell if she was playing Caroline or being herself. Taking a risk, I traced the line of her flushed cheekbone. I figured I’d play the part of Andy Rich. He got more action with Ashlyn—I mean Caroline —than I could. “And you can’t out-maneuver me.”
    She shook her head and cleared her throat, then spoke again in her “Caroline” voice. “The police were closing in, weren’t they? That’s why you left New York. It wasn’t to expand the family business. It was because of the mistake you made with your last victim, the evidence you left behind, the new victims still to claim.”
    Back to role-playing, right? But she wasn’t an actress, caught up in a role, so why after I’d touched her cheek, did she start to tremble? If it wasn’t from fear, there could only be one reason.
    Arousal.
    “There’s only one thing I want to claim,” I said. “And it’s not a victim.”
    She stepped backward, but not far enough that her hand couldn’t remain on my chest. “I’m not afraid of you.”
    “Maybe you should be.” I stepped close again.
    “If I said no, what would you do?”
    What was she doing? Where was she going with this? Was I still Andy Rich? “If you said no to what?”
    When her eyes dropped to my lips, I knew exactly what she wanted.
    “If you said no, sweetheart, I would walk away, because that’s what decent guys do.”
    Her gaze met