Read Online Heart of the Hunter by Bj James - Free Book Online

stance. “All right, I won’t. But what’s wrong, Nicky? What did I say? What did I do?”
    â€œDon’t pretend, and don’t make fun. You never used to.” She turned away, staring at the horizon where the sea blended into the sky. She couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t bear the mockery. Not from Jeb. Especially not from Jeb. “When everyone else considered it their favorite pastime, you never did.”
    â€œMake fun... Is that what you thought I was doing?” When she didn’t answer, forgetting he’d said he wouldn’t touch her, he caught her arm, turning her to him. “ Is that what you thought I was doing?”
    When she looked at him her gaze was steady and her eyes so intensely green from the effort they were nearly black. “Wasn’t it?”
    He saw the hurt and recalled the taunts, the cruel laughter aimed at a girl who was far too unsophisticated to realize they were prompted by envy. She was too young then, and too smart, and anyone with half a brain could see that one day she would be stunning. A pill too bitter for the intolerant, the less fortunate, and the covetous.
    â€œNo,” he said in a gruff rumble. “Dear God, I wouldn’t.”
    She was strong. She’d needed to be to withstand the taunts and to accomplish what she had. But buried deeply beneath that strength was an unexpected fragility. A surprising lack of conceit. He might be damned for a lying bastard before this was done. But he wouldn’t pull the wings off a magnificent butterfly.
    He moved a step closer, inordinately pleased that she hadn’t pulled away from him again. His voice was low, soothing. “I was teasing, sweetheart. There is a difference.”
    She stared at him, searching his face, as if she were trying to decide if she should believe him. Jeb stood patiently, waiting for her decision, and wondered if no man had ever told her she was beautiful.
    Nicole knew she was a fool for reacting as she had. Of course he was teasing. Her mind knew, but her heart wanted to believe every pretty word.
    To silence the ache his bold stare and caressing touch had ignited in her she’d taken thoughtless refuge in bitterness. Accusing Jeb of cruelty she didn’t believe.
    â€œI’m sorry.” She ran an agitated hand through her hair, the disarray only making her seem more vulnerable. “No one should know better than I that you wouldn’t...”
    â€œLaugh at you?” Jeb supplied the hateful words.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI might laugh with you, sweetheart.” He tapped her upturned nose and grinned again, relieved by the easy resolution of a difficult turn of events. “But I promise, never at you.”
    As he looked down at her, at the sweet, wobbly smile, Jeb wondered what might have been if he’d met her again in a different circumstance. If Tony Callison weren’t her brother and Jeb Tanner could truly be the man he pretended.
    It served no purpose to wonder, for circumstances could never be different, and what might have been was only a dream. There was no future for him here.
    Not with this woman.
    Nor with any woman.
    With an unconscious regret for what he thought he never wanted, his hand skipped down her arm, fitting palm to palm, he laced his fingers through hers. When she left her hand in his, he drew a deep breath and held her tighter.
    â€œShall we start again, Nicky?” he asked. “Maybe this time we’ll get it right.”
    Nicole nodded. She dared not trust her voice in the quicksilver shifting of his moods and hers, but with her hand in his, she was suddenly willing to try anything.
    â€œThen would you do me the honor of a stroll through the sand, Ms. Callison?”
    His grave and graceful bow should have been absurd for a man half dressed and on a sandy, sunlit beach. But it wasn’t.
    In the gallery, with casual clothing cloaking a body muscled and honed by his early years on the