Read Online Intent to Seduce & a Glimpse of Fire by Debbi Rawlins, Cara Summers - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Debbi Rawlins, Cara Summers
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the impact of his gaze ripple through her. So what if his hormones weren’t as stimulated as hers were. So what if he was just being kind to his kid sister’s best friend. Didn’t she have the kind of knowledge to change all that?
“Sometimes they need a big push,” Sophie added.
Mac couldn’t think of a man she’d rather push than Lucas. Slowly, she smiled as one of the fantasies from her research unfolded itself in her mind. “Thanks, Soph. I’m going to take your advice.”
“You go, girl! And have some fun!”
S OPHIE HUNG UP her phone with a satisfied smile and glanced out at the view from her balcony. Covered in lush grapevines, the hillside rolled down to the valley below. There, the neat rows in the vineyards were crisscrossed by narrow roads until hills rose sharply again.
Napa Valley, California, was as far away from D.C., the Florida Keys and North Carolina as she could get without actually leaving the country. And since she’d never been here before, she doubted that Lucas would think of it. Her lips curved in a smile. Not that she expected him to be thinking about her at all for the next week. Mac should be able to handle that.
And she was going to handle the rest. For the next week, no one would know she was Sophie Wainright, least of all the man she’d agreed to meet today for lunch. When she’d first met him in that small café on Capitol Hill three weeks ago, she’d told him she was Susan Walker. The initials matched her own, but that was all that linked her to Sophie Wainright.
It was on the way home from that first meeting that she’d discovered she was being followed. Now she pushed herself away from the railing and began to pace back and forth along the length of her balcony. Just the thought of it made her furious.
Well, she’d made sure that no one had followed her here. Not once since she’d gotten off the plane in San Francisco had she had that prickling sensation at the back of her neck that had warned her before. Not even Mac knew where she was coming to spend time with the man who only knew her as Susan Walker. A man who wasn’t just interested in her because she was Sophie Wainright.
Pausing, she leaned on the balcony railing to watch one of the air balloons make a soft landing on the valley floor. Then she smiled. Lucas would have a lot of troublefinding her even if he did discover that she wasn’t in that dreadful spa. A bonus to switching identities with Mac was that she’d been able to make all her plane and hotel reservations in Mac’s name.
Reaching for the coffee that room service had just delivered, she raised her cup in another toast. “To real freedom, at last.”
T HE MOMENT THAT Mac turned and strode back into the cabin, Lucas frowned and went back to polishing the brass trim that edged the deck of the Adventurer. Performing repetitious physical tasks always helped him to think and to put things in perspective. But he was no closer to sorting out what he was going to do about MacKenzie Lloyd’s proposition than he’d been yesterday when he’d left her in his bedroom.
Could the doc possibly be as honest and disingenuous as she seemed? Gut instinct told him she was.
But experience told him that women usually had a hidden financial agenda.
That was the one lesson he’d learned from watching his father bounce through five marriages. He’d been ten when his mother had walked out for good. His father had reacted by marrying again on the rebound. It had been up to Lucas to help Sophie negotiate the emotional trauma. It wasn’t until marriage three or four that he’d become aware of the financial toll that his father’s behavior was taking on the company his grandfather had founded. By the time wife number five had departed, Wainright Enterprises had been deeply in debt. Not even Sophie knew how close they had come to losing everything.
When he’d taken over the company, he’d made a vow to himself never to make the same mistake his father
“Sometimes they need a big push,” Sophie added.
Mac couldn’t think of a man she’d rather push than Lucas. Slowly, she smiled as one of the fantasies from her research unfolded itself in her mind. “Thanks, Soph. I’m going to take your advice.”
“You go, girl! And have some fun!”
S OPHIE HUNG UP her phone with a satisfied smile and glanced out at the view from her balcony. Covered in lush grapevines, the hillside rolled down to the valley below. There, the neat rows in the vineyards were crisscrossed by narrow roads until hills rose sharply again.
Napa Valley, California, was as far away from D.C., the Florida Keys and North Carolina as she could get without actually leaving the country. And since she’d never been here before, she doubted that Lucas would think of it. Her lips curved in a smile. Not that she expected him to be thinking about her at all for the next week. Mac should be able to handle that.
And she was going to handle the rest. For the next week, no one would know she was Sophie Wainright, least of all the man she’d agreed to meet today for lunch. When she’d first met him in that small café on Capitol Hill three weeks ago, she’d told him she was Susan Walker. The initials matched her own, but that was all that linked her to Sophie Wainright.
It was on the way home from that first meeting that she’d discovered she was being followed. Now she pushed herself away from the railing and began to pace back and forth along the length of her balcony. Just the thought of it made her furious.
Well, she’d made sure that no one had followed her here. Not once since she’d gotten off the plane in San Francisco had she had that prickling sensation at the back of her neck that had warned her before. Not even Mac knew where she was coming to spend time with the man who only knew her as Susan Walker. A man who wasn’t just interested in her because she was Sophie Wainright.
Pausing, she leaned on the balcony railing to watch one of the air balloons make a soft landing on the valley floor. Then she smiled. Lucas would have a lot of troublefinding her even if he did discover that she wasn’t in that dreadful spa. A bonus to switching identities with Mac was that she’d been able to make all her plane and hotel reservations in Mac’s name.
Reaching for the coffee that room service had just delivered, she raised her cup in another toast. “To real freedom, at last.”
T HE MOMENT THAT Mac turned and strode back into the cabin, Lucas frowned and went back to polishing the brass trim that edged the deck of the Adventurer. Performing repetitious physical tasks always helped him to think and to put things in perspective. But he was no closer to sorting out what he was going to do about MacKenzie Lloyd’s proposition than he’d been yesterday when he’d left her in his bedroom.
Could the doc possibly be as honest and disingenuous as she seemed? Gut instinct told him she was.
But experience told him that women usually had a hidden financial agenda.
That was the one lesson he’d learned from watching his father bounce through five marriages. He’d been ten when his mother had walked out for good. His father had reacted by marrying again on the rebound. It had been up to Lucas to help Sophie negotiate the emotional trauma. It wasn’t until marriage three or four that he’d become aware of the financial toll that his father’s behavior was taking on the company his grandfather had founded. By the time wife number five had departed, Wainright Enterprises had been deeply in debt. Not even Sophie knew how close they had come to losing everything.
When he’d taken over the company, he’d made a vow to himself never to make the same mistake his father
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