Read Online Looking for a Hero by Patti Berg - Free Book Online

eyebrow. “Would you prefer that I parade around naked, as you are doing?”
    â€œI don’t give a damn how you dress, I just think it’s rather strange….” She let the thought trail away, finding it useless to argue with the man, and a waste of energy to explode over his insensitive and immature comment. Instead, she tugged at the coat that was slipping over her shoulder and put her mind back on sailing to St. Augustine. The sooner she got there, the sooner she could rid herself of Morgan Farrell.
    He settled once more against the cabin and easily fell into his routine of staring at her. She glaredright back, but she kept her focus away from his eyes and concentrated on the wide shoulders and broad chest hidden behind the voluminous white shirt. It laced up the front, with ruffles at the wrists, and was neatly tucked into smoke gray trousers that fit snugly over thighs she could only imagine were as well muscled as the rest of him. The black leather boots were cuffed just above his knees, and she followed the length of them all the way down to his toes, then made a slow journey up again. His jaw was strong and square, and his nose, although straight and well proportioned for the rest of his face, had a slight bump at the bridge. Broken at least once in a fight, she imagined.
    His skin was tanned a swarthy bronze, and there were narrow white creases at the side of each eye, as if he’d squinted too much in the sun. Hastily she skimmed over his one azure eye that twinkled because, damn it, he knew she was studying him.
    There was little else to do when the wind refused to cooperate. And he was intriguing, after all, especially his brownish-black hair that glinted in the sunlight as it spilled over his shoulders and halfway down his back. Thick, glorious hair, the kind many women paid a fortune to possess, the kind many women had probably run their fingers through, the kind many women would probably love to have feathering their body in the midst of making love.
    Damn! Why was she thinking such thoughts?Had the incessant sun given her some type of heat stroke? Surely she was losing her mind, to find such a vile, nefarious-looking man…handsome. She’d never cared for men like him. She liked men clean cut and blond—like Joe—and despised the ones who walked around with a gold stud in their ear. And this man had hoops the size of quarters dangling from each.
    Definitely not her type. But since she wasn’t in the market for another man, it didn’t really matter. Knowing what possessed him to dress like the men who’d sailed the seas over two hundred years ago was no concern of hers, either.
    â€œYour face contorts with much confusion, madam. Is there something else you would know of me?”
    â€œI know your name….”
    Her words trailed off when she saw the unmistakable black and white stripes of the lighthouse not too far in the distance. They were almost home, thank God.
    â€œI don’t need to know anything more about you, Mr. Farrell, especially since we’ll be parting company as soon as we reach the harbor.”
    â€œPerhaps I choose to know more of you.”
    â€œLook. I gave you a ride home, and I have no intention of giving you anything else. When we get to the marina, you’re going in one direction, and Casey and I are going in the other.”
    â€œI beg to differ with you, madam—”
    â€œKate,” she interrupted. “My name’s Kate, not madam, and you can disagree all you want, but Iwant no further association with you.”
    â€œI will see you home,” he said adamantly. “A woman—especially one dressed in only a corset—has no business walking on the streets alone.”
    Kate frowned at his words. Corset? What was he talking about? “This is a swimsuit , Mr. Farrell, and no one will look twice at me when I walk home.”
    â€œThen they are fools. I would look more than twice—