Marriage in Name Only?

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Book: Marriage in Name Only? by Anne Oliver Read Free Book Online
Authors: Anne Oliver
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
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light’s reflection.
    Ah … ‘Mmm-hmm.’ She cleared the sigh from her throat and admitted, ‘That’s a kiss all right …’ Pressing her tingling lips together, she kept her back propped against the wall, still captive beneath his gaze. ‘I just need to …’
breathe
. ‘I need time. To think.’ If she still had any brain cells left intact, that was.
    ‘Think fast, then. We’re booked on the evening flight out tomorrow night. It’s non-stop, which gives us roughly forty hours before we arrive in Dubai.’
    ‘What?’ She felt some of her precious independence trickle away. ‘You booked before I agreed,’ she shot at him.
    ‘I was—’
    ‘Confident,’ she snapped. ‘Yes, I get that.’
    He nodded, his eyes smiling. ‘It pays to think positive.’
    She glared. ‘You even asked if I had prior commitments. You had no intention of letting me honour them, did you?’
    No response. Conversation over. His body heat mingled with musky male scent and suddenly he was too close, the space between them too confining, and she shuffled to one side.
    He remained still, allowing her to step away. But she knew tigers were motionless just before they moved in for the kill. She tore her eyes free and moved as swiftly as her rubber legs allowed towards the kitchen.
    She heard Jordan’s heavy footsteps on the floorboards. His dark flavour lingered on her lips, her tongue. ‘Coffee,’ she muttered, then over her shoulder, ‘We don’t have a coffee machine. It’s instant or nothing.’
    ‘Instant’s fine,’ he said, all easy-to-please, but she couldfeel his eyes on her back and something potent and irresistible shivered down her spine. That big tabby cat tongue again.
    She slowed at the doorway to the lounge room and gestured inside without looking at him. ‘Why don’t you make yourself comfortable in there? Put the heater on if you want. I won’t be long.’
    Jordan sank onto the couch but he was hardly comfortable. With the way his body reacted to this woman, he wondered if he’d ever be comfortable again. A way too full-on, over-the-top response for a girl who wasn’t supposed to be his type.
    The last thing he needed was a gas wall furnace; what he needed was a cold shower. He tried focusing on his surroundings. A couple of mismatched armchairs, coffee table covered in a Christmas print cloth and topped with an untidy pile of magazines. Travellers’ photos on the walls; presumably her house-mates’, the flight attendants. Nothing in the room said Chloe. Maybe she’d not had time to put her mark on the place or maybe she never stopped long enough to make a place home.
    Despite her insistence that she loved her solo lifestyle, he found the thought of her alone and itinerant for so long a little sad. Her words and actions proved she also believed family was important despite how they’d treated her. He found that sad as well.
    ‘Couldn’t remember if you take sugar.’
    He turned at the sound of her voice. ‘I gave it up.’
    ‘Good for you.’ She handed him a cup, then moved to the gas heater mounted on the wall. ‘You’re not cold?’
    ‘No, but go ahead if you are. Or you could come over here.’ He patted the empty space beside him.
    ‘I think we both know that’s not a good idea.’ Her eyes swirled with more of that heated awareness but beneath it he saw a reserve, a barrier, that hadn’t been there before he’d kissed her against that wall. She stood in front of the grille,hugging her mug to her lips while the heater powered up. ‘When I mentioned “getting acquainted”, I meant everyday things we should know about each other like …’
    ‘Family,’ he said for her. ‘You can start.’
    ‘Okay,’ she said slowly. ‘I have a brother and a sister, both much older than me. Donna’s married to Jason, an accountant, and they have a teenage son. She has a degree in arts and another in classical studies but she’s been a stay-at-home mum for the past fifteen years. Caleb’s a physio

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