Read Online RUNAWAY by Christie Ridgway - Free Book Online Page B

with his tongue, he could suck on her tender lobe without getting a mouthful of jewelry.

    It would just be a mouthful of Izzy.
    Clearing his throat, he shifted on the step, then shifted his gaze off her pretty face. “Um…uh…” The boxes. He shook his head, trying to clear it. “Why do you have Emily storing your stuff?”
    “Oh.” She looked embarrassed again. “Would you believe I don’t have my own place?”
    He blinked at her. “What?”
    “I shamelessly take advantage of my friends, and every one of them ends up with a box or two or three of Izzy-belongings. My work means that I travel all over and I don’t have an actual home base, if you know what I mean.”
    No. He had no idea what she meant. “You don’t…you don’t have an address?”
    “I have a P.O. box, but I take care of my bills online. It seems odd to a lot of people, but it works out fine for me.”
    “What about…” He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “Television. Car. Coffemaker.”
    “I rent a car when I need one. Most hotel rooms come complete with TV and coffee service.”
    Still…”You are a rebel. Or should I say a rolling stone?”
    Izzy shrugged. “Good phrase. I use it myself. I’m definitely footloose, that’s for sure. I travel all over the country and enjoy the different sights I see and the friends I make.”
    Yeah, but for how long did she enjoy them? Shemoved from place to place and, unlike a turtle, didn’t even bother carrying her house on her back. He remembered Bryce had told him that Izzy had arrived at the condo with only a single small suitcase.
    “So you really like living like that?”
    “It’s good,” she said, sounding defensive. “It’s a good life.”
    “I guess.” If you didn’t like roots or stability or your very own Wii game system. Not to mention a place where your relatives could track you down…Okay, maybe he could see an upside.
    But he suspected Izzy couldn’t see a thing, because her gaze was back on her copy of Eight Cousins and he could detect the distinct glint of tears in her eyes again. He found himself scooting back a step, and cursing his boredom again, because coming down the stairs and seeking her out had been a mistake. What he’d seen and heard—what he’d found inside Izzy—was hitting him right where he didn’t want her anywhere near.
    His heart.

    In the master bedroom suite, Izzy took plates off the tray that Bryce had carried up the stairs and passed them to the two brothers who were sitting at places set on a card table she’d found stashed in a closet. Bryce pretended to swoon as he breathed in the smell of the lasagna that she’d made from the sauce she’d simmered two days before.

    “I love your pretty fairy wife,” he told Owen. “She’s beautiful, she cooks and she even told me I don’t have to worry about doing the dishes later.”
    “Stop flirting,” his brother answered. “And damn right you’re going to do the dishes.”
    Bryce groaned. “Me and my big mouth. Would it aid my cause if I complained about the looooong board meeting Granddad presided over today? I doodled through an entire pad of paper.”
    Izzy pulled out her chair and sank into her seat as Owen gave Bryce a considering look. “The day you waste time doodling is the day I put on ballet slippers and dance in Swan Lake. ”
    Bryce clapped his hands over his ears. “Not another word. Don’t burn that image onto my brain!”
    Owen glanced at Izzy. “Bryce can take in the details of a meeting, plan another and write up the report on a third all at the same time.”
    “Not to mention managing my fantasy baseball team,” Bryce said, around a bite of lasagna. “Oh, God, this is good, Izzy. Really, I’m so marrying you.”
    She had to smile at him. “But I’m already married.”
    Bryce’s eyes brightened. “About that…”
    “Don’t go there,” his brother warned.
    Don’t go there. But they had gone there, Izzy thought, for no less than a thousand times, and