Read Online Sinful Attraction by Ann Christopher - Free Book Online

and had no idea when she’d be free anytime soon.
    That being the case, she put a muzzle on her snarling temper and decided to figure it out now.
    “I’m so sorry,” she said to the driver. “Could you please pull over for just a tiny moment? I need to talk to my brother.”
    “No worries.”
    The driver eased to the side of the road. Claudia got out, slammed the door and stalked away, hoping that with the car’s windows up, she would be well out of earshot. The last thing she needed was the driver reporting back to Judah Cross that she was a nut job who screamed at her brother over the phone.
    “Hello?” Charles snapped. “Are you there?”
    “I’m here,” she said, weary and annoyed.
    “Well, perhaps you could say something. I’m in need of some direction in my life.”
    “Fancy that. And what, pray tell, would you like to study, Charles? Now that you’re well into your fifth year of an undergraduate program, and we’ve determined, to the tune of several thousand pounds of my money, I might add, that you’re not cut out for degrees in anthropology, French, finance or marketing?”
    “I don’t know. That’s why I’m taking a break from school. I need to figure out what my life’s about.”
    This sort of existential mumbo jumbo from Charles exhausted her no end. “What the bloody hell does that mean? Your life is about the same thing everyone else’s life is about. You grow up, get a degree, get a job and become a contributing member of society rather than a leech. Simple. Where’s the complication? What’s so tricky about your poor, privileged life?”
    “You know what?” Charles’s veneer of civility was gone now, leaving only the low snarl she was so accustomed to. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Perfect Princess—”
    “Don’t call me that!”
    “—because what have you ever had to struggle for? Everything you touch turns to spun gold in your manicured hands, doesn’t it?”
    Outrage made her want to lunge through the phone and throttle him, but now wasn’t the time, and he wasn’t going to throw her off her game today. Not when her career was at stake.
    “Look, Charles,” she said, taking care to keep her voice even and nonjudgmental. “This isn’t a good time for me to talk, all right? I need to focus on landing this auction and launching my career here in New York—”
    “Right,” he said bitterly. “It’s always about you and your precious career, isn’t it? I can’t eke out one second in your busy, busy life, can I?”
    Her frustration rose until she thought she might gag on it. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you. If you’re not going to school now, then you need a job. Simple as that. So what’s your plan?”
    A pause followed, during which she heard the distant clink of ice and Charles’s audible swallow. The sounds opened up a whole new world of dreadful possibilities.
    “Charles?” She pressed a hand to her pounding heart and tried to get it under control. “You’re not drinking again, are you?”
    “And there it is. Didn’t take long for that accusation to fly again, did it?”
    His tone had taken a sharp turn into ugly, which only scared her more. This was the problem—one of the many problems, actually—with dealing with a heavy drinker: you spent a lot of time trying to trust, trying not to be suspicious, trying to watch for signs, but not being too accusatory when you thought you saw a sign, and then, ultimately, becoming convinced that it was you who was the problem—you who tiptoed along the edge of sanity. Not them.
    “Just answer the question, Charles,” she snapped. “Are you?”
    “Yes!” he roared.
    Her hand flew to her throat. “Oh, God—”
    “I’m drinking a glass of ice water, okay? Is that okay? Or is that not legal in the Perfect Princess’s world?”
    Her relief, although tinged with a hint of lingering disbelief, was such that she could ignore his renewed use of the nickname.
    “Okay, then.” She took a