Read Online Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux - Free Book Online Page A

left this house?”
    â€œWhat I do or do not do is none of your business. I don’t even know you.”
    â€œMaybe not, but I’m your guardian.”
    Samantha looked at him, opened her mouth to speak, closed it, opened it, closed it again. This man was insane. Guardians were something out of Gothic novels, not real life, and even in novels, guardians were not given to twenty-eight-year-old divorced women. If she could get him out of this room, she was going to pack a bag and leave this house forever.
    It was easy for Mike to see in her eyes what she was thinking, and it made him angry. She was going to listen to him if he had to tie her to the bed. Instead of tying her up—she’d no doubt take him to court for that—he picked up the tray of food and set it on her lap. “Eat,” he commanded.
    Samantha wanted to refuse, but she was too afraid of him not to obey. When she hesitated, he spread something on a piece of toast and held it in front of her mouth. He had an expression on his face that made her think he was capable of holding her nose and forcing her to eat, so Samantha reluctantly opened her mouth. It was pâté de foie gras, one of the most heavenly things she had ever tasted in her life. As she chewed, she relaxed a bit and took the second piece of toast he offered from his hand.
    â€œNow,” Mike said, “I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen.”
    â€œDo I have a choice?” She was on her third piece of toast. Maybe she was a bit hungry after all.
    â€œNo. No choice at all. You’re not very good at listening, are you? You obviously didn’t listen to your attorney when he told you to read your father’s will.”
    â€œI am an excellent listener and I meant to read it.” He was spreading pâté on warm toast nearly as fast as she could eat it.
    â€œLike you meant to take a bath?” He wanted to insult her and make himself believe that she wasn’t the sexiest female he’d ever seen. But even when she should have been so unappealing, he had several thoughts about what he’d like to do to her delicious—perhaps that wasn’t the right word just now—little body. If she could read his mind, she really would be afraid. He’d like to see that tongue of hers on something besides the piece of pâté that had fallen to her wrist.
    â€œIf you don’t want to be around me, you could always leave. You have my permission,” she said. Now that she was fully awake, now that her fear of him was lessening, she was looking at him. He had on a soft, dark brown cotton shirt and jeans, and he should have looked respectable, but she could see the outline of his chest muscles under the shirt. While he was slathering pâté on bread and handing pieces to her, he was eating just as much as she was, and when he chewed, his lower lip—that beautiful full lower lip—moved. She looked away.
    â€œI’m not going to leave until you’ve heard everything. When were you planning to start looking for your grandmother?”
    That startled Samantha into looking back at him. How did he know about that? “I am an adult and I—”
    Mike grunted. “That’s what I thought. You had no intention of looking for her, did you?”
    â€œIt’s not any of your business, is it?”
    â€œIt’s entirely my business. Did it ever occur to you to wonder who was to check your research? Who was to approve what you’d done and say you’d done enough searching so you’d get the money your father left you?”
    Samantha paused with a piece of toast on the way to her mouth and stared at him. No, not one of those questions had entered her mind.
    Knowing he had at last piqued her interest, Mike got up, went to the wine safe and took out a cool bottle of white wine. He knew there were several bottles of wine in there because he had put them there in preparation for