Read Online The Art of Seduction by Katherine O'Neal - Free Book Online Page B

one, then.”
    She watched the coach lurch away, an antiquated fantasy from another age, like the carriage that had taken Cinderella to the ball. Hugging herself, she marveled at what had just transpired. It had all happened in a fever. She felt both shattered and exhilarated.
    She’d come to Paris to live the life of a Bohemian, wanting to savor all that life had to offer so she could capture it in paint. But in many ways, that life had been a fraud. Because she’d never really felt the passion she’d been after. None of her earlier explorations had seemed real.
    But this was real. She didn’t know this man, didn’t know anything about him. But the communion she’d felt with him was more meaningful, more fulfilling than any she’d ever known.
    She was already dying to see him again. But a walk through Mason’s world…It complicated things immensely.
    Because she wasn’t who he thought she was.
    And she was already beginning to wish he knew the truth.

Chapter 5
    G arrett bolted up in bed, his heart racing, his body burnished with sweat. He was surrounded by darkness, so silent that all he heard was the sound of his own ragged breath. What was happening?
    The nightmare.
    Quickly, he turned on the lamp. Fumbling, he reached for the book of color reproductions he kept at his bedside and opened it. The page he’d turned to featured a Chardin still life: a silver goblet, a bowl and spoon, three pieces of fruit on a tabletop. He forced his mind to sink into the tranquil picture, and it calmed him.
    They were the curse of his existence, these nightmares. He’d had them every week or two since he was a boy, and though they’d varied in detail, they were basically the same. Trapped in apocalyptic darkness, desperate to escape, surrounded by unseen terrors, reaching out for him, pulling him back. In the distance, a dim blue light—so radiant, so pure—that he knew it was his salvation from this pit. But the harder he tried to get to it, the faster it receded from him, until he was struggling with all his might, the light vanished completely, and he was engulfed by the unspeakable. Then he jolted awake.
    When he did, he felt as terrified as he had in the dream. Until he could turn on the light and find a piece of art to look at. To soothe him, to bring him back to reality.
    He tossed back the sheet, threw his legs over the side, and rose naked from the bed. Stepping over to the dresser, he took the pitcher of water in hand, holding it high, letting it pour down like rain over his head. It cooled his throbbing head and washed away the last remnants of the dream, trickling down over every tight muscle of his body. With his hands, he plastered back his wet hair, then rubbed the water over the sinews of his chest, his fingers ruffling the thick damp hair. Then he went back to the bed and sprawled upon it, his naked body still taut from the stress of the dream, letting the world settle itself around him.
    Gradually, it came back to him. Paris. The Grand Hotel. The gold suite. And, finally, the extraordinary day he’d just experienced. Just when he thought he’d seen it all and the rest of his life was going to be routine, a day like this one came along.
    He’d been asked to come here to have a look at the Caldwell paintings and the phenomenon that was building around them. Frankly, he hadn’t expected much, so it had all taken him by surprise.
    He still wasn’t sure what to make of it. But as he lay there, reliving the experience, he was even more sure that, buried in this phenomenon, was an enormous opportunity for him.
    Then he thought of the woman and felt himself stir once again. She, too, had taken him by surprise. Christ Almighty! He’d just intended to lay on a little charm. But the situation had exploded into one of the most intense carnal experiences of his life. Something about her brought out the beast in him, stirring feelings he couldn’t