Read Online The Bride Tamer by Ann Major - Free Book Online Page B

about her had gotten apowerful grip on his imagination. Just the thought of her was enough to make his body throb.
    Again, as if Isabela sensed something amiss she got up and padded toward him. When he didn’t take her into his arms, she twined her arms around his neck and pulled him close.
    Strangely, the heat of her half-naked breasts pressed into his chest just made him feel uncomfortably sweaty. Then she kissed him, and her kiss was as practiced and perfect as any man could wish for. Her lips clung, her long fingernails caressed his nape.
    He sighed heavily. The urge to escape intensified. Last night when she’d kissed him after they’d danced under Vivian’s balcony, he’d felt a little sick. The music had seemed too loud, the wine too strong, his jet lag too wearying. All those damn candles had begun to blur…and her hands, all over him, had made him dizzy.
    Funny, he’d liked her enthusiasm in Mexico City.
    â€œYou smell good,” he whispered, his voice cool as he let his arms fall away. “I’m starved,” he said, backing away from her. “I can’t wait to see the beach house. Marco designed it too?”
    â€œYes.” With a little frown, she held up her hand and signaled a maid. “I saw you with Miguelito, mi precioso —at the pool.”
    â€œYour nephew, right?” He sat down, thankful to have a table between them.
    â€œVivian’s little emperor,” she said.
    â€œWhere is she, by the way, your Vivian?”
    â€œI—I’m afraid she can’t make it down to breakfast.” Isabela frowned.
    Faking indifference, he leaned back in the chair, his long legs sprawling beneath the table. His heart actually ached.
    â€œDon’t be hurt.” Isabela sat down opposite him. “Vivian can be, well, I hate to say this about someone I love so much…but exasperating and unpredictable.”
    That was easy to believe.
    â€œShe does her own thing, if you know what I mean.”
    Like popping into my room naked?
    â€œWhen she isn’t teaching, she works in a Mayan village, helping the women,” Isabela continued.
    â€œHow?”
    â€œShe teaches them crafts—so they can be independent.” She sighed. “I think the men in the village wish she’d go away and stay away. She’s giving the women ideas.”
    Cash stared at Vivian’s empty chair at the table and felt increasingly gloomy that she was avoiding him. “You said Vivian was from New Orleans.”
    â€œShe was an archaeology student. Very intense until she fell so madly in love with Julio. You should have seen them. They were on fire for each other.”
    Cash shook his head, not liking the image her words conveyed. “You said she was very artistic too.”
    â€œThat’s why she went downtown to the market.”
    â€œDowntown?”
    â€œShe had to help this Mayan artisan arrange his straw products. Like I said, she works in the villages a lot. When I reminded her she’d promised to meet you, she ran out the door.”
    â€œShe ran?” He hoped Isabela missed the appalling rasp in his voice.
    â€œIt isn’t you. The divorce changed her. She hasn’t liked men much—or the idea of marriage—since Julio. She’s even been strange about you. The first time I showed her pictures of you, she said such odd things.”
    A weird pain mushroomed in Cash’s heart. “You said Julio cheated on her?”
    â€œMen will be men. At least in Mexico. She’s too sensitive. But then her parents died when she was very young. Afterward she went to live with an uncle nobody approved of and a friend of his, a dancer I believe. From what I gather it was an…unconventional household—perhaps not entirely appropriate for a young girl. Still, she loved her uncle very much, and she took his death hard too.”
    Cash’s heart softened toward the young orphaned girl.
    â€œHer parents