Read Online The Fall of Maggie Brown by Anne Stuart - Free Book Online Page B

pillow.
    “And I need a shave. We’ll both have to do without. You nearly blew it last night, but I’m too noble to abandon you as you deserve. Up and at ‘em, Magnolia.”
    “Don’t call me that.” She rolled over on her back to glare at him. Big mistake. He was shirtless, sleepy-looking, unshaven and oddly, unsettlingly tempting. She couldn’t still be drunk, could she? Not on one beer.
    “Out of bed, Maggie, or I’ll drag you out myself. I want to see if you’re wearing that tiger-striped outfit again.”
    “It was leopard. And I threw it out.”
    “Tell me you’re lying, angel! That outfit’s gonna haunt my dreams.”
    All right, so he wasn’t going to go away. She sat up. “We’re heading west.” It wasn’t a question.
    And he wasn’t about to argue. “We’re heading west,” he said, clearly resigned. “But it won’t be my fault if we end up on a wild-goose chase. Salazar’s the last man to trust—he’s head of the San Pablo crime world. He doesn’t do anything unless there’s something in it for him.”
    “Who better to get information from?” He wasn’t going to move, Maggie decided, and she was foolish to hesitate. After all she was wearing boxers and a T-shirt—more than enough to cover anything of interest to him. Ignoring him, she threw back the covers and got out of bed.
    “Maybe the man you hired to be your guide?” Frazer countered. He was looking at her, letting his eyes run over her as she stood there.
    “Maybe I’m having second thoughts.”
    He didn’t move. “Say the word, sugar. I’ve got better things to do than haul your ass around San Pablo while you bitch at me. Yes or no, Magnolia Brown.”
    He was standing too close to her in the dark, hot room, though in fact he hadn’t moved. There was no reason to think he was asking for anything more than her trust. No reason to think she was committing to anything more.
    But she was. And it frightened her. All she had to do was tell him no, ask Elena to find her a taxi to the airport and she’d be back in the U.S. by nightfall. For all she knew Delia had gone from bad to worse, and she needed at least one of her children with her at the end. Even though she almost certainly would have preferred it to be Stella, her flighty soul mate, and not the dull, dutiful daughter.
    Leave, her mind told her. Get the hell out of this country, away from this man. This man who, oh my God, kissed her last night, she remembered suddenly. No sweet little kiss, either—it had been a scorcher.
    It must have been sheer surprise and instinct that had made her kiss him back. That and the effect of the beer.
    No, she couldn’t blame the beer for that. It had been his mouth. His undeniably luscious mouth.
    “So what is it? Yes or no?”
    It took her a moment to gather her distracted thoughts. She took a step back, away from him, and the smothering heat of the room vanished, leaving her chilled. No, she thought. No way, not ever.
    “Yes,” she said.
    He was completely unimpressed. “Then get your butt in gear. I’ll be in the Jeep.”
    The door slammed shut behind him. “ ‘I’ll be in the Jeep,’ “ she muttered in a sarcastic tone. “What the hell am I, your faithful dog?”
    She started after him, almost falling over the bedding on the floor. He’d dragged a mattress in to sleep on, and she hadn’t even heard him. What if he’d been Salazar?
    Not that she believed for one moment that she had anything to fear from that sweet old man. Frazer was just trying to scare her.
    Still, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. And she had little doubt that Ben Frazer was a devil indeed.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    I T WAS A FULL HALF HOUR later when Maggie sauntered out to the alleyway behind the old inn. She’d found a lukewarm shower but no such thing as a hair dryer, and while it was still wet her hair lay flat and docile. Five minutes in the Jeep and she was going to look like a gorgon. Not that it mattered. Her only hope was