Read Online The Hamilton Heir by Valerie Hansen - Free Book Online Page B

her voice and tried to appeal to his softer side. “I don’t belong in that car, Tim. Look at it. It’s gorgeous.”
    “Yeah, it kind of is, isn’t it?” He eyed the cloudy sky. “Tell you what. Let’s figure out how to put the top up, for starters. Then we can cruise around the parking lot together till you get the feel of it.”
    The first thing that popped into her mind was his recent misadventure in that very lot. “I don’t think practicing anything in these narrow aisles is a very good idea. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place, remember?”
    He held up both hands, palms out, in mock surrender. “Don’t worry. I promise never to drive while juggling a cell phone again. I’ve already ordered one of those remote speaker units for my car.”
    Opening the passenger door he stepped back and said, “You might as well get in because this is your car—at least for a while.”
    She pulled a face and sighed. “You don’t intend to give up, do you?”
    “Nope. It’s not in my nature. You, of all people, should know that.”
    Resigned and a little miffed to have been placed in such an untenable position, Dawn circled the convertible, tossed her purse onto the backseat, put on her sunglasses and slid behind the wheel.
    “All right. We’ll do this your way, Mr. Hamilton. Get in, fasten your seat belt and hang on. If I’m going to drive this car, I’m really going to drive it.”
     
    To say that Tim was surprised in the next few minutes was an understatement. Dawn handled the sporty coupe as if she’d trained at a school for race drivers.
    “I could have executed a tighter turn if this car had rear-wheel drive,” she said, speaking loud enough to be heard over the roar of the engine and the air whooshing over the top rim and around the open sides of the windshield. “It handles pretty well, though.”
    Tim’s eyes were wide, his hair tousled by the air-stream. “Where did you learn to drive, Indianapolis?”
    “Close.” Grinning, she kept her eyes on the road. “Remember I told you about my brother? Phil didn’t only speed on the motorcycle he wrecked, he was getting into racing stock cars professionally atthe time he was hurt. He taught me how to handle a car at high speeds.”
    “He sure did!”
    She laughed. “Would you like to drive now?”
    “No thanks. I’m probably shaking too much for that. Drop me off at the office, will you?”
    That brought another laugh. “You can’t kid me. I know you too well to believe you’re scared.”
    “How about apprehensive?”
    “That, I can accept. Okay. Back to work for both of us. The gossips are probably already busy spreading the word about our little excursion on company time. No sense giving them more to talk about.”
    Tim nodded and sobered. “Yeah. The way that scandal sheet, the Observer, loves to dig up dirt on my family, you could find yourself pictured on page one.”
    “Nope. I haven’t broken a single law. I’m very careful about things like that. My reputation is important to me.”
    “So is ours. But that didn’t stop someone from revealing the dirt on Jeremy, no matter how much it hurt my mother. Have you seen the latest drivel? They’ve now started insinuating that Dad is hiding skeletons in our family closet, too.”
    “You mean the Media Mogul’s Love Child article? I saw it. And the Observer didn’t hesitate to print such trash. That’s what’s so cruel. I can’t imagine who would lie about your father like that, can you?”
    “No. If I knew, you’d better believe I’d put astop to it. I did talk to Richard McNeil about suing. He says if we take the Observer to court and it turns out they can prove even one of their allegations, we’ll look like fools.”
    “Surely, they can’t.”
    “I don’t want to take that chance. It might give people the idea we’re only fighting them because we print a rival newspaper. I want the Dispatch to prosper because it’s a good paper, not because we’re in