Read Online Too Wilde to Tame by Janelle Denison - Free Book Online Page B

with his partner, Steve, to discuss the week's agenda and divide up the new investigative cases that needed to be handled. They were retained by quite a few large corporations, so there were more than a dozen background checks and evaluations to perform on new employees. A new law firm had hired them to locate and interview a key witness for one of their cases, and a woman had contracted them to help her find out who had committed identity theft against her because the police weren't getting anywhere with the complaint she'd filed.
     
    There were deadbeat dads to locate, a sexual harassment claim to investigate, domestic cases to sort through, four new requests to find a long-lost friend or loved one, and surveillance to set up on a forty-eight-year-old construction worker who'd filed an insurance claim for a back injury but apparently wasn't disabled at all.
     
    As always, the cases seemed endless, and halfway through the meeting, as Cameron was reading through a file on a skip trace, his thoughts drifted and eventually images of Mia filled his mind. No big surprise there. He hadn't been able to get her out of his head since Friday night, and in fact, he had spent the entire weekend dissecting Mia's dual personalities—the shameless, brazen spitfire he'd believed she was, and the uncertain, contradictory woman he'd glimpsed in an unguarded moment after their fast, heated encounter.
     
    He'd made a career of analyzing people and their actions. After spending too many hours reflecting on Mia's behavior, he'd come to the conclusion that there was so much more to her than he'd originally assumed and what she obviously wanted him and everyone else to believe—because he'd been privy to the emotional depth she tried to hide beneath her scandalous attitude and impetuous personality. He'd seen a vulnerability he never thought her capable of because of the strong, rebellious facade she wore around her like an impenetrable cloak.
     
    It was all an act, he'd come to realize, and a damn good one at that because he'd fallen for it—hook, line, and sinker. And obviously, so had every one else, her brothers and cousins included. They all accepted her as the Wilde child of the family, and her reckless and outrageous conduct had become an expected thing—whether they approved of her antics or not.
     
    But there was one question that kept tumbling through Cameron's mind, one he didn't have an answer for but had kept him up the past two nights trying to figure out. Who was the real Mia, and what kind of emotional secrets were lurking behind that come-hither smile and those smart-ass remarks she tossed his way to keep him at a distance.
     
    And why the hell did he even care?
     
    Shit. He was so in over his head where Mia was concerned, like a drowning man with no lifesaver in sight who kept getting sucked in deeper and deeper. He'd spent what seemed like forever resisting her, sparring with her, lusting for her until it all had collided in a frenzy of demanding, carnal sex. And what Cameron had come to realize in the aftermath of that culmination had nearly sent him reeling. Somewhere along the way he'd started developing feelings for Mia. Beyond the smoldering desire and aggravation she inspired, his subconscience had taken an emotional turn, and he wasn't at all happy with that particular revelation.
     
    Their attraction was. no longer a teasing, seductive game between them they were both skirting. They'd leapt over personal and intimate boundaries that never, ever should have been crossed. He wasn't the type of guy who sought out one-night stands, and he hated that his time with Mia had been reduced to something so cheap. But there was no future for the two of them together, and they both knew it.
     
    He'd be crazy to get mixed up with her beyond their one night together. They couldn't be more opposite—he colored inside the lines, and Mia did not. She bucked convention, and he was a man who lived by the rules. And she was