A Highlander for Christmas by Debbie Macomber, Christina Skye Read Free Book Online Page B

business, purely business, no matter what odd fantasies were stealing into his mind.
    Again color flared in her face, this time washing all the way to her chest. Jared’s body answered with another savage kick of desire.
    She took a step back. “I’m sorry about the necklace.”
    “Don’t be. It’s probably beyond my price anyway. I can only envy those pearls.”
    “Envy?” She looked confused.
    He stared at the shadowed area between her breasts where the pearls lay cradled by warm, silken skin.
    Her breath caught. The pearls rose and fell sharply with the sudden movement of her chest. The air between them seemed heavy, full of unformed questions and unspoken possibilities.
    “I’d better go.” She didn’t move.
    “That’s probably a good idea.” He continued to stare at her.
    “Maggie, is anything wrong?” A woman’s head appeared at the curtain, eyes narrowed with interest.
    “Just another reporter, Chessa. He’s gone now.” She looked at Jared. “Thank you again for your help.”
    He gave a shrug that could have meant anything or nothing at all.
    “Karen will finish with your gifts.”
    “Of course.” Jared managed to make his voice flat and impersonal. Purely business, he told himself. Or it should have been.
    But he didn’t turn away until the curtain blocked his last sight of her. Even then her subtle perfume continued to tease his senses, an unusual blend of cinnamon and roses that was as complex as the woman who wore it.
    Jared realized his breath was coming fast, and his body was a hell of a lot tighter than when he’d walked in. Maybe it was the intimacy of the small room, filled with frothy lingerie meant to inflame a man’s imagination. But Jared knew that wasn’t the real answer. His reaction was to Maggie Kincade. Because of the vulnerability he had seen in her eyes and the passion he had sensed in the restless colors of her keen mind.
    He studied the room, trying to focus in the wake of her departure. Stop dreaming and work, he told himself tensely. Nicholas had every right to want answers before he extended an invitation, and Jared was determined to get them. From what he had seen so far, Maggie Kincade had no hidden contact with her father or anyone who might have been an associate of his. Nor was she consorting with criminals and living a life of splendor on ill-gotten gains.
    He ran down a mental list of the jewels that Daniel Kincade was suspected of stealing. There had been no black pearls among them. None of what she had been selling.
    Of course, this could all be part of a cold, detailed plan. She could be biding her time until the attention died, but Jared didn’t think so. The woman who’d stood frozen and speechless in the glare of a photographer’s flash had been stunned and anything but ruthless.
    After today’s sale, she could count herself a very wealthy woman. She had every reason to shun publicity. Maybe Nicholas’s offer wouldn’t interest her at all.
    There was only one way to find out.
    ~ ~ ~
    The Cantonese restaurant was packed, every seat jammed with students, tourists, and regular lunchtime visitors. Maggie ignored the growl of her stomach as she slid into a spot beside Chessa. “How much?”
    Chessa gave her a radiant smile. “Nine hundred seventeen,” she intoned. “Thousand,” she added.
    Maggie stared at her hands, outstretched on the table. “ I can’t believe it. That much in just two hours?” She took a ragged breath, her nerves tight. Purely the aftereffects of the sale, she thought. It had nothing at all to do with the man she had met in the shop that morning. There was no earthly reason why she should keep remembering his slow smile and the play of his fingers on her neck. And it had to be her imagination that his hand had been moving toward her cheek. After all, there was no possible chance she’d ever see him again.
    He had left with his purchases and that was that. Probably married anyway, Maggie thought.
    She finally managed to