Affair of Honor by Stephanie James Read Free Book Online

ignoring all of them now. He sauntered to the railing and stood leaning on it, his eyes on a boat that was roaring across the lake trailing two water skiers. She had the distinct impression that he wanted to get the next few minutes over with in a hurry.
    “He saved our son.”
    Brenna’s gaze swung back to Adam’s faintly smiling features. “Oh,” she blurted out.
    Surprisingly it was Ryder who spoke next, his voice distant and remote. “Brenna doesn’t approve of this sort of thing. I think that’s enough for now, Adam.” He kept his gaze on the lake.
    “But, Ryder, that’s ridiculous! How could I not approve of your saving a boy’s life?” She turned back to Adam Gardner. “What happened?”
    Adam seemed torn between wanting to answer her and his obligation to respect Ryder’s wishes. It was Sue who resolved the matter.
    “He led a small group of hand-picked mercenaries in an assault on a prison in South America where Evan was being held on drug charges. The regime in power at the time was not at all sympathetic to U.S. citizens, and we were told we would probably never see our son again once he disappeared inside that prison,” Sue Gardner explained quietly. “Ryder got him out and brought him home.”
    The margarita in Brenna’s fingers sloshed precariously as she absorbed the full implications of the story. “Oh, my God!” Her attention went to the silent man at the rail. “You make a living doing things like that?” she breathed.
    He swung around and caught her bemused expression. “I make a living writing books,” he stated with a trace of challenge. He swirled the margarita in his glass and took a man-sized swallow.
    “Books that relate your own exploits?” she persisted, shocked at what had been revealed about him. Somehow she had thought the violent side of him was safely confined to his adventure fiction. Now she knew it existed in real life, too.
    “Brenna, he was doing us an incredible favor,” Adam Gardner put in deliberately, sensing the tension in her reaction. “He’s not exactly a paid mercenary.”
    And suddenly Ryder was grinning, that wide, slashing, wicked grin that had such a strange effect on Brenna. This time there was a fierce challenge in it as his eyes met hers. “Not exactly,” he agreed very distinctly, swallowing the remainder of his margarita. “Not anymore. Now I am a writer of sleazy men’s fiction. Period. Let’s eat.”

Chapter 3
    “I ’ll have to admit you recovered very nicely and maintained your end of the social repartee for the remainder of the evening,” Ryder told Brenna much later that night as he helped her back into the front seat of the red Ferrari. “But I imagine you’re just about to burst, so why don’t you go ahead and get it over with?”
    Brenna slanted him an assessing glance as he slid into the seat beside her. She was aware of the challenge in him. It had been radiating from him ever since the full truth about his rather violent past had come out. He was virtually daring her to hold it against him. For some reason, perhaps because of several margaritas and a swing in her mood toward objectivity, she found that amusing and a little touching.
    “You think I’m going to chew you out because you saved some kid’s neck?”
    There was a small hesitation. “He wasn’t guilty, you know,” Ryder finally said in an even, almost conversational tone. He watched the winding road with care, seemingly totally occupied with his steering. “He got involved with some people who used him. Set out to see the world and escape from his parents’ lifestyle and got more than he bargained for. You’d like him now. He’s a stockbroker!”
    Brenna smiled. “Thank God Craig never decided to defy all authority and see the world!”
    “You must have handled him well.”
    “The only thing that’s worrying me is that he’s not particularly happy at the university.” Brenna sighed. “But I think I’ve convinced him to finish now that he’s