Bad to the Bone by Debra Dixon Read Free Book Online

the way it would have a lesser man. By design or happenstance, he’d picked one of the few spots not completely illuminated by floodlights. Jessica didn’t think Sullivan Kincaid did much of anything by accident. He struck her as the deliberate type.
    Holding her arms out from her sides and in her best Texas belle drawl, she tried to deflect the question with teasing. “Now what would I have to hide?”
    “Darlin’, everybody’s got something to hide.”
    “Except you, of course,” she noted sourly, letting her hands fall to her hips.
    “No, I imagine I have more to hide than most.”
    Sully wanted the words back as soon as they left his mouth. He hadn’t meant to be honest, and certainly not with this woman, one he hardly knew and suspected of … something. The lighting was too uncertain to trust the surprising flicker of understandingin her eyes at his confession. Then the cool, familiar mask descended, and she laughed.
    “Do women actually fall for that line?”
    “Line?”
    “When you pretend to be the dark, wounded man who suffers in private torment while looking for a soul mate who can understand him?”
    “Oh that line. Yeah, it works most of the time,” he lied. In point of fact, Sully didn’t know whether it worked or not. He’d never tried it. “And for future reference, just what kind of line would you have fallen for?”
    “Oh, I don’t fall.” Her answer was quick, her tone final.
    “Then I guess my only hope is to trip you up.”
    At his throwaway quip, he thought he saw fear steal into her expression, and that pulse of suspicion began to throb in his gut again. The lady was scared of him. The only question was why? What was she hiding?
    She recovered quickly, pursing her lips as she considered him. She toyed with the neckline of her silk shirt and finally met his gaze. She could have given the night lessons on sultry.
    “Trip me up? You can try, but the only thing you’re going to put to bed around here is this ridiculous
case
. So you drop by anytime you feel like it, Sully. I look forward to seeing you fail.”
    He wasn’t fooled by her sudden willingness to play sexpot; she obviously intended to offer herself as a challenge to take his mind off of Phil Munro. To make the game interesting he gave her some advice. “Instead of looking forward, you better be looking behind you. I don’t generally play by the rules.”
    “What a coincidence. Neither do I. Good night, Detective.”
    “Aww … we’re suddenly back to ‘detective.’ How’d that happen? We were doing so well.”
    “My good sense returned,” she explained as she walked away.
    He couldn’t help but laugh. “Good night,
Miss Daniels
. You have Munro call me.”
    “As soon as I hear from him.”
    “The sooner the better,” he yelled at her retreating back.
    She slipped in the door without a backward glance. Left in the dark Sully realized the sway of that woman’s walk was going to haunt his thoughts for the better part of the night. Just as she intended. She was dark and mysterious—an enigma. No, a chameleon would be a better description—cool one minute, shy the next, and a flirt challenging him the moment after that. With no rhyme or reason to explain the transitions.
    Inconsistency intrigued him as much as coincidence irritated him. And, at the moment, she was the
only
intriguing game on an island that thrived on peace and quiet and dull routine.
    Sully shook his head and started the long walk down the drive to his car. He stopped only long enough to look through the window of her rental car. As he hoped, her customer info packet had been tossed carelessly on the dashboard.
    Checking to make sure no one watched, Sully leaned over the windshield until he could read the upside-down company name printed in bold logo-type letters on the folder. Good. A nice national company with rules and lots of forms filled out in triplicate.
    The rental agency ought to have enough information to point him in the right