Best Man's Conquest by Michelle Celmer Read Free Book Online

you start swimming?” he asked. “I seemed to recall you hating exercise.”
    â€œI still do, but some of us have to work at it.”
    â€œAnd you’re assumin’ I don’t? Would it surprise you to learn that I go to the gym every morning before work?”
    Being surprised wasn’t the issue. She didn’t want to know about his life. It humanized him, made him seem like a regular guy. She preferred to keep him in the niche she’d carved out for him. That place in her mind where he would always be arrogant and cocky and totally unappealing.
    â€œAlthough I never did learn how to swim,” he said, which she found incredibly hard to swallow. True, she’d never actually seen him swim, but his home had been highlighted on some decorating show on cable television—or so someone had told her. From what she heard he owned a big, fancy mansion—she might have even driven past it one time, accidentally, of course—where he’d installed an Olympic-size indoor pool. He wasn’t married, didn’t have children. Why install a pool if he didn’t plan to use it?
    â€œYou should try it sometime,” she said.
    â€œAre you going golfing today?” he asked, referring to the golf outing Blake and Deidre had scheduled.
    Apparently, he didn’t remember everything about her. She did not golf.
    She was about to tell him no, she didn’t plan to go, but caught herself. There was only one thing Dillon had loved more than drinking and gambling. That was golfing. But if he knew she wasn’t going, he might very well skip it and spend the entire day harassing her.
    â€œI’m going,” she lied.
    â€œBlake said we’re meeting in the foyer at ten-fifteen.”
    That could be a problem. If she didn’t show, he would know she wasn’t going. Of course, if she was already gone by ten-fifteen, he would have no idea where to look for her. It shouldn’t be all that tough to slip away. “Well then, I should hurry back to my room and get ready.”
    â€œWear something cool,” he called after her as she rushed inside. “It’s going to be a scorcher.”
    â€œWill do!” she shot back. She could sneak out of the house by ten, and Dillon would never be the wiser. And she would have the entire day all to herself.

Five
    Is your ex harassing you? Trying to intimidate you? Take action and beat him at his own game! It’s easier than you may think.
    â€”excerpt from The Modern Woman’s Guide to Divorce (And the Joy of Staying Single)
    H e’d reduced himself to stalking.
    Dillon followed several yards behind Ivy as she browsed the merchandise lining the streets of the shopping district. He’d been following her since she snuck out of the house this morning.
    He couldn’t help thinking that he’d sunk pitifully low, but he had to keep his eye on the prize. Seeing Ivy broken and begging for forgiveness.
    The sun brought out the reddish-gold highlights in her hair, and a cool breeze blowing off the ocean ruffled the full, filmy-looking skirt she wore, playing a tantalizing game of peek-a-boo with those long, toned, milky-white legs.
    She wore a simple, pale blue tank top that settled nicely on shoulders that, on someone else, would have been too narrow and angular. But everything about her body fit just right. He wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. As she wandered down the cobblestone street, dignified and May be a touch aloof, heads turned and eyes looked on with interest.
    But he knew something they didn’t. He knew the feisty, passionate girl she hid behind that curtain of quiet grace. There were times when he missed that woman. But she had disappeared the moment they’d said I do.
    He wondered what it would take to draw her out. If she even existed any longer. Somehow he doubted it.
    It might be fun finding out though.
    Ivy picked up a bottle of something from a table, perfume May be, and