Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online

eighteen years old and had made love to women only in his dreams. Tonight his dreams were only of Desiree.
    And he was mad.

Chapter 3
    S O WHERE ARE YOU going?”
    Because Ed had won the toss, he was behind the wheel. He and his partner, Ben Paris, had just spent the better part of the day in court. It wasn’t enough to catch the bad guys, you had to spend hours testifying against them.
    “What?”
    “I said where are you going?” Ben had an oversize bag of M&M’s and was eating steadily. “With the writer.”
    “I don’t know.” He downshifted at a stop sign, hesitated, then cleared the intersection.
    “You didn’t come to a complete stop.” Ben crunched into the candy. “The deal was if you drove you’d obey all traffic signals.”
    “Nobody was coming. Do you think I should wear a tie?”
    “How do I know if you don’t know where you’re going? Besides, you look ridiculous in a tie. Like a bull with a bell around his neck.”
    “Thanks, partner.”
    “Ed, the light’s changing. The light—shit.” He tossedthe candy into his pocket as Ed cruised through. “So, how long’s the famous novelist going to be in town?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you don’t know? You talked to her, didn’t you?”
    “I didn’t ask. I didn’t figure it was my business.”
    “Women like you to ask.” Ben worked the imaginary brake with his foot as Ed squealed around a corner. “She writes good stuff. Got some grit to it. I guess you remember I was the one who turned you on to her books.”
    “You want me to name the first kid after you?”
    With a chuckle Ben punched in the car lighter. “So does she look like the picture on the book, or what?”
    “Better.” Ed grinned but rolled down the window as Ben lit a cigarette. “She’s got big gray eyes. And she smiles a lot. Got a great smile.”
    “Doesn’t take you long to get hip-deep, does it?”
    Ed shifted uncomfortably and kept his eyes on the road. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “I’ve seen it happen before.” Ben relaxed his brake foot as Ed dropped behind a slow-moving sedan. “Some little number with big eyes and a great smile flutters her lashes and you’re gone. You’ve got no resistance when it comes to women, pal.”
    “Studies show that men married less than six months develop an annoying tendency to give advice.”
    “Redbook?”
    “
Cosmopolitan.”
    “I bet. Anyway, when I’m right, I’m right.” The only person he knew better than himself was Ed Jackson. Ben would have been the first to admit he didn’t even know his wife as intimately. He didn’t need a magnifying glass to recognize the first stages of infatuation. “Why don’t you bring her over for a drink or something? Tess and I can check her out.”
    “I’ll do my own checking, thanks.”
    “Back up, partner. You know, now that I’m a married man, I take a very objective view of women.”
    Ed grinned through his beard. “Bullshit.”
    “Truth, absolute truth.” Ben swung an arm over the back of the seat. “Tell you what, I can call Tess and we can arrange to go with you tonight. Just to protect you from yourself.”
    “Thanks, but I want to try to struggle through this on my own.”
    “Have you told her you only eat nuts and berries?”
    Ed gave him a mild look as he took the next turn.
    “It might influence the choice of restaurant.” Ben flipped his cigarette out the window, but his grin faded when Ed pulled into a parking lot. “Oh no, not the hardware store. Not again.”
    “I need to pick up some hinges.”
    “Sure, that’s what you always say. You’ve been a pain in the ass since you bought that house, Jackson.”
    As they got out of the car, Ed flipped him a quarter. “Go across to the 7-Eleven and get a cup of coffee. I won’t be long.”
    “You got ten minutes. It’s bad enough I have to spend the morning in court having to outmaneuver Torcelli’s P.D., but now I have to put up with Harry Homeowner.”
    “You told