Cordinas Crown Jewel by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

kitchen, rooting around in the pantry.
    He saw that the floor had been washed. He had no idea it had any shine left in it, but she’d managed to draw it out. There were wildflowers stuck in a tumbler on the kitchen table.
    She had opened the kitchen window, the door to the mudroom and the door beyond that so the fresh and balmy air circled through.
    She stepped back, a small can of mushrooms in her hand—and muffled a short scream when she saw him behind her.
    He hadn’t clomped this time. He was barefoot and bare-chested, clad only in a ragged pair of sweatpants and his sling.
    His shoulders were broad, and his skin—apparently all of it—was tanned a dusky gold. The sweatpants hung loose over narrow hips, revealing a hard, defined abdomen. There were fascinating ropy muscles on his uninjured arm.
    She felt the instinctive female approval purr through her an instant before she saw the sunburst of bruises over his right rib cage.
    “My God.” She wanted to touch, to soothe, and barely stopped herself. “That must be very painful.”
    “It’s not so bad. What’re you doing?”
    “Planning breakfast. I’ve been up a couple of hours, so I’m ready for it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I’m hungry.”
    “No.” He turned away to find a mug. If he didn’t have caffeine immediately, he was going to disintegrate. “Why have you been up a couple of hours?”
    “Habit.”
    She knew most people’s fantasies of a princess, and the reality of the life were dramatically different. In official mode, it was rare for her to sleep beyond 6:00 a.m. Not that Delaney Caine knew she had an official mode.
    “Bad habit,” he muttered and strode back to the coffeepot.
    She got her own mug and went back with him. “I took a walk earlier,” she began. “It’s a gorgeous day and a beautiful spot. The forest is lovely, simply lovely. And there’s a pond. I saw deer watering, and there’s foxglove and wild columbine in bloom. It answered the question for me why anyone would live here. Now I wonder how you can bear to leave it.”
    “It’s still here whenever I get back.” He drank the first mug of coffee the way a man wandering in the desert drank water. Then closing his eyes, he breathed again. “Thank you, God.”
    “The power’s still out. We have three eggs—which we’ll have scrambled with cheese and mushrooms.”
    “Whatever. I’ve got to wash up.” He picked up his travel kit again, then just stopped and stared at her.
    “What is it?”
    Del shook his head. “You’ve got some looks, sister. Some looks,” he repeated with a mutter and strode out.
    It hadn’t sounded like a compliment, she thought. Regardless her stomach fluttered, and kept fluttering when she went back to the kitchen to mix the eggs.
    *  *  *
    He ate the eggs with a single-mindedness that made her wonder why she’d worried about flavor.
    The fact was, he was in serious heaven eating something he hadn’t thrown together himself. Something that actually tasted like food. Happy enough that he didn’t mention he’d noticed that his papers in the living room had been shuffled into tidy piles.
    She earned extra points by not chattering at him. He hated having someone yammering away before he’d gotten started on the day.
    If her looks hadn’t been such a distraction he might have offered her a temporary job cleaning the cabin, cooking a few meals. But when a woman looked like that—and managed to sneak into your dreams only hours after you’d laid eyes on her—she was trouble.
    The sooner she was out and gone, the better all around.
    As if she’d read his mind, she got to her feet and began to clear the table. She spoke for the first time since they’d sat down.
    “I know I’ve been an inconvenience, and I appreciate your help and hospitality, but I’ll need to ask another favor, I’m afraid. Could you possibly drive me to the nearest phone, or town or garage? Whichever is simpler for you.”
    He glanced up. Camilla, whatever the