Crossing the Line (The Baltimore Banners Book 1) by Lisa B. Kamps Read Free Book Online Page B

paint my article." She looked at him for a few more seconds, a flash of disappointment sparking in her eyes, then turned and headed for the stairway.
         AJ paused, her bare foot resting on the bottom step, and looked back at him one more time. Alec swore her eyes were even darker now, a sense of something resembling disappointment reflected in their depths. "And Alec, could you do me a favor?" Her voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper and laced with some quiet emotion he couldn't name.
         "What?"
         "Could you please stop staring at my chest whenever I talk to you? You claim you're afraid of being treated as an object, that people see only what they want to see and that everything is superficial. But you're doing the exact same thing to me that you've accused everyone else of doing to you. I gave you credit for being better than that."

FIVE
     
         Alec stood immobilized for long moments after AJ disappeared upstairs, not quite believing her last words. Had he really been that obvious?
         He thought back over their last few encounters. Not only had he been obvious, there were times when he had been downright rude. Never once had it occurred to him that she would be bothered by his comments or his glances. She had never indicated that she even noticed, let alone was upset by it until tonight.
         No, he realized, that wasn't exactly true. Now that he thought about it, there had been times when AJ had made remarks to him, subtle or even sarcastic. But not once did he ever stop to consider...
         Calling himself a complete moron, he walked through the downstairs and turned off the lights, muttering to himself as he did so. His footsteps were heavy as he climbed the stairs, pausing briefly outside the closed door of the small guest room he had shown AJ hours earlier. Guilt went through him, quick and dull. It was the smallest of the three guest rooms in the sprawling condo. Definitely functional but nowhere near as roomy as the others. He could have at least given her one of the spare rooms that had its own bath so she could have some privacy.
         Alec shook his head and continued down the hall to his own room, his thoughts still turning inward. Was he really as shallow and callous as that? Was he really that inconsiderate?
         He ripped the shirt over his head and tossed it toward the clothes hamper on his way to the bathroom. Turning the faucet as cold as it would it go, he leaned over the sink and splashed water over his face, shivering slightly as it dripped onto his chest and ran down his stomach. Alec pulled a towel from the rack and rubbed it over his face and chest.
         Tomorrow he would move her into one of the other rooms. The thought didn't do much to relieve the guilt he felt, though. For so many years he had felt the frustration of people judging him only for what they saw on the surface, or making certain assumptions based on what they saw instead of who he was. Beyond the frustration was anger that people could be so shallow, so superficial.
         The realization that he was the same, that he had been guilty of doing just that, ate at him with a sour burning. Alec splashed more water over his face to wash away the feeling, refusing to look at his reflection in the mirror.
         The dark thoughts stayed with him as he left the bathroom. He pulled back the covers on the large bed then turned off the light, pausing as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The room wasn't completely black—lights from the harbor twinkled through the French doors leading to the private balcony, and he stared at their reflection in the glass.
         AJ had accused him of hiding. He didn't agree with her. There was a difference between hiding and valuing privacy. Just because he didn't want people in his business didn't mean he was hiding. But lately, there had been this feeling of...something missing. Not emptiness, but not quite a completeness, either. Hell,