Gift of Gold by Jayne Ann Krentz Read Free Book Online

financial and accounting work. Rents had to be collected from the convent properties. Staffs had to be appointed and supervised. The nuns usually helped support themselves with some form of manual labor such as making silk thread. That required supervision and financial contracts with the outside world. And then there were the jobs of educating the young novices and cooking and cleaning. On top of everything else, the convent had a definite social and political role in the community and whoever ran the convent had to be good at public relations."

    Verity wrinkled her nose. "Sounds like my kind of work.

    So much for the fast-lane lifestyle of the professional courtesan. I would have been stuck in a veil."

    The gold in Jonas's eyes seemed very dark and burnished with mystery. His hand slid up her calf to her thigh. He hadn't appeared to move, but Verity realized he was a lot closer than he had been a few minutes ago, and the touch of his hand had somehow become intimate rather than soothing. He shifted position beneath the bubbling water, removing his leg from her lap. She went still, uncertain about what was going to happen next and even more uncertain about how to handle it when it did.

    She should definitely not allow him to kiss her, Verity told herself. Bad policy between employer and employee. Very bad.

    "Don't be so quick to decide what kind of woman you would have been if you'd lived during the Renaissance. And don't be so certain you know what kind of woman you are today," Jonas muttered as he looked down into her upturned face.

    "I think I know myself very well," she said bravely.

    "Do you? I think you've got secrets even you don't know about, little tyrant. What do you say we explore them together?"

    She parted her lips to tell him she thought that was a very bad idea but the words never formed. Jonas's mouth was somehow in the way, cutting off the protest before it had even begun.

    His lips came down on hers with a captivating insistence. Lulled by the warm water, the sensual massage, and the beer, Verity decided it wasn't worth making a fuss over one kiss.

    Too late she realized that this was exactly the sort of kiss a smart woman should have refused. There was something different about this kiss, she reflected as Jonas's lips moved druggingly on hers. She couldn't put her finger on it but she knew that this was special, much too special. The taste and touch of him was unique, intoxicating, something for which she had been waiting for a long, long time.

    Until this moment, Verity realized, she hadn't even known she had been waiting.

    Without conscious thought Verity's right arm moved to encircle Jonas's neck. She felt the hard outline of the muscle of his shoulder beneath her fingers and she kneaded his bronzed skin the way a cat kneads a silk pillow. Jonas responded with a deep groan of desire.

    He urged her mouth open and when she slowly parted her lips for him he muttered something thick and sensual. Hot gold poured through her in a dizzying wave. Then he was tasting her with the tip of his tongue, inviting her to join him in a small, astonishingly sexy duel. His hand moved farther up her thigh to the edge of her bathing suit.

    For a timeless moment Verity hovered at the edge of never-never land, delightfully suspended at the gate of sensual exploration and discovery. She was aware of Jonas's fingertips as they slowly eased beneath the elastic leg of her swimsuit but she didn't worry about it. Time enough to stop him later. Right now she had to sample a bit more. She was enthralled.

                The hot water frothed and foamed around her as Jonas changed position again without breaking the intimate kiss. He settled back against the white tiled pool wall and lifted Verity across his thighs. He kept one hand on her hip, his fingers just barely inside the barrier of the elastic. His arm was behind
    her back, his palm on her side, not quite touching her breast.

    Verity felt no sense of