Hard to Handle by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

came forward. They shook hands. “Nice to meet you. I’m with the corporation—under Mr. Hunter, in fact, so I’d better call you Mrs. Camp outside this room.”
    “Good idea,” Jennifer replied absently. She was still vibrating.
    “I’ve got some more information for you about the area. It’s all here, on disk.” She frowned. “I’m still learning about computers, I’m afraid. You do use the 312 inch diskettes in your laptop?”
    “I have a hard disk drive,” Jennifer told her. “But I can use the diskettes, as well.”
    “Thank goodness!” She handed the diskette, in its plastic case, to Jennifer. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about science.” She sighed, and her dark brown eyes sought Hunter’s flirtatiously. “I’m just a security officer, so I deal with people instead of machines.”
    And, oh, I’ll just bet you do it well, Jennifer thought. She didn’tsay so. She murmured something about checking out the new data and went back to her computer.
    “If you’d like, we can run by the office and I’ll give you the results of that security check you had us run,” she told Hunter. “We could have dinner afterward, if you haven’t already eaten?”
    Jennifer ground her teeth together. She knew now what Hunter had meant earlier when referring to his “other project.” This was it, and it had brown eyes and a svelte figure. Jennifer wished she’d dressed to the hilt and put on her makeup. In full regalia, she could have given that exotic orchid a run for her money, but she’d thought dressing up might give Hunter wrong ideas about her.
    “Fine,” Hunter replied tersely. “Let me get my shirt on.”
    Finally, Jennifer thought. He hadn’t bothered before, but perhaps he didn’t want to drive Miss Security Blip out of her mind by flashing his gorgeous muscles.
    Hunter glanced at Jennifer, watching the way she studiously ignored Teresa, not to mention him. He glared at her as he pulled a pale gray knit shirt out of his drawer and put it on. He ran a comb through his hair, with Teresa sighing audibly over him.
    “You haven’t met Teresa before, I gather, Jennifer?” he asked too casually.
    “No,” she replied, forcing a smile.
    “She’s Papago.” He said it with bitter pleasure, knowing Jennifer would catch the hidden meaning. This woman was Indian.
    “Tohono O’Odham,” Teresa teased. “We changed our name from ‘bean people’ in Zuni to ‘people of the desert’ in Papago.”
    “Sorry,” he said with a smile.
    Jennifer hated that damned smile. She’d never seen it, but this woman was getting the full treatment. Of course, Teresa wasn’t ablond scientist, she thought darkly. Well, he needn’t think she was going to play third fiddle while he courted his secret agent here.
    “I’d rather you stayed here….” he began as Jenny said, “I have a headache….”
    He cocked an eyebrow and she cleared her throat.
    “I’ll order something from room service,” she continued. “If I feel like eating later,” she amended without looking at him. “I’ve spent too much time at the laptop. The screen bothers my eyes.” God knew why she was trying to justify her nonexistent headache. He and his brunette wouldn’t notice.
    “I hope you feel better,” Teresa said.
    “Thanks.”
    “Shall we go?” Hunter asked as he pulled on his tan sports coat over his knit shirt. He turned at the door. “Keep the door locked. If you have room service, check credentials before you let anyone in here.”
    “Yes, sir,” she said with resignation.
    He let Teresa out and started to close the door. He looked back at Jennifer first, and the intensity of his stare made her lift her head. His eyes held hers for one long moment before they went to her mouth and back up again.
    “Don’t wait up,” he said, but there was another, darker meaning in the casual remark.
    “You can depend on me, sir,” she saluted him.
    He shook his head and went out the door.
    She picked up one of her shoes