Hightower Affairs 2: Bedding the Secret Heiress by Emilie Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

airports were great when a pilot wanted to avoid traffic,but the downside was some didn’t operate when conditions were less than optimal.
    Gage pulled out of the valet lane and drove out of the parking lot. “I heard you making a phone call earlier. Something about a bike trip tomorrow?”
    He must have eavesdropped while he’d been arranging their hotel rooms. “I needed to let my landlord know I wouldn’t be home. She’ll relay the message to the neighbors who were meeting me tomorrow morning.”
    “Your landlord keeps tabs on you?”
    “I’m renting the apartment over her garage.” Wanting to end the personal questions, Lauren bailed out of the car the moment he parked, hustled for the sidewalk and waited for him to join her. The look he cut her as they entered the building let her know he was on to her.
    “What kind of ride did you have planned?”
    The smell of grilled fajitas and thick burgers made her mouth water and her stomach rumble. She hadn’t had anything to eat since the sandwich she’d packed for lunch.
    “I was going on a group motorcycle ride with my neighbors. They’re showing me the best of Knoxville on my days off. I was with them when Trent called me into the office to meet you.”
    He didn’t speak again until after the hostess had seated them and departed. “Your neighbors are bikers?”
    “Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing. They’re great people. I found them through an online Harley chapter, and when I posted my plan to move to Knoxville they all but adopted me. One even hooked me up with my landlord. Her apartment is ten times better than any complex in the area and half the price. The day I pulled into her driveway my new friends were waiting to help me unpack.”
    “They were probably checking to see if you had anything worth stealing.”
    His words said a lot about the company he kept. “Not exactly a trusting soul, are you, Faulkner?”
    “Where I came from if something wasn’t nailed down, it was fair game.”
    “Not a nice neighborhood?”
    He eyed her as if debating his words. “I spent a good part of my youth on welfare, and part of that living in my father’s car.”
    Shock stole her breath. She didn’t want to think of him as a poor, hungry kid or see an approachable side of him. She’d much rather believe he was a spoiled, stuck-up jerk like Trent, Brent and Beth, her three oldest half siblings. Only Nicole, the one closest to Lauren in age seemed to have any redeeming qualities. “I’m sorry, Gage. That’s no way to live.”
    Regret tightened his mouth, as if he were sorry he’d revealed that bit of his past. “I’m not asking for sympathy. The point is you don’t deserve anything you don’t earn.”
    His hard tone let her know his barriers were up, and he didn’t intend to give her any more peeks into his personal life.
    “I agree, and I’ve worked hard for everything I have.”
    An expression of disbelief crossed his face.
    The server arrived to take their orders. Once he left, Gage looked at her across the table. The probing way he studied her made her uncomfortable. A speculative gleam entered his dark eyes. “You said you grew up around an airport. Regardless of the city, that’s not usually the best section of town.”
    Another personal foray, but given what he’d shared she decided it wouldn’t hurt to respond to this one. “We had a small, but comfortable house near Daytona International. We weren’t high-class, but we weren’t poor,either. I didn’t attend private schools, belong to a country club or have servants, a pool, tennis court or any of the other luxuries the Hightowers seem to think they can’t function without.”
    “Does it bother you that your mother’s other children had more than you?”
    “No. If anything I’m appalled by their dependence on others for even the simplest things. Don’t get me wrong. I’m used to people with money. After all, they are the ones who charter jets. But the Hightower’s