In Hot Pursuit by Joanne Rock Read Free Book Online Page B

too.”
    He smoothed his hand over her shoulder and allowed his fingers to skim along her back. “I think I could better serve you if you’d lock me up in your bedroom.”
    She couldn’t hide her answering shiver. Josh felt it right through his fingertips. Nevertheless, she shook her head resolutely.
    â€œSorry. I’ve seen how much you resent captivity. I’m not going to make that mistake again.”
    Josh heard the underlying message, despite the haze of lust that had him in a chokehold. He paused his fingertip exploration of her back, unwilling to use sensual means to get his own way tonight.
    â€œLexi, are you uncomfortable with me being here?” He wanted this woman more than he’d wanted anything in recent memory. Make that long-term memory. But he wanted her at full speed, all or nothing, as hungry for him as he was for her. He searched her face for some clue to her real feelings.
    Damn it, but she looked familiar to him. Still, hewould remember having met a woman like Lexi. He had to be mistaken.
    The fish tank burbled softly, while he waited. The chirping bird in the background provided an obnoxiously happy accompaniment.
    â€œYou want to know the truth?” Finally, she tossed her shawl aside and planted jeweled fists on her hips.
    In his mind’s eye he saw her donning boxing gloves, preparing for the round in which she would deliver the knockout blow—the “go home” speech.
    â€œNothing but the truth,” he returned, realizing he meant it. He didn’t want a sugarcoated speech from this woman. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what you want.”
    Her eyebrows lifted in surprise, then slowly settled back into place as her gaze narrowed.
    â€œThen, I’ll tell you exactly what I want, Josh Winger.” She spun on her bare heel and stalked into the living room. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the subdued light of the fish tank he could see her toenails were painted bright blue.
    â€œI want a man to take me seriously for once.” She folded her arms over her compact body, a body visibly thrumming with an emotion he couldn’t fully identify. “For that matter, I would settle for anyone taking me seriously for once.”
    â€œWell—”
    Before he could respond, she burst into motion again, stomping around her living room sofa to pose by her coffee table. “I mean, look at me. Why can’t anyone appreciate the fashion sense I impart to all of New York? I know how to be tasteful and refined.”She pointed a finger in his direction and then started a slow trek back to him. “The point is, I don’t allow myself to fall into a rut of the refined but boring clothes that we’ve seen done to death for the past decade.”
    He was so far out of his element he might as well have been swimming in the tank with the damn fish.
    â€œI think you really look great—”
    â€œI am willing to take risks, and that’s what no one seems to understand.” In the course of her emphatic speech, a few more locks of hair slipped free of the knot on top of her head. He was trying to follow what she was saying, damn it, but thoughts of unpinning that hair and seeing how much of her body it would cover was more than a little distracting.
    â€œI might mix a few over-the-top colors, and I admit that my go-go boots with the Gucci cocktail dress was a definite mistake, but the point is, I push the boundaries.” By now, she stood toe to toe with him. “I am willing to try something different in order to create something unique and beautiful.”
    She gazed up at him, eyes so dark they looked like a doll’s—all one color, with no hint of where the pupil ended and the iris began.
    Clearly, the time had arrived for him to speak.
    â€œI am definitely willing to try something different,” he said, trying to steer the conversation back toward bedrooms and handcuffs.
    By the defeated slope