Isn't It Rich? by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

embarrassment. If so, now would be the perfect time for the floor of this place to open and swallow her up.
    “Actually I was thinking about this really sexy television reporter I met last week,” she lied boldly, thankful that she hadn’t scribbled any initials on the page to give herself away and confirm the obvious conclusion he’d leaped to. That would have been totally humiliating. At least now he could only guess where her mind had been drifting. He couldn’t prove a thing.
    Richard took the bait, regarding her with curiosity. “Which reporter?”
    “What difference does it make?”
    “Just wondering about your taste in men,” he claimed.
    She didn’t buy that for a second. Her taste in men was the last thing on his mind. He was just trying to trip her up. She named the most eligible bachelor on any of the news teams in town. He was an insipid bore, but maybe Richard wouldn’t know that.
    Unfortunately, he lifted a brow at her response. “Really? Everyone tells me he’s pretty, but not too bright.”
    There was no mistaking the derisiveness in his voice. That “pretty” label sealed it.
    Melanie refused to be daunted by his attitude. “Maybe I’m not interested in holding a conversation with him,” she suggested.
    Richard merely laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that, sweetheart. One rule of thumb when you’re lying, you have to make it believable.”
    “I’m not surprised you know that,” she muttered.
    He ignored the gibe. “Come on, kiddo. On your feet. The exercise will clear your head, maybe get all those hot thoughts of your young stud muffin out of your brain.”
    Melanie sighed. He was right about one thing—she really did need a blast of cold air. Maybe then she’d stop making an idiot out of herself. It was not the best way to get Richard to take her work seriously.
     
    Richard couldn’t recall the last time he’d gone for a walk in the snow just for the sheer fun of it. Of course, in this case it was also a way to get out of the house and away from those wayward thoughts he was having about the impossible woman staying with him. The fact that she’d tried to sell him a bill ofgoods about that insipid reporter suggested she was aware that the temptation was getting too hot to handle, too.
    Outside, though, the air was crisp and cold off the river. The sky, now that the storm had ended, was a brilliant blue. The sun made the drifts of white snow glisten as if the ground had been scattered with diamonds. He was glad he’d thought to put on his sunglasses. Of course, the almost childlike excitement shining in Melanie’s eyes was just as blinding, and the glasses couldn’t protect him from that.
    When they’d left the house, she’d been totally guarded, most likely because of his teasing. Now all of that seemed to be forgotten. Every two feet, she paused to point out some Christmas-card-perfect scene.
    “Look,” she said in a hushed voice, grabbing his sleeve. “A cardinal.”
    Richard followed the direction of her gaze and found the cardinal, its red feathers a brilliant splash of color against the snow, a holly tree as its backdrop. Its less colorful mate was sitting on a tree branch, almost hidden by the dark green leaves and red berries. The birds were common, but Melanie made it seem as if this were something totally special and incredible. Her enthusiasm was contagious.
    Melanie sighed. “I wish I had my camera.”
    “We can pick up one of that throwaway kind at the store,” he suggested.
    She looked at him as if he’d had a divine inspiration. “Now?” she asked with so much eagerness that he laughed.
    “You are so easy to please,” he teased. “A cheap camera and you’re a pushover.”
    “I’ve decided to go with the flow today,” she informed him.
    Now there was a notion he could get behind. “Oh, really?”
    She frowned at him in mock despair. “Not that flow,” she scolded.
    He shrugged. “Just a thought.”
    She gave him an odd