JUST ONE MORE NIGHT by Fiona Brand Read Free Book Online Page A

through palm fronds and gleaming off a limpid pool.
    Nick relinquished his hold, his jaw set, his gaze brooding and distinctly irritable. “Is Corrado the one you got the piercings for?”
    The question, as if he had every right to expect an answer, made her world tilt again.
    She had speculated before, but now she knew.
    Nick was jealous.

Five
    E lena dragged her gaze from Nick’s and looked out past the pool and the palms to the ocean. Anything to stop the crazy pull of attraction and the dangerous knowledge that Nick really did want her.
    The fact that he had been attracted to her before she had lost weight—that he actually liked her simply for who she was—was bad enough. But his brooding temper, as if the one night they had shared had somehow given him rights, was an undertow she wasn’t sure she could resist. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Robert doesn’t care for piercings.”
    He definitely didn’t know about the one she had gotten in her navel, or the pretty jeweled studs she had bought to go with her new selection of bikinis.
    “So you didn’t get the piercings for him.”
    The under note of satisfaction in Nick’s voice, as if she had gotten the piercings for him, ruffled her even further. “I didn’t get the piercings for anyone. ”
    But even as she said the words, her heart plummeted. She had tried to convince herself that the piercings were just a part of the process of change, a signpost that declared that she wasn’t thirty—yet. But the stark reality was that she had gotten them because they were pretty and sexy and practically screamed that she was available. She had gotten them for Nick.
    “You haven’t slept with Corrado.”
    Annoyed at the way Nick had dismissed Robert, Elena stepped farther out onto the patio, neatly evading his gaze. “That’s none of your business. Robert’s a nice man.” He was safe and controllable, as different from Nick as a tame tabby from a prowling tiger. “He’s definitely not fixated on piercings.”
    “Ouch. That puts me in my place.” Nick dragged at his tie. Strolling to the wrought iron railing that enclosed part of the patio, he pulled the tie off altogether, folded it and shoved it into his pocket.
    Drawn to join him, even though she knew it was a mistake, Elena averted her gaze from the slice of brown flesh revealed by the buttons he had unfastened.
    The balmy evening seemed to get hotter as she became aware that Nick was studying the studs in her ear and the tiny glimpse of the butterfly transfer. “I’m guessing from the pink earring that there’s a pink jewel in your navel?”
    The accuracy of his guess made her stiffen. The old adage “give him an inch and he’ll take a mile” came back to haunt her. “You shouldn’t flirt with me.”
    “Why not? It makes a change from arguing, and after tonight we may never see each other again.”
    Elena froze. The attraction that shimmered through her, keeping her breathless and on edge, winked out. She stared at the strong line of his jaw, the sexy hollows of his cheekbones, aware that, somehow, she had been silly enough, vulnerable enough, to allow Nick to slide through her defenses. To start buying into the notion that just because he found her attractive it meant he had changed.
    The day Nick Messena changed his stripes she would grow wings and fly.
    Lifting her chin, she met his gaze squarely. “ If you find the ring.” The instant the words were out, she wished she could recall them. They had sounded needy, as if she was looking for a way to hang on to him.
    Nick glanced out over the pool, the sun turning the tawny streaks in his dark hair molten. “You make it sound like a quest. I’m not that romantic.”
    No, his focus was always relentlessly practical, which was what made him so successful in business.
    Swallowing a sudden ache in her throat, Elena did what she should have done in the first place: she turned on her heel and walked back to the reception. As she