KILLING ME SOFTLY by Jenna Mills Read Free Book Online Page B

curve her lips. "Some secrets are best left buried."
    Without waiting for a reply, she crossed the porch, went down the steps and headed for her hotel.
    Cain caught up with her near the statue. His hand found her wrist, his fingers closed around flesh and bone—gently. She turned slowly, felt her pulse jump when she saw the glitter in his eyes.
    "A pretty lady like you in the middle of the night—" his fingers moved with the words, slid to skim the inside of her palm "—maybe you should let me take you back to your hotel room."
    The words shimmied through her like an intimate caress, leaving warmth everywhere they touched. She felt herself lean into him, reach up to him, forget every damning reason she had for staying away from this man.
    His gaze slipped down her body, then returned to her face with equal leisure, revealing the glow of invitation—and the burn of warning. "Be very sure…"

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    T he desire to taste and feel and discover stunned her. Renee looked up into his brutally handsome face and felt her breath catch, her heart race. The night pulsed in perfect rhythm with the dance of his fingers against her hand, creating an intimacy that could tempt even a nun.
    Renee was not a nun—but nor was she naive.
    Women come and go from my bed faster than I can develop the film of what happens there…
    One week was all she had. One day was already gone. Six remained—at most. In only a few hours Cain had blurred the lines between them. He was good at that. He knew how to manipulate any situation to get what he wanted, how to use size and strength, even his reputation, to twist circumstances to his advantage. He wasn't above using sex to intimidate and control.
    Nor was she—but tonight was not the time to carelessly toss down gauntlets he was sure to pick up.
    "Not necessary," she said, twisting her wrist from his hand.
    He made no move to stop her, just watched her with a dark light in his eyes. "Maybe not tonight, cher . But soon."
    It was the soon that fed the ache deep inside. But she ignored the temptation and kept her face blank as she turned. This time she had no problem walking away.
     
    The sun was barely up when she arrived at the library. She sat quietly on a bench, sipping coffee from the shop across the street and jotting in a notebook. The steady breeze blowing in from the bayou whipped her hair against her face, but she made no move to brush it away.
    Intrigued, Edouard leaned back in his chair and watched her through his office window.
    "I can be on the next plane to New Orleans," Etienne said from the Hart Office Building in Washington.
    "No." The word came without hesitation. "There's no need to feed a fire." Etienne's abrupt return would accomplish nothing except extra publicity, which Edouard categorically did not need. "Everything's under control."
    Sometimes it still amazed Edouard that someone as excitable as his brother had gotten himself elected to the highest echelons of government.
    But then, that's what smooth talking and an easy smile could do for you.
    "You'll take care of it then?"
    Edouard glanced toward the library and frowned. Of course he would take care of it. That's what he did, what he'd done since the time they were boys and Etienne had come home dead drunk for the first time. Just because Edouard didn't have a fancy office and a face that had been on the cover of national news magazines didn't mean he wasn't capable.
    Family came first. The town second. There wasn't time for a third.
    "I've got someone looking into her," he told his brother. Cain had T'Roy, but Edouard preferred to do his own dirty work. "If she's got a hidden agenda, I'll find it."
    The call wound down, and Edouard swiveled in his chair to review the contents of the folder open on his desk—the desk his grand-daddy had occupied until his death at the age of eighty-four. The articles clipped from various newspapers stared back at him, nasty reminders of how fast a man could go from hero to