Loving Lies by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

happy, Ron got nervous.
    â€œI’ll take care of Amy.” Slade pushed his fingers through his hair in irritation. What the hell could she be up to?
    â€œYeah, you do that,” Ron muttered, jerking the door of the truck open as he glanced back at him. “And watch your ass, boy, because I think it’s about to get fried.”
    He swung into the pickup, revved the motor, and threw his hand up in farewell as Jessie stepped from the RV. A second later he was backing away from the camp spot with a squeal of tires before he turned and headed back to the main road.
    â€œWell, that didn’t appear to be a pleasant conversation.” There was a question in her voice he couldn’t answer. Hell, he didn’t know what was going on himself.
    â€œYou know Ron,” he finally sighed. “I guess they thought the bogeyman had dragged you off last night.”
    â€œDidn’t he?” She laughed up at him as he pulled her to him, her arms going around his waist. Slade pressed his face into her hair, inhaling the scent of tanning lotion, sunlight and lemon.
    Amy wasn’t typically a troublemaker, but she had been chasing him for months before he gave in and gave her what she seemed to want. A dumb move, he admitted. Damned dumb, and one he regretted less than a week into it. Hell, he should have just kidnapped Jessie the way he had wanted to and spent the week screwing her brains out. That would have been the smart thing to do. She would have been in his house by now, sharing his bed every night.
    Which didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Hell, he didn’t have to run out right now and buy rings, right? She could just move in with him. He had a nice house, plenty of room for anything her little apartment held, and anything else she might want.
    â€œSo, did I bring any food?” he finally asked, pushing back his thoughts and concentrating on the sweet face staring up at him.
    â€œIf you count beer and chips as food.” Her grimace assured him she didn’t. “Tell you what, we could go fishing. You clean them, I’ll fry them.”
    Surprise did nothing to still the warm surge of emotion filling him.
    â€œSounds good to me.” He nodded abruptly. “I did think to bring bait and poles. You’re in luck, sugar, the river is right real close and it’s some of the best catfishing around.”
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    Jessie was silent as they rested under the shade of thickly leafed trees, fishing lines thrown out into the water. She sat on one of the padded loungers he had carried from the RV for her. She watched the red and white bobber intently, not so much focused on any movement of the little ball, but focused more on Slade.
    She had fantasized about him for years. Ached for him until she thought her chest would explode from the need for his touch, his kiss. He was her first lover, the only man to really touch her, to take her. And she was suddenly terrified of him.
    Not physically. She had a healthy attitude toward sex, and experimenting didn’t worry her in the least. Sexually, she didn’t think there was anything Slade could do that would scare her away. He wasn’t into sharing, and last she heard the games he liked to play weren’t exactly painful.
    No, it was the man she was glimpsing beyond the easy, wicked smiles and lust-filled gaze that made her suddenly self-conscious, made her aware of her own youth and inexperience.
    He was twenty-seven, but he was older than her in more than just years. Four years in college, one doing only God knew what and two creating the rapidly growing construction business for which he and his friends had pooled their finances together. Rigor Construction was growing fast, its reputation and work in building homes speaking for itself. Slade had spent most of that time in Washington, D.C., working to pull in more government contracts for the building company. But there was something about Slade, about the year