Natural Born Trouble by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

complicated risks. Attraction was one thing. He appreciated a beautiful woman as well as the next man. But what he’d felt during that impulsive kiss had unexpectedly rocked him, touched him on another level.
    The kiss had been a mistake, a terrible, dangerous mistake, he concluded. She was clearly vulnerable. She was his boss’s daughter. He was in no position to, had no desire to, get serious with any woman. He was barely coping with a new job and being a full-time father. Adding a woman to that would just beg fordisaster. The list of sensible reasons to stay the hell away from her went on and on.
    Yet he knew himself well enough to realize that if the chance came, danger or no danger, he would take it again. She was as intriguing to him as a hint of oil beneath the earth, as alluring as the elusive scent of crude just out of reach.
    He smiled at the thought. Dani might be a practical, no-nonsense kind of woman, but he doubted she would appreciate being compared to the search for an oil well. Yet for him nothing was more magnificent, more compelling than that particular hunt. Nothing got his juices flowing quicker than an oil strike.
    Nothing except sex, of course. The thought of heated bodies and pleasurable sex brought him full circle, straight back to Dani. That totally uninhibited kiss had told him that Dani’s prim facade would disappear in bed. He wanted to make that happen. He wanted to watch the transformation, the flaring of passion in her eyes, the hardening of her nipples, the restless writhing of her slender, normally controlled body.
    â€œDuke?” Lizzy Adams peeked around the edge of his door. “Jordan’s looking for you.”
    He shook off his daze and stared. He could feel a sheen of perspiration forming on his brow, but resisted the urge to mop it off.
    â€œWhy didn’t you buzz me?” he inquired testily.
    Rather than taking offense at his tone, she grinned. “I have been,” she said. “For the past five minutes.” She regarded him speculatively. “I guess you were lost in thought. Thinking about Dani, I’ll bet.”
    Apparently, all of the Adams women were mind readers, he concluded, scowling at Harlan’s precious daughter, who was also Jordan’s baby sister. She was still in school and already so sexually precocious it was scary. She flirted with him outrageously or at least she had until she’d seen him with Dani at the family’s Fourth of July gathering. All day today she had merely regarded him with very grown-up amusement.
    As he tried to gather his composure, he told himself he would be very glad when Lizzy went back to school in the fall and he got himself a real secretary. An old secretary, he amended. He wasn’t worried that the replacement would have as sassy a tongue. No one who wasn’t an Adams would dare to take the liberties Lizzy did when it came to bullying her boss and meddling in his affairs. That particular trait seemed to come with the Adams genes.
    â€œTell Jordan I’ll be right there.”
    â€œAlready told him. That was five minutes ago, though. You’re already late.”
    â€œAny idea what’s on his mind?”
    â€œSure. He wants to know if you’re interested in Dani.” She shot him another unrepentant grin. “We all do.”
    â€œIt’s none of your business,” he grumbled as he passed her. “Remember that.”
    She regarded him worriedly. “Can I give you just the teensiest piece of advice?”
    â€œCan I stop you?”
    â€œDon’t try telling that to Jordan. He’s just like our dad. They both figure it’s their God-given right to meddle in everyone’s life.”
    â€œNot mine,” Duke said succinctly.
    â€œUnless it happens to cross paths with Dani’s,” Lizzy pointed out, then shrugged. “I say go for it, though. She’s been sad for way too long. She needs somebody to shake her up, make her