Paradise Burning by Blair Bancroft Read Free Book Online Page B

for
that’s exactly what she’d been. Meek, mild, low-fat vanilla. With
odd moments of artistic temperament not unknown in spoiled
geniuses. And yet . . . even now, after so many years, the little
glass mouse brought not anger or sadness but a moment of nostalgia,
of whimsey. And magic.
    Peter had assembled this collection for
her.
    Stupid! No way.
It was just Peter being Peter. He had always had superb
taste.
    Except for his inexplicable interest in
Amanda Armitage.
    Mandy swallowed a sigh. Reluctantly leaving
the glass collection behind, she continued her exploration.
    She paused in the doorway of the master
suite, her brain—or was it her wounded soul?—balking at setting
foot in Peter’s bedroom. Very much a bachelor’s pad, it was
decorated in black and white with occasional splashes of red. It
even smelled masculine. Designer after-shave, deodorant endorsed by
some multi-millionaire from the NBA, the faint whiff of hampered
laundry, and something less definable that was simply Peter.
    Mandy’s face crumpled. She stepped back from
the brink and moved on. When she reached the bedroom done in white
wicker with soft blue and green fabric on the bedcoverings and
draperies, she knew this was the room intended for her. All right,
so it was a nice try. Thoughtful. But a roomful of pretty
furnishings didn’t make up for five years of Peter wandering the
world and other women’s beds while she stayed glued to her computer
at AKA. And whose fault was that?
    Damn!
    “ Changed your mind? Ready to move in?”
Peter’s challenge was so unexpected, Mandy jumped and whirled
around, wincing as she stubbed her toe on one of the bed
supports.
    “ Must you sneak up like that?” she
snapped.
    Peter, suppressing a mean-spirited
inclination to remind her it was his house, leaned a shoulder against the door frame and smiled.
After all, whatever the new fancy packaging, he had his skittish
little Mouse exactly where he wanted her. Hard up against the edge
of a bed.
    He let his eyes roam over her from head to
toe. “Looking good, Mouse. In case I failed to mention it
yesterday.” She was eyeing the door behind him as if he were a
predatory tom focused on a fine fat mouse. Not quite the effect he
was hoping for.
    Pretty sad for two people who had once
laughed together, loved together, finished each other’s sentences.
But that was long ago. They’d taken different paths, neither one
well-traveled, and become strangers. Only one thing seemed to have
survived—pure, raw sexual attraction. At least Peter thought it
wasn’t one-sided. Mandy had fled back to her stupid tin box so fast
last night that her tires had actually squealed on the
driveway.
    But the Mandy he’d known and loved must be in
there somewhere.
    You can never go back.
    Hell! He could
and he would. Besides, that wasn’t really what he wanted. He didn’t
want to repeat a relationship that had ended in failure.
    “ I–I saw a girl on the far side of the
river this morning,” Mandy said, chin high, her arms crossed
defensively over her chest. “I didn’t think anybody lived over
there.”
    Peter almost applauded. If Mandy wanted to
make a 3-D chess match out of his attempt at reconciliation, then
so be it. “There’s a cluster of homes on the other side about three
or four miles upriver,” he told her. “Rugged individualists who
built there years ago when they had to cross a rickety bridge and
drive miles of dirt road to get there. It’s a lot more civilized
now,” he added, “new bridge, paved road . . .”
    “ Where did you learn all that?” He
could see Mandy’s natural curiosity, never far from the surface,
ooze up and over the awkwardness of being trapped in a bedroom with
him.
    “ Brad Blue, the developer here at Amber
Run. He’s a native, and his grandfather owns everything on the far
side of the Calusa except that one small area of homes. He has the
largest cattle ranch in the county. In fact,” Peter added on a note
of amused