Seducing an Heiress by Judy Teel Read Free Book Online

door and dove into the car.
    Dakota struggled to untangle herself from the slippery material of her dress and get fully into the car. A hand grabbed her ankle.
    She screamed and instinctively delivered a vicious kick to her attacker. Her foot connected with flesh eliciting a grunt of pain. The hand slid away, taking her sandal with it.
    "Go! Go!" she shouted, pulling herself and the material of her skirt into the car. Trey cut into traffic and sped away from the curb just as she slammed the car door shut. 
    Her gasping breath sounded unnaturally loud in the sudden silence of the car. She'd nearly had a heart attack out there. 
    "Buckle your seatbelt," he said, his voice tense. "They're on us."
    Worry shot down her spine and Dakota hastily buckled herself in. "It would have been easier to just tell Dad where I was." Actually, it would have been easier. Why hadn't Trey done that?
    "What are you talking about?"
    "Why go to all this trouble to arrange for the press to jump us? All you had to do was let Dad know where I am. He would have done the rest." And made sure she never had a chance to get out from under his thumb, again. 
    A cold chill snaked over her, but she pushed it aside. She had bigger problems to deal with right now. If the press caught them, then she could worry about her father.
    Glancing behind them, she noted the flock of tiny beat-up cars darting and weaving through traffic as the paparazzi gave chase. 
    "Is that why I'm risking my neck trying to get you away from them?" Trey asked as he changed lanes, causing the driver he cut off to lay on the horn.
    She looked at him, aware that the tension in his voice sounded very real. Red, blue, and yellow-white lights from the passing city slid over his profile like water colors, tracing the worry etched there. Was she wrong? Had this fiasco caught him by surprise, too? 
     "Why else would Aines be in Cincinnati?" she asked, not quite ready to let her suspicions go.
    " Autumn's First Cut ring a bell? You're not the only celebrity hanging around the city this weekend, you know."
    She'd forgotten about the off-season fashion weekend hosted by the Art Institute. That explained Richard's presence in the city, too.
    But how could she trust that was all there was to it? "It's hard to believe you're innocent," she said, her tone sharp.
    "I never said I was innocent."
    "So you did sic the press on me."
    "Nope."
    "Can you prove it?"
    "No. But think about it. I have no reason to. If I spook you, you run again. It was hard enough finding you the first time."
    Yet he had found her. And Aines had recognized her easily, despite the disguise. An ache of sorrow slipped through her chest, cooling her anger. Her new peace and happiness was much more fragile than she'd ever realized. 
    "How did you find me?" she asked, quietly.
    "Pure dumb luck. Hold on." Trey's knuckles gleamed white as he gripped the steering wheel and took the car into a tight, fast turn around a corner. Dakota grabbed the handle above her to keep from careening into him.
    "That was a red light," she said.
    "No kidding." He glanced in the rear view mirror. "I think we lost them. For now."
    Her stomach knotted into a ball of anxiety at how close she'd come to disaster. A disaster that could still crash down on her. What had she done wrong? "What pure dumb luck are you talking about?"
    "A friend of mine knows I'm a sucker for home-cooked meals. Especially pastries."
    "So?"
    "He sells pharmaceuticals and his territory's around Dayton. He stumbled onto your place one afternoon on his way home. Best cinnamon rolls he'd ever had, he said. Next time I came to this part of the country I checked it out."
    Dakota pulled in a deep breath and tried to control the despair sweeping over her. She remembered that salesman. Remembered how much his praise had pleased her and how excited she'd felt when he said he was going to tell all his friends about her place.
    "Five months of tracking down dead ends and my stomach broke the