Unexpected by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

Without knowing who the other woman was or what she knew of Eli’s intentions, it seemed safest to leave the story up to him.
    As if he’d only just then remembered the other woman, Eli turned his attention back to her with a frown. “I told you I’d be busy for a while, Jane. You shouldn’t be here.”
    Jane’s gaze skipped between the two of them and it didn’t take a mind reader to know she’d drawn some hasty and incorrect conclusions. But to Ray’s surprise, she didn’t get angry at the suspicious presence of another woman.
    She pouted.
    Her bottom lip stuck out and she stroked Eli’s arm while pressing her breasts against him. “I missed you, Eli. You wouldn’t tell me where you were going or why, or how long you’d be away. Of course, now I understand.” She emphasized that with a pointed glance at Ray.
    Ray wanted to puke over the nauseating display. “Here we go with the assumptions again.”
    Eli gave Ray a quelling frown before peeling the woman off his arm. “I didn’t tell you, Jane, because it doesn’t concern you.”
    â€œOf course it does.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, but Ray could still hear her—just as Jane intended. “You were forced to resort to . . . her type, because I’ve denied you.”
    Ray scoffed. “My type?” How ridiculous. She wasn’t a woman a man would go to for that sort of thing. The very idea of it made her laugh.
    Judging by his glare, Eli didn’t share her humor.
    â€œBut Eli, you can send her away now.” Jane’s smile trembled, shy and so sickeningly sweet, Ray’s teeth started to ache. “I came to tell you I’m ready. I simply hadn’t realized how . . . desperate you had gotten.”
    Jane was a small woman, and it seemed to Ray that Eli had to look down a great distance just to frown at her. Not that it had any visible effect on good old Jane. She clung like a limpet, cooing and puckering and turning Ray’s stomach with the overblown display of affection.
    If I ever coo at a man, Ray thought privately, I hope someone shoots me.
    She should probably leave and give them their privacy, but she wouldn’t. She was responsible for Eli until the mission ended successfully, and he did need his sleep. Both those reasons were plausible enough to suit Ray, so she didn’t budge from her position on the wall.
    And then Jane slipped her little hand into Eli’s open shirt, stroking him, toying with him, and Ray got a brief glimpse of his chest. It looked warm and hard, sprinkled with curling dark hair.
    Fascinated, Ray took in the play with the same attention she’d give a peep show, but the show only lasted a moment before Eli forcibly set Jane a respectable distance from the undeniable lure of his body.
    His shirt, however, remained open, and Ray continued to admire his obvious strength and fitness. She hadn’t expected that from a man of wealth and leisure. She’d expected him to be soft. She’d expected him to be unappealing.
    Assumptions. She shook her head, knowing herself to be as guilty as most.
    â€œJane,” Eli warned as she tried to snuggle closer again. “Ray isn’t here for that and you owe her an apology for suggesting such a thing.”
    â€œReally?”
    Jane seemed pleased that Ray wouldn’t be occupying Eli’s bed after all. How she’d come to such an asinine conclusion in the first place left Ray boggled. If the woman had clear vision, she had to have noticed Ray wasn’t exactly a femme fatale. She could kick Eli’s ass, but no way could she seduce him.
    â€œThen why is she here, Eli, in your home, dressed—or rather, undressed —like that?”
    Ray saw the muscles in his jaw flex. “She’s here because I hired her to do a job. And she’s dressed like that because she was in bed, as I should be, and we woke her.”
    Jane wouldn’t be