Web of Deception by Nina Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

ow could you know that?”
    “My gut is never wrong.” H e didn’t want to talk about business or himself when he should be finding out more about her. “So, tell me, what do your instincts tell you about me?”
    “ They tell me I’m in big trouble.”
    She covered her mouth but it was too late to hide her embarrassment. It seemed the words had slipped out b efore she could stop herself.
    Daniel wasn’t going to let it ride. “What makes you say that?”
    “It was just a figure of speech.”
    Kate glanced up, probably trying to look off-hand as she spoke. Instead, she looked too damn cute for words.
    “I don’t think so,” he said. “I think that came straight from the heart.”
    “And if I’d taken another second to think about it instead of speaking off the cuff, I’d have come up with a more appropriate answer.”
    “More appropriate perhaps, but not as truthful. What other truths can you tell me about yourself? What have the other men in your life been like?”
    She leaned back in her chair, flicking one hand into the air as she spoke. “It’s no secret I seem to have a knack of picking the wrong type of man. I’ve made some judgement errors in the past.”
    “Like what?”
    “Well, my first serious boyfriend at uni got an exciting job in New York and I haven’t seen him since.”
    Daniel didn’t think that sounded so bad. “Sometimes people have to move on. It might have been too good an opportunity for him to turn down.”
    “That wasn’t the problem. He didn’t go to New York on his own. He found someone else to accompany him, someone more spontaneous, some one who was the opposite of me.”
    “Ouch.”
    “It took me a while to get over it but I did,” Kate said. “Apparently, I was too boring, too safe. I didn’t know how to have a good time.”
    “That’s what he said?”
    She nodded. “Then there was Number Two. He worked at Trademark Advertising, a real high-flyer, always thinking of the next deal. He knew everyone in the business. Turns out, it was basically a repeat of the same situation. He said I was too boring but I think he had it the wrong way around. He was too out-there, too exciting.”
    Like a lot of people, she’d been unlucky in love and she’d put it down to choosing the wrong kind of man. It helped Daniel see why she was looking for a man who was practical and dependable. After all, how much more reliable could you get than an accountant?
    “Not all men are the same you know,” he said.
    Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you don’t always want more than you’ve got. Something drives you to make the next deal and it has to be bigger, better.”
    “Business is one thing and personal life is another.”
    “Really? I’m sure you l ike the chase. Then the novelty and the initial excitement wear off and you go on to the next challenge.”
    “That’s not true,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of relationships that lasted longer. Things just didn’t work out.”
    “They never will if you’re not willing to work at it.”
    Did she think she was the only one who’d been hurt in love? It may have been ten years ago but he hadn’t forgotten the disappointment, the pain.
    He’d thought Jane Simpson was the right woman for him but he’d been wrong. They’d been young and they’d had fun together. Jane was smart, sexy, from a good family. Everything a man could want. Or so he’d thought.
    She had money of her own so he hadn’t suspected that snaring a rich husband was her first priority.
    He found out otherwise. A couple of his business deals fell though at the same time and his name was dragged through the mud with one particular company.
    Jane had got out of the relationship as quickly as she could. It hadn’t been him she’d wanted after all.
    Unfortunately , it had been too late for Daniel. He’d already fallen in love. And that was a mistake he wasn’t going to make again.
    It was about then that his father had come back into his life. He’d