Read Against Her Rules for Free Online Page B

breath on her neck.
      “Cam,
please stop. Really.” All she could do was plead, because she didn’t trust
herself to be the stronger of the two. If he touched her she was as good as
gone.
      “Stop
what? I’m only talking.” Which was true. He hadn’t so much as brushed against
her. “It’s okay to talk, isn’t it? They're just words.”
      Words
spoken by the sexiest voice on the planet.
      “It’s
not...I just...Damn it, I can’t.” She turned to face him.
      “Cam,
don’t think for a second that I couldn’t make a similar list about you. Because
I could. But I run a business. I’m a single woman. Single men stay under my
roof all the time. And in a town this size my reputation would be ruined by
even the slightest rumour of anything happening between me and one of my
guests.”
      Her
voice quivered as she laid her biggest fear out to him. “I’ve worked hard to be
successful. And I can’t risk throwing it all away just because I find myself
drawn to you.”
      “I
can be discrete, Elsie.”
      “It’s
not you I’m worried about. Or me. It’s just... Can I be honest?” She backed
away and sat down.
      He
sat on the floor in front of her.
      “I
made the mistake of getting involved with a guest before. Broke my own rule.
And I’ve beaten myself up about it time and again these past three years. In
retrospect, it was a poor lapse in judgement.” She paused and looked out the
window. It was easier not to look at him. “Several lapses in judgement,
actually. But it eats away at me. The only thing I think is that I’ll never let
it happen again. And I can’t. That’s all there is to it. As much as I like you,
there’s nothing going to happen between you and me. And the more you flirt, or
say things that no sane woman should be expected to resist, the harder it is
for me.”
      “You
shouldn’t tell me things like that.”
      “Why
not? Isn’t it better that you understand where I’m coming from?”
      He
laughed. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m a man. I’m hard-wired to overcome
challenges.” He was smiling as if her concerns were nothing. Treating her like
a child who just needed to be reassured.
      “Elsie,
you sit there and tell me that the only thing stopping you from falling into my
arms is a rule no one knows about but you, and expect me not to try and find a
way to convince you otherwise?”
      The
nerve! The gall!
      “Yes! That’s exactly what I
expect. I’m not issuing you a challenge. I was being honest. And just because I
have expectations of how I should behave, doesn’t mean that it’s trivial. It’s
not trivial to me.” She stood.
      “Look,
you might have a string of casual relationships, but I don’t.” Her heart was
beating a mile a minute. She could feel her face turning red.
      “It’s
not my nature. In a couple of weeks you’ll be gone, and then what? I’ll either
never hear from you again, or every now and again when the mood hits you you’ll
drop by for a quick weekend visit and then you’ll take off again, expecting me
to be waiting here for you, ready to drop everything just because you’ve
decided you’d like to have a go at Elsie again. Been there, buddy.”
      She
jabbed him in the chest. “And I don’t intend to revisit the past. It’s number
one on my ‘Big Mistakes Never to Make Again’ list.”
      Oh,
she was angry. Angry she’d opened up to him. And madder still that he’d dared
laugh at her, as if her self-respect and reputation meant nothing.
      “Elsie,
I’m sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you. I was being honest. That was the first
thought that ran through my mind.” He strode toward her.
      “Oh,
I’m glad you were honest. Because now I know what a mistake it would have been
to... Oh, never mind.” She pushed open the door.
      “You’re
not leaving.”
      “Really?
You’re now going to tell me what I can and cannot do? That’s great.”
      “You’re
not leaving this room until