Read Mother, Please! for Free Online

eight miles north of Cabo San Lucas. “He said he was in love with me,” she went on, “but a few days after the big event, I found out he had a steady girlfriend with whom he already had a child.”
    Ouch. Gunner could easily imagine how deeply that must have affected someone so young, serious and sensitive—at least, he guessed April was sensitive underneath all that starch. “Your first heartbreak,” he said and felt a twinge of pity despite the fact that he was still angry at her for judging him so quickly—and basing that judgement solely on what the media had provided.
    She didn’t bother trying to act nonchalant abouther affair with the young lawyer. “That experience taught me a good lesson.”
    “That you can’t trust love?”
    “That you can’t trust a man who won’t give you his home phone number.”
    He smiled at her candid response and draped the jacket he’d brought over one knee, grateful he’d prepared for the perfect weather by wearing a golf shirt and chinos. “I’m glad it hasn’t made you bitter.”
    “I prefer to let it make me wiser.”
    “And since then?”
    “Since then I’ve been more careful.”
    He knew it was none of his business, but he couldn’t help asking, “So that time you lost your virginity is the extent of your sexual experience?”
    “I think I’ve already shared more information than I should have,” she said with an unmistakable blush.
    “You don’t have to answer,” he said, chuckling. “I can read it in your face.”
    She scowled at him. “Go ahead and laugh, Mr. Stevens. I know it doesn’t seem like much to someone who probably has more notches in his bedpost than he’s capable of counting—”
    “Whoa!” He put a hand to his chest as though she’d mortally wounded him. “Did you just insult my intelligence?”
    Her dark eyes snapped beneath those thick-framed glasses. “To say nothing of your character.”
    “My character is fair game,” he said. “But rest assured that I can definitely count the notches on my bedpost. At least to fifteen hundred or so.”
    She looked suitably disgusted.
    “Don’t worry,” he said, unable to resist the impulse to keep teasing her. “We’ve got seven full days in paradise. Maybe we’ll add another notch to your bedpost. Good sex is probably nothing like you remember.”
    “I’m sure I remember…well, maybe not good sex. I mean, I hope that’s not as good as it gets. But—” she shook her head, obviously flustered “—never mind. You’re taking way too much for granted.”
    “Really? No, wait.” He held up a hand to stall her, marveling at how easily she entertained him. And to think he’d almost refused to join her. “Let me guess. You don’t want to sleep with me. ”
    She looked down her dainty nose at him, just as he’d accused her of doing earlier. “Exactly.”
    Sobering, he purposefully dropped his focus to her lips until she began to fidget uncomfortably. Then he grinned. “This is going to be even better than I thought.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    A PRIL’S HEART POUNDED in her ears for the rest of the ride to the Hacienda Del Mar. What had she done? Here was a man who’d cut his teeth on challenges, and she’d offered him the most irresistible challenge of all. She had to be a complete fool. Except that she really believed she could outwit a person who’d spent twenty years putting himself in mortal danger again and again and again. A man like that couldn’t be too smart. Besides, Gunner Stevens didn’t realize there was a woman out there who might be impervious to his charm.
    She was that woman, April told herself—although she could feel her breasts tingling from the way he’d looked at her.
    Okay, maybe she wasn’t completely impervious to him, but she did understand her own limitations. A man like Gunner Stevens would never be genuinely interested in a woman like her. He ran with the fast and the loose. A relationship with him would be very much like her first experience