Read Olivia Gates Bestseller Collection 2012 for Free Online Page B

weight, exacerbating her imbalance. He spread his daunting body in a pretense of relaxation, giving her a more complete demonstration of his upgrades. And her effect on him. “You know, the way you keep saying ‘please’…anyone would think you’re inviting more ‘juvenile, infringing, lascivious allusions.’”
    His words had the effect of quick-drying concrete. “Okay. It seems we won’t get anything of any value said or done before we indulge your need to harp about the past and drag out the sordid details. Fine. Go ahead. Get it out of your system.”
    His gaze seemed to scald her body, to scrape it naked.
    “There are…things I can’t get out of my system. Certainly not by…talking. As for other baggage from that phase in my life, don’t worry about it. I channeled any lingering resentment into my work. Whatever remains, I take care of with extreme sports. And punching bags.”
    “ And turning your back on your kingdom when it needs you.”
    A laugh cracked out of his depths, loaded with astonishment and amusement. And virility. “That would be a great outlet. If I were into an eye for an eye.”
    “Only it would be a limb—or a life, or even a nation’s worth of either—for an eye, in this situation.”
    A chuckle rumbled in his chest, revving up the itchy feeling in hers to an ache. “You think I’m that vital? Very inconsistent of you, when you already said how inconsequential I am.”
    “That was a personal opinion,” she mumbled, furious with herself, with him, at the responses he kept yanking from her.
    His gaze grew more baiting as he rubbed a languid hand over his chest, drawing her stare to the beauty and power of the first, the breadth and hardness of the second. “Off the record, eh?”
    She did her level best to present him with her neutral look. “Do make it on. Your head must be swollen from all the butt-kissing you get. Consider my opinion a deflating agent.”
    His laughter boomed again. Her heart ricocheted in her rib cage. “Ah, Phoebe, I’m having my head measured first thing in the morning.” He sobered a bit, his grin becoming an X-rated health hazard. “So why try to convince such an irredeemable egomaniac to take the reins of a kingdom?”
    She swallowed. “I’m an emissary, as you said. I’m not here to put forward my convictions but rather my employer’s case.”
    “Even if you suspect he’s senile and is turning the kingdom over to the one person who’ll drive it into the sea?”
    “King Benedetto isn’t senile by a long shot.”
    “How else do you explain his change of heart?”
    “I am sure he has his reasons.”
    “So he hasn’t shared them with you? You’re the little foot solider with need-to-know info you’ll never need to know?”
    “One thing I do know is that his heart has always been with you. I believe having to cut you off nearly cut it out.”
    He threw his awesome head back with a hoot of delight. “I didn’t see that coming.”
    Her throat constricted as the rain-straight silk of his hair cascaded back to frame his head to maximum effect. “What?”
    “Appealing to the insecure little boy inside me who craves his hero’s approval, his validation.”
    God help her, she actually snorted. “The day I believe there’s an insecure little boy inside you is the day I believe I’ll sprout wings if I cluck hard enough.”
    His laughter was louder this time, lasted longer. Spread more damage. “Ah, Phoebe, you know me too well. How about the vindictive little boy inside me, then? Who wants to see the object of his hero worship groveling, admitting how much he’s wronged him, and how the guilt of his transgressions has never given him a moment’s peace?”
    She stilled. His eyes lost the crinkle of amusement as he stared back at her. And she saw it.
    A groan escaped her. “I don’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think there’s a vindictive little boy inside you, either. Whatever you have in there, I think it’s still