Read Once in Paris for Free Online

and started back down the pier toward the wharf, her long hair flying away in the breeze. She knew that he wanted nothing to do with her; he’d made that clear at the party. She was willing to oblige him.
    â€œOh, hell, stop!”
    She froze, but she wouldn’t turn around. “Yes?” she asked.
    All around them, tourists walked past, talking excitedly, gesturing. Nearby, one of the boat owners was singing a West Indian tune, hoping to attract more business with his talent. Brianne was hardly aware of the noise. Her heart was beating so loudly that it shook her.
    She felt the warmth of his body at her back.
    â€œI’ve been trying to forget Paris,” he said after a minute.
    â€œYou, and Humphrey Bogart,” she said dryly.
    â€œWhat? Oh. Oh!” He chuckled. “I see.”
    She turned around then and squared her shoulders. “Look, you don’t owe me a thing. I don’t want rewards or even attention. I’m doing all right. I think Kurt will be more than willing to put me through college just to get me out of his hair.”
    His eyes narrowed. “That isn’t what local gossip says. I hear there’s a move to involve you with his brand-new business partner, a sort of family merger.”
    She lost color, but she didn’t blink an eyelash. “Really?”
    â€œDon’t prevaricate,” he said impatiently. “I know everything that goes on in Nassau.”
    She felt her blood go cold. Kurt hadn’t said any such thing to her, but if it was common knowledge around the island, it might be true. She straightened her shoulders. “I can take care of myself.”
    â€œAt nineteen?”
    â€œTwenty,” she corrected him. “I had a birthday this week.”
    He made a rough sound. “Okay, maybe you’re not such a kid, after all. And maybe youcan take care of yourself, in your own league. But, honey, you’re fighting city hall when you tangle with Kurt Brauer, much less with Sabon.”
    â€œSomething you know from experience?”
    He cocked an eyebrow and smiled. He didn’t want to tell her that he’d once intervened in a shady oil deal that Brauer was making with a terrorist group to provide them with arms in return for making an assault on a rival’s oil tanker fleet. That information hadn’t gone past his own security chief, Tate Winthrop, a former government operative who’d foiled Brauer’s attempted coup. Winthrop was a full-blooded Sioux Indian with a mysterious background and friends in some of the highest offices in Washington, D.C. He had sources that even Pierce didn’t.
    He smiled at Brianne. “I didn’t say I couldn’t win. I said you couldn’t. Where are you in such a hurry to go?”
    â€œI thought I’d get on my swimsuit and lie on the beach for a while. Kurt owns the Britanny Bay Hotel, you know. I can use the facilities there, and I keep a bathing suit in the office.”
    â€œCome home with me. I have a private beach. You can swim there.”
    She remembered his attitude the night before and hesitated. “You don’t really want me around.”
    â€œNo,” he agreed at once. “I don’t. But you need someone. I seem to be all you’ve got right now.”
    She flushed with angry pride. “Thanks a lot!”
    â€œDon’t knock it,” he added heavily, and his eyes were resigned and quiet as he studied her. “You’re all I’ve got.”
    The statement rocked her right down to her feet. He was the most astounding man. He came out with the most profound things at the oddest times.
    â€œI told you,” he added, “that I don’t have family. I was an only child, and after Margo miscarried, she couldn’t conceive again. Except for some cousins in Greece and France and Argentina—all distant—I have no family. And no close friends.” He stuck his hands in his slacks pockets and stared