A Weekend Temptation Read Online Free Page A

hand the stresses that went along with being a single parent and wanted to avoid them.
    “I agree with you, a child should have two parents but…” He tapped his glass with one finger. “You want a husband?”
    She nodded and glared. He didn’t deserve an answer.
    “So you’re not coming back to work?”
    “Have you been listening? Did you, or did you not see me dining with the handsome suck-up?”
    He laughed. “I did.” His smile sent her pulse sky-rocketing, like it always did.
    “When Grant asked me out, he seemed like a good catch. I wish I could have seen what a jerk he was before I invested all afternoon with him. I don’t want to have hundreds of dates with losers. I’d rather get a root canal. I want to skip ahead and date Mr. Perfect, now.”
    “You’re going to quit and devote all of your time for husband hunting? Most women work and date at the same time. Most dates are at night.”
    “Most women don’t work for a man who dominates their every waking hour, filling their evening and weekend hours with work.”
    “But you love the job. You’ve never complained before.”
    “I’ve always had a plan. Devote a certain amount of time to my career then, when the time’s right, focus on my family life.”
    “What if I cut you back to forty-hours a week?”
    “Even if I believed you’d actually do that, it’s still not good enough.”
    “Why?” He tilted his dark head. “Why don’t you want to work for me? Do you think about me, about that night when I kissed you?”
    Could he read her thoughts? Her mouth opened then closed.
    “You and I want the same things. Both of us want to be married and are having a problem finding the right mate.” His expression turned serious. All hint of warm seduction left his face.
    “You are not asking me to marry you, are you?”

Chapter Three
    Ava blinked. Joel wanted to be her husband? It didn’t seem possible.
    “No. Of course I’m not proposing. We don’t belong together,” he said.
    His flat tone should not have made her heart squeeze. It was the truth, but hearing it from his lips was pure pain. “What exactly do you want?” She tried not to snarl.
    “I want what I’ve wanted since the day my lips claimed yours. I want to know what it’s like to take you to my bed.” His voice was low and deep.
    “You d-did not just ask me to…” Her cheeks burned. What he asked made more sense than a marriage proposal, because she wasn’t in the same league or even the ballpark with the likes of Claudia LeMure, and that female prize had struck out with Joel. If Claudia couldn’t win a wedding ring, what hope would a regular girl like Ava have?
    “I want to take you to my private island and make love to you until your muscles liquefy.”
    She swallowed and took a second to remember how to speak. “The last time you kissed me, you broke your cardinal rule of no drinking and cleaned out your office bar. Did you do that again?”
    He shook his head. “No. But I can’t get you out of my mind, because we never reached completion.”
    She grabbed her drink and drained half of it, glad for the potency of the wine. Praying the depressant would relax her shaking body, she replied, “No.”
    “It makes sense why it’s so hard for us to find the right spouses. We have unfinished business between us.”
    “What makes sense is that you need a doctor-prescribed vacation. A vacation alone. Or with Claudia in your bed, not me.” She finished the rest of her wine and smiled as the waitress refilled her glass. The dear woman must know what it was like to be offered a dream for exactly the wrong reasons.
    “I don’t want Claudia. She’s no longer my fiancée. I want you.”
    She should tell him “No way in hell,” but his arrogance would never accept it, and she wasn’t much of a liar anyway. “I should be finding a husband not wasting time in your bed—”
    “If you spent even a minute in my bed, I promise, it wouldn’t be a waste of your time. You’d