Bird of Paradise Read Online Free

hundred or so people leaning
forward to catch the words as they left his lips. Adam took a deep
breath, swearing to himself that if he lived through this, he
really would see to it that his name was put down for sainthood.
“My friends, I am a contestant like the rest of you. I am here
purely as an amateur, not as an expert in the field of sexuality. I
ask that you not treat me any differently than anyone else on the
show. I appreciate the request, but I’m sure no one here really
wants to hear that silly catchphrase. Thank you.”
    “Say it!” they roared back at him.
    He sighed again, then gave in to the
inevitable as gracefully as possible. “And then my nipples exploded
in delight.”
    The entire body of passengers, himself and
Sally excepted, burst into ear-shattering cheers. Adam forced a
smile onto his lips, gave a light bow to acknowledge the applause,
and took his seat.
    He really was going to have to kill
Edgar.

Chapter Two
     
    “Depraved, all of them. Nothing but a bunch
of depraved steroid-riddled sex fiends,” Hero muttered to herself
as she stood behind a large potted palm as the Mystique Island
airport watching the men ogle the women. She was taking furtive
photographs, unwilling to let anyone see her snapping their photos
lest it lead to explanations she didn’t want to make. She took a
picture of a particularly lustful leer on a man’s face, and
corrected her statement. The men were ogling all the women but her,
that is. Did she care? She did not! She had better things to do
than allow a bunch of beefy, perfectly coiffed male American sex
fiends to ogle her. She had some standards, after all. No matter
what anyone else might think, she was not desperate; lots of women
lived perfectly happy, successful lives without a man. She would
simply be one of them. There was certainly nothing here to tempt
her, no cause to be worried about Gemma’s dire prediction.
    “Jesus, no!”
    The hoarse whisper caught her attention as
much as the person tugging on the back fringe of her
blue-and-purple batik cotton wrap. She hastily punched random
buttons to turn the digital camera off and stashed it in her purse
before she spun around in time to see the fringe disappearing into
the hole on the side of a black plastic box with a handle on the
top. A man squatted next to the box, speaking to it quietly but
firmly. “Let go of it, cat.”
    Hero’s eyebrows rose. There was a cat in the
box? Someone was bringing a cat to the island? She thought the
television show had taken over the entire resort for the duration
of the show—why on earth would a man bring his cat with him to a
film dating show?
    “How many times do I have to tell you not to
grab at ladies’ dresses?”
    Her eyebrows arched higher as she looked
down at the doubled-up figure of the man as he tugged her fringe
out of the box. “Let go of it, damn you! I’ll buy you your own
fringe later. Jesus, drop it!”
    A frown forced her eyebrows together.
Honestly, American men! If they weren’t sex fiend oglers, they
swore at innocent cats. She wanted nothing to do with them,
absolutely nothing. The next few weeks were going to be sheer and
utter hell.
    Still she didn’t like to see a cat in
trouble.
    “Perhaps I can help.” She said as she knelt
down carefully next to him, reaching for the material he was
tugging out of the box. “I have a way with animals, and I’m very
fond of cats.”
    The man looked up, blinking at her as she
gasped in response, all the air in her lungs having suddenly
disappeared. Dear Lord, he was gorgeous. Oh, not in the
conventional manner, but in a much more devastating way, a way that
suddenly made her feel extremely conscious of the fact that she had
given up far too early on the latest diet guaranteed to whisk away
unwanted pounds. He was perfection, he was manliness personified,
he was everything she’d ever loved in a man—short black hair, two
ebony swoops of eyebrows, lovely little laugh crinkles around dark
blue eyes,