Blindsided Read Online Free Page A

right now?” Nate asked.
    Chelsea felt her face flush. She hadn’t expected to have to answer such a blunt question. The answer still made her queasy.
    “I’m, um. Uh, I’m taking a little break. For a few weeks.” Eight was a few.
    “Well, I’m a little jealous that you actually see local culture when you travel. The older I get, the more I wish we had time for that. It doesn’t really feel like traveling the world when all you see is concert halls and hotel rooms.”
    “Which you trash,” Chelsea said, smiling to let him know she was kidding. She was worried he was going to think she had no sense of humor.
    “Of course. It’s actually the law in some countries. Though lately I’ve been hiring other people to do it for me. It’s a perk of getting famous,” Nate said with another dangerous grin.
    That grin would be the death of her, she thought. That and his big, toned chest and long legs.
    “What the hell is that thing?” Nate asked with a sudden grimace.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 2
    Chelsea jumped, alarmed by the prospect of encountering something that would scare a man like Nate. Following the direction of his finger, all she saw was Bunny. Nate seemed to be trying to decide whether to laugh or scream in horror. That got her hackles up and for a moment she almost didn’t notice the way his eyes glittered with amusement. Almost.
    “What do you mean what the hell is it? It’s a car. A VW Rabbit, to be precise. Her name is Bunny,” she added and then immediately wished she hadn’t. No one really needed to know she had named her car, and uncreatively at that.
    “You drive a primer gray nineteen seventy-five Rabbit named Bunny?”
    The look he gave her was equal parts amusement and incredulity. It filled her with equal parts rage and lust. He pissed her off and turned her on simultaneously. It wasn’t a nice feeling, but it was annoyingly addictive nonetheless.
    “It’s a nineteen eighty,” Chelsea said hotly. “And I have to, um, get it painted.”
    Her anger guttered out. Bunny was old and she hadn’t been good about keeping up on the maintenance. Looking at her through Nate’s eyes, she could see poor Bunny was in sad shape. Just the same, she loved that damn car and she’d take enough crap from Tony about it for the past 12 years. He’d always tried foisting his old cars off on her, but nothing would budge her loyalty to Bunny. If her brother couldn’t do it, then a stranger with way too many tattoos didn’t have a chance in hell. She and Bunny had been through a lot together.
    “It’s a good car. I’ve had it a long time.”
    Nate snorted.
    “Whatever, babe. It’s not in good shape,” he said.
    They had reached Bunny and he surveyed the car with a look of disdain on his face.
    “Well no shit!” Chelsea said more loudly than she had intended, “It’s broken, isn’t it? And don’t call me babe, or sweetheart, or any other little pet name you might come up with. You barely know me.”
    And she needed to remind herself that she wasn’t his babe, his sweetheart. It was all too easy to fall into that trap. If you let them, guys like this would have you doing all sorts of things for them and you’d be thinking they cared about you. Then everything would fall apart and they’d make it clear that their priorities would always be themselves. Chelsea was too old and too experienced to fall for the grin and pet names. She just had to make sure her mind kept her body in check.
    “Sorry, Ms. Spencer,” Nate said with a sneer. His smile fell off his face. “But this car is older than you are.”
    “No it’s not. I’m two years older.”
    And right about now she sounded like she was about two years old, period. She quickly removed her hands from her hips. The stance smacked of a child about to have a tantrum and she felt unbalanced enough by Nate as it was. Feeling like a child would only make matters worse.
    “Oh, my apologies. The point is, it hasn’t been taken