Deceptively Yours (Wanton Weston Women, Book Two) Read Online Free Page B

walking up to the stage where she was giving Suzanne’s speech?
    A flash of reflected light drew her attention to the hillside. Was there someone out there? She gasped and drew the towel around her.
    * * * * *
     
    Guy stopped and took another glance in the woman’s direction. She seemed to be searching the hillside for something. Even though he knew she couldn’t possibly have spotted him, he ducked behind a cluster of palm trees. When he looked again, she was diving into the pool, graceful as a swan, a far cry from the adorably clumsy woman she’d appeared seconds earlier.
    She swam the length and back, then climbed out and took her seat on the lounge chair. He got a better glimpse of her face since she kept her glasses off for a minute and he liked what he saw.
    He could almost make out the color of her nipples poking against the wet, white fabric of her bra as she stretched out. Hot as the scenery was, he didn’t want to invade her privacy. Besides, he had work to do, so he reluctantly forced himself to shift his focus to the other homes.
    The villa next door to the woman’s appeared to be vacant, at least for the moment. Since he’d noticed signs of guests at all the others, he concluded that was the available one. But as he scanned the windows, he thought he glimpsed someone inside. Zeroing in on the spot, he didn’t see anything. Maybe it had been a shadow.
    God, he didn’t want to think about the blonde staying there all alone, especially in light of the fact that a dangerous fugitive might be close by.
    Could the elusive shadow have been a man who didn’t want to be spotted? He negotiated the steep grade down to the hedge between the woman’s house and the one next door. Sidestepping along the shrubs, he ducked below a window of the supposedly empty villa and peeked inside a bedroom. The place looked deserted, but he wanted to be sure that shadow had only been his imagination. He refused to take any chances, particularly with a beautiful, unsuspecting woman who was apparently staying by herself.
    He wedged himself along the narrow space between the tall hedge and the side of the house and made his way to the next window. The kitchen and breakfast nook appeared empty too. He was about to move on when a light went on in another room, spilling an angular shadow onto the tile floor.
    His senses shifted into high alert. He drew his weapon and headed toward the pool area a few yards away. The glass doors gave him a wider perspective of the interior. A figure came into view inside.
    He relaxed a little when he caught sight of the woman’s uniform and the vacuum cleaner she pushed over the floor.
    Damn it. If it had been Harry he could have grabbed him and wrapped up the case. But maybe the villa was being cleaned in preparation for a soon-to-be-arriving guest. Harry might still come and since this was the only unoccupied house, he needed to keep an eye on it and on the unsuspecting woman next door. Returning his gun to the holster, he slipped back into the bushes the way he’d come.
    * * * * *
     
    Laura sighed as she read about the romantic kiss between the vampire and the woman he’d almost bitten. But soon enough their worlds would come crashing down and tear them apart.
    Sudden movement in the hedges drew her attention to the other side of the patio and started her heart pounding. She set her book on the chair then immediately wrapped a towel around herself and toed on her sandals. She grabbed the tongs from the outdoor grill as a weapon, just in case a wild animal threatened her.
    There it was again. Something was definitely pushing its way through the bushes. She hurried over to get a better look and gasped at what she saw.
    A man appeared to be spying on the house next door. Was he a peeping Tom? Most everyone on the island was here for the convention and from reading the agenda, it sounded as if the guests would be spending much of their time in the nude. So why bother peeping?
    Had he been watching