Double Dare Read Online Free Page B

her face. “Uh, well…good,” she remarked for
the lack of anything more clever to say. “Lunch should be here in a
few minutes.”
    “ Great, because we don’t
have very much time.”
    Lou paused and turned to face him. For some
unknown reason, apprehension momentarily gripped her. “We
don’t?”
    “ That’s not a problem, is
it?” Seemingly perplexed he paused and gave her a look. Concerned
shadowed his steely gaze. “You said you need to get started
immediately.”
    “ Oh, no. It’s fine,” she
assured. “The sooner the better.”
    Feeling foolish, Lou shrugged off her
uncertainty. This was what she wanted. Needed. Undoubtedly, she was
plagued by last-minute jitters because she hadn’t contacted her
father.
    Manipulative though he was, her father wasn’t
a bad person. Just a misguided one. She knew he’d worry, and didn’t
want the guilt of his unwarranted anxiety heaped upon her
shoulders. Lou worried her bottom lip. She’d send him a note, a
telegram—were there still telegrams? Maybe the old fashioned yellow
missive would only worry him more. Since her mother’s accidental
death eleven years ago, James Honeycutt had becoming obsessively
overprotective. Lou appreciated and even understood his concerns,
but she still needed some breathing room. And a measure of
freedom.
    She fully intended to have it. Starting
now.
    She took a deep breath and blew it out with a
whoosh. “So, when do we leave?”
    His gaze shot to hers. “At a quarter ‘til
five. We need to be at the airport an hour before departure.” He
paused and scratched his temple. “I’ve brought along some paperwork
you need to sign.”
    Lou whistled inwardly. He worked fast.
Puzzled, she frowned. “What kind of paperwork?”
    “ A disclaimer of sorts,” Sam
replied, leafing through the sheaf of papers he’d brought along. He
gave her a sheepish look. “In the event you meet an untimely demise
during your, er, adventure.”
    “ Ah,” Lou replied, lifting
her chin knowingly. “You wouldn’t want to be held liable for my
folly. Say, if I got eaten by a shark? Or trampled by
Bigfoot?”
    He treated her to another of those sexy half
smiles. “Exactly.” Sam plowed a hand through his hair, then reached
back and rubbed his neck. He shot her a sideways glance. “You were
kidding about the shark thing, right?”
    Lou laughed. “Oh, definitely.”
    Seemingly relieved, he anchored a hand at his
waist and leaned casually against a dining room chair. “Well, in
that case, how do you feel about manatees?”
    The smile Lou wore froze on her face as she
listened with feigned interest while Sam briefly outlined the first
part of the adventure. Regret tugged his lips and he shrugged
apologetically. “I know it’s probably not what you had in mind, but
I think that you’ll enjoy them.”
    Well, he’d been right, she thought. It wasn’t
exactly what she’d had in mind. Lou had imagined herself in a
postcard-perfect travel fantasy, oohing and ahing over the
brilliant colors of tropical fish—not slogging along behind a
sea-cow. On the plus side, she’d look particularly thin compared to
the aquatic heifer.
    “ It sounds lovely,” she told
him, giving him a nod. “A nice start to my adventure. Speaking of
which,” she said, pivoting on her heel,” I made a list of things
I’d like to do over the next couple of weeks.” Lou hurried to her
room, then returned with her notepad. She’d almost reached Sam’s
side when lunch arrived. She thrust the pad at him. “Here. You can
go over it while I take care of lunch.”
    When Lou returned, Sam had made himself
comfortable at the table. An ankle hooked over his knee, he’d
pushed the chair back and sat in a casually slouched position she
found inherently sexy. Only a man completely comfortable in his own
skin could appear that relaxed in such a short period of time.
    Looking at her notepad, he wore a bemused
smile. He glanced up as she approached. His eyes twinkled with
undisguised