Eyes of Fire Read Online Free Page A

his hand out to her.
    If only she could bite the damned thing.
    â€œWelcome to Seafire Isle,” Sam said smoothly, offering her own hand. She took note of his when he gripped hers. Large, powerful. The nails were bluntly cut, clean. She had very long fingers. His engulfed hers.
    She drew her hand back quickly.
    â€œThanks,” he told her.
    â€œHave you come to stay, or are you with the dinner party coming in tonight from Freeport?”
    He shook his head. “No, I’m staying.”
    â€œReally?” She forced herself to sound interested. “Do you have a reservation?”
    Why was she playing this game? she asked herself.
    â€œNo, but your agent back at Freeport—Miss Jensen, is that right?—said that it’s slow season and you’d surely have one room left, at the least.”
    â€œDid Miss Jensen say that?” Sam murmured. She could imagine how happy Miss Irma Jensen would have been to say it. Sam had only recently hired her to book newcomers, dinner parties and day trips to Seafire Isle. She was a sixty-year-old spinster who was certain that Sam needed to marry soon—or become a hopeless old maid herself. Irma was always delighted to book single men onto the island. She was convinced she was eventually going to make a match.
    Not this time, Irma, Sam thought.
    â€œAre you a diver, Mister, er…” Lew Walker began.
    The newcomer nodded his dark head. “O’Connor. Adam O’Connor. And yes, I dive.”
    â€œYou’ll love the trips. The reefs are magnificent. And the wrecks are fascinating.”
    â€œWrecks are always fascinating.”
    â€œYes, but these are special. Sam entertains us with the history of each wreck before we reach it,” Judy said.
    â€œSam is always entertaining—I imagine,” Adam said politely.
    â€œBest dive vacation I’ve ever taken,” Sukee offered. She smiled. “Mr. O’Connor. The best,” she ended sibilantly. It had a nice sexy sound to it. She’d come to flirt with all the free males—and maybe a few who were not so free. She’d concentrated on Jim so far, but now it was evident that she’d discovered a new quarry to pursue. “I just know you’ll enjoy Sam.”
    Adam stared at Sam, those damned Ray-Bans back in place. “I’ll do my best,” he said politely.
    She wanted to slug him.
    God, she’d last seen him so long ago….
    And the way she felt hadn’t changed a whit. Yes, yes, it had, she assured herself. She still wanted to kill him, still wanted to…
    That was it. She simply wanted to throttle him. She was no longer crushed. She wasn’t a young woman barely turned twenty-one who was still madly, hopelessly in love with a slightly older man. A man with whom other women had been in love with as well. She wasn’t broken, desperate, longing for his touch, wanting to be held in his arms….
    She felt her cheeks reddening. She remembered the first moment she had seen him today, not knowing then who he was, wondering almost academically what he would look like minus most of his clothing. Well, she knew, and…
    She was over the bastard, she assured herself. Had been for a very long time now. A dozen things had happened in the years since that had made her forget him. Okay, not forget him, exactly, but relegate him to the past. Where he belonged.
    Still…
    If she’d never seen him before, she would have thought he was the type of man a woman might turn to in times of trouble—even if she was a woman confident in her own abilities. He had a touch of machismo about him. In fact, as she knew all too well, he could be damned irritating.
    But that didn’t alleviate a woman’s urge to get close to him. To touch him. Feel his warmth, his energy.
    Like a moth to a flame, she ridiculed herself. And her wings had been badly scorched.
    Just be cool, she warned herself now. Be mature.
    Darlene would certainly