Night Music Read Online Free Page B

Night Music
Book: Night Music Read Online Free
Author: Linda Cajio
Pages:
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matchmaking is working.”
    Abruptly Hilary stopped struggling.
    If her body squirming against his drove him to the brink, what it did relaxing against his was unprintable. This matchmaking could be more fun that he’d thought, Dev mused. “Anybody ever tell you you’ve got a body that won’t quit?”
    “Billy Idol. You’ve proven your point to the ‘audience.’ Now, let me go.”
    She was quick. He liked that. And she had jabbed him with her spoon, revealing an unexpected side to her that he’d like to explore further.
    “In a minute,” he said.
    He continued to hold her close as he gazed down at her, hoping to make her blink first. She stared right back, waiting for him to let her go. He felt something within him responding to her, dragging him forward. The control he’d felt throughout their kiss dissipated. He felt … ashamed that he’d kissed her the way he had … ashamed that he hadn’t cared about her feelings. The notion was disturbing, and he released her abruptly, allbut pushing her away in an effort to shake the sensation of vulnerability running through him.
    She stumbled backward, and he grabbed her arm. She steadied herself, then stared pointedly at his hand. He let her go. With one hand she smoothed her hair back into place.
    “Don’t worry,” he muttered. “I didn’t muss it. No one would know you were kissed. Believe me.”
    She looked at him strangely, and he wondered why his actions and emotions were so inconsistent. He didn’t like her. She represented everything he hated. And she made it obvious the feeling was mutual.
    “Shall we go in?” she asked.
    “Yeah. What the hell.” He opened the door for her, and she slipped inside gracefully. He strolled in after her, hands in his pockets.
    “Back already?” Lettice asked, smiling smugly. The rest of her cronies were beaming like neon lights. They hadn’t missed the performance. “Didn’t you show her the garden, Devlin? It’s my pride and joy.”
    He shrugged. “We saw it.”
    “It was lovely,” Hilary added.
    Dev snorted, amused by the contrast between her polite compliment and the way she looked. In the light it was easy to see the soft swelling of her mouth. Makeup was not responsible for either the redness of her lips or the flush on her cheeks. They were only the outward signs, though, he reminded himself. Inside, the freeze was still on. He bet she wasn’t capable of thawing.
    A restlessness he didn’t understand welled up inside him, and he couldn’t stand all this nonsense any longer. “Thanks for dinner, Grandmother.”
    He turned on his heel and strode out the French doors, slamming them shut behind him. The glass panes rattled ominously.
    The long ride home to Wildwood didn’t rid him of his strange anxiety, and he headed straight to the docks on the bay. The
Madeline Jo
was berthed in the last slip, forty feet of gleaming white and brass. In the darkness he climbed aboard and slipped the ropes off the pilings, then pushed the boat away from the dock.
    Once above in the pilot’s cabin, he turned the key in the ignition. The engines rumbled to life, and the
Madeline Jo
floated like a ghost across the water. It was insane to take a boat out in the dead of night, but he didn’t care. It didn’t matter, either, that he had a fishing charter at six the next morning.
    He had to work off Hilary Rayburn before she got any farther under his skin.
    Out on the water, though, painful memories came back. Memories he hadn’t allowed in years and yet lived with every day. Memories of the spring his senior year in college. He’d thought he was invincible then. He’d thought he could do anything. He’d had money, power, a family name that all the right people recognized instantly. And he’d been obsessed with his best friend’s fiancée.
    He’d wanted Madeline Joanne Belford from the first moment he’d seen her. She was beautiful, and she knew it. And she was Christopher’s. That she didn’t pay quite as much
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