Stand-In Star Read Online Free

eyes, he added, “And Daisy mentioned you were a teacher.”
    “Obviously the grapevine failed her.” She spoke caustically but her grip loosened on her bag nonetheless. “I’m not a teacher. I’m a cultural anthropologist and I tutor first year university students.”
    He shrugged. In other words, her world was light years from his. “Either way I’d have thought you sensible enough to see I’m offering nothing sinister—just a room to the sister of an old friend. If you’d rather share quarters with ten people and the media, suit yourself.”
    He told himself his insistence had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that, beneath her plain attire, she was one of the most attractive woman he’d come across in a long while and everything to do with some twisted sense of duty. He had standards and although Holly more than met them physically, her values left lots to be desired. He’d spent the first half of his life with a man who treated his nearest and dearest like dirt and although Holly didn’t appear to resemble his father in any way, shape or form, he couldn’t ignore what she’d done to Daisy.
    She eyed him again as if she were trying to read a page of hieroglyphics. “My gut instinct is telling me to get out this car while I can and brave the welcoming party out there.”
    His chest tightened stupidly at the thought. “But?”
    “I no longer trust my gut.” She reached for the seatbelt, scraped it back over her chest and shoved it in till it clicked. “I don’t know why you’re doing this for me and I’m thinking I’m highly likely to regret this decision at some point in the near future, but if you’re serious about offering me a room, then I’ll take it.”
    Nate glanced in his rear view mirror and turned the Viper back into the traffic. He drove fast at first and detoured down side roads he didn’t need to take to ensure he lost any persistent followers. Most of the people behind the cameras would recognize him and it wouldn’t take long for them to find Holly at his place, but at least he had high-tech security to give her some kind of privacy.
    During the twenty minutes it took to drive from central Hollywood to his house in Bel Air, neither of them said a word and it wasn’t what you’d call comfortable silence.
    He summoned all the resolve he could not to turn his head in her direction but, almost home, he couldn’t help a quick glance sideways. She took his breath away. Sitting as if she were perched on a bed of nails rather than soft, plush leather upholstery only served to accentuate the perfection of her upper half. His throat tightened as his gaze dove from her pale, smooth neck to the vee between her breasts, slightly visible thanks to her top button having come undone.
    “Watch out!”
    Her voice snapped his eyes back to the road and he swerved to avoid a large, primly groomed poodle and its owner trotting down the side walk. Holy Hell…he’d almost driven off the road. His heart thundering, he glanced backward to see the middle finger of the dog owner standing at attention, aimed right at him. He couldn’t blame the man. Nate prided himself on steely determination and the ability not to get distracted by anything, especially women. It was this willpower that had given him the guts and resolve to stand up to his deadbeat father and make something of himself.
    It wasn’t that he ignored women. He was one hundred percent American male and indulged in sensual recreations on a fairly regular basis, but he never let himself get completely affected. Part of his mind was always firmly rooted in his goals. Rooted in maintaining his success so he never had to go back. But something about Holly had him forgetting simple things such as road rules. He tightened his fists on the steering wheel.
    Acting as if nothing had happened, he turned down his street and fished the security remote from the compartment between the two front seats. As his two wrought-iron gates peeled open in