The Best Mistake of Her Life Read Online Free Page B

and finally turned her face to brave a look at him. “But I don’t understand how BASE jumping led to your career.”
    “The second unit director of my first paid stunt, a low-budget film, just happened to be wandering by when I jumped from an antennae tower in Hollywood. A friend had to give him my name because, when I landed, I was too busy running from the security guard.”
    She lifted a brow. “The authorities don’t look too kindly on people trespassing.”
    “Like I said, it’s no fun unless there is an element of danger.”
    “Yes,” she said with barely restrained sarcasm. “Because plummeting toward earth at high rates of speed isn’t dangerous enough.”
    He stepped around her, leaning his back against the wall, the indolent pose made all the more sensual by the lean muscle in his arms and in the thighs beneath his jeans. “There is a crazy system in the stunt business. You have to be ballsy, but not
too
ballsy. Four out of five and you’re crazy enough to do anything required to get the job done. When you hit five …” He lifted a shoulder and stared at her with a trace of amusement. “When you get to five you’re just too crazy to deal with on the set.”
    Crazy
sounded right.
    Kate tipped her head. “Which one are you?”
    His trace of a grin grew bigger. “Depends on who you ask.”
    Chaos. Disarray. Memphis’s life had always been notably fraught with disorder, not to mention danger. It was just one of many reasons why Kate’s parents had forbidden her brother frombeing his friend. Not that Brian had ever followed the rules, either.
    Avoiding his gaze, she ran a hand along the smooth edge of the picture frame, fighting back the memories of a passion the likes of which she had never known before nor experienced since. The messy, chaotically electric feelings overwhelmed her in every sense of the word. Their exhilarating night had marked the midway point in her bleak, eight-year marriage, leaving Kate more alive in that moment than in the four years preceding or the four years after.
    “How long will you be around?” she said. She hoped the question came out as simple civil conversation instead of real curiosity.
    “As short a time as humanly possible.”
    For some reason, his response bothered her, and she lifted her gaze to meet his. “Are you in that much of a hurry to leave?”
    Memphis let out a sharp bark of a humorless laugh. “As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t enough stunts like the one I did today. I took the job despite the fact it meant returning to Miami.”
    “I heard your parents moved.”
    “I bought them a place in California several years ago, so there’s nothing left for me here.”
    She ignored the obvious fact that Brian lived here. That Kate Anderson didn’t factor into his equation was no surprise.
    “Where is home now?” she said.
    “Wherever my next big gag is scheduled to take place.”
    “Gag?” she asked, confused by the unfamiliar term.
    “Stunt,” he clarified.
    “Do you plan to keep up this nomadic existence forever?” She narrowed her eyes doubtfully. “And just what is your long-term career goal, outside of being labeled the man who never says no to leaping off tall buildings?”
    “To be the best damn high-fall stuntman in Hollywood.”
    She studied him for a moment. “And when does that happen?”
    He stared at her, and, although his posture was relaxed, uncaring, the intensity in his eyes gave him away. “When everyone knows my name,” he said, as if the simple statement justified his insane job.
    Before she could ask any more questions, he nodded in the direction of the hallway. “If you want to check out my clothes you’ll have to go to my closet,” he said, sending her belly BASE jumping for her toes, those sinfully sexy eyes far too steady on hers. “My bedroom is at the end of the hallway.”
    The mood grew strained as Memphis followed Kate down the corridor. His chest grew tight, a potent mix of desire, tension and a