Unmasking Kelsey Read Online Free Page A

Meditron. Unless she had realized what had happened to worry you so. Where’s your other sister, Elizabeth? Where’s Jo?”
    She was utterly still, dead white, and there was anguish in her eyes. Then it was gone, and she was in control again. “Get out of my house,” she said flatly.
    “Let me help you.”
    “Get out.”
    Kelsey drew a deep breath and released it slowly. “And if I did leave? I’m still on this job, Elizabeth, I still have to find out what’s going on, whether you help me or not. It’s what I
do
. I stick my nose into things and I turn over rocks to see what crawls out from under them. I shake the cage until something rattles loose. And if your sister’s in that cage, she could get hurt.” He paused. “Of course, you could stop me. You could call Meditron—or Blaine Mallory; he runs the place, doesn’t he? You could call him and warn him about me.”
    “Stop it,” she whispered.
    He could see she was trembling suddenly, and it hurt him. Unconsciously, his voice deepened and gentled. “Don’t you see that I have to know how your sister is involved in this? I have to know, Elizabeth, so I can help her too. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to find out for myself—and she could get hurt. I don’t want that.”
    “I can’t tell you anything,” she said from between stiff lips. “Anything at all.”
    “You’re too damned independent for your own good,” he said softly. “Too proud to ask for help. Or is it something else? Are they holding Jo somewhere as a hostage, Elizabeth? Is that it? Have they threatened her if you don’t keep quiet?”
    “Please leave.”
    “You can’t go it alone, don’t you see? It’s obviously tearing you apart. And there’s Ami. She’s worried too. And maybe your other sister knows more than you think. If it’s blackmail, I can help; if they’re holding Jo, I can help.”
    “You’re a stranger.” She spoke in the same soft, stiff voice.
    “Yes. So you’ll have to decide to trust me, won’t you? Trust me, and let me help you.”
    A door banged sharply at the front of the house.
    “Beth?” a deep masculine voice called briskly.
    Kelsey glanced over his shoulder, then quickly at Elizabeth.
    “It’s Blaine,” she murmured, a riot of emotions in her eyes.
    Taking two quick steps to stand before her, Kelsey reached to grasp her shoulders and draw her stiff body into his arms. “Trust me,” he whispered, and covered her startled lips with his own.
    He could feel her resistance at first in the tautness of her muscles, feel her hands come up to his chest as if she would have pushed him away. Her eyes were wide at first, panicked. But then he felt a shudder pass through her. Her dark lashes slowly veiled the iridescent green eyes, and the tension drained from her body.
    And in the space of a heartbeat, Kelsey’s half-formed plan became less professional and much more personal. He stopped thinking about knocking Blaine Mallory off balance and flauntinghis own presence innocently as a man interested in Elizabeth Conner. He stopped thinking about all the possibilities in this situation, the overtones and undercurrents of danger. He stopped thinking of why he was here. He stopped thinking.
    Some distant part of him admitted silently that he had wanted to kiss her, and never mind professional needs.
    She was warm and soft in his arms, her body melding bonelessly against his with no more than a slight pressure from his hand at the small of her back. Her mouth came alive in an instant, opening to him, her arms sliding slowly upward until her fingers lost themselves in his hair. And he pulled her suddenly even tighter against him, everything forgotten but the need to feel her body close to his.

T WO
    “D AMMIT , B ETH, WILL you call off this brute of yours—” The man’s voice broke off abruptly.
    Kelsey, drowning in sensation, didn’t want to hold his head above the water. And the woman in his arms seemed utterly unconcerned about having an