Body Heat (Vintage Category Romance) Read Online Free

and grasped both her upper arms. “Let me give you a little piece of advice: Don’t bet unless you know you can win.”
    Her eyes pinned him at arm ’s length. “I repeat: What do you care?”
    Darian felt his fingers tighten around her small upper arms. Why does she make me so angry? “I care because I don’t want a woman to die in my bed. You’re not going anywhere. It’s a long way to haul a corpse over my shoulder out of here.”
    Darian watched her eyes grow large with alarm. “Die?”
    He let go of her and she sank back into the pillows. “Look, you are a sick woman. When you got here yesterday you were in a near state of hypothermia, if not actually there. You’ve sprained your ankle and you’ve got scratches all over you, which we need to watch for infection. Not to mention that you’re probably going to get one hell of a nasty cold from wearing those wet clothes in this weather. You coughed and sneezed all night long. You’re not going anywhere until I say so.”
    She sat up on her elbows and glared at him. “Oh, really?”
    Darian leaned over to within inches from her face. “Yeah, really.”
    She tilted her chin. “I’ll walk out of here any time I damn well please.”
    He examined the obstinate way her perk y little face tilted up at him—the way her lower lip puffed out in defiance. “Not with that ankle, you won’t.”
    “ Then you’ll have to drive me.”
    “ Nope, no car.”
    “ Then I’ll walk.”
    “ In about a week.”
    “ I can’t stay here with you.”
    “ The nearest neighbor is three miles away. You don’t have a choice.” Darian could swear she moved her face closer just a bit. Or maybe he moved, but both their lips seemed only centimeters apart. His voice suddenly became softer, almost seductive. “You’re not well. You need bed rest and time for that ankle to heal. Until then, you’re staying right here.”
    And that gives me time to figure out what you’re up to, lady. And who sent you.
    Watching her swallow what he imagined to be a huge lump in her throat, she returned, “I guess I don’t have a choice.”
    One corner of his mouth drew up slightly. “I guess you don’t.”
    “ But only on one condition.”
    Darian arched an eyebrow to her. “Oh?”
    “ That I don’t do bed rest with you. You have to sleep somewhere else.”
    Darian quickly jerked his body backward and stood over her smiling. “Whatever you say. Not up to a repeat performance?”
    She jerked the pillow out from under her head and threw it. He had to stifle a smile as it caught it mid-air; then he watched her turn into the bed and pull the covers over her head.
    ****
    Blaire was so dizzy she could hardly stand it. Every time she’d jumped up or leaned forward or shouted to make a point, her head nearly split in two and her stomach lurched. She hadn’t really felt nauseous until she started moving. Perhaps because she hadn’t eaten for a while—she didn’t know. But the fact remained, that she felt about as chipper as limp linguini. And linguini that had laid in the water too long at that.
    So that was that. She was stuck. At least a week, he’d said, until her ankle could support her weight. Well, we’ll see about that. She’d play along long enough to get him to sign the damned document….
    Document. What did she do with the damned document?
    Argh. Still in the car….
    She sank deeper into M acGlenary’s feather pillows and lifted one corner of her covers to peek out into the cabin. He stood facing the fireplace, his back turned to her—his broad, naked back with sinews and cords stretched sexily across it—and pushed at the wood in the fireplace with an iron poker. He moved away and she watched next as he pumped some water from the sink into a kettle and set it on top of a wood-burning stove.
    No running water. Great…
    That’s when she noticed how nicely his broad shoulders tapered down into thin hips and a quite nice ass. He left the stove and stepped across the room to a