Instant Temptation Read Online Free Page A

things that could go wrong. Hell, he’d probably seen every possible one of them.

    “Look,” she said, sounding irritated. “I realize that those loaded silences of yours probably yield you all the information you could want from a woman, mostly because one look from you and they probably melt, but they don’t work on me.”

    He felt the smile curve his mouth. “You think I melt women?”

    “It’s September,” she said, ignoring that. “You and I both know there’s no one even out there this time of year except the occasional wild animal. I’m prepared. It’s perfectly safe.”

    “Not alone it isn’t.”

    “So I’ll scratch you off my short list of supporters.”

    He caught her wrist as she surged to her feet. “Harley—”

    “I want this Colorado job,” she said quietly, giving nothing away in her expression. “And…”

    And she needed the money from it. That was plain as day. He no longer lived hand to mouth but he’d been there, and it sucked. “We’re hiring,” he said. “I wasn’t bullshitting about that.” Wilder Adventures was overwhelmed and overloaded, and they’d been trying to hire for weeks. It wasn’t easy to find qualified people. “You’d be perfect for the guided hikes we offer, and with your photography skills and education, we could even tailor some of them toward wildlife education, stuff like that.”

    “If I finish this research project, I’ll have a job.”

    “In Colorado.”

    “Yeah.”

    “You really want to leave here?”

    She pulled her wrist from his grip and went to the sink, looking out the window. TJ knew her dad had lost his store, that her mom had a hard time keeping a job, that her sister hadn’t gotten a scholarship, and as the only one working, they needed her, depended on her. Standing, he came up behind her.

    Out the window in front of them, for as far as the eye could see, lay the glorious Sierra mountain peaks, blanketed in vibrant fall colors. The lack of concrete was soothing. No sidewalks, no other buildings, no traffic. Nothing but nature. It’d rained earlier, leaving everything fresh and clean and sharp.

    “I never get tired of the view,” she murmured, reading his mind.

    “Me either. Annie framed that shot you took of Granite Flats. She’s hanging it in the lodge reception room. It’s an amazing shot, Harley.”

    “Thanks.”

    Taking her hand, accepting the little frisson of awareness that zinged through his body, he tugged her back to the table. “Show me your route.”

    “So you know where to find my body?”

    He shot her a level look, and she flashed him a smile. He loved her smile, it was wide and warm and rare, and he found himself smiling back helplessly. “Take someone with you.”

    “Who? You?”

    “Why not?”

    “Don’t you have another big trip coming up?”

    “I do. A four-week trip across the Canadian Divide in about ten days. But I have time for this. All you have to do is ask.”

    She was silent, either too proud to ask, or hel , maybe she really didn’t want his help. He ran his thumb over the pulse point at the base of her wrist and felt it leap. “I’ve spent a lot of time being baffled by your prickliness with me, but not, I don’t think, enough to wonder why. Until now.” He met her gaze.
    “Why, Harley?”

    “I’m prickly with everyone.”

    Maybe. But beneath his fingers her pulse had picked up speed. Behind that irritation she wore like a coat, he did affect her, maybe every bit as much as she affected him.

    “I’ll ask someone,” she said quietly.

    “But not me. You don’t want it to be me.”

    “No.”

    His lips curved. “Another lie,” he murmured. “You’re racking them up. Your nose is going to start growing.”

    She pushed free of him and paced the length of the kitchen, which meant she got about five feet before turning around and smacking right into the hard wall of TJ’s chest. He stood there, filling the kitchen with his larger-than-life presence,