The Count From Wisconsin Read Online Free

questions," she said at last.
    "So answer two questions," he said in exasperation.
    She stood for a moment gazing up at the stars, then cut her eyes back toward him. "My stomach."
    "I beg your pardon?"
    "I'm starving to death," she said emphatically. "I can't understand why you didn't hear it. It definitely wasn't a discreet growl," she added in a disgruntled voice. "It was one of those that starts high and picks up momentum as it gets lower, throwing in artistic pings and thrums as it goes."
    "Pings and thrums?" he asked, throwing back his head to laugh In uninhibited enjoyment.
    She grinned at him, unable to resist his laughter. "I never did manage to find the food in that gargantuan house and my stomach reminded me at a very opportune moment ... I'm sorry, what did you say?"
    "Nothing. Nothing at all," he said, his laugh settling down to a chuckle as he threw a companionable arm around her shoulders. "I don't think I've ever been thrown over for a canape before. I can't say that I like it and it certainty doesn't do much for my image."
    She began to walk again with him beside her. Somehow it seemed natural to be walking through the trees like that while he held her intimately at his side. She glanced up at him. "What's your image?"
    "Suave pervert," he said without hesitation. She acknowledged the thrust with a spurt of startled laughter.
    "No, I was wrong," she said without rancor. "You belong here, don't you?" Her glance became speculative when she asked as an afterthought, "What exactly do you do?"
    There was a barely perceptible pause before he answered. "A little of everything."
    "You mean like a handyman?"
    "You could say that," he said, nodding. "As a matter of fact, I'm very handy at finding food."
    He stopped suddenly and Kate looked up to find they were standing at a side entrance to the villa. When she realized he planned to usher her through the door, she dug in her heels, suddenly refusing to budge.
    She was doing it again, she thought in amazement. She was amiably going along with a man unknown to her, a man she had never seen before tonight.
    She reached out to retrieve her glasses from his pocket, slipped them on, then leaned against the wall as she began to search the figure before her for a clue to her incredible behavior.
    He was not a man who would ever be mistaken for someone else. Not handsome In the conventional sense, his face was breathtakingly striking—a piece of granite chipped away to reveal strong, almost harsh lines. His features had an ageless quality that could have placed him anywhere between thirty and forty-five, and his deep tan merely added to his dark image. A bit longer than was fashionable, his black hair and rugged, unconventional features gave him a look of barely contained power so exciting Kate had to struggle to control her escalating pulse rate.
    "Well, what have you decided?" his amused voice prompted.
    Startled from her reverie, Kate blinked in confusion and found the object of her thoughts leaning indolently beside her, effectively trapping her between his body and the rough plaster wall, looking disgustingly pleased by her Intense scrutiny.
    The man was... he was. . . She couldn't find an adjective to describe him. The word beautiful popped into her head, but she discarded it quickly, knowing it was wrong. She realized that by some standards he might even be considered ugly and she couldn't put her finger on any one feature that appealed to her so much; she simply knew she reacted to him more strongly than anyone she had ever met.
    But he was just a man after all and she could find nothing in his person that gave a clue to the staggering effect he was having on her emotions.
    To be perfectly honest, she didn't trust this sudden surge of intense feeling. It had happened too fast to be real.
    "I've really got to go," she murmured to herself, shaking her head. "Something very strange is going on in my head. I'm coming very close to trotting willy-nilly after a man who all but