A Trap So Tender Read Free

urchin and going to
Scotland all in the space of one week?”
    What would her dad think about her leaving so soon after she’d
arrived? The main purpose of her stay here was to build their relationship.
After ten days they’d barely managed to relax enough to hold a conversation, and
now she was taking off around the world with his sworn enemy?
    She’d have to explain her plan. He’d understand and know she
was only doing it for him. He’d be so happy when she figured out how to wrest
his factory back from James Drummond’s octopuslike embrace. This man needed to
be stopped, and she wasn’t afraid to do it.
    “Will you stay there with me?” This thought occurred to her for
the first time almost as she said it. He’d asked her to come to his house and
look for the cup. While snooping around his ancestral home might be fun, she
couldn’t achieve her main goal unless he was there.
    “Of course. I wouldn’t invite a guest and then take off.” He
frowned. “Then again, I probably have done that, but I promise I won’t this
time. I need to put in some face time there. The natives get restless if the
lord of the manor goes AWOL for too long.”
    “Is it really like that?”
    He nodded. “I don’t understand why they care what I do, but
they seem to feel I should be there judging flower displays at the village fete
and hosting banquets on obscure saints’ days.”
    “Very medieval.” There was something sexy about that. Which
just proved how loopy she could be. He obviously hated it and ran off to
Singapore all the time to avoid his feudal responsibilities. “Do you get to have
people executed if they cross you?”
    “I’ve never tried.” A tiny smile tugged at his broad, seductive
mouth. “I don’t think anyone’s ever ticked me off that badly.”
    I might. She let her own secret
smile slip across her lips. “Are they putting pressure on you to find a lady of
the manor?”
    He laughed. “They wouldn’t dare.” Then his eyes darkened.
“Though I’m sure they would if they didn’t think it would make me run for the
hills.”
    They certainly wouldn’t be too enthused about her, a snarky
American with her roots in Singapore. No doubt they’d prefer a delicate Scottish
rose with red-gold hair and pink cheeks, who thought arranging flowers on the
church altar was the ideal way to spend a weekend.
    Not that James was bringing her there to romance her. In fact,
she had no idea why he did want her to come. She frowned and looked at him. His
eyes smiled slightly when she met them, sending a frisson of…what? Excitement,
terror and hot lust coursing right through her.
    Did he really want her to find the cup? Surely someone closer
to home would be a better choice. Did he want to bed her?
    Yes. The subtle gleam in his eye made no secret of that. Maybe
he was a lothario. And maybe he’d be disappointed in his efforts to add her to
his list of conquests.
    She took a bite of her sea urchin, sitting almost forgotten on
her plate, and was surprised to find it tender and delicious. James was very
distracting. She’d better make sure she kept her mind on her task—getting her
father’s factory back. “This is good.”
    “I told you it would be. Now you know you can trust me.”
    She laughed, partly because he said it so innocently, as if he
really believed it. If she didn’t know of his reputation as a heartless
corporate shark, she’d have taken him for a genuinely nice guy. He certainly
seemed generous and enthusiastic. Luckily for her, his reputation preceded him.
“I don’t trust that easily. I do apparently have a taste for adventure, though.
I’m excited about coming to Scotland.”
    “You’ll win the reward if you find the cup.”
    “If I do, I’ll donate it to charity. I’m not exactly hurting
for money after the sale of Smileworks.”
    “What are you going to do next?”
    That’s for me to know and you to find out
after I’ve done it. She shrugged. “Whatever takes my fancy. I’m in