Fire and Desire (Arabesque) Read Free

it’s not something a lot worse.”
    Trevor leaned toward her. His eyes turned cold as he met her glare. “I’m not worried about you calling me anything but my given name. You’re too much of a lady to do anything else.”
    Color flamed Corinthians’s cheeks as she reacted to his statement, not liking the emphasis he had placed on the word lady. He had insultingly reminded her of that night she had stood before him looking like anything but a lady.
    Her facial muscles tensed and her glare hardened. No true gentleman would deliberately remind a woman of one of her most humiliating experiences. She sighed. If she was no lady, then he certainly wasn’t a true gentleman. She was spared from telling him that fact when the waitress came to take his order.
    “You look nice today, Corinthians,” he said after the waitress had left.
    She lifted her head. The look she gave him indicated his compliment didn’t faze her. However, since she’d been brought up with the belief that displaying good manners was essential, even to someone like Trevor Grant, she answered stiffly. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. And you smell nice, too.”
    Corinthians stared into Trevor’s eyes. “Why all the compliments? Let’s be honest with ourselves, shall we? I don’t like you. You don’t like me. For reasons that I’d rather not get into, we don’t get along. However, since our jobs occasionally bring us in contact with each other, I believe we can handle the situation like two professional adults.”
    Trevor eyed her thoughtfully. “If you believe that, then why are you always avoiding me?”
    “I don’t always avoid you.”
    “Then why haven’t you responded to my messages?”
    “I had a rather taxing flight yesterday from Austin to Miami. And to top it off, when I arrived at the airport I was stopped. Brazilian customs officials who went through every piece of luggage I brought with me detained me. By the time I checked into the hotel, I was too tired to be bothered by anyone.”
    Corinthians sighed. That much of what she had just told him had been the truth.
    Trevor raised a surprised brow. South America was known to be lax when it came to airport security. More drugs and contraband were smuggled in and out of this continent than any other place that he knew of, and usually under the airport officials’ indifferent eyes. He wondered why she had been stopped. “Brazilian officials actually stopped you?”
    Corinthians met his stare. “Yes. I was detained for more than two hours. It probably would have been longer had I not made a scene and threatened to contact someone at the American Embassy.”
    At that moment the waitress returned with Trevor’s meal. He had ordered churrasco, an array of different kinds of meats grilled on skewers. In addition to his glass of Brazilian brandy, the waitress also left him a small bottle of malagueta, a spicy sauce made from crushed, hot red peppers. When he uncapped the bottle, the spicy-hot aroma nearly took Corinthians’s breath away.
    “I can’t believe you’re putting that stuff on your food,” she said, watching him pour the sauce all over his meat.
    He didn’t look up when he replied. “Believe it.” But he did lift his gaze to meet hers when he added, “I happen to like hot stuff. Nothing stirs my blood more. The hotter, the better.”
    The look he gave her, as far as she was concerned, was just like the sauce he had poured over his food: red-hot. She felt her insides sizzle from the heat. He was staring at her with those dark eyes of his, hard and intense. She took a shaky breath. “Then enjoy yourself.”
    He smiled. “I will.” He lifted a skewer and with his teeth pulled a piece of sauce-covered meat into his mouth without flinching. He smiled a slow, seductive smile.
    Corinthians tried hard not to stare, but watching him chew his food was having an arousing effect on her. An involuntary shudder of simmering heat ripped through her. Her gaze followed every