Notorious Read Free Page A

night in the barn, even at the tender age of sixteen. “Strictly as friends,” he said quickly. “It’s a minisuite. I’ll take the couch and you can have the bed. This isn’t a proposition, Keely.”
    â€œAre you sure?” The mischief had returned to her green eyes. “I realize you’re not in the habit of kicking over the traces, but we’re not in Saguaro Junction anymore. No one from back home has to hear about this. And we all know what a naughty girl I am.”
    Warmth flooded through him. She really had a knack for saying exactly what would bring a reaction. “That’s the kind of thinking you need to get away from,” he said. “Life is about more than sex.” At the moment he couldn’t think what else it was about, but he’d get his bearings again soon.
    â€œLet me make sure I understand. You’re inviting me to stay in your room for the weekend, but you have no intention of us fooling around. Instead, you’re going to do some career counseling for me.”
    â€œThat’s right.” Not that fooling around with Keely didn’t hold some appeal. But she apparently thought that’s all she was good for, and he didn’t want to reinforce that notion.
    She frowned in confusion. “I asked you if you had a wife back home and you said no. But is there a serious girlfriend?Because I can imagine you would be totally loyal once you committed yourself to somebody.”
    â€œNo serious girlfriend.” Come to think of it, he hadn’t even had a date in months.
    â€œNoah, are you gay?”
    He choked. As he was coughing and sputtering, he shook his head and gasped out his denial.
    She ticked off her conclusions on the tips of her fingers. “You’re not committed to anyone, you’re not gay, and you don’t want to have sex with me, even if no one back home would ever find out.”
    â€œThat’s right.” He did want to have sex with her, always had, but that was a white lie he could live with.
    â€œThen you surely must be a saint who has dropped down out of the sky to save me from my wicked ways. Okay, I accept.”
    He cleared his throat and tried to look more confident than he felt. “That’s great.” Now that she’d pointed out to him that only a saint could be expected to resist her, he’d begun to think this whole idea was doomed. But if he could somehow find the strength to keep his hands off her, then maybe she’d develop a new image of herself. And that was worth doing. After all, his brother was marrying her sister. She would be family soon.
    â€œWe should probably go pick up your stuff,” he said. “Is your hotel far from here?”
    She looked suddenly worried. “Uh, the thing is, they, um…lost my luggage. You know how that happens. I don’t have any stuff.”
    â€œOh.” So it was worse than he thought. Obviously she was making up the story about lost luggage, so that must mean she was staying in some fleabag motel and didn’t want him to know it. Worse yet, her belongings were pitiful enough to be embarrassing to her. As together as she looked now, the outfit she wore was probably the only decent thing she owned.
    Knowing that fact renewed his resolve to pull her out ofthis nosedive she was in. “Okay, then!” he said with more heartiness than the situation called for. He sounded like a damn used-car salesman. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Let’s walk on back to my hotel. Then I can advance you a little money if you want to go shopping for a few clothes later.”
    â€œWe’ll see about that. But before we leave here I want to duck inside and let them know I won’t be keeping the appointment. I don’t want a black mark beside my name, in case I need to come back someday.”
    â€œI’ll go with you.”
    She smiled at him. “I’d rather you