Provocative Peril Read Free Page A

swimming pool, there were indoor and outdoor tennis courts, racquet ball courts, an eighteen-hole golf course, as well as a miniature golf course, and enough shops to fill a good-sized mall.
    During her first week there she learned how to spend her time in a leisurely and thoroughly pleasurable manner. As she indulged in her favorite past-time, soaking in the oversized tub, Carolyn reviewed the previous seven days.
    When she had awakened on the first morning, she had been very nervous about facing Clay. She needn't have bothered. After dressing, she had tiptoed downstairs, uncomfortable about sharing the quarters with a stranger, and a male at that, but she quickly discovered she had nothing to worry about. He wasn't there. She went jogging on the beach that first morning, which set up a routine of sorts for the subsequent mornings, but he wasn't in the room when she returned.
    When she happened to see him at the swimming pool that afternoon she had offered a tentative smile, but he only nodded and continued to talk to the couple seated beside him alongside the pool.
    However, she managed to meet several very nice people as she quickly became absorbed into the festival feeling of the sprawling resort.
    Her friends had been right. She'd devoted enough years to getting established in business. Now she needed to learn how to have fun. Her vacation was the first step.
    Carolyn was unsure of herself around men. She hadn't known very many in her twenty-three years. She barely remembered her father, an Air Force pilot whose plane had gone down in Southeast Asia when she was a child. Her mother had never remarried, appearing to be content with her life with Carolyn. After college, Carolyn had stayed busy building her business and spending her spare time with Mitch.
    Not any more, she thought to herself as she slid her foot along the rim of the tub and the silky water beaded on her shapely leg. Her friends had given her stacks of magazines and books on how to be attractive to a man, how to be glamorous—seductive— alluring—in short, how to become a modern woman. She had dutifully studied them all. She grinned as she recalled some of her experiences during the past week. It had been amazingly simple to smile, then drop her eyes and wait for a response. She'd had several opportunities to pursue a friendship with attractive men. By following the simple instructions in some of the articles, she discovered she could attract most of the men she met. Her purpose for coming to the coast was not to write just a new chapter in her life. She intended to start a new book.
    So why hadn't Clay shown any interest in her? Whenever they happened to meet at their room, he treated her like his kid sister. Or worse. He treated her more like his maiden aunt. She couldn't understand it.
    Not that it really mattered, but she was curious. Maybe he didn't care for brunettes. Or maybe he preferred tall women. She shifted in the tub, disturbed by her thoughts.
    None of the other men she'd met really appealed to her. She had a secret fantasy male, one she'd never mentioned to another soul. He was prominently displayed in national cigarette ads—tall, with bedroom eyes and a smile that suggested untold delights if she only dared to accept his unspoken invitation. Would she ever find someone like that?
    Clay's face reappeared in her mind and she abruptly sat up, causing a gentle wave action. Why did she have to keep thinking about him? She began to rinse the soap from her body.
    She hardly ever saw him. For all the use he got out of his room, he could have rented a broom closet! When she did see him, he practically ignored her.
    What would Pam and Susie think if they knew I was living with a man on my vacation? Her friends would certainly think she'd taken all of their advice and had overcome her shyness around the male of the species. Perhaps it was just as well they didn't know. How could she explain that she'd shared a room with Clay for a week and still