Russian Bad Boy's Untouched Love Read Free

strange desire to help Vlad. “What are you playing at?”
    Vlad moved closer. She could smell him somehow. It was shockingly attractive, like something male and spicy underlying the scent of cedar and sandalwood. A strange heaviness began to build below her navel. Her fingers and toes tingled. She didn’t have all that much experience with arousal, but she’d read enough to realize that was what she was feeling.
    “I’m not playing at anything,” Vlad soothed. “I’m asking for your help for my brother.”
    “You’re making me uncomfortable,” she replied. “I think you’d better go now.”
    He tilted his head to one side. “Why is this uncomfortable?”
    “You’re just… You’re standing too close.” She waved her hand to shoo him off. “It’s pretty simple. I don’t know you. And even you have to admit that you look pretty dangerous.”
    “I look dangerous?” He sounded both surprised and amused. “And that is a crime of some sort in your opinion?”
    “Not a crime,” she amended. “Just a reason to be cautious.”
    “Cautious.” A smile played at the corners of his generous mouth. “Because avoiding any hint of danger is how you prefer to live your life?”
    Why was she discussing this with him? And why did she feel the need to prove to him that she wasn’t some shrinking violet? “Perhaps. It’s really none of your business though, is it?”
    “Do you find me attractive?”
    “That’s an arrogant question, don’t you think?” Mary was shocked by his words, and yet fascinated beyond belief. This guy truly had no shame. “What does it matter if I find you attractive?”
    “I find you attractive.”
    Now she knew he was lying. “I saw the way you looked at me in the classroom. Your gaze slid past me as if I were dead space. If we passed each other on the street you wouldn’t look twice.” Mary thrust her chin out belligerently. “I get it. I’m not your type and I don’t particularly care.” She sniffed and prepared to walk to her car without another word to this cretin .
    VLAD COULDN’T HELP but wonder what had happened in Mary Reilly’s past to make her think that men didn’t find her attractive. She wasn’t an Amazon with generous breasts and voluptuous hips, but she was hardly some dried up old prune.
    “Your words say you don’t care,” Vlad called after her. “But your body language says otherwise.”
    It was as if she couldn’t help herself. She stopped her huffy walk to her car and turned to face him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Women are always going on about how they don’t want to be evaluated for just their physical looks.” Vlad waved a hand to indicate her khakis and sweatshirt. “So what if I’m attracted to your mind? The way a person thinks or behaves can be just as attractive as the way they look. Don’t you think? In fact, I might suggest that personality is a far more important ingredient in mutual attraction than looks.”
    “So you’re saying I’m ugly, but that you like the way I think?”
    He cocked his head, trying to figure her out. “You’re deliberately misunderstanding me, I think. Perhaps it’s easier for you to hate me. Then you don’t have deal with the question of what your attraction to me means.”
    “Who says I’m attracted to you?” She looked outraged. “You’re rude, presumptuous, and probably a criminal.”
    “And yet you find me fascinating,” Vlad pointed out. “What does that say about you?”
    “I do not find you fascinating!” she argued. “I find you disturbing. And I would appreciate it if you would go away.”
    Vlad caught a hint of movement from the corner of his eye. He realized that the two of them had been standing there exchanging words for far too long. In this neighborhood one had to keep moving lest one attracted attention from the wrong sorts of people, which they apparently had .
    “If you’ll excuse me?” Mary started to walk to her car.
    Vlad was about to stop her when a