Someone Irresistible Read Free Page A

Sinclair was from a wealthy, well-respected family. But the news bothered him irrationally. He didn’t like confusion. He was a scientist and he preferred answers.
    He dropped his voice to a deep whisper. “Why are you telling me this, Mimi?”
    Her eyes narrowed and her chin jerked to the side just negligibly.
    “Don’t you know?”
    No, he didn’t. At least, he didn’t think so. But he was beginning to
    suspect there was more to this conversation than she’d revealed.
    She released his arm and stood back a foot, into the shadows beside a high secluded hedge.
    Nathan stilled as clarity washed over him. Then his pulse began to speed with uncertainty. He dropped his gaze to her breasts again, eyeing the full curves openly, then looked back into her eyes.
    “What do you want, Mimi?” he whispered.
    Without hesitation, she silkily replied, “I want you to kiss me.”
    Could it be as easy as this? Stealing a kiss behind a hedge in back of the glorious Crystal Palace? They couldn’t be noticed; at least this end of the park was void of people and darkness was closing fast. But the dare pushed that biological, primeval urge to the forefront of his good intentions. He couldn’t turn away from such an invitation.
    Nathan lifted a palm to her throat. Her skin felt hot to the touch, but she never moved or averted her eyes. Only her breath came quickly.
    For moments his hand remained steady against her. Then, when he could no longer deny himself, he leaned forward and brought his lips to her softly parted ones. Immediately, she placed her palms on his shoulders and pulled him closer.
    Her pulse beat fast beneath his fingertips; wayward curls tickled his cheek; but it was her moist, coaxing mouth that nearly brought him to his knees.
    He didn’t invade it with his tongue, and she didn’t press him for more. He led, she followed, while he tasted and touched and stroked her lips with his.
    Seconds later, he pulled back, dazed, delighted, and irrationally languid from the contact, considering that his body had become rigid from head to toe.
    He stared at her closed eyes, her dreamily relaxed face.
    Nathan flattened his thumb against her mouth one last time and she rubbed her lips sensually against it, sighing but never lifting her lashes.
    It was as if unreality had set in. He suddenly felt as if he knew her intimately, as if kissing her were as natural as breathing. And as needed for survival as fresh air.
    “Nathan,” she whispered.
    He dropped his hand and placed his palms on his hips, inside his gray pinstripe frock coat, steadying himself, attempting to control his own heart that beat like a hard, heavy rock against his chest.
    He felt pulled from both ends. He needed to get back inside, to his waiting exhibit, to science and facts and the prestige that was about to
    be his. But he wanted to touch her more, and that thought was so carnal in its simplicity it alarmed him.
    “Mimi, you’re—” He didn’t know where to begin. He cleared his dry throat to voice something else, something practical, and in that time she opened her bold, luscious eyes to his.
    “Think about me,” she murmured softly, intently, before she let out a deep exhalation and moved past him onto the path in the direction of the Palace entrance.
    Nathan watched her retreating back for a moment, then followed silently, more stupefied by this turn of events than he could put into coherent words.

    All eyes remained centered on his display. Nathan stood erect, chest out, hands behind his back to hide his nervousness. Next to him were dinosaur experts from across the country, Professor Richard Owen, and several other distinguished dignitaries. After a brief announcement of where his fossil was discovered, under what circumstances, and what effort it took for Nathan and his co-workers to get it to the Crystal Palace tonight, he lifted his right hand and placed it on the velvet cover.
    “Here, ladies and gentlemen,” Nathan informed them proudly,