Star Kissed: A Crane Series Romance Read Free

cool, clipped way, but still she heard a hint of bitterness. Everybody at Crane knew the story, of course. Jen had ended her engagement to Mark Forsythe in order to shack up with Cam, and they’d all been a bit surprised when they found out her ex was coming over to do a job for the company. Bron had assumed, since he was coming here to help Crane Surf and Boogie Boards, that he harbored no ill feelings about the man who was now with his former fiancée. Maybe that’s what he wanted everyone to assume. It seemed they’d been wrong. Still, a man who held a grudge against Cam could be trusted to keep her secret. He had problems of his own; maybe he’d even have a little sympathy.
    “I got chucked out of my flat.”
    Blue. His eyes were so blue. In that calm, serious face, they were intensely sexy, even when he was staring at her with that expressionless gaze.
    “Care to tell me why?”
    “I had a few people over. It got a bit noisy and the neighbors complained so the landlord chucked me out.”
    “Seems a little harsh. I would have thought a warning was deserved.”
    “Well, I think he was glad of the excuse. I got behind in my rent.”
    “Ah.”
    He said
Ah
with the calm confidence of a man who’s never been chucked out of anything in his life. He drank coffee. She felt him deliberating over her words. He’d seemed older in the picture, but in the flesh, even with the lines of tiredness, she didn’t think he could be much more than thirty. So why did he, at only four years older than herself, seem unimaginably more mature? She stared out the window for a minute, barely taking in the sparkling waves and a couple of sailboats bobbing.
    “I promise you’ll barely notice I’m here, except in good ways, like having fresh coffee in the morning,” which she was going to have to get up extra early to brew, “and breakfast and I’ll do dinners.”
    He seemed less impressed by the second, so she threw everything she had at him. “I’ll even clean the place myself.”
    “No offense, Bronwyn, but the answer’s still no.”
    “But I—”
    “Listen, since you’ve been good enough to share your personal agenda with me, I’ll be up-front with you about mine. I’m newly single ever since my fiancée dumped me for Cameron Crane. Now, I wanted this trip for two reasons. One,” he leaned forward slightly and tapped one forefinger with the other. With his hair all stuck up one side like a toddler after naptime, he was adorable. “I’m a professional and no one can do the job better. Two, I’m going to sow some wild oats. I’ve heard about Australian women, about their free and easy ways and partying mentality, and I decided it was the quickest and simplest way to get over my former girlfriend.” Wow. He couldn’t even mention Jennifer Talbot by name. He was really bruised.
    “You came to Australia to get over her?” Seemed an odd plan, since he must know that Jen and Cam would be back in the country in a couple of weeks. They’d be bound to run into each other at work.
    “That’s right. I’ll be sleeping with a different woman every night I’m here. I hope you can understand that having you in this house would be awkward, to say the least.”
    The quick stab of disappointment surprised her. He’d looked like a man who was fastidious in all things. Like the last of the good guys, but he was as much a hound on the prowl as most men. Since she prided herself on her practicality, she stifled her disappointment. She wasn’t particularly averse to prowling, as it happened. And if he was so anxious to bed an Aussie babe, what was wrong with her? If he wanted to experience an Aussie party girl, he couldn’t do better.
    “Well, I—” But she stopped herself.
    Somehow, she was certain he’d turn her down flat if she suggested her own sweet self as his first taste of Australia. He’d probably have some rule against fraternizing with people he worked with or something. She was bound by no rules. But warning