Stranger in my Arms Read Free Page A

undercover he became a liar—someone with a fictitious background. He’d become an actor in a role wherein one slip would compromise his mission. His focus hadn’t been the risk that he would forfeit his life, but completing the mission. And it was always the mission.
    A server approached with a tray of appetizers. She handed Merrick a napkin and he took several puff pastries, offering them to Alex. She shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m saving my appetite for dinner.”
    â€œSpeaking of saving, I’d like you to save me a dance.”
    His request surprised Alex. “You want to dance with me?”
    Slowly, seductively, his silver gaze slid downward before it reversed itself. “Yes.”
    She felt a tingling in the pit of her stomach she found disturbing. Merrick Grayslake was disturbing to her in every way she didn’t want. She would dance with the man, and after tomorrow she would never see him again.
    â€œOne dance,” she crooned, flashing her enchanting dimpled smile. She wiggled her fingers. “I’ll see you later.”
    Merrick stared at Alexandra Cole as she lifted the hem of her dress and walked out of the tent.
    He’d come to West Palm Beach for a wedding and unwittingly found himself bewitched by a slip of a woman who just happened to be the groom’s cousin.

Chapter 2
    A lex spied her sister coming toward her. Her expression said it all: she’d recovered from her hissy fit. “That dress looks better on you than on me,” she told Ana.
    The black sheath dress with a squared neckline and wide bands crisscrossing her bare back was a perfect fit. The garment’s hemline, ending inches above Ana’s knees, and a pair of black silk sling backs showed off her strong, shapely legs. She’d recently cut her shoulder-length curly hair, and the pixie-cut style called to mind the gamine look affected by a young Audrey Hepburn. There was never a doubt that Alex and Ana were related. In fact, she and her sister looked more alike than Ana and her fraternal twin, Jason.
    Ana looped her arm through Alex’s and smiled. “Thanks. Come with me.” She spun her around. “I’ve got a case of the munchies.” PMS always triggered a craving for salt, alcohol or chocolate. She steered her older sister back to the tent. “Quién es él?” she asked in Spanish, a language she and her siblings had learned from their bilingual parents.
    â€œWhat you talking about?” Ana was notorious for talking in riddles.
    â€œThat guy over there staring at you.”
    Alex slowed her step. She wanted to tell her sister about Merrick and Donald Easton, but knowing Ana, the story that she had a stalker boyfriend would be on the lips of their family members before the stroke of midnight.
    â€œHis name is Merrick Grayslake, and he’s a guest either of Michael or Jolene.” He hadn’t moved from where she’d left him.
    â€œDamn-n-n-n-yum!” The expletive came out in five syllables. “El es Caliente!” Ana whispered, sotto voce.
    â€œHe’ll do,” Alex whispered back.
    Leading Alex toward the bar, Ana stopped and placed the back of her hand to her sister’s forehead. “Nope, you don’t have a fever. Girl, is there something wrong with your eyes?”
    She pushed Ana’s hand away. “There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. Just because I don’t go buck wild over a good-looking man it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me either.”
    It wasn’t that she hadn’t found Merrick Grayslake attractive, because he was that and more. She thought him attractive, well groomed, confident and stunningly virile.
    â€œSo, you agree with me?”
    â€œWhat about?”
    â€œThat he’s hot.”
    â€œI’m too old to compartmentalize men as either hot or cold, Ana Juanita Cole.”
    Ana knew she’d hit a raw nerve because Alex had called her