Trading Secrets Read Free

sensation of relief was very real. Much too strong.
     Whether or not Matt August was married shouldn't have mattered.
     Not for her purposes tonight. "I'm not married, either," she
     offered magnanimously.
    He let the free information pass as if he no longer cared.
     "Another drink?"
    She stared doubtfully down at her nearly finished Margarita.
     "Actually, I think I've had enough. I had a couple before I came
     over to introduce myself."
    "Liquid courage?" he mocked softly. "I didn't realize I was so
     unapproachable."
    "It wasn't you. It would have taken a little courage to go up to
     any of the others, too." She was feeling comfortable enough with
     him now to be honest, Sabrina realized with a sense of shock.
    Matt abruptly reached for her hand, turning it palm up on the
     table. His roughened fingers drew a random pattern on the
     sensitive skin of her wrist. "It'll probably get easier, you
     know."
    "Talking to you?"
    He shook his head. "Approaching strange men in bars. Unless, of
     course, you decide you don't like taking the risks after all." He
     was staring at her palm as if mildly fascinated.
    "Ah, but I'm having excellent luck first time out, aren't I?" she
     challenged with deliberate provocation. "Just look at how well
     we're doing." Laughter flared in her eyes. "You," she warned, "are
     falling into my hand like a ripe pineapple."
    He winced. "Not a plum?"
    "Nope. Pineapple. Rough on the outside but sweet on the inside."
    "No chance you've misjudged me?"
    "I don't think so." She hesitated. "Matt?"
    "Hmmm?"
    "Will you dance with me?"
    Without a word he got to his feet, tugging her up beside him. He
     took her willingly enough into his arms on the floor, but there
     was a curious stiffness to his movements. Matt danced as if he
     hadn't done it often and certainly not recently. The steps he
     guided her into were simple and almost austere. The band was a
     four-piece ensemble playing the standard, torchy lounge music one
     could have heard in any hotel bar in the world, but Sabrina could
     have sworn Matt was counting the beat under his breath. The
     realization was somehow endearing.
    Deliberately she moved closer, instinctively using her own
     softness to urge him to unbend. Matt's arms tightened around her,
     but his body grew more rigid rather than relaxed. Then she felt
     his mouth brush her hair.
    It was nice hair, Matt decided, inhaling the clean, fresh scent
     of it. A couple of shades darker than the whiskey he'd had too
     much of tonight. She wore it in a loose topknot, but he had a
     hunch that when it was free it would cascade down around her
     shoulders.
    Not at all like Ginny's. Ginny's hair had been midnight-black and
     cut in a sleek style that framed her delicate, classically
     beautiful features. There was nothing all that beautiful about
     Sabrina Chase, he told himself, but there was an interestingly
     piquant charm to the expressive mouth and the lively,
     intelligently aware eyes of smoky green.
    So she was thirty and just now starting to wander? Ginny had
     started earlier. Twenty-five, probably. Right after Brad had been
     born. It was as though she had to prove to herself that she was
     still a stunningly attractive woman even though she'd had a child.
     Had Ginny's first affair begun this way? Had she walked up to a
     strange man in a bar and calmly introduced herself? Had she been
     tense and a little unsure of herself the way this woman was?
     Probably not. Ginny had never been unsure of herself that he could
     recall.
    But after a few such encounters Sabrina Chase would soon be
     feeling certain of herself, too. As he had told her, it would get
     easier. He was sure that she was married. Why else would she have
     been so evasive about the question? What was she going to tell her
     husband when she returned to Dallas? Or did he even know she was
     gone? Perhaps he was out of town.
    Matt knew that he himself had spent a lot of time out of town.
     And Ginny had gotten very good at lying.