Unbroken Read Free Page B

cars, dolls, chocolate, and most recently high fashion and cosmetics. And yet you still have a core of integrity. I wanted to know if it was you, or your remarkable looks.”
    Honest, yes. Flattering, no. But she held on, revelled in this new exchange. “My looks I inherited from my grandmothers. One was Indian, one was Chinese. That makes for an interesting combination. But it’s nothing to do with me. I was brought up American.
New York
to be precise. Perhaps having a heritage that has nothing to do with the way I looked, helped. Or maybe being independent from an early age.” She could trust him with this. Anyone reading about her could guess this much. “My father died when I was young. So it was just mom and me. We weren’t rich, but we did okay, well enough not to have to worry about where the next penny was coming from. When I did my first ad, it was because my mother had taken me around to the agencies. But it’s hard work, so I learnt early to be self-reliant. And to look on my appearance as an asset, not connected with me except accidentally.”
    He watched her with a strange, fascinated look on his face. “Exactly. You and your body are two separate things. Have you ever felt at one with it?”
    She frowned. “I’m comfortable in my skin, sure.”
    “But have you ever done something and not worried about how you look?”
    She almost said yes, but then she had to think again. She frowned and forced herself to be open and honest. “I don’t know.” Even when on her own she habitually checked herself in mirrors, dressed well, wore make-up. Not because of any vanity, she didn’t know a single model who had any illusions about her looks, but because, ever since the age of five, she’d been in the public eye, trained to look and behave in a certain way.
    Her gaze flew to his, and she found concern there. She hadn’t expected that. Honesty, curiosity, yes, but not concern.
    He murmured something, she didn’t know what, then he leant in to touch his lips to hers. Could it have been, ‘Poor baby’?
    Soft, warm caresses, initiating a contact she’d never undergone before. She’d known this man less than a day and he’d driven right through to her soul, teaching her things about herself she’d never known. Helping her to move on with her life.
    Right now, her life could go into total stasis and she wouldn’t care. His arm went around her shoulders, but she didn’t draw back. Usually she hated to be caged, but this felt less like captivity, more like freedom.
    It could have been a gentle kiss of friendship, but it felt like more. No, that was wrong. She wanted more. Longed for it. If he wanted to give it.
    Maybe he did, because when she parted her lips, he took advantage and pushed his tongue into her mouth. Not forcefully, but with a glad acceptance of what she offered, tasting her, the first taste of a deeper flavour. She wanted him to take. Just take, give her tired mind a rest. He’d opened new avenues of thought for her. Now she wanted to stop thinking until she’d assimilated what he’d taught her.
    He caressed her shoulder while his other arm slid around her waist, his hand spreading over the curve and encroaching on the swell of her hip.
    He stroked her tongue. She responded with a muffled moan, then she reached for him. She felt heat, smooth skin contoured with hard, male muscle and spread her hand to savour as much as she could. Oh yes.
    He drew back and stared at her, eyes hooded under heavy lids. “This is not what I imagined would happen the first time I employed a model.” He smiled with lips moist from her mouth, and just like that, she fell deeper under his spell. “You should say no.”
    “How about pretending that this is out of working hours?”
    He smoothed his hand up her rib cage, coming to rest just below her breast. “I still want you to model for me. If what we do next will affect that, tell me now.”
    Did he want her looks more than he wanted her body? Of course he