Within This Frame Read Free Page B

fitness expert, right?”At her dubious look, he said, “Oh, come on, you had to have seen some of my promotional stuff on TV.”
    “Whenever I have the misfortune to catch a glimpse of your face on TV, I change the channel.”
    “Must do a lot of channel surfing then.”
    “I’m closing the door now. There is no way I’m working with you. I’d rather work with my sister.” Maggie shuddered and moved to push the door shut, but Lance quickly put up his hand to stop it. She met his eyes. “Let go.”
    “No,” he said cheerfully.
    A scowl took over her mouth and she shoved harder, but Lance was an unmovable wall, and the door merely inched forward. His expression said it all: See? You’re a pudgy wimp. You need me to make you strong, and hopefully get you slimmed down as well, if we can keep the doughnuts out of your hands. With an angry exhalation of air, Maggie stepped back quickly and Lance stumbled into the entryway. He shot upright and gave her a look, smoothing black locks that didn’t need it.
    He looked around the space. “You go for the old look, huh?”
    “It’s not old. It’s antiquated,” she corrected, crossing her arms when she remembered she didn’t have on a bra and his eyes liked to wander.
    “Whatever you say.” He paused. “Show me around.”
    “No!” The word was loud and violently executed, and the look he aimed her way hinted that he wondered at her mental stability.
    Maggie sucked in a sharp breath that was meant to be calming, and blew it out with excessive force. It didn’t calm her down. “I’m not showing you my house. I’m not hiring you. I’ll find someone else.”
    “There is no one else. That’s why I was called. I’m sort of all you got.”
    “Now, wouldn’t that be a horrible, horrible predicament in which to find oneself, having to rely on you for anything of importance.”
    Lance rubbed his jaw. “I don’t remember you being this feisty when we were younger.”
    “That’s because I didn’t know enough to stay away from you.”
    He didn’t move, but the way he looked at her took all the space between them and crushed it. “You knew.”
    Maggie swallowed. She couldn’t refute that. She had known what Lance Denton was like, from the very first day of their acquaintance, but it hadn’t mattered enough to keep her away. She couldn’t stay away—he was ablaze with life and danger and rawness and she was pulled to him, wanting to dance along the shadows of his presence.
    “And if you didn’t, I warned you.”
    Another truth. It was time to move on.
    “What do you get out of this, other than my humiliation?”
    “Money?”
    She snorted. “You have to have loads of that lying around. I’m sure you wash your body and brush your teeth with it. Wipe your butt . . .”
    Lance didn’t answer, giving her a look.
    Maggie glanced down at his bare ring finger. “Aren’t you supposed to be in England or Australia or whatever foreign country you inhabit with your wife and daughter during the winter and spring months?”
    His smile evaporated. It was interesting how dark his face went. “Recently divorced.”
    She’d known that. “Oh. Is that why you’re here? I thought you lived in Florida part of the time.”
    “I did.”
    Lance’s abrupt tone let Maggie know she’d hit a nerve. She decided to torture it a little bit. “Why are you in Iowa then?”
    “Don’t you know, Maggie?” he whispered, voice and eyes beseeching. He lifted a finger and trailed it along her jaw, tingles following his touch. “You.”
    She swallowed, struck speechless. Shaking her head, she got her wits back in order and glared at him. “You’re good,” she said grudgingly.
    Lance flashed a sinister smile. “I’m better than good, and you know it.” His eyes dared her to say otherwise.
    “You didn’t answer me—why are you in Iowa?”
    “I did answer you.” He glanced at her as he walked farther into the room. “You.”
    As she tried to steady a pulse that was