Page 29 of Bride By Committee

She started to reply, then hesitated. An instant later, her spine snapped into a rigid line and she swiveled to face him. Her gathering frown bore an unfortunate similarity to the threatening clouds filling the western sky and bearing down on them with rumbling determination. “I just thought of something.”

Finally. He’d captured her attention. Though judging by her frown, he may regret succeeding. “What’s that, sweetheart?”

“Chapters One through Three.”

“What about them?”

“You’ve read them, right?”

“I’m familiar with the entire book. What’s your point?”

“I’m talking about on the elevator.” She pinned him with a stare rapidly filling with feminine outrage. “Was it deliberate?”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Then let me make it perfectly clear.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Did you or did you not hustle me through those first three principles? On purpose, Imean.”

At least her attention was on him again, if he could only find a way to keep it there. “Hustle is such a negative word.”

“I’m serious, Harry.”

A wariness had darkened her eyes, suspicion and distrust eclipsing every other emotion. He didn’t care for the expression, suspecting her reaction had its origins in circumstances and events from her past. Time to defuse the situation. “We discussed this after we got off the elevator. Itold you we’d managed to work our way through the first three principles.”

“Accidently. I’m talking about a deliberate attempt on your part to seduce me using that book.”

He answered with absolute honesty. “As tempting as that sounds, it didn’t even occur to me.”

“Then how did we manage to work our way through so many of your father’s precious principles in such a short period of time?”

They were definitely dealing with issues from her past, Harry decided, issues connected to trust problems. None of which boded well for future discussions—especially considering all he’d kept from her. Hell. He should have been honest from the start. He would have been, too, if not for Sunny and his father.

He thrust a hand through his hair. It was a little late to explain everything now, but with luck he’d have an opportunity to redress those errors in judgment as they arose. In the meantime, he’d do what he could to reassure her about the hours they’d spent together on the elevator. And then he’d try his damnedest to uncover the truth about her past and help heal the wounds that made her so vulnerable.

“Think about it, Madison. It’s literally impossible for two people to be alone together for hours on end and not have them react to each other through at least one of the senses. We talked to each other. That’s one right there.”

“We touched.”

He couldn’t help grinning. “I remember.”

“This isn’t funny.” She sat on the blanket, facing him, and folded her arms across her chest in a defensive posture. The sunlight caught in her hair and spilled across her shoulders in a stream of liquid gold. If it weren’t for the alarm and anger blazing in her eyes, he’d have tugged her into his arms and given her a hands-on reminder of all they’d experienced on the elevator. “Tell me whether you were deliberately pulling some sort of principle stuff on me.”

“I admit there was some serious masculine chemistry going on.”

“I knew it!”

“If it makes you feel any better, your female chemistry was in full flower, too.” Her mouth compressed at the suggestion, warning that any discussion regarding her flowering chemistry wouldn’t make her feel any better. But he refused to let her off the hook. Whether she liked it or not, her hormones had been in as much of an uproar as his, and he wasn’t about to pretend otherwise. “Was our interaction on the elevator a setup? No way. Was I sneaking you through the principles? Not a chance.”

“How can I be sure?”

She’d tossed more kindling on his temper and it promptly ignited. Shoving plastic ware out of his way, he leaned closer. “If I start using principles on you, there won’t be any doubt in your mind about what I’m doing.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“It seems to me that you’re not going to be satisfied until you get a sample to use for comparison. Maybe if I give you a personal demonstration of all the principles you’ll know what Sunny can expect.”

“No, I—”

He didn’t give her time to say another word. Tipping her back onto the blanket, he came down on top of her and thrust his hands deep into her curls. “Look at me, Madison. What do you see?”

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