Free The adventurer by Jayne Ann Krentz Page B

green velour robe that she'd belted around her small waist. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her face was freshly scrubbed. She looked touchingly vulnerable and at the same time incredibly sexy.
    "It's all yours," she said as she headed toward the bedroom.
    He figured she meant the bathroom, not the body in the velour robe. "Thanks."
    He knew he was staring. The bedroom door closed firmly.
    Gideon sighed, picked up his shaving kit and headed for the bath. The small room was still warm and moist. He felt big and awkward standing in the middle of the tiny place, as if he had accidentally invaded a medieval maiden's private bower.
    A bright yellow toothbrush stood at attention in a glass on the sink and a hairbrush lay on the counter next to the toothpaste tube.
    The top had been left off the toothpaste. Automatically Gideon replaced it.
    Ten minutes later he went back out into the main room. No crack of light showed under the bedroom door. He stood for a moment, trying to think of something clever to do next. The only action that came readily to mind was to open the bedroom door and that was out of the question.
    Business partners.
    "Damn." So much for sweeping her off her feet. He wondered if she'd brought along any of her books that featured his doppelganger as a hero. Maybe he could figure out how to proceed if he saw himself in action.
    His mouth quirked ruefully as he undressed and slid into the cold, uncomfortable bed. It was disconcerting to think of himself as a hero in a novel of romantic suspense. Be interesting to read the sex scenes .
    Half an hour later he was still awake, his hands folded behind his head, his mind playing with the image of Sarah wearing nothing but a pair of. antique earrings, when the bedroom door opened softly. He went very still.
    "Gideon?" Sarah's voice was low and hesitant.
    "Yeah?"
    "Are you asleep?"
    "Not any more."
    "Good. Because I've been thinking."
    She came farther into the room. Gideon turned his head and looked at her in the shadows. He could just barely make out the fact that her feet were bare on the hardwood floor. Her hands were thrust into the sleeves of her robe.
    "Something wrong?" he asked, wondering if she'd already seen through his flimsy excuse for sharing a cabin and had decided to complain.
    "Yes." Her chin came up determinedly. "Yes, there is something wrong. Very wrong."
    So much for his cleverness. "What is it, Sarah?"
    "I have to know something." She started pacing the length of the room, looking more medieval than ever in the darkness as the robe floated around her small, bare ankles. "I realize that I should probably just let it go, but I can't. I have to find out what went wrong. I can't believe I was this mistaken a second time."
    "Sarah…"
    She stopped him with a raised hand. "Just tell me the truth and I promise I won't ask anything personal again." She went as far as she could in the small space available, swung around and started back in the other direction. "Why don't you trust me?"
    That caught him off guard. "It's not a matter of trusting you," Gideon said cautiously.
    "Yes, it is. You don't. Why?" She was still pacing. "I mean, is your inability to trust me based on some significant event in your past? Do you distrust all women?
    Did your marriage sour you on the female of the species? Or is it something about me, personally. Did I just come on too strong? Was that it? I know I'm not always subtle."
    Gideon groaned. "Look, I'm not real good at conversations like this."
    "Talk, Gideon. I've been your friend for four months. The least you can do is tell me why you still don't trust me."
    "Damn it, why do you have to take it personally?"
    "Because it is personal."
    He began to get annoyed. "You're a demanding little thing, aren't you?
    Demanding and arrogant."
    '"Arrogant."
    "Yeah, arrogant. Who do you think you are, Sarah Fleetwood? You just explode in my life like a firecracker. You tell me you think we're meant for each other on the basis of a