Free MIND READER by Vicki Hinze Page A

think?”
    “About what?”
    If she kept rubbing that same spot as hard as she was, she’d wear a hole in the windshield. He covered her hand with his and held it still. “About the kiss, Caron.”
    She drew in a sharp breath, then let it out slowly. She didn’t fight him, didn’t try to free her hand. It felt small, nearly fitting into his palm. And warm. So warm.
    “I didn’t like it.”
    Her breath warmed his face. He smiled into her eyes. Passion still lurked there. She’d liked it...too much. “Good. I didn’t like it, either.”
    That frosted her voice. “You don’t make sense. Has anyone ever told you that? You kiss like an inferno, then claim you’re an iceberg. Are you always like this?”
    He brushed her hair back over her shoulder. Her flesh quivered under his hand. “Look, honey, let’s cut to the chase.”
    “I’m not your honey.”
       “No, you aren’t. But for some reason neither one of us can figure, our bodies have been whispering sweet noth ings to each other all day and half the night. No, don’t deny it. I’m not dull, and neither are you.”
    “Okay, I won’t. I can be honest about my feelings,” she said, strongly implying that he couldn’t. “You’re a gorgeous hunk. What woman wouldn’t react to that? But I don’t like you, Parker. And I hate myself for knowing that and yet still finding you appealing. Inside, you’re as phony as they come.”
    “Phony?” He frowned, genuinely surprised. “Me?”
    “You,” she insisted. “You weren’t any more attracted to Meriam Meyer than you are to me, yet you were able to cozy up to her as though she was irresistible.”
    His jaw hung loose. Where did she come off, saying he was a phony? “In case you didn’t notice, Snow White, it was our plan for me to keep Meriam occupied so you could have some privacy to steal the book.”
    “Oh, I noticed. You were all over the woman.”
    “I wasn’t.” Was she jealous? Impossible...   Maybe...
    Caron reached over and made an exaggerated show of tenderly brushing an invisible speck from his cheek, then gave him a smile that turned his mind to mush and his body into a furnace. “What’s that action called, then?”
    Parker gritted his teeth. “It’s called, getting an ink smear off a woman’s face.”
    “Right.”
    “That is right.” He had half a mind to kiss her again, to let her feel every drop of his heat. Instead, he shifted his body weight to lean against the door. “With your ‘gift,’ you should’ve known that.”
    “My gift only works on important matters. And that certainly doesn’t include you.”
    If that was true, then why was she so ticked? “So you can’t tell what I’m thinking.” He’d been worried about that, in case there was a grain of truth to her psychic claims.
    She slumped her shoulders and rubbed her temple. “No.”
    “Why not?” He was surprised she’d admitted it.
    “I just told you.”
    Because he wasn’t important? That didn’t wash. She ex pected him to believe she saw images of complete strang ers. “But you can read other people’s thoughts.”
    “Some of the time.”
    Parker softened his voice. “So why not mine?”
    “I don’t know.” She slumped forward over the steering wheel, clearly exasperated.
    She did know. But he was pushing her too hard. There was a strain in her now that hadn’t been there earlier. She was a phony who needed exposing, but she was a human being, too, a woman. And women required finesse, not bullying. “Would it help if I apologized?”
    She rolled her cheek against the wheel and looked at him. Her voice sounded hopeful. “Would you mean it?”
    He hadn’t done anything to apologize for. Kissing a beautiful woman with shadows in her eyes wasn’t a crime   just stupid, considering the woman he’d kissed was Caron Chalmers. But to find out what he wanted to know... “Yes.”
    “Yes, then. It would help.”
    “Okay.” He leaned over, covered her hand on the wheel and felt her