Read Wanted for Free Online

her.
    “You were good.
But you know that. Girls like you bank on that.”
    “I don’t know
what you mean.”
    “You learn all
the tricks to pleasing a man, so you can really hit him hard; leave him begging
for more, caught in your snare like a starving dog after your bones. But I
can’t play that game, Tierney. I’m sorry it looked like I was using you. I
wasn’t. I wanted you too, since the second I laid eyes on you. But lust is easy
to satisfy …”
    “It was more
than lust for me.”
    “How could it
be? You don’t know me.”
    “I knew all I
needed to know the minute I saw your eyes.”
    “Real life
doesn’t work that way.”
    “Maybe for some
it does. It hasn’t for me before. But this time I’m certain of my feelings. And
I know they won’t change no matter what you do or say. I love you, Kiel. And if
that makes me stupid, fine. But it’s just the way it is.”
    “I can’t accept
that. I …” he paused, his chest shaking with a sudden, tangible pain, “I can’t
let you into my world, Tierney. It’s a lonely, ugly place.”
    “It couldn’t be
any worse than what I’m going through now. Somebody wants me dead, Kiel. I’m
scared. And I don’t know who I can trust.”
    “You can’t
trust me. And you can’t love me. Go on down to your room. It’ll be daylight
soon.”
    He moved past
her, disappeared into the hull. Tierney glanced round, wet-eyed, at the smiling
moon and dancing stars. The hint of a sun was rising in the east. She felt
utterly, miserably alone.
    Late morning
found Tierney sitting at a table in the boat’s galley, sipping good coffee and
munching on chocolate donuts fried by Travers.
    “Like them?”
    “Um hum, they’re
great! You could spoil a girl with this kind of food. I’ll bet I’ve gained five
pounds since I met you.”
    “Wouldn’t hurt
you to gain five more! You rich girls are too skinny. You know, in my youth,
there were ads in the backs of comic books, selling stuff that made you gain
weight so you’d attract more fellas? Man, have times changed!”
    “Blame it on
the fashion mags. And Hollywood . I actually had anorexia when I
was thirteen. My parents were trying to turn me into the next Margot Fonteyn …
you know, the ballerina? And I starved myself sick hoping it would make me
lighter on my feet; which it didn’t! It only made me so weak I couldn’t stand,
much less dance!” She made sure Kiel wasn’t near then she whispered: “Tell me
more about him, Travers.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like …
everything!”
    “Nah, no doing,
girl. If you want to know the lowdown on Kiel Fortune, you’ll
have to get it straight from him! I’m not one for telling tales.”
    “You are.
You’re afraid of him, that’s all.”
    “Maybe I am.”
    She was
frowning at him when Kiel came into the galley. Her heart began
to flap wildly in her chest as she stared at him. Ever shirtless, sweat beading
on his sexy muscled arms and midriff; he snitched a couple of donuts and a cup
of coffee, headed for the living room.
    “Too good to
eat with us?” Tierney hissed.
    “No, I just
came in here to check on the news. Everybody thinks you’re dead. Someone saw
you leave with Travers. Then the report came in about his yacht blowing up.”
    She jumped up,
hurried to the satellite TV. “I’m dead? Wow. That means I could restart my
whole existence, doesn’t it?”
    “Would you want
to?”
    “Hell, yes! I’d
like to live a life where nobody wants to kill me!”
    Travers joined
them as they listened to a pert newswoman with faked concern in her voice.
“Yes, it appears that reality star Tierney Evans is dead, killed in a horrible
explosion on a yacht at sea, though no bodies have been found. Why she was on
the yacht, and the cause of the explosion, are not clear. But recently the
billionaire heiress just missed being killed by a bomb planted on her car. Join
us later this evening when our ace reporter, Hawk Greeley, speculates on these
matters in his special report: Who