Riding the Storm by Joanne Rock

Author:Joanne Rock [Rock, Joanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-09-17T14:00:00+00:00

JOSIE WATCHED as Keith’s expression hardened.

His mouth flattened into a line. The hand that had been resting on her shoulder disappeared. And was it her imagination, or had the sky grown darker, too?

The whole day felt a little more ominous somehow.

They still sailed fast through open water, the boat recovering an even keel after being bounced around by the mammoth yacht. But Josie’s insides continued to flounder, her nerves taut after Keith’s surprise admission about his ex.

She could only imagine what he was thinking. She was struggling enough with the abrupt shift from totally turned on to stunned by Keith’s news.

“I don’t understand.” He backed up a fraction, inserting a space between them where there hadn’t been any before. “You’re a hardworking, ambitious business-woman—”

“With a past reputation for being a fixture on the society pages.” She didn’t say it to brag, since her former presence there had nothing to do with her and everything to do with her wealthy family.

“In that case, I’m surprised I didn’t recognize your name.”

She could see him trying to relax, shaking the tension out of his shoulders. But even his tone of voice told her that his guard was still up.

“I changed it legally three years ago when I started the interior design business. Passano is my mother’s maiden name. My father’s name is Davenport.” Josie didn’t miss the light of recognition in his eyes. “That rings more bells, doesn’t it?”

And—she’d be willing to bet—not in a good way.

“It’s a well-known family name,” he hedged, possibly looking for something positive to say. “I think there were Davenports in my fifth-grade history book.”

“There probably were.” She felt a hot, itchy sensation up the back of her neck and wondered how many people in the world could claim a discussion about their parents made them break out in hives. “I have to look back that far on the family tree to find any evidence of ambition, but obviously it existed at one time for Cornelius Davenport to have accumulated enough of a fortune to finance the next five generations of trust-fund babies. Excuse me, make that four generations, since I’ve weaned myself off the family gravy train.”

In the distance, she thought she heard a rumble of thunder, but she was no longer so concerned about the storm catching up to them. A nice cold downpour might ease the self-consciousness that came with introducing her past to Keith now that she understood he had an aversion to pampered jet-setters.

She’d thought she’d been safe to indulge in this time with him as long as they kept it private. She hadn’t thought that Keith would find her a pariah once he learned her true identity.

“Access to the family fortune doesn’t put you in the same category as my ex,” he insisted, apparently still giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“No. But club hopping with vacuous trendsetters in the hope of getting some attention in the press—that qualifies, right?” No sense putting a happy face on it. She’d done just that

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