All Shook Up Read Free

fine, upstanding great-aunt had seen to that.
    Not that he’d been perfectly content before Edwina Lawrence had barged into his fourteen-year-old life and turned it upside down. Bouncing from foster hometo foster home was less than ideal for any kid, but at least there had been a pattern to his life; he’d understood the rules. And rule number one had been: don’t get too comfortable. For sooner or later—and usually it had been sooner—he’d be out on the street again.
    Not getting your hopes up was the first rule of survival, but Edwina had been different, and it had sucked him in, lulled him into forgetting a lot of hard-won lessons. She’d chosen him—he hadn’t been foisted on her by an overworked social worker. And the fact that she was unlike anyone he’d ever known had been a seduction all on its own.
    They’d met the day he’d tried to steal her purse. It had been one of his stupider moments, but he’d listened to his friend Butch’s pitch of easy money and had given in to the lure.
    The fragile-looking little old lady had taught him that crime didn’t pay, though. Not only had she hung onto her purse, she’d gotten a good grip on him to boot. The only way to break loose would have been to hurt her. When Butch had taken off running, leaving him to face the music on his own, J.D. had heard the mental clang of barred doors slamming shut, and thought he was headed to juvie hall for sure.
    But instead of turning him in to the cops, the way any right-thinking individual would have done, she’d taken him home. Then she’d made arrangements to foster him, and had offered him the run of her place.
    He’d fallen in love with her that day.
    She’d taught him there was an entire world far removed from the decaying streets and alleyways of the inner city, which was all he’d known up until then.But what she’d offered with one hand she’d taken away with the other, at the very moment he’d finally relaxed his guard and begun to believe he was worthy of the clean new life she offered. And where once he had idolized her, he’d begun to bitterly resent the very breath she drew.
    Shit . J.D. nearly tromped on Dru’s heels as he blinked the past back where it belonged— in the past. That was twenty years ago, ace . Get over it.
    Dru pushed open the outer door at the bottom of the stairs and the evergreen-laden scent of the country rushed in.
    “You mentioned a ski season?” he said. “I didn’t see any lifts around here.” And although this was an alpine lake area, it wasn’t the type of terrain he associated with ski resorts.
    Dru glanced at him over her shoulder, and the blue of her eyes was electric in the sunlight. “That’s because we feature cross-country skiing. See that trailhead over there?” She pointed to a hiking trail that disappeared into the woods down the side of the mountain. “That’s called Treetop, and it connects us to over a hundred kilometers of trails that can be hiked and biked in the summer or skied in the winter.”
    She casually touched his forearm, and a muscle under his skin jumped as if he’d received an electric shock. Face carefully expressionless, he stepped away, slanting a quick look at her.
    “Come on,” she said, clearly oblivious. “Your cabin is down this way.” She began to head toward the lake.
    J.D. rubbed at the band of heat left behind by her touch. What the hell was that all about? He’d like toblame it on the fact that he wasn’t accustomed to being touched, but that didn’t explain the similar jolt he’d gotten when he’d turned around and seen her for the first time in the lobby. His initial reaction had been: want it. She’d looked so soft and round, standing there. Round eyes, round cheekbones, round breasts, round ass. He didn’t understand it—hadn’t then, didn’t now. She was pretty enough, in a subtle outdoorsy, girl-next-door sort of way. But she sure as hell wasn’t his type, so that covetous shock of awareness seemed out of