Anticipation Read Free Page B

her lap, Jonas took shallow breaths himself. He felt as if the air had been knocked clear out of his lungs, and the sensation wasn’t due to having Deidre land on him. The woman had thrown him a sucker punch with one look from her gorgeous green eyes.
    Her long, light brown lashes blinked several times before she regained her composure and gave him a shaky smile. “Well, I did tell you I’d be down in a second.”
    He chuckled at her quick wit despite the scary fall. “Yeah, darlin’, but this wasn’t the way I expected you to make your entrance.”
    “Um, thanks for rescuing me, Sheriff.” She squirmed to get out of his arms and stood, her cheeks turning an endearing shade of crimson.
    Jonas’ body had ignited in swift awareness at their brief contract. He missed her sweet pear-blossom smell and warm softness already. As he moved to a standing position, he pulled a piece of hay from her hair. “It’s Jonas, remember?”
     
    They stared at each other. Remember? Was he asking her to remember they were on a first-name basis the last time they’d seen each other, or the unspoken attraction between them?
    Her body tingled and her bra suddenly chaffed her sensitive nipples. Not to mention the persistent ache that hadn’t let up between her thighs since she woke this morning. What she felt for this man had quadrupled in intensity compared to her response to him in the past.
    Life’s experiences—the good and the bad—had a funny way of instilling steadfast certainty beyond a shadow of a doubt. She knew exactly what she did and didn’t want in a man. She’d held onto that evocative memory of Jonas in the woods all these years, not just because she couldn’t forget him, but because he’d made her believe there were still a few good men left in the world.“I remember.” Her voice sounded breathless, husky.
    He stepped closer and reached out to cup the back of her neck. Warm fingers massaged the sensitive curve of skin as his thumb traced along her jaw in a slow, seductive caress. “Do you?”

Anticipation

Chapter Two
    His steady gaze bored into hers, analyzing, measuring her. He’d never stared at her in such a calculating way before…as if he were trying to decipher her very thoughts and motivations.
    Deidre didn’t speak. She couldn’t. The man had her so caught up, all she could do was return his intense perusal.
    He bent closer, his lips a mere half inch from hers.
    She lifted her chin, anticipating, craving his kiss…desperate to know.
    “I’m not the same person I was back then.” He sounded almost apologetic.
    “Is that person completely gone then?” Her insides melted at his nearness, his scent and the masculine virility he naturally exuded without any effort.
    Heat flared in his eyes, then his expression shifted to a closed one and he took a step back as if needing to put distance between them. Before she could ask what was wrong, the cat began to squirm in her arms. Damn, how could she have forgotten about Snowball? The fall must’ve scared the cat into temporary passiveness.
    Clamping her arms tight around the moving ball of fur, she knew the intense, seductive moment had shattered. She glanced down at the cat, seeking a diversion. “Come on you ornery feline. Let’s get you inside.”
    Jonas gathered her shoes and followed her out of the barn. Pebbles poked at her feet as she stepped carefully across the driveway and up the B&B stairs to the front door.
    Without looking back, she wiped her dusty feet on the doormat and entered the house. As she took her time carrying Snowball down the hall and then shutting him inside her parents’ bedroom, Deidre swallowed several times to calm her raging libido. She needed to get control of her emotions. No matter their attraction in the past, Jonas had pretty much just rejected her, for Pete’s sake.
    But it wasn’t just her attraction to him that surprised her, she admitted while heading back down the hall toward the front of the house. The lump