Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) Read Free Page A

of note to him. It was nothing like the lavish cotillion he’d thrown for his sister when she’d reached eighteen. There’d been an orchestra, and too much rich catered food, and diamond pendants as party favors for all the women.
    “It’s not just my birthday. I graduated from high school today too. I’m going to be my best friend’s birthing coach in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to see that baby be born. And…,” she drew out the word with a twinkle in her eye. “The best thing of all, I got my acceptance letter from the Gulf Coast Ballet today.”
    “Show me,” he said.
    He knew her expressive eyes would dance with pleasure when she handed him the letter. He’d like to see that. He’d like to see a lot of things with this artless, innocent girl. Things he’d not wanted with the blonde tigress so lately in his bed. Things he’d never wanted with the hundreds of women he’d used and discarded in the past. Dangerous things.
    Sunny happily got up to fetch the letter from her bag. She’d almost returned when she noticed him standing, watching her. There was a small intricate tattoo on the left side of his chest. It caressed the deep masculine curve over his heart. The thing looked vaguely familiar to her. But she couldn’t remember where she’d seen it before. It was an ornate M with an arrow running through its center. A chain of Celtic knots circled the monogram. It was masculine and beautiful, all at the same time. Just like its owner.
    “Here, read it,” she said. She held the heavy embossed cream-colored envelope up to him.
    He took the thing from her trembling fingers. Before he made a move to open it, he studied the girl. She wasn’t conventionally beautiful. Not like Leanne Simmons. But there was something so real about her. Like she possessed a kind of bone-deep goodness, or maybe purity was the word for it. Hers was a sassy but uncomplicated optimism. He was drawn to that as well. There was no lurking darkness in her eyes. He’d never met anyone like her. She was unique.
    Sunny’s long, honey hair was thick and shot through with shimmering streaks of gold. He saw this when the moonlight caressed the length of her braid. Those shimmers of color were something only the sun could provide. She wasn’t tall. In fact, the top of her head barely reached his chin. But her body was graceful and willowy. Her slight build perfectly fit her small stature. Her skin was tanned and smooth. It was as an arresting foil for her cat-tilted eyes. First, he’d thought they were blue. Now they looked as green as the depths of the ocean lapping up on the thirsty beach. Her mouth was almost too lush. It made him think of dark nights and satin sheets.
    His eyes narrowed as he watched her bite her lower lip anxiously waiting for him to read her acceptance letter. He thought he might like to bite that full apricot lip. He’d like to bite that and a whole lot more. His body stirred. The chemistry between them was white-hot. She was too naive to recognize it. But he did.
    He realized he wanted to do more than take a simple taste of the ripe peach that was Elizabeth Sumner Murphy. And the thought gutted him to his core. He was a man. He owned it. But she was a girl, years too young for someone like him. Even if she was eighteen, she was also very innocent, if his instincts were right. And they almost always were. Her first time shouldn’t be out on a public beach with a stranger. A stranger who’d never, not even once in his life, been considered innocent.
    He didn’t like the protectiveness Sunny called out of him. He’d never felt it before. And he didn’t like it now. The new emotion was painful. So, even though he would have given both his soul and all his fortune to make her a woman right now, on this secluded beach, he didn’t. He did what he must, though his straining body damned him for it. He purposed to make her hate him. It was safer, better for her to run away. Fighting his rising arousal, his