Something to Live for (Moonlight Dating Series) Read Free Page A

most of the
floor.
    Someone
had put money into this place. After looking at the outside, one wouldn’t think
that such luxury and comfort waited inside. It was a two hundred year old
structure, painstakingly renovated with a welcoming, state-of-the-art interior.
    The large
room flowed into an L-shape that carried beyond a large teak dining table with
seating for six.
    “You can
close the door behind you,” said a lilting voice from the back of the L-shape.
    His
stomach made a flip like that of a schoolboy’s with a budding first crush.
Laughing inwardly at the thought, he clicked the door shut and walked past the
chocolate leather couch, around the table, toward the beautiful voice.
    He found
her sitting on a bar stool at the kitchen counter. A couple of large trays
laden with cold meats, cheeses, and assorted appetizers sat untouched in front
of her.
    She turned
toward him and looked straight into his eyes. Her eyebrows drew together.
    “You must
be starving,” she said.
    Upon
meeting her gaze, his belly did a bigger flip and he had difficulty swallowing
a big lump that lodged in his throat.
    God, she
was beautiful.
    He stared
at her. Soft burnished locks flowed richly around her oval face to just below
her collarbone. Tall and trim, she wore a simple silk green sheath dress that
stopped above the knee and unpretentious flat gold sandals.
      An artist’s muse.
    The best part of her, though, were her eyes. Fine
jade eyes that looked at him, into him, through him. There was something
infinitely alluring about that light green gaze. It was unique, and
frightening. It was… intense. Would any man be able to keep secrets from this
woman?
    A deeper
frown creased her brow. “Is something wrong?”
    His gaze
fell to her full lower lip that she was now biting on. “No.”
    Boy, was
he charming tonight. If he went on this way, she would think him a dunderhead
and call off the whole thing.
    “I was
saying that you must be hungry,” she tried again, while she extended a hand
toward him.
    “As a
matter of fact, I am.” He was at her side in two strides and took her offered
hand as he sat on the stool next to her. It was supple and warm against his. He
briefly rubbed his thumb above her knuckles and raised her hand to his mouth to
drop a light kiss on it.
    She laughed, a sweet, musical sound. “Men haven’t done that in
centuries.”
    “Does it
matter?”
    “No, but
you don’t need to seduce me. We both know why we’re here.”
    “It
doesn’t mean I should take you for granted,” he argued.
    “Touché,”
she replied with a grin. “So let me say ‘hi’ in my own way,” she added, before
she picked a stuffed olive from the tray and slid it between his lips.
    He should have
told her what that erotic gesture did to him, to his base lust. But instead he crushed
those words underneath the bitter flesh of the fruit. It tasted like hot
chillies going down, set him alight.
    She studied
him with narrowed eyes, as though she struggled to focus on his face. His hand
cupped her cheek, because he found himself unable to keep from touching her.
    “Something the matter?”
    “Just
trying to see you better,” she said,
while emphasizing the word “see”.
    He
laughed. “I am right in front of you.”
    “I suppose
you weren’t told that I’m fairly blind. Not totally, but I can’t see well,
either,” she admitted matter-of-factly.
    Now
serious, he had both hands around her cheeks. His thumb traced the bottom
contours of her eyes, precious like rare gems.
    That’s
what it was then, that special something about them. That intense gaze…
    “Tonight
you don’t need to see,” he said, his voice raspy. “All you need to do is feel .”
    He kissed
her, not like a gentleman, not gently and with care, but with an alien need
that assailed all his senses. It upset him at some deep, elemental level.
    Why?
    That was
one thing he shouldn’t have done. If this woman managed to get under his skin
so fast, what would happen by