Summer Sizzle Read Free Page A

keep this wild beast locked up for the short duration of your stay.” He flinched as the angry cat scraped its back claws against his arm in an effort to get away, leaving ugly red welts and blood.
    “Oh, no. Oh, I’m so sorry. Not everyone likes cats.” Vicki rushed to take the angry animal from him, quickly exchanging it for the sandals. Her embarrassment kept her from looking at him
    He wiggled his feet into the sandals while she put the yowling animal back into the pet carrier. “Stop complaining, Ty-Ling. It’s your own fault. If you hadn’t been such a naughty girl, you wouldn’t have to go back into your cage.” She immediately returned her attention to Blake who was checking the damage to his ankle and arm. “Here, let me see.”
    She took his forearm and lightly touched the numerous scratches. “I’m so sorry about this, uh, Blake.” Once again, the physical contact sent tremors of desire coursing through her. Desires that refused to be shoved aside. Embarrassment momentarily overruled the edgy situation building between them, supplanting any thought of physical attraction. “It doesn’t look too bad. The bleeding has stopped. Do you have some antiseptic? I think cleaning is all it needs.”
    She looked up into his face. The muscles in his arm tensed when she made eye contact. Her heartbeat increased, followed by a momentary loss of breath. She didn’t even want to acknowledge the sudden tingling between her legs.
    Warmth swirled through Blake’s body and shoved at his cock, her touch far more than merely soft and inviting. Something very different from when he merely lusted after a hot piece of ass. This represented a reality as disturbing as Vicki’s physical presence in his house. He had noticed it when they shook hands and again when she took hold of his arm.
    He withdrew from her touch as tactfully as he could. Just watching her made his cock twitch. And with physical contact added into the mix, regardless of how fleeting and casual, his arousal hardened. The unusual circumstances of the moment left him unsure about what to do. If they were in one of the many bars in the village, if he had met her at a party or even picked her up on the beach, he would know how to proceed. But this… She had not shown up at his door looking for fun and games, a night of no-strings-attached hot sex with a stranger.
    Uncertainty filled the depths of her hazel eyes. He usually had no trouble putting people into categories and placing them within the structure of surrounding influences. He did it every day at work. Well, he used to do it every day, back when he worked for a living. In the days before…
    He shoved away the unwelcome painful memory before it could get a foothold in his consciousness.
    Blake thought he had already neatly categorized her, but Victoria Templeton turned out to be a bit of a puzzle. One moment an uptight, indignant woman determined to be in charge and the next minute she seemed shy and uncertain. “Look…you take care of that mess your cat made.” He indicated the broken glass and spilled tea and beer, softening his voice in response to her obvious distress. “And I’ll take care of this mess your cat made.” He balanced on one foot and extended his other leg to display his wounded ankle while holding up his scratched arm.
    “I’m so sorry about this. I apologize for Ty-Ling. I don’t know what got into her. She’s usually very well behaved.” Her voice dropped to a near whisper, clearly conveying the sincerity of her words. “I feel so terrible about this.”
    “It’s no big deal, really.” An impulse or maybe an emotional desire that came from that vulnerable place he tried so hard to ignore pushed him to place his fingertips beneath her chin and lift her face until he could see her eyes again. “Don’t worry about it.” Uncertainty covered her face and the wariness clouded her eyes. “Do you always take everything so seriously?”
    “I…I don’t know what you