Uncovering Annabelle Read Free

never
intentionally do. She was so much more daring in her dreams than
she was in reality.
    She swayed as she got to her feet and
steadied herself against the nightstand before stumbling to the
bathroom. She didn’t know what to do about her dreams. The only
thing that made them bearable was the fact that she only ran into
Mike Sloan a couple of times a week. She groaned at the notion of
having to face the man day after day. It was unthinkable.
    She didn’t need her glasses to know the
woman reflected back at her looked as hot and rumpled as she felt.
And if the weatherman was correct, today was going to be another
scorcher. Even worse was the fact that the library’s
air-conditioning had given out yesterday.
    Harold Keats, her elderly handyman, was
supposed to try to repair it this morning. Given the loud banging
sound the system had made before conking out, she didn’t hold out
much hope. She turned the shower on cold. She needed all the help
she could get.
    She stepped under the frigid spray, leaned
against the shower wall for support and forced herself to stand
there. The water pummeled her aching muscles. She felt as if she’d
been hard used last night, even if it was just a dream. The chill
was just the jolt of reality she needed for both body and mind.
When she’d taken all the cold she could handle, she adjusted the
taps until the water was a little warmer.
    As she lathered and rinsed, her sense of
humor reasserted itself. She laughed out loud and was rewarded with
a mouthful of water. Spitting and sputtering, she turned off the
shower and climbed out. She dried off and tucked the towel around
her body. She was Miss Annabelle Lee Murphy, the old-fashioned
librarian. The only chance she had of having a hot encounter in the
library stacks was if she caught some hormonal young boy checking
out women’s naked bodies in the anatomy section.
    She dried her hair and pinned it up in its
customary style. The woman in the bathroom mirror was the one she
recognized. Her equilibrium restored, she returned to the bedroom
to dress and plan her day.

Chapter
One
     
    “I heard you were hot.”
    At the sound of the deep, masculine voice,
Annabelle came up from the floor behind her desk so fast she
smacked her head on the corner. “Ouch.” She sat back on her heels
and rubbed the back of her head as she glared at the man standing
in front of her.
    Mike Sloan . She groaned inwardly,
resisting the urge to dive back under her desk and stay there. Might have known . It seemed that she was doomed to be at her
worst whenever he was around. He leaned against the side of her
doorway, all six feet three inches of rugged male perfection.
    At least in her mind he was perfect. His
face wasn’t classically handsome, but strong. The bump on his nose
suggested that it had been broken, maybe more than once, and his
soulful brown eyes were deep-set. His hair was a rich brown and
just a bit too long for fashion. He usually kept it tied back with
a leather thong. And his lips. Yum. Not too thin and not too thick.
Just right for kissing.
    Oh, Lord, she was just sitting here on the
floor, staring at the man. What was it about him that made her lose
all common sense?
    He’d asked her a question. Hadn’t he? “What
was it you said?” She strove for her best librarian’s voice. The
one that said “I’m in charge of the situation.” It worked well for
six-year-olds. But from the way Mike was grinning, it obviously
wasn’t working with him. She sighed, totally disgusted with
herself.
    His deep voice washed over her. She loved
the sound of it, so well suited to seduction. She should know. It
was the same voice that seduced her in her dreams several nights a
week. She could sit there all day and contentedly listen to him
recite the phone book. In fact, she was enjoying listening to him
speak so much she’d missed what he’d said yet again.
    Striving for dignity, she smoothed back any
errant strands of hair that had escaped the strict