What Were You Expecting? Read Free Page B

rebelled and she closed her eyes, pressing her face into a warm neck that smelled of sandalwood and sweat. It smelled like Nils Lindstrom. It made her stomach calm down like magic.
    “You smell like ’im, Paul,” she sighed. “You smell like Nils. It makes me wan’ kiss you.”
    How had she gotten to her bed? Had she taken her coat off or had Paul? He was pulling her boots off gently, first one, then the other.
    “Gotta take your jeans off, Mags. They’re soaked.”
    “Don’ get fresh…” she said in a singsong voice, her eyes still closed against the threat of spin.
    She felt warm fingers graze her belly under her jeans as they unbuttoned the five buttons in her fly. The same fingers moved to her waist, peeling the jeans away from her skin and tugging them down over her panties. His fingers trailed lightly down the outside of her thighs as he pulled gently, finally freeing them from the curve of her ankle. His fingers hooked into the tops of her socks and he pulled them down until her feet were as bare as her legs. She heard a couple of drawers open and close and a moment later she felt dry, fuzzy socks being rolled onto her feet, and then her covers were pulled up and around her.
    A warm hand brushed the bangs off her forehead, and then Nils Lindstrom’s voice whispered in her ear—it was a cool trick that drunk Paul could sound so much like growly Nils—and the sound was like heaven.
    “You need anything else?”
    “Nah, I’m goin’ asleep,” she sighed, snuggling into her pillow. “Just don’ tell Nils what I told you, ’kay? He doesna like me that way. Doesn’a see me that way neither. Doesn’a matter. Yer my best friend ever.”
    “It’s okay,” he said. She felt soft lips graze her forehead, brushing back and forth gently before pulling away. “’Night, Maggie May.”
    “’Night, Paul,” she murmured, falling immediately into a deep sleep.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    “Nils! I’ve said your name three times, son,” his father scolded him from desk next to his.
    “Sorry, Pop.”
    “Where’s your head at today?”
    Morning sunlight streamed into the small office, the cold rain from the night before long gone. But his memories from last night were just as fresh as if he’d left Maggie’s apartment five minutes ago. That man needs to bed me or wed me… I wish I dinna like him so well… It makes me wan’ kiss you. Nils took a shaky breath, wishing he’d never heard those things, wishing he didn’t know what they sounded like in his ears.
    He glanced at his father. “Don’t know. Distracted, I guess.”
    “Feeling okay?”
    “Oh, sure.”
    “I tell you what…how about you go get us two decent-tasting coffees from Maggie’s place and when you get back we’ll discuss the McCarthy group coming in for the month of July.”
    “M-Maggie’s?”
    “Yeah. I’ll have one of them lat-tays with cinnamon.” His father shoved his glasses up from the tip of his nose and turned his attention back to the files.
    Nils stood up slowly, not sure he was ready to see Maggie after last night. She was so drunk, he doubted she’d have any recollection of the things she’d said to him, and yet they were seared on Nils’s brain like a brand. That man needs to bed me or wed me…That man needs to bed me or wed me… Well, they lived in the same small town. Best to bite the bullet and smooth things over as soon as possible. Not to mention, he was going to have to work with Maggie on his father’s surprise party. He couldn’t avoid her forever.
    He cleared his throat and pushed back from his desk. “Sure, Pop. I’ll, uh, I’ll maybe take a quick walk first. Get a little fresh air. Be back in a bit.”
    Outside it was sunny, though cool for early May. Nils’s favorite weather. He turned away from the Prairie Dawn and headed up the road, hoping to clear his head a little bit.
    The first time he saw Maggie, working with her Aunt Lily at the Prairie Dawn, he’d been taken with her. Her