Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I like a woman who knows her mind.” He winked at her, and a flood of warmth washed over her.
He turned to the high school kid who worked behind the counter. “One mint chocolate chip in a sugar cone and one vanilla. Same kind of cone.”
“That’s it? Plain vanilla?” Liza asked.
He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a simple guy.”
If only that were true, she thought. He might be easier to resist.
He took their cones from the teenager. “Can you hold mine a second?”
Liza nodded and grabbed the desserts.
She decided not to argue about it when Dare paid, and when he was finished, she handed him back his cone. “Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome.” His grin was hot enough to melt the ice cream in her hand.
They walked back outside. “Do you want to sit here?” He pointed at a wooden bench on the sidewalk.
“Sure.” On a hot summer night in Serendipity, they were lucky the bench hadn’t been taken.
For a few minutes, they ate in silence. Liza savored the cool mint in her mouth and snuck glimpses of Dare as he licked and ate the ice cream, unable to control thoughts of him using that mouth and that tongue on her.
She stifled a groan and looked away.
He finished his cone much faster than she had, and suddenly, he turned toward her, stretching his arm on the bench behind her, his knees touching her thighs. “I never meant for you to think I don’t like you.”
His words took her by surprise. He obviously didn’t believe in easing into a conversation.
Liza swallowed hard. “I never said—”
“You called our past conversations contentious and mean. And you were right.” He glanced down as if embarrassed by the admission. “But when you said you didn’t think I’d want to spend time with you? You’re wrong about that.”
His voice dropped a deep, husky octave, and her stomach twisted with pleasure she shouldn’t be feeling. “I understand why we wouldn’t get along. What I don’t get is why…” She trailed off, unwilling to say what she was feeling.
“You don’t get why we’re drawn to each other?” Dare asked, voicing her very thoughts.
She frowned. “That’s creepy. You shouldn’t read people’s minds,” she said, laughing.
He laughed too. “Normally, I don’t. I just happen to know exactly what you’re feeling. I don’t get this thing between us either. I just know it exists.” He reached out and twisted the end of her hair between his thumb and forefinger before meeting her gaze. “And until just now, I thought it was one-sided.”
She shook her head, wishing she could deny the truth of his words. “It’s not,” she whispered. It was very mutual.
But, oh, how she wished it wasn’t. Liza kept people at a distance for a reason. Those closest tended to disappoint or hurt her. Her parents, her brother, and the man who’d taught her how dangerous it was to let people in. Since then, relationships didn’t exist in her life. She didn’t have boyfriends, and she didn’t do long term.
She did occasionally have sex. No woman could live without sex. Well, Liza couldn’t. Her life was barren enough with her college pals in the city and nobody here she trusted not to turn her away if Brian got embarrassing enough. Sometimes she needed companionship. Human contact. She hated the term friends with benefits, but she had a guy who fit that description who lived in New York City. If it happened, it happened, and neither of them had any expectations beyond that. It helped that Steve had been a friend first, and she trusted him as much as she did her girl pals, and that was good enough for her.
But Dare Barron was different.
He stared at her now with those seductive eyes, and the pull was strong. Attraction, she understood. Attraction was easy, but there was more to this thing between them. She thought about him more often than she should, but that wasn’t all. He slipped past her defenses without even trying. He made her feel, and very few people in her life managed that feat.
Take tonight. In the short time she’d been at Joe’s Bar, she’d fought a host of feelings that had begun to suffocate her so badly she’d needed to escape. She’d felt alone and out of place, but like simple attraction, those were things she understood. The longing to be a part of the obviously close relationship Dare had with his sisters-in-law and his friends?
That yearning didn’t make sense, and it frightened her. Because if she wanted, she became vulnerable. Something she wouldn’t let herself be ever again.
“Watch it,” Dare said, intruding on her thoughts.
“What?”
He reached out with his finger, catching the green ice cream dripping over her cone.
She’d been so lost in thought she’d forgotten all about her dessert. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He grinned and licked the minty flavor off his finger.