STEAMY ROMANCE, INSTA LOVE, STRANDED
Safety from the Storm -Chapter 2
The man was gorgeous, far more handsome than her ex-boyfriend.
Lindsey was unsure what she expected from a building out in the middle of nowhere. What she could see of the dark porch showed fake-grass carpet on the floor between the space covered by picnic tables made from large, half-logs. They were the type of tables she would expect to see in a photo for a mountain retreat. Or, as she admitted to herself, on the covered wooden terrace of a bar on a backcountry road.
But it all looked clean and in good shape. Lindsey did not feel like she was taking her life in her hands walking up to the building. Besides, anything was better than fighting to see the road through the buckets of rain, distorting the view from her car. Despite the location and the neon beer signs in the window, Lindsey hoped to be pleasantly surprised as she walked inside the building.
As soon as her eyes adjusted to the bright lights, she felt her anxiety level drop dramatically. A large welcoming restaurant had various tables scattered around the large open room, with a bar taking up one of the side walls. Each table wore a blue-and-white tablecloth covered by a clean drape of clear vinyl. On top of that was a quart mason jar holding late-season tulips.
Lindsey smiled at how lucky she was that this was the place she stumbled upon in her desperation. It was the kind of place where she could see herself hanging out with friends but would feel comfortable coming in by herself.
The high-pitched sound of metal scraping metal sent a shiver up the back of her neck and brought Lindsey’s attention to the bar area. A dark-haired man about her age swaggered through a swinging door at the rear carrying trays of clean glasses. Lindsey’s heart rate sped up as desire surged once again through her system and warmed her chilled body. The man was gorgeous, far more handsome than than her ex-boyfriend.
Tall with broad shoulders on the body of a Greek god, this man’s arm muscles bulged under faded flannel as he carried the heavy trays. He moved with a fluid economy that implied a man who knew what he could do with his body.
And, oh, did she want to find out what he knew! Lindsey’s fingers itched to reach out and spend the rest of the day happily tracing those rippling muscles. What a change that would be from the day she had had so far.
Continuing to enjoy the view, she thought that maybe the heart-breaking tears she had shed over Corbin’s infidelity had been worth the price of admission for this show. Her gaze travelled to his left hand, no ring. That was not proof he was not married. But if he were hers, she would make certain every other woman knew it.
Lindsey must have made a noise, for the man looked up as the door swung back toward the wall behind him. He stood still directly under one of the overhead lights and stared at her with the same intensity she stared at him.
She almost gasped out loud in sheer delight at the image of every fantasy she ever had rolled into one man. His short, dark hair curled down onto his forehead, softening the chiseled planes of his face. A day’s worth of stubble accented his jaw like it might when he first awoke in the morning. And those lips, those looked like they were made to bring pleasure to every part of a woman’s body. Oh, yeah. If he were her man, he would definitely be wearing a ring!
A fire of frenzied yearning scorched a path from her suddenly dry throat to land in a molten puddle in her core. Her wickedly active imagination drew images of his face twisted with desire as he pumped himself into her harder and faster, biting his lip in concentration.
Pain sliced through her passioned imagining. Lindsey realized she had been the one biting a lip from a desire so strong her fingernails had left crescent indents in the palms of her hands. That thought, combined with the smoky-colored, smoldering stare that held her feet rooted to the floor, had her skin tingling from wanting his hands to touch her.
Lindsey felt an embarrassed heat rise up her neck and blaze across her face at the lustful direction her mind took just looking at this stranger. Not that her embarrassment stopped the scorching heat from building in other parts of her body. But she was thankful that he could not possibly read her thoughts, for her mind had stripped him naked in the most delightful way.
Her body shook slightly with a shiver that ran down her spine either as a self-defense mechanism to regain some sanity or because she was wet from the rain and freezing. Whichever it was, the shiver had the desired effect of pulling her mind back from the edge of the crazy cliff she had been mentally trying to jump off.
Why was she acting so oddly? Granted, it had been a while since she had a man in her bed, but she did not usually mentally undress complete strangers or in such vivid detail.
Thinking back to earlier in the day, it had not only been betrayal that had sent her driving to a mountain escape rather than just leaving the apartment when she found her now ex-boyfriend with another woman. It had been the realization that all of his excuses had not been because he was not in the mood to have sex. But that he had not been in the mood to have it with her. That had crushed her. She did not need to be lusting after some guy who was innocently trying to put away clean glasses.
She and the Adonis stood locked in a staring contest for another moment, then he gave Lindsey an earth-shattering smile that had enough sizzle to cause the rainwater on her skin to evaporate into instant steam. Heat and desire flashed from his gaze, causing Lindsey’s stomach muscles to clench in a way that was more sharp and insistent than anything she had felt before. All sensible thought disappeared from her brain. Trying hopelessly to come up with something coherent to say, the only thing that came out of her mouth was “hello.”
