things erotic, and his desire for her returned.
5
Ransom glanced at his watch as he turned his Jeep onto Main Street. He had a free half hour before his final meeting of the day, a potential contract with an LA developer who wanted to build a sports complex on the outskirts of the city. Ransom was excited about the meeting. If all went well he’d not only land the Vegas contract, but could network his way into LA construction projects as well.
He honked and waved as he drove, knowing almost everybody he passed. Growing up in a relatively small town could be both a blessing and a curse. The good thing was you knew everybody. The bad thing was everybody knew you. And everybody wanted to know everybody else’s business. Even if they didn’t know, they acted as if they did, or made something up.
He was just about to make a left at Main and Tenth Street when a tight body in a fitted navy blue suit caught his eye. The sexy stranger was going into Kristy’s Coffee Shop and before Ransom knew what was happening, he’d swung from the left turn to center lane, crossed the street, and turned into the small coffee shop parking lot. He’d never been a coffee drinker, but he loved hot chocolate, and the cup of cute he’d seen switching into the small yet socially lively establishment was the kind of cup he craved. He jumped over the door of the Jeep, brushed his hands against his slim fitted jeans, and sauntered toward the door.
At the same time, Gwen was making a hasty exit. Her cell phone had rung just after she’d placed her order with the owner, Kristy McDowell. A worried Mary Walker, Gwen’s mother’s neighbor for the past twenty years, had first called Lorraine, and then knocked on her door, to no avail. She’d immediately called Gwen, who assured Miss Mary that she’d be there in five minutes. Then she’d dashed out of the coffee shop….
And into the arms of Ransom Blake.
Gwen, who’d been looking down into her purse to fish out car keys, at first thought she’d run into a wall. But walls didn’t have strong arms that enveloped her, a chest that pressed against her instantly alert nipples, or a smell like citrus and sandalwood. She looked up, blinked, and willed herself to speak. Her mouth formed an O, but nothing came out. She gulped, knowing the right thing to do would be to pull away from this black Fabio fantasy. But she could not. Was he real? Lord have mercy, was she? At a moment like this, who knew? She could have pinched herself to see if she were dreaming. That is, if she could move. Instead of retreating, she unwillingly and unconsciously leaned further into him.
Ransom took notice of a couple things before he tried to let her go. First, he noticed that the body beneath the conservative blue suit was firm yet supple. He guessed her height at around five-seven or eight, and that the shiny hair that teased her shoulders was her own. She smelled clean, like the air after a rain shower. His manhood instantly leapt to attention, and he knew he should break the embrace before he embarrassed them both.
“I’m sorry,” Gwen muttered, even as she willed her body to step back from the onyx Adonis.
“Are you all right?” Ransom countered.
“Yes,” Gwen stuttered. With sheer determination, she tried to step back. And literally couldn’t move. The butterfly brooch that her mother had sworn was the perfect complement to her professional ensemble was hopelessly entangled in the fabric of Ransom’s tank top. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. I think I’m stuck.”
“Well, now. Isn’t this my lucky day?”
Gwen looked up into eyes as dark as coal, framed by lashes that seemed to reach the tips of his perfectly shaped brows. She dropped her gaze a couple inches and took in a tapered nose, flaring slightly with…desire? An inch or so more and a mouth that said “kiss me…now.” Unlike earlier with Adam, Gwen wanted this man to lick his lips. Heck, she wanted to lick them! Gwen closed her eyes before she made a complete fool of herself and focused on the brooch with renewed determination.
“Wait a minute, baby, you’re going to tear my top off me if you keep that up,” Ransom said, his voice tinged with laughter. “Of course, I could think of worse fates for this old rag.” His voice lowered and softened. “And believe me, someone who looks and smells as good as you don’t have to tear nothing. I’ll gladly come out of anything you want me to.”
Gwen’s breath caught in her throat. This man whose name she did not know had her wet and trembling before God and everybody, on Main Street, in broad daylight, in the heart of their small town! But even as he aroused her, he relaxed her. He delivered an obvious line in a way that didn’t seem pretentious. It felt, well, she thought it was cute.
“I’m sorry,” she said, still trying to untangle a golden wing from his red nylon. “I wasn’t looking where I was going….” Despite her resolve to remain calm, she was ready to either snatch her brooch out of this man’s material or throw his body into the backseat of her car and then herself on top of him!
“The way I see it,” Ransom said calmly as he worked to undo the brooch from his shirt, “fate has dealt us a telling hand. Maybe since we’re stuck on each other, we should go out on a date.”
Gwen knew the man had just said something, but she was having trouble getting her mind to connect with her mouth. She had the almost irresistible urge to run her fingers through his long, silky hair. Just as her legs began to tremble and her hand reached for a strand, Ransom untangled the last piece of mesh from the butterfly.
“I always did like butterflies,” he said as he straightened the lapel of Gwen’s summer suit. “Now they hold even more meaning.”
It was Gwen’s turn to lick suddenly dry lips. She realized she could stare at this man for hours and listen to him all day. Then she remembered Mrs. Walker’s phone call, and her mother.
“I’ve got to go,” she snapped as she stepped around Ransom and ran to her car.
Intrigued, Ransom stared after her, eager to find out more about this obvious newcomer to the town of Sienna. She had class and poise, something rare in the females he encountered around town. For some inexplicable reason, Ransom felt driven to make sure they keep the date he’d suggested in a lighthearted fashion. It wasn’t until he entered the coffee shop that he recognized the problem in making that happen: he didn’t know her name.
Adam sat at the corner of Tenth and Main—pissed. The same woman who had pushed him off her and hid under the cover of her marital status was practically mauling his half brother in broad daylight. She looked anything but unavailable as she held on to his red mesh top and gazed up into Ransom’s eyes while his brother brazenly palmed her breasts. They’d stayed cuddled up the entire time it took the light to change, finally breaking apart as he made a left-hand turn toward the highway. But ten minutes later, as he pulled into the parking lot of the old yet stylish apartment turned condominium complex, his mind wasn’t on the sex he felt sure awaited him just inside Joanna Roxbury’s place. It was on Gwen Andrews Smith, the fake-ass bitch who’d tried to play hard to get. Well, he was hard all right. And he knew at that moment he wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d shared that hardness with a certain former classmate.
6
Gwen emerged from the hot shower somewhat calmer than when she’d stepped under the water spray. She’d donned a shower cap, but tendrils of hair that had escaped now spiraled around the nape of her neck in their natural curled state. Eyeing herself critically in the mirror, she tried to tame her wayward locks with hard pulls of a brush, then swept her hair back in a ponytail, put on a worn cotton robe with fuzzy slippers, and exited the bathroom.
Although
