Free Craze by Anne Conley Page A

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    “Likewise.” He chuckled at her discomfort and felt a little guilty about it. But she was just adorable when she blushed. And she was definitely blushing.
    “They’ll be here Thursday. We can meet them in town; they don’t have to come out here, although they’re pretty curious about where I’m staying now.” She threw her face into her hands. “I don’t suppose there’s a chance this will be over by then?”
    “I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He reached over and patted her hand. It was supposed to be a reassuring gesture, but as soon as he touched her, that warm, tingly sense permeated his skin, and it was almost like a magnet had activated. His hand closed down around hers and stayed there. His dick was confused. What was this hand-holding shit?
    She didn’t seem to mind, looking at his hand closed over hers, not moving. Finally, she said, “What do we do today?”
    There was still fear in her eyes. As he looked at them, the fear dissipated, and he saw the stirrings of desire on her face. Shit . He let go of her hand, and while looking away from her eyes, he caught her licking her lips, so he chose to look away altogether. Simon didn’t send her here for him to fuck her.
    “We stay here until we hear from Simon. He’s looking into Ed Lowe, trying to dig up something on him. Meanwhile, care to tell me what you took?”
    He watched her withdraw into herself, helpless to do anything about it. He saw her fingers twitch and then lay still in her lap, and he wanted to draw them to his chest, to snuggle her, to feel that tingle work its way up his arm. But he did none of that. What purpose would it serve?
    He did know one thing, though. He was about to have company, which meant he needed to catch some food. Might as well let her know what she’d gotten into, staying with him. He snorted to himself. Not like they’d given her another choice. But if she was staying with him, she’d be living like him.
    “I need to set some snares. Put on some shoes and come with me?” He phrased it like a question, but if she said no, he’d have to find a way to make her go with him. There was no way he would leave her alone. To his immense relief, she nodded silently. He didn’t want to coerce her and was glad to see she was open to the idea.

Krista followed, as silently as she could, as Ryan deftly picked his way through the woods, following a tiny trail that had been carved into the wilderness. He moved surprisingly silently for a man of his size, and she wondered how long he’d lived here. Ryan seemed so at home in his surroundings. He stopped a few places, uncoiling a small rope from around his shoulder and setting some sort of trap using a handful of sunflower seeds and a pole. It all looked ridiculously simple to her, even though the precision he used to set the trap told her he was making it look easy, and she probably wouldn’t have a chance in hell of doing the same thing.
    She’d slept on the way here and wasn’t sure how far away they were from Austin proper. The difference in her life and this life was so severe it was surreal. She was used to walking to the parking garage housing her car in the mornings, stopping for a fancy coffee on her way, and the market on her way home. Krista had never in her life eaten food that had been alive less than an hour before. She’d bought food from produce markets but had never seen a vegetable garden as comprehensive as Ryan’s. Not outside of magazines, anyway.
    Looking around at her surroundings, she was taken with the colors everywhere. They were vibrant and natural, unlike the faded, garish colors of the city. Even in the wintertime, the evergreens were lush, and the different textures of barks on the trees held varied shades of brown and gray. The ground was covered with even more shades of green, gray, and brown. The genuineness of the muted colors was so different from what she was accustomed to.
    It was odd that someone lived out here