Free Irresistible Force by D. D. Ayres Page B

personal. And maybe she should go brush her hair. She must look a mess after—
    “Crap!” Shay glanced guiltily at the kitchen doorway. She was making plans for the possibility that the man in her bathroom might care how she looked.
    As if she had just found a new prospect for her love life.
    As if the last disaster hadn’t just stalked out her door.
    No! James made her uneasy. For instance, why had he come back? Just because he had turned up in time to stop Eric before things got completely out of control didn’t mean her silent pleas for help had worked. He must have had some other motive.
    She glanced down at Bogart. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what’s up with your partner?”
    Bogart thumped his tail, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.
    She tossed him a fried oyster which he caught and swallowed without even rising from his prone position.
    Afterward, he sat up and barked and offered her his paw.
    She laughed and shook it. “Yeah, you’re cute, my charming Prince. But it seems you come with attachments I can’t afford to have in my life.”
    When the last oyster had been fried and a salad of kale added to the table to fill out the menu that included black-eyed peas over rice, she glanced at the clock.
    He’d been in the bathroom thirty minutes. How much water could one man use?
    On the way through the living room, she glanced at her front door. She knew she had locked it after James came back in but she found herself checking, just in case.
    All three locks were in place.
    Her breath came out in a whoosh of relief. As she turned into the bedroom she heard music coming from behind the bathroom door. No wonder he hadn’t heard her call. He was singing rather loudly to a Jake Owen country and western song.
    His rather nice baritone was crooning “can’t be alone with you,” as she tapped on the bathroom door.
    No response. She rapped more loudly, saying in a near shout, “Dinner is—”

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
    Shay had seen naked men. But not one quite this impressive close-up. He was bigger than he appeared when clothed. As the steam curled out of the room behind him, he seemed to have emerged from some primitive grotto. Muscles she’d felt in their morning struggle and later brief encounter in the hallway were covered in smooth tanned skin lightly furred in a golden pelt that still held a few drops of water from his shower.
    Instantly embarrassed to be staring with lips parted in surprise, she looked down. That didn’t help.
    The hair on his torso turned darker and sleeker as it arrowed down his flat abdomen, skirted his navel and then sank out of sight behind well-used jeans left unsnapped and half zipped. In fact, the denim seemed precariously hung on the hook of one jutted hip.
    “Yes?” A voice from somewhere over her head delivered the word in a quiet, deep register.
    Shay closed her mouth. She’d come here to say something. She was pretty sure she had.
    “Dinner ready?”
    “Yes.” It took her another second to lift her gaze to his face.
    A single slick of shaving gel covered the last patch of uncut whiskers. Where he had shaved, the smooth skin of his lower face was drawn taut in a grin.
    He must have seen something in her face because he glanced down at himself then muttered, “Oops! Sorry!” He tossed the razor into the sink and used both hands to yank up his zipper.
    “And don’t leave a mess in my bathroom.” She spun quickly, and stalked away.
    He was watching, she could feel his gaze slide warmly down her spine to her behind. That made her aware of the way her boots made her hips sway.
    She turned the corner into the living area before she let herself slump against the wall. Her mouth was dry, her breath tangled up between “oh my God!” and “hot damn!”
    The details of him still simmered in her overstimulated senses. The swell of his shoulders, still damp from the shower, were freckled. He smelled of soap and shower steam. There was a small scar on the