Free Unstoppable (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page A

his body against hers. He’d been the one to look at her mouth like it was dessert. She hadn’t done anything.
    Were all men this freaking baffling to the mind? Or was it just Bennett? Whoever said women were hard to understand was mistaken. Men were leaps and bounds more perplexing.
    Mel grabbed her wineglass and refilled it. She was going to need something to get her through the rest of the night, because the man in her living room was frustrating as all hell.
    When she went into the room, he was sitting at the far end of the couch, not in the middle where they normally sat. Well, if he wanted to put distance between them that was fine. Just fine. She wasn’t going to be some needy, desperate girl that was pinning over some stupid man who didn’t want her.
    Whatever.
    So she sat on the opposite end of the couch and took a big drink of her wine. Too bad it had absolutely no effect in calming her ever-spinning mind.
    *  *  *
    Bennett wasn’t even paying attention to the show. How could he when all he was thinking about was the woman who was sitting five feet away from him?
    Normally Mel would make comments here and there during the show or ask questions because there were more than a few confusing story lines, but she hadn’t said a word the entire hour.
    And neither had he. What the hell was he supposed to say? Sorry for not kissing you ? Sorry for not knowing what’s going on with the two of us ? Sorry for being a candy-ass ?
    Yeah, none of those seemed like appropriate things to say.
    How was it that Bennett had fought in wars, and yet this beautiful woman scared the ever-living daylights out of him? He’d never been tongue-tied or nervous around women before. But Mel? Mel was an entirely different story.
    He just needed to say something to her. Tell her he kind of liked her.
    Kind of liked her ? What, was he in the fifth grade or something?
    His palms were sweaty and itchy, and he kept rubbing them on the thighs of his jeans. When the episode ended he jumped up from the couch and excused himself to go to the bathroom. He was too damn twitchy for his own good, and Mel had raised her eyebrows at him before he turned around and walked down the hallway.
    Why was he making this so damn complicated? He was attracted to her. He liked spending time with her. He wanted to spend more time with her. So what was the big deal if they started dating? They could do that casually. It wasn’t like they were going to get married or anything.
    Married? No, no, no. Noooooooo.
    Bennett wasn’t ready for that. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for that. Marriage wasn’t in his plan. Not to Mel. Not to anyone. He wasn’t stable when it came to relationships. Really, he wasn’t stable, period. It might’ve been a couple of years, but he wasn’t over what had happened in Afghanistan. He’d never be over it. He’d forever be screwed up.
    It wasn’t something that Mel needed to be exposed to. She didn’t need to witness his nightmares or the panic attacks that accompanied them. No one should have to deal with his fucked-uppedness, especially her.
    He’d probably scare the ever-living shit out of her with one of his panic attacks. God knew he scared the ever-living shit out of himself.
    Bennett was so far in his head that he wasn’t really paying attention to where he was going. He pushed open the door and flipped on the switch, but instead of walking into the bathroom, he walked into Mel’s bedroom.
    The walls were a light green. The curtains, lampshades, and quilt spread across her queen bed were a bright blue. And right there, right in the middle of the pillows on her bed, was the teddy bear he’d gotten her when she’d been in the hospital.
    *  *  *
    Okay, so something was definitely up with Bennett. That much was obvious to Mel. He was fidgety and just…off. He’d never acted like this with her before, and she really didn’t like it. She had absolutely no idea what was going on and she was going to ask him