Free Storm Warning by Toni Anderson

She had no clue what he did. “What exactly are you doing in Anstruther?”
    For the first time, he looked self-conscious. Uncomfortable. “I’m a writer.”
    “Really?” Her eyebrows stretched wide in surprise. “I would never have pegged you for a man of the arts.”
    He stopped moving, the utter stillness of his body requiring absolute self-control. It was a little unnerving, like watching someone turn to stone. He stared at her with eyes so dark they didn’t even shine.
    “Why not?” he said finally.
    “You seem too…I don’t know.” She laughed, suddenly uneasy. “Too practical? Too grounded. ”
    “How’d you feel if I said you seemed too flighty and fanciful to be a scientist?” His tone held censure, as though she’d done him a disservice.
    It was a fair point.
    She frowned. “How do you know I’m a scientist?” He knew a lot about her, whereas she knew almost nothing about him.
    He put his hands on his hips and examined the floor, raised his eyes to look at her from beneath heavy brows. “I asked Carolyn.”
    She shouldn’t be taken in. She shouldn’t be so ridiculously pleased, but her ego had been obliterated during the past year and she was helpless against the tiny thread of pleasure that snaked inside. “You asked Carolyn about me?”
    “What did you think we’d talk about?” He studied her without blinking.
    Not her, that was for damn sure. She pressed her lips together. Thank heavens Carolyn didn’t know about her ghost or the voices in her head. She knew about Bruce, sure…“What exactly did she tell you?”
    He walked toward her, his face unreadable despite the flickering orange firelight. A chill ran down her spine, and her body coiled in anticipation. He stopped an arm’s length away, and even though she tried, she could not look away.
    “That you found your last boyfriend in bed with another woman.” His voice was soft, tender even.
    “Ah.” Heat flooded her cheeks and she hid her face in the bundle of clothes she held, her nose brushing the softness of the towel. Honesty forced her to mumble, “They weren’t exactly in bed.”
    She didn’t want to remember Bruce or how she’d naively told him her secrets, and how much she’d loved him. The sound of his hoarse cries as he came in another woman’s body still reverberated around her mind. The memory of smug satisfaction on the other girl’s face when Sorcha had confronted them still contained the power to stab deep and hard.
    “Losers like that aren’t worth worrying about,” he told her.
    “You had a lot of boyfriends cheat on you?” Her humor was weak even to her own ears, though his lips quirked
    She liked that smile.
    He lifted a finger to graze her cheek and softly stroked her jawline, a sensual journey that made her skin tingle and her pulse zip. He dragged his thumb over her bottom lip and drew it down. She held her breath.
    Then he dropped his hand.
    “It was a long time ago,” she said. A very long time ago, and right now she wanted to forget all her problems and kiss Ben Foley, and he sure looked as though he wanted to kiss her. But he didn’t move. Didn’t dip his head. Instead, he took a step back.
    “You can shower first.” He walked over to his laptop and booted it up, putting the sofa and dining table between them. “Doesn’t matter what time I get up in the morning.” His cool smile was totally at odds with the heat of his touch seconds earlier.
    Self-conscious, she ran a hand over her frizzy hair and grimaced, feeling as if she’d jumped him and he’d turned her down.
    Maybe she had?
    And he was letting her down gently.
    Nice.
    She wanted to kill him.
    “Right. Thanks.” She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, leaning on it until she regained her composure. It felt strange to be with a man she found attractive, and not even have the nerve to kiss him.
    At least she’d learned something from Bruce.
    Her watch said 12:30 a.m. She closed her eyes and groaned. She