Free A Very Daring Christmas (The Tavonesi Series Book 8) by Pamela Aares Page A

sixth sense. She wasn’t sure she liked being an open book. She hadn’t learned to read herself yet, and she sure didn’t want someone else poking through her unformed thoughts.
    But Jake’s arm around her felt good. As did the gentle smile he gave her. She slipped her arm around him, telling herself it was just for a few moments. But as their steps fell into a matched cadence, the rhythm and his warmth felt better than she wanted them to.
    A young boy ran down the beach toward a group of seagulls near the tideline. He giggled his pleasure as they rose in a flashing, squawking mass and dispersed into the cloudless sky. Jake stiffened as the boy chased them and ran toward the foaming waves. But before either of them could blink, a young woman ran from behind them and scooped up the laughing boy and swung him in circles.
    “There’s a mom on the ball,” Jake said. He slipped his hand from her waist and twined his fingers with hers. “So I take it from your comment about requiring parent certification programs that you didn’t have the ideal childhood?” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I mean, I gathered as much from what you said back there.”
    His direct question startled her, but not more than the feel of his palm against hers.
    Touching him felt right.
    Blissful.
    Dangerous .
    Hadn’t she told Sabrina just last month that she was going to take it slow and steady before getting into a relationship? That she was maybe even going to give up on men for a good long while?
    “Does anyone have an ideal childhood?” she said, affecting a light tone and hoping he wouldn’t probe. Her dawning perspective on her mother’s love affairs, punctuated by the jarring awareness of wanting Jake more than she should—more than was good for her—had her mind spinning.
    “ I did.” He laughed. “Well, it was ideal in the ways that counted. Hadn’t really realized how good I had it growing up until I got around the other guys in the majors and heard their stories. My parents were partners. Still are. Raised me and my siblings right.”
    Better to talk about his family than hers. The train wreck of having a Hollywood star for a mother and a father who died before she’d turned five hadn’t made home life anything to be proud of. Add to that her own early career as a child star, and the whole darn mess just got more complicated. Nope, not date talk. Date talk ? Where had that come from? But it was a date. And she cared more than she wanted to about the outcome.
    “Cameron?” Jake’s voice and the gentle squeeze on her hand pulled her back. “Hey, you don’t have to talk about your family. Want to go up to the contestants tent? Maybe your friend is around.”
    He pointed to the tent, and his gesture entranced her. How could such a simple movement of forearm and shoulder scream out grace and power? The sun seemed to pour along his bare chest like liquid gold and highlight every ripple of chiseled muscle. She barely resisted the urge to run her fingertips along the curves of his pecs and across his taut stomach.
    Jake’s muscles hadn’t been cranked up in a gym, Hollywood style, for a brief stint in front of a camera. Everything about his body screamed integrity of movement, of a life lived in full motion. And as they approached the tent and several of the world-class surfers passed by them, she saw the same integrity and power in their bodies.
    Athletes . She’d never thought much about them before. Sure, she’d watched a few ballgames on TV, had even attended a couple of tennis matches with Elliott. But with her awareness ramped up from spending time with Jake, the chemistry of shape and movement and excellence was a perfect cocktail to flood her good sense and trigger an aching desire.
    But the phalanx of photographers outside the contestants’ tent made her chest clench.
    Perhaps because he felt her hesitation, Jake drew his brows together. “We don’t have to go closer if you don’t want to,” he