Free The Angel Tasted Temptation by Shirley Jump Page A

it had ... possibilities.
    "It's a big change," Elona repeated. "You'll love it soon, trust me. Brigitte is never wrong."
    Meredith wasn't so sure the input of a star who wasn’t even in the same country, never mind the same room, should be trusted, but she paid Elona anyway, because the guilt at not paying would have plagued her for the rest of the day, bad haircut or not.
    And besides, Meredith had to admit that Elona was the expert and maybe the fact that she'd just had her first haircut in a decade had sent her spiraling into some weird crazy feelings of regret. Maybe tomorrow she'd wake up and miraculously find herself with Cameron Diaz's hair.
    Meredith glanced again in the mirror before she left Hair and Gone. It was going to take more than a night's sleep to make her look like Cameron Diaz.
    When she got back to the shop, Maria and Candace assured her they loved the haircut and that it was perfect for her face and her new look. The clothes they'd bought the day before were sassier and hipper than anything Meredith had ever owned, and once she put on one of the new outfits she had stored out back, she could at least stop sobbing.
    Maybe, in time, she'd be able to stop wearing waterproof mascara. But until her hair grew out, she wasn't taking any chances.
    Six hours later, she stood on Rebecca's front stoop, clutching her purse, and waited for Travis Campbell to come and pick her up. She wore the new outfit she'd changed into, a dark blue skirt and silky pink T-shirt. She'd fiddled with her hair until she was afraid she was going to go bald, all to no avail.
    No matter how much she strove for City Girl, Meredith was sure she came off looking more like Country Gone Wrong.
    A silver convertible slid into the parking space in front of her. Travis sat behind the wheel, his dark hair a bit windblown from the topless ride.
    Heat smoldered within her at the sight of him. He was more man than any man she'd ever met before, certainly sexier than the boys who'd been in her high school.
    They had been boys. Inexperienced in the world, and in knowing what made a woman tick.
    Travis was a M-A-N.
    He parked the car, slid out of the seat and came around to face her. "I wasn't sure you'd be here."
    In jeans, with a battered black leather jacket over a white T-shirt that stretched across the planes of his chest, Travis looked like an ad for sex.
    Oh, Lord. This was more than she'd bargained for. Meredith let go of her purse. It hit against her hip, the strap tugging against her shoulder, a dead weight reminding her of what was inside. Was she up to this? Could she really go through with it?
    Besides, would Travis even want to sleep with a woman who now looked like the long-lost third member of Wham!?
    He took a step toward her, reaching up and touching her hair. "I like this," he said, lifting the ends and releasing them in a flutter against her neck.
    "You like my haircut? I thought it was awful."
    He tick-tocked a finger at her. "Never argue with a man who's telling you that you look beautiful."
    "But—"
    "But nothing. It's a wonderful change." He touched the ends again, allowing the tendrils to slide through the first two fingers of his hand like silky ribbons. Beneath his touch, her hair felt a thousand percent feminine. Sexy. Like a weapon she could use for seduction.
    From somewhere in the ether, Meredith swore she heard Brigitte Bardot whisper, "I told you so."
    "And best of all," Travis went on, still toying with the ends of her hair, "it lets me see those eyes of yours." He tiptoed his touch up her cheek to circle her gaze. "Those eyes, that say so much and hide even more."
    Heat quivered in her belly, snaking through her veins. "I'm not hiding anything."
    "Oh yes, you are, Meredith. But telling me would mean getting close, and you don't want to do that, do you?"
    Oh she wanted to get close right now. Very close. Skin-to-skin close. But not the kind of close he meant. The kind where she opened her heart and let him in. That