Free Knowing You by Maureen Child Page A

carpet.
    â€œRight,” he said. “I told you no interruptions.” Thenit dawned on him. “Why’d you let Anna’s call through?”
    The older woman shrugged. “You looked like you needed a distraction or two.”
    She had no idea.
    The phone on his desk rang.
    Max checked her watch again. “That’ll be the general.”
    Dutifully Paul swiveled around in his chair, without sparing a glance at the dozen or more framed awards and certificates hanging on the wall behind the desk. Pushing thoughts of Stevie to one side, at least temporarily, he reached for the phone.
    *   *   *
    By the time Stevie got back from the homeless shelter, it was late and she was thankful she’d told Sarah to close up the place for her. She was beat. Tired enough that she had actual hope of really sleeping that night. Minus the dreams that had been flitting through her mind the last few days.
    At least until she pulled into her parking space behind the shop and saw Paul standing beside his car, waiting for her.
    All of her good intentions flew out the window. That stern lecture she’d given herself earlier was forgotten in the flash of pure, undiluted 100 proof desire that swept through her with just a glimpse of him.
    What
was happening here? Just a week ago, she’d have grinned at her “pal” and been glad to see him, but she certainly wouldn’t have been quivering in her boots.
    Tonight it was a different story. The tux was gone,but that didn’t seem to make a difference. The antique street lamps glowed with a dim yellow fog light and cast a golden haze around him that looked damn near magical. It winked off the lenses in his glasses and made his eyes seem to sparkle. He leaned against the front fender of his gigantic,
it’s all about size
car with his arms folded across his chest. One foot was crossed over the other, and to anyone else he would have appeared casual. Relaxed.
    But to Stevie’s hormone-driven vision he looked just as tightly strung as she felt.
    Uh-oh.
    She threw the car into PARK , cut the engine, and took a minute to absorb the silence, hoping it would fill her with some sort of inner peace. Hell, she’d have chanted if she’d thought it would do any good.
    Eventually, though, she had to open the door and step out. He obviously wasn’t going anywhere and she wasn’t about to hide out in her car.
    â€œWhat’re you doing here?” Well, that was a warm welcome, she thought as she closed the door again and set the alarm.
    â€œFreezing my ass off.”
    The night air was cold and damp, coming in off the ocean with icy fingers. Stevie should have been cold, too. But suddenly her blood was red-hot and she felt a flush of heat that rushed from her head to her toes and back again—with a pit stop in one particularly sensitive spot.
    Oh, she was in serious trouble here.
    She glanced around furtively, half-expecting one of the Terrible Three, the town gossips, to be lurkingbehind a bush or tree, just waiting for something juicy to happen. No one was there, of course. But facts didn’t get in the way of her feeling as if she were doing something subversive by meeting with Paul in a dimly lit alley. God, it was James Bond–like, but without the cars and guns and babes. Still, the tension in the air felt thick enough to chew.
    She slung her purse over her left shoulder and took a few steps until she was just out of arm’s reach of him. Not that she didn’t trust herself or anything, but why take unnecessary chances?
    â€œI meant,” she said, “what are you doing
here?
”
    â€œWaiting for you. Shelter day, right?”
    Stevie bristled a little. “Yeah, so?”
    He straightened up slowly, almost lazily, and every move seemed calculated to raise her blood pressure. In the pale light his hair looked the same shade as his sweater and his worn jeans looked soft and too darn good. “Why