Free Don't Tempt Me by Julie Ortolon Page A

but the respect in his voice nearly made me weep.
I could almost hate him for that, for making me feel again. Yet, a part of me yearns to see him once more. As painful as it was to be in his presence, for a moment this evening I remembered that I am still a woman, I am still alive, and I am still capable of longing for love.
     
    Jackie stared at the page, caught off guard by an instant stab of kinship. Tonight, watching the St. Claires, she too had longed for things she'd thought she'd forgotten: family, home, a sense of belonging. No wonder she'd almost cried when Adrian and his sisters hugged her. Hope could be both joyful and painful.
    Marguerite's hope had ended in tragedy. A warning Jackie decided to heed as she set the diaries aside and turned out the light. And yet, she thought as she lay in the dark, sometimes, surely, as long as one didn't dream too big, dreams could come true. Couldn't they?

Chapter 8
    The following morning, Adrian headed for Chance's BMW parked in the small lot behind the inn. He planned to ride with Rory and Chance and meet the others at the Visitors' Center. The throaty rumble of a big engine came up behind him and he turned to find Jackie sitting in a truly ugly pickup truck on which blue paint fought a losing battle with primer gray.
    She rolled down the window and flashed him a playful grin. "Hey, mister, need a lift?"
    "I don't know ..." He made his expression intentionally leery, remembering last night on the balcony. "Will I be safe?"
    She laughed. "What if I promise to be on my best behavior?"
    "If your best behavior is like mine, that's not very reassuring."
    "Do you really want it to be?"
    The look of sensual challenge she gave him set off danger sirens in his head even as his body hummed with glee. He stepped over to Rory, who was buckling Lauren into the baby seat. "I'll meet y'all there, okay?"
    "What?" Rory glanced from him to Jackie and back again. Her brow arched in speculation. "Oh, okay."
    "Now, don't be getting any ideas," he told her. "We're just playing around. But not the way you're thinking."
    Rory gave him a sure-you're-not look, which he ignored. Crossing to the truck, he opened the passenger door, then waited for Jackie to make room on the seat by moving a toolbox into the back of the cab.
    "Just kick that stuff out of the way," she said, motioning to the rigging blocks that littered the floorboard.
    He climbed in and rolled the window down to enjoy the crisp fall weather as they followed Chance's car along the winding, sun-dappled drive. Shifting to face Jackie, he soaked in the sight of her in a denim shirt, silver earrings, and sunglasses. "Did you like your breakfast?"
    "I did." She laughed, and the rich sound turned the low hum in his belly to a steady purr. "Although I'd like to know what you told Rory, because she gave me a really funny look when she brought out the plate of bacon and eggs made to order just for me."
    "Funny look?" Actually, he hadn't told Rory anything. He'd just handed her the plate and asked her to take it to Jackie. "Funny how?"
    Jackie tipped her head to look at him over her shades. "Like she was trying to figure out if we had something going on and found the possibility hunky-dory with her."
    "Rory finds a lot of things in life hunky-dory."
    "I've noticed that" The breeze through the windows picked up as they reached the short causeway that connected Pearl Island to Galveston. "Maybe you should explain to your sister that we're not each other's type."
    "As a matter of fact, I just told her something to that effect," he said, then scowled. "What do you mean, 'not each other's type'? What kind of man is your type?"
    "For a serious relationship?" She mulled that over.
    "Quiet, reliable, and not so gorgeous I'd spend all my time beating off the competition."
    "I'm reliable."
    "One out of three?" That really got her laughing. "Sorry, mister, not good enough."
    So she did find him attractive, just not in a serious- relationship sort of way. Which