Free Debra Webb - In His Touch Box Set (Here To Stay, Up Close, Tempting Trace, Basic Instincts) by Debra Webb Page B

under her bottom.
    “Did you hear from Robert today?” Nathan asked as if that’s what he’d come through the rain and the storm to find out.
    “Yes. He and Ginny are having a great time. Vegas may become an annual affair.” Paige laughed softly. “I think they’re going to be really good together.”
    “I think so, too,” Nathan agreed before taking a sip of his brandy.
    “You haven’t said much about how things are going at your place,” she ventured when he didn’t say anything else.
    “We haven’t really done much talking until today, now have we?” He smiled a sexy, heart-stopping kind of smile.
    “No, I guess we haven’t. We’ve been too busy trying to take each other’s heads off.” Paige released a sigh and drank down the last of the fiery liquid. It left a trail of warmth as it flowed downward. Where the brandy’s effects left off, Nathan’s began. She wondered if she had any effect on him physically. Probably not. His level of sexual sophistication likely surpassed becoming aroused by the mere sight of a scantily clad female.
    She waited for Nathan to speak again, but he didn’t. She supposed that maybe he was waiting for her, but she didn’t know what else to say. She had spoken last. The silence in the room seemed deafening. The rain whipped around the exterior of the house with the same force as her body temperature appeared determined to rise. She felt warm and moist in places that had nothing to do with the climate.
    He smelled good, like leather and rain. Reluctantly, she surrendered and allowed her gaze to wander over his profile while he stared into his brandy. Every feature spoke of strength and beauty. She had never met another man like Nathan Blackrope. And no one else had ever made her feel the way just looking at him did. Everything about him appealed to her senses. The way his clothes fit his lean, sinewy body. His long, silky black hair. The heat in his eyes that spoke of passion and fire. She sighed. But it was not to be.
    “I should go,” Nathan muttered then stood. He walked to the bar and set down his glass.
    Disappointed that he was leaving so soon, she deposited her glass on the table and followed him to the front door, the trusty lantern in her right hand. “Thank you. It was very sweet of you to bring me a light.”
    He shrugged into his duster and took his hat in his hands. He offered a strained smile. “It was just one of those spontaneous things, you know...” His voice tailed off as his gaze dropped to her mouth and then jerked back up to her eyes.
    Paige’s heart leapt in her chest when she recognized the hunger in his eyes. Need radiated from his entire body. She could almost feel the vibrations. The realization rattled her. She felt breathless. Nathan wanted her .
    He settled the hat on his dark head. “Good night.”
    Before Paige could catch her breath, he had opened the door and walked across the porch. She stood, rooted in the doorway.
    “Good night, Nathan,” she called to his retreating back. He paused on the bottom step and turned around. The way he looked at her had her feeling weak and suddenly too far away. Rain dripped from the edge of his Stetson, but still he stood there... looking at her like no one else had ever looked at her, with a need and a hunger that dwarfed everything else into utter insignificance. Rivulets of water slipped down his rain-slicked duster. She wanted to run to him, but she couldn’t move. She prayed he would run back to her, but he remained perfectly still—motionless in the falling rain.
    A blaze of lightning flashed through the dark sky, and Paige saw in his eyes, for just the briefest fraction of a second, the love that had once bound her to him. Before her heart took another beat she sensed that that bond was as strong and powerful as if it had never been broken. But suddenly the spell shattered. Nathan turned and strode to his truck. Mute with regret, she watched him drive away.
    Could he—no, no he