Free Man of Passion by Lindsay McKenna Page A

ten-year-old boy inside this man-size frame of mine."
    Laughter bubbled up from Ari's chest and into her throat. She absorbed the deviltry and teasing in his cinnamon-colored eyes. The smile he shared with her was absolutely devastating and catalytic to her. Did Rafe realize that when he rewarded her with that brilliant smile, showed her those even white teeth, she felt like swooning like a woman from Victorian times? Ari thought not. He seemed to be unaware of his powerful effect upon her.
    "And so the man I saw back at the airport, that Hollywood Hunk, is a facade? Just a mask?"
    Raising his brows, Rafe said, "Hollywood Hunk? Where did that come from?" And he barely resisted laughing with her.
    Heat flamed into Ari's cheeks, though he took her teasing gracefully and without rancor. Emboldened, she said, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to see this man who stood head and shoulders above the crowd, like a knight out of old England , waiting to meet me. You looked like a Hollywood star to me when I first saw you. With those dark glasses." Ari looked away. "I have such a runaway imagination!"
    "What else did you think?" he asked. "I like the way you see me. Who wouldn't?"
    Waving her hands nervously, Ari muttered, "Who wouldn't? No one ever reminded me of a movie star until I saw you. It's this sense of power—something—around you…."
    "Charisma?"
    "Yes, that's it! You have an almost magnetic kind of charisma. When I was searching the terminal for you, I instinctively felt pulled to look in a certain direction, and there you were!"
    "Your Hollywood Hunk?"
    Giggling, Ari met his smiling eyes. "That's what I thought—guilty as charged. Just blame my flights of fancy. My mother always said I was very creative, and she encouraged me to look at things, at people, in that way. Some people remind me of a steel-and-glass building. Others of gnarled old oaks."
    " Pwhew , I got off lucky. I'm the Hollywood Hunk."
    Her laughter grew until it floated around her musically. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she muttered, "I can't recall laughing so much, so often."
    He touched his chest with his hand. "I'll accept the blame." Did Ari realize how incredibly beautiful she was when she laughed? Did she know that her wide, sky-blue eyes shined with gold highlights, as if the sun itself had taken up residence within her? Her mouth was soft, full and delicious looking when she laughed, so alluring, tempting him to kiss her and absorb that smile through his own lips and into himself. It was a perfectly selfish desire. One that gnawed insistently at him. He studied her as the breeze ruffled her golden hair and the afternoon sunlight glinted through the clouds to touch her. For a moment, her face was framed in sparkling sunlight and she looked more angelic than earthbound. And then, just as quickly, the sun was hidden once again by the ever-present, low-hanging cumulus clouds. For once in his life Rafe was at a loss for words.
    "How knightly of you," Ari teased back as she pressed her hand to her heart, her chest aching with spent laughter. She watched as Rafe gave her a suave smile. Getting to know him was like opening up a treasure chest of gold, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds; he was an endless bounty of gifts to her heart and wounded soul.
    "Ah, the knight part." He gave her a courtly bow. "Tell me more, milady, of how you see me in this guise?"
    "You're such an egotist!"
    "Me? No. You're the one calling me knightly. I just want to hear more of how you see me," he cajoled, and met her smiling eyes. Rafe knew he shouldn't be engaging her on a personal level like this. He wanted to think of her as rich, spoiled and pampered. He didn't want to get close to her.
    "After I got over thinking you were a movie star, and as you drew closer, so tall and seemingly untouched by the crowd around you, in my imagination I saw you as a knight. A knight from old England who went around saving the weak and protecting the underdogs from harm. There was this