Free A Matter of Trust by Lorhainne Eckhart Page B

again filled her with sadness. There
was an ache inside of her that she had lived with for so long, and
she just didn’t want it there any longer.
    However, as she stood on that step, deciding
what to do, she also realized that Ben was here for only one thing:
to make sure this oil project went through easily.
    He must have noticed her, so she lifted her
hand to wave, feeling like an idiot. She moved to the door, and it
opened. Her chest squeezed as she looked up into those intense
eyes, her hands sweating as she watched him watching her, a phone
pressed to his ear. He didn’t take his eyes off her as he said,
“Verna, I’ll call you back.”
    He hung up the phone and slid it into his
pocket. “Good morning,” he said, holding the door open for her.
    She fought the urge to run for a second
before stepping into the neat and tidy cabin. It smelled of fresh
pine—and of Ben. Her eyes went right to the rumpled bed, and she
wondered what he slept in. Was he a pajama man, or did he sleep in
nothing at all…? She blushed. Maybe he knew what she was thinking,
as he raised an eyebrow in a silent question. She lowered her gaze
and then looked away to the cluttered table by the window. His
laptop was open, papers scattered around it.
    “So what brings you by this morning?” he
asked. He seemed distracted, and she wondered for a moment whether
he even welcomed her interruption. Maybe he wanted her to
leave.
    “I wanted to thank you for dinner last
night.” She was such a liar. Would her burning cheeks give her
away? Her restless sleep had been filled with the desire to be with
Ben, wondering what it would be like to be touched by him, kissed
by him. She couldn’t stop the way her thoughts had drifted after
what he’d shared with her the night before. It had been so
personal, as if he’d shown her a hidden side of him. Knowing he was
as flawed as she was, that his family had faced struggles, too,
made him seem so…human.
    The easy smile that touched his lips as he
crossed his arms didn’t help to calm her nerves. She was shaking
inside, and it wasn’t from fear. “You’re welcome,” he said. “You
thanked me last night, though, Carrie, so what are you really doing
here?”
    Oh, he wasn’t making this easy at all. She
realized she was biting her lower lip. His eyes went right there,
and the dark way he watched her made her swallow a gasp. “I wanted
to return the favor.”
    “Oh?” was all he said.
    This was ridiculous, the way she was
sweating like a nervous schoolgirl, fidgeting. She wiped her palms
together to try to tamp down her insecurities. He was way out of
her league, and maybe he was silently laughing at her. She couldn’t
bear the thought of him humoring her. That would be so demeaning. Please don’t make fun of me! She shut her eyes and then
blurted out, before she had a moment more to think or race out the
door like a fool, “I’d like to cook dinner for you tonight.”
    The way he was watching her, she worried.
Was he trying to find a way to let her down easy? After all, she
hadn’t made things easy for him here in Kit Cove. She was still
embarrassed over her juvenile behavior, and she wished she could
take back spitting on him that first night, go back and be
responsible and think things through before she acted. She could
beg his forgiveness, but she was too embarrassed to ever bring it
up again. She prayed he’d forget it had ever happened.
    When he stepped toward her, closing the
distance between them with a confidence she would have killed for,
her heart did a backflip, and she had to swallow again. He slid his
hand under her chin and lifted it so that she was forced to look
into those eyes, which were searching her out. They were so
mysterious and deep, and she wanted to get to know him so much
better.
    He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in
a light, tender kiss that jolted through her right to her toes and
shocked the hell out of her. When he pulled away, his hands were
still on