Free Only You by Deborah Grace Stanley Page B

He was a full-blown, living, breathing fantasy.
    “Oh my,” she whispered, then swallowed hard.
    He’d changed into clean blue jeans and a red polo style shirt. His blond hair, damp from the shower, was tied back with a thin piece of leather. He’d shaved, too. She had to admit, as good as he looked, she’d liked the more elemental Cole she’d had in her office earlier. Hair down, stubble shadowing his jaw, the smell of the outdoors and his own natural musky scent clinging to his skin.
    He pivoted her chair to face the computer screen, then rested his warm hands on her shoulders. When he began massaging the kinks, Josie flinched. The muscles were so tight, just touching them was painful.
    “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Just give it a minute.”
    After that moment passed, she moaned her pleasure. He possessed magical fingers.
    “How’s that feel?” he said softly, his lips brushing her ear.
    “Heavenly.”
    With one hand on the arm of her chair and the other running lightly from her shoulder to her wrist, Cole kept his head on the same level as hers. She was more aware of him than any man she’d ever known. His face was so close to hers, she’d only have to turn her head slightly to run her lips up the column of his throat.
    “You know, I’m pretty good at fixing things, and I did promise you yesterday we’d tackle this. So, why don’t you tell me about the problems you’re having?”
    He stared at her computer screen. It must seem like Greek to him , she thought. Sure, he was good at fixing things, but this was a state of the art computer program. Not something for a handyman to fix. Besides, the last thing she wanted to think about with him this close was work.
    She turned her head and spoke softly near his ear. “It’s complicated, Cole. Technical.”
    “ Hmm ,” he murmured, then swung his magnificent blue-eyed gaze in her direction. “Too complicated for someone like me, you mean.”
    “Cole, no. I—” Josie immediately began to apologize for insulting him, but he just smiled and turned back to the computer.
    “The purpose of the program is to catalog just the books?” he asked.
    Josie frowned, trying to concentrate on the words when all she wanted to do was feel. “No. It’s all inclusive,” she managed. “Periodicals, research titles, genealogical material and the town archives, newspapers—”
    “With Internet access?” Though he continued massaging her shoulders, his gaze was fixed on the screen.
    “ Hmm ? Oh, yes. Internet. Everything in the catalog will be accessible through a website, so it has to interface.”
    “That’s the problem, then.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “The loop to include Internet access isn’t complete.” Cole pointed at the screen into the maze of programming language and pinpointed the area Josie had isolated as the source of the problem.
    Josie tore her attention away from the man next to her and slid her glasses onto her nose. She leaned forward.
    “The way it’s written now would cause the program to freeze when it hits this string of commands.”
    “Exactly, and since I wasn’t hooked up to the Internet during the trials I did with the program, it didn’t matter before now,” Josie breathed.
    “May I?” he asked.
    “Certainly.” When Cole reached around her from behind to type something into the keyboard, encircling her with his strong arms, Josie’s skin tingled where his arms brushed against hers. She watched in fascinated wonder as he added a simple string of commands to the area he’d indicated, then pressed “Enter.” Another string of commands appeared on the screen, and the program scrolled to the end.
    He typed in a few more commands to close the loop then said, “Why don’t you try running it now?”
    Amazed and speechless, she ran the program. It worked like a dream. She took off her glasses and looked up at him. “How did you do that?”
    He shrugged and slid his hands into his back pockets. “It was simple, really.