Free Stirred by Lucia Jordan Page A

friends, in a coded
way, about their own sex lives. But the little snippets she received only made
her more miserable as she got an idea of what was missing in her life.
    She’d
read the steamy romance novels, listened to a few whispered details by the
giggly girls at work – and come to terms with the fact that none of that
was ever going to happen to her. It would all remain a fantasy, or something
designed for other, more fortunate women but never for her.
    Her
mother’s hand suddenly tightened around her wrist, drawing her to the present
time and place. Eva blinked, looking sideways into Lori’s green eyes, the same
emerald shade as hers. “Have fun, Eva,” her mother said quietly, softly. “Live
your life. Forget him.”
    Eva
sighed at the way her mother seemed to perfectly read her thoughts. She then
smiled as her mother handed her a glass of wine from a passing waiter. “I’m
going to mingle, take a few photographs for the week’s paper,” Lori said,
sipping from her own glass, before winking at her daughter and striding away.
    Eva was
shaking her head in amusement as she drank her wine. Her mother really
shouldn’t be handing her alcohol and telling her to have fun at the same time.
It was almost the same as telling her to get drunk – which she knew her
mother hadn’t intended, of course. But still, a week after breaking up with Leon,
she was still raw and vulnerable. She needed some kind of picking up. Already, the one glass she’d gulped down
seemed to be taking effect. The crowded room seemed less intimidating, more
welcoming. Maybe she’d do a bit of mingling herself…
    There
was someone at her elbow. Thinking her mother had returned, she twisted to the
side, a ready smile on her face. Only to freeze when she saw who it was.
    *
    Max.
Nolan!
    His
lean, tanned face creased in a smile when he saw her expression. “Pardon me
– I didn’t mean to shock you,” he said in that deep, throbbing voice she
so well remembered. “But since you’d been staring at me all evening, I decided
to come over and afford you a closer look.”
    Eva’s
eyes widened, then darted as her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. Had she
really been so blatant? She wanted to sink through the marble floor.
    “But
it’s okay – I like being ogled by a pretty woman,” he drawled, taking her
empty glass from her limp grasp and placing it aside.
    “Mr. Nolan,”
Eva said with a scratchy throat, her heart racing from his presence and his
recent words. “It’s…nice to see you again. We met at – “
    “I
remember,” he cut in crisply, his eyes hooded for a moment as they swept over
her then back up again.
    Eva
swallowed. “Oh.” She still couldn’t believe he was right next to her, so close
she could see the dark orbs in the centre of his startling eyes. Up close he
was lethal; he exuded presence , a
certain magnetism that would make any woman standing within a yard of him start
to hyperventilate. Eva felt the strangest kind of twitching within her stomach
muscles and wondered why he affected her so.
    It was
as bad as the first time.
    Leon had
taken her over to Max Nolan. It had been an even more formal occasion that this
one, and he’d still been dressed as casually. Blue jeans, a dress shirt with
the sleeves rolled up. Eva could recall Leon mumbling something to her later
about accomplished moneybags who didn’t have to conform to society. She’d had
the impression that Leon was awed by the guy, who was around his age, barely
even thirty. She could remember that veneration turning to resentment when Max
Nolan finally picked another firm to handle his interest city-side.
    Leon
had introduced her as his girlfriend, and she’d felt an instant awareness as
she’d shaken hands with the billionaire. His touch had been warm, almost
scalding. His grip, though brief, had been firm. She’d held his eyes for a
moment and had felt tilted on her feet. The spell was broken; he looked away,
letting her go. But as Leon