Bear My Heart: A Small Town Paranormal Romance Read Online Free Page B

could read him like a book. It's an occupational hazard,
she said. She was a librarian, ha ha.
    Well, if his sister could
read him so well, maybe she would have an explanation for all these
irrational, powerful feelings that were flooding his heart and
flushing away his brain cells.
    Troy tried his best to find a
plausible, acceptable reason for his actions and emotions. But for
the life of him, he just couldn't explain why he should feel so
strongly for this mysterious, secretive newcomer. Which was why he
had tried to mask his attraction to Dot as suspicion and anger. He
knew that Megan saw right through him but at least she stopped
questioning and teasing him.
    He should be feeling
suspicious, not protective of Dot.
    His behavior and feelings
baffled him. He had never done or felt anything like this before.
He wasn't a lovesick teenager. He was thirty-one years old. He had
never ever felt so drawn to a woman before. He knew nothing about
her, yet he wanted to know everything about her.
    Troy had heard some people in
the diner referring to Dot as “that shy, pretty writer in
town”.
    Dot was a writer. And now,
Troy knew that she was a writer with some dark, terrifying secrets.
    He wanted to shield her from
her terrors and nightmares, and share her burdens with her. He
wanted to guard her, protect her and love her.
    But why would he want to do
that? Logic and reason told him that she was nobody to him.
    Yet deep inside, even as he
tried to deny it, he knew that she was everything to him.
    From the instant he saw her,
his heart had whispered that she was his. He knew that he would do
everything in his power to keep her safe. His wary, analytical, human mind wanted to find out the woman's secrets, but his
heart just wanted to love her.
    Troy
leaned across the table and took
her chin very gently between his thumb and forefinger. Lifting her
face, he pressed his lips softly, tenderly to hers.
    Dot
gasped but she didn't resist. Her eyelids fluttered shut as Troy
kissed her. The kiss was sweet, slow and lingering. Dot's lips
parted when his tongue stroked across her lower lip, teasing and
encouraging her.
    Troy could feel her tremble
as his mouth moved over hers. She moaned and he deepened the kiss.
He could feel the passion and heat deep inside her, straining to be
released. She was a beautiful, passionate woman with so much love to
give. But she was holding back, hiding herself from everyone.
    Reluctantly, Dot finally
pulled away and lowered her head. The color was high in her cheeks
and she was breathing hard.
    Gulping, she lifted her eyes
and looked frantically around the diner. Only two booths at the
other end of the diner were still occupied. The other patrons
continued eating and talking quietly, paying no heed to them.
    Lilly was in the kitchen and
Daisy was busy with some paperwork behind the counter. No one seemed
to have noticed their kiss.
    “I shouldn't...”
Dot mumbled.
    She grabbed her wallet and
slapped the dollar bills on the table. “I should get going,”
she said in a clearer voice. “I have a deadline to meet.”
    Grabbing her bag, she
scrambled out of the booth. “I...It's nice meeting you, Troy.”
Then she was gone.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

    Dot looked up from her laptop
and rolled her shoulders. She'd finished her short story, but she
wasn't ready to submit it just yet.
    Grimacing as she gulped down
her bitter, cold coffee and finished the rest of her sandwich, Dot
pushed away from her writing desk and went to the kitchen. After
rinsing her cup, she leaned against the kitchen counter and glanced
around the neat, simply furnished house. It was a really nice house,
she realized. The real estate agent told her that the owners, Mr and
Mrs Yong had gone to live with their daughter and decided to rent out
their house. They would sell it if they received a reasonable offer,
the agent hinted.
    She would love to live in a
house like this—for the rest of her life.
    Dot shook the whimsical
thought out of her head.