Body Heat Read Online Free Page B

that,” the younger woman purred. “Yummy.” She gazed outside with the expression of a dessert-lover staring in the window of a cupcake shop.
    Maura glanced out. Jesse was sprawled on the nicest-looking patch of grass, on his back, arms crossed behind his head. His T-shirt pulled tight across his torso, accentuating a spectacular chest and flat stomach. He’d said he was a construction worker, so no wonder he was strong and well-developed. Completely unlike the professorial types her parents socialized with, and tried to match-make her with. Of course for her, brains were far more important than brawn. Compatibility was what mattered, if a relationship was to last.
    Jesse shifted and stretched, like a big, lazy cat. She had to admit that brawn, in the form stretched out in front of her, was really quite nice to look at. Nice enough to prompt disconcerting physical heat and tingles.
    Her mouth opened in a silent “oh” of enlightenment. She had a physical, hormonal reaction to Jesse—and likely it was because he was such a physical person. Her body, and that biological clock she’d read about but never been particularly aware of in herself, was ticking. It was urging her body to mate, even though her mind knew that qualities other than physical perfection were far more important to her.
    Good. She’d worked things out logically, and now she could get on with her job. She glanced at Gracie. “Isn’t there something you should be doing?”
    “Oops, sorry.” Those big blue eyes seemed a little dazed as she turned them on Maura. “I was just thinking, there’s that rule, right, about not dating other staff here?”
    A rule that was frequently ignored, Maura knew, but that was Louise’s problem. No, wait, Louise was away, so it was Maura’s problem. “Yes, there is,” she said firmly.
    “But, like, this guy’s not staff. Right? He’s here on some community service thing.”
    “Uh . . . No, technically he’s not staff. But Gracie, community service means he’s been in trouble with the law. Surely it wouldn’t be wise to date a man like that.”
    Those blue eyes sparkled mischievously. “That just gives him an edge, that whole bad-boy thing. I’d rather have fun than be”—she held up her hands and made quotation marks in the air—“ ‘wise.’ ”
    “Gracie, if you aren’t wise about dating, you could get hurt.” How well Maura knew that, from her experience in grade twelve with Troy Offenbacher.
    “I’m resilient. ’Sides, with a guy like him, a girl would be crazy to think long-term. I can’t see him being into that. But I bet he could show a girl a good time.” She licked her lips. “If you know what I mean.”
    Sex. She meant sex. Maura shook her head, bemused. In the year that Gracie’d been at Cherry Lane, they’d never had this kind of talk. Never really talked about anything other than work. What a peculiar day this was turning out to be. “We both need to get to work,” she said briskly.
    “So you’re saying there’s no rule against it, right? If he and I, like, hit it off?” She giggled. “Or get it on?”
    In her head, Maura reviewed the HR policy that she’d brushed up on when she took over Louise’s job. “No, no actual rule,” she said reluctantly. Why did the idea of Gracie and Jesse getting together trouble her? They were young, attractive, and it seemed Gracie was savvy enough to look out for herself.
    Frowning, Maura stepped down into the courtyard and walked over to Jesse. “I found the sprinkler,” she announced unnecessarily, bending to place her burden on the ground.
    He stretched again, which had the effect of banishing her frown and raising her blood pressure a few degrees, then curled to his feet in a long, continuous, cat-like motion.
    Shoving his hands in his jeans pockets, he stared down at the disreputable-looking equipment. “Let’s see if it works.” He hunkered down to work the knots out of the hose.
    She watched, fascinated at the deftness