Lover's Revenge Read Online Free Page A

the ocean for miles.
    Slowly, Jared pushed up onto his elbows and framed her face between his hands. He stared down at her with an expression of such ferocious possession she had to blink her eyes several times to focus. “You are mine, Dayna Walker,” he growled huskily. “I’ve waited— waited —for my chance to be with you, to love you, to show you what you mean to me. I don’t want just one night. I want every night from this moment forward. Do you understand that?” She nodded her head as tears swam in her eyes. “Yes,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. This wasn’t what she expected. “I thought I was seducing you.”
    Jared shook his. “You did.” A lazy smile touched his lips.
    “This wasn’t what I intended to happen. I didn’t come here to check up on you or make love to you. I came here to tel you how I felt about you, how I’ve felt about you since the first moment I saw you.”
    Dayna’s gaze roamed the intense look on his face and wondered how she’d ever missed it. “I didn’t know.” He cradled her in his arms, wrapping the blanket around them both. “I worked very hard masking my emotions so you wouldn’t. How would it have looked?” He touched the nape of her neck. “But when you changed clothes… Damn, I started thinking with the other head.”
    She ducked her head on a shy smile. “Al I was after was a little revenge sex.” she laid her palm over her heart and then his. “I didn’t expect this…this connection.”
    “So I’m not alone? You feel something for me too?” She bobbed her head up and down almost in unison with the waves crashing up onto the shore. “Yes. I’m not sure what it is, but I do…there is…something.” Dayna didn’t know how to answer him. She stared down at their entwined fingers. This night had turned out the complete opposite of what she expected.
    Jared stood and reached out his hand. When she took it and stood, he gathered the blanket around her. “You’re wiling to give us a chance?”

    Al night she’d been thinking she’d been with the wrong man, the wrong friend al along. When she thought back over the last two years, the one standing in front of her right now was always there for her in every way a friend should, showed her that he cared about her, that she was important, that she mattered.
    Could the relationship she cherished al this time be the love she’d been looking for al her life? Was it possible their closeness could turn into something much much more?
    Dayna tilted her head to the side. “Now I understand why you never told me,” she said.
    Jared tightened his arm around her, snuggling her close to his warm body. “I couldn’t sabotage your relationship with him, I couldn’t tel you he was a dog and then turn around and try to get with you myself. You would have thought I lied about it, made it up.
    As much as I hated watching you go through that, you needed to see it for yourself.” He paused, nuzzled his chin in her hair. “After you broke it off with him, I knew it was my chance, but I also knew I had to wait. Damn, it kiled me to wait. I wanted to come to you that first night.” He let go of her and reached for both of their scattered clothes. After he handed her her shorts, he said, “When I received your email, you know, before I opened it, I’d been thinking about you al that day, wondering if it was the right time, if I’d waited long enough. Then, I received the invitation and I knew it was.”
    Dayna laughed as she puled her tank top over her head.
    “And I realy didn’t mean to invite you. I sent out a mass email, and I thought I’d deleted everyone who was close to…him.” She shortened the distance between them and traced his jaw with her palm, loving the feel of his unshaven skin. “I guess I didn’t. I guess I wasn’t meant to. You were supposed to be here.” Jared wrapped her in a warm embrace and puled tight.
    “I’m never letting you go.”
    She inched back and motioned