My Little Runaway (Destiny Bay) Read Online Free Page B

week. She hadn’t been sure what would happen once he arrived, but she’d known all along she would have to find out.  
    “Better make that Black Forest ham,” she told Fred without looking around, her pulse flickering in the hollow of her throat, “with plenty of hot mustard.”
    She turned and smiled at Fred, still avoiding looking at Reid. “Why don’t you go on back to produce?” she said. “Thanks for all your help. I think I can handle it now.”  
    Tilly left, too, and Jennifer pulled the ham out of the deli case.  
    “Rye or sourdough?” she asked as she sliced it, and then she finally looked at him.
    He’d left off the sunglasses this time, and she reacted with a gasp as she met the force of his disturbing gaze. Reid’s eyes were blue, a deep, beguiling blue that reminded her of antique glassware. But what always shocked her and made her look again were the silver centers, like stars bursting, that lit his eyes with an unearthly light. Meeting his glance had always made her tingle. Now it sent shock-waves through her.
    “Rye,” he answered, and she nodded and finished making his sandwich, trying to ignore the way her fingers were trembling.
    “How much do I owe you?” he asked when she’d wrapped it, put it into a little basket, and pushed it across the tall glass counter.
    “Not a thing,” she replied breezily. “Consider it a bribe. Just take it and go, and I’ll call us even.”
    He looked at the sandwich, then back at her. “I didn’t come here to get food,” he told her quietly. “I came to get you.”
    The power of his quiet determination made her quiver inside, but she tried to put a brave face on it.
    “You can’t always get what you want,” she said challengingly, sounding more certain than she was. She reached out to push the sandwich toward him again, and suddenly his hand was on her wrist, fingers circling tightly.
    “But I get what I need,” he answered evenly. “And right now I need some time with you.”
    His resolute gaze held hers, and she couldn’t break the spell his silver-blue eyes cast. “Wha—what do you mean?” she asked shakily.
    “I just want to talk to you . . . Give me that much.”
    Silver blue, stars, and midnight skies—she’d been waiting for him all week, knowing he was coming, dreading it, and hoping ... for what? She wasn’t sure.  
    But he fascinated her. He always had. And she would talk to him for a while, if that was what he wanted. There’d been a time when she would have done anything he asked, followed him anywhere, even to the edge of the earth, if only he’d shown her just the tiniest sign of affection. Those days were long ago, but she could still feel the echoes of them rolling around in the far corners of her mind.
    “All right,” she said.
    He seemed to relax, and though his fingers still held her wrist, they weren’t as tight. “Where can I go to eat this?” he asked, glancing down at the sandwich.
    There weren’t any tables in the store. “There’s a park around the corner.”
    “Ask your boss for an hour off and go with me,” he ordered.
    She smiled, tilting her head, enjoying the surprise he was in for. “I’m the boss,” she said quietly, “and I’m a soft touch.”
    His eyebrow rose, but he didn’t comment. He let go of her wrist, and she pulled off the apron she’d worn to prepare the food, asked Fred to cover the counter, and walked out to join Reid, glad she’d worn a pink blouse with her chocolate-brown slacks.
    He was dressed in a business suit today. The cloth was beautifully woven, the sort of color that sat halfway between gray and blue, and it fitted him as though custom tailored.
    It probably was, she reflected. The Carrington family certainly had the money for it. She remembered the quiet opulence of the Carrington summer home, a mansion set right beside the Thorntons’ slightly less extravagant home in Destiny Bay. The Thorntons had money, too, but the difference was in age and duration.