Stef Ann Holm Read Online Free Page A

but a minute, Ada.”

    He headed for Opal’s, knowing pretty damn sure his Hummer would be there when he returned.

Two

    J acquie Santini was trying to give up cigarettes, but it was like asking her to give up sex. Her body just ran better on nicotine and orgasms.

    The peppermint gum in her mouth was losing its flavor so she put the stale piece in a paper napkin, then replaced it with a fresh stick.

    Drew hated sitting in the smoking section, and while it was killing her not to light up, she didn’t feel like getting into anything with him today—except for his pants.

    She sipped a glass of cold water with cracked ice and waited for Drew to show up.

    Jacquie told herself she was every kind of pathetic to still be in love with him. She knew he wasn’t in love with her anymore, but she just couldn’t give him up. How she felt about Drew Tolman was the same way she felt about her best pair of shoes from Barney’s. She still got a thrill out of feeling them against her skin. Besides, they were broken in and comfortable.

    Reaching into her purse, Jacquie fingered the soft pack of Virginia Slims. If he didn’t get here soon, she’d have to go out back and take a few drags just to settle down. Why her heartbeat still raced when she anticipated seeing him was amazing to her.

    She was thirty-nine, going on forty next week. She considered herself reasonably attractive and knew she drew male attention. Lots of men in Timberline were interested and those wealthy Hollywood actors coming up to buy real estate had hit on her. She’d only made one slipup, and Drew hadn’t found out about that. But what woman wouldn’t have had sex with—

    “Hey, baby.” Drew slid into the booth across from her.

    “Hey, Drew.” Jacquie forgot about the cigarettes when she saw him. “You’re looking good.”

    Most men didn’t wear the scruffy look without coming off like pigs. While she preferred Drew in a dress shirt and slacks, the way he dressed when she took him to her real estate parties, she got an itch in her panties viewing him in his athletics.

    The backward ball cap always cinched it for her. He looked every bit the ex-pro baseball player. A little arrogant, but very hot, very good-looking. Even the stubble didn’t turn her off.

    Slashes of dark brown brows framed his hazel eyes. There was something about those eyes. She could lose herself in them. The expression in those eyes was like that stinking puppy-dog effect. His appearance just begged a woman to lean in and lick his mouth with her tongue.

    She wanted to do that now. She wanted him in her bed. She wanted to please him, make him love her again the way he used to.

    Damn him.

    Jacquie hated when she got like this. No man had ever made her lose her self-dignity, but Drew shook her up. Any woman in her right mind would have moved on to warmer sheets when she realized hers were only warm on her cue. When she thought about it, she’d been the one making passes at him lately. He no longer elicited sex from her. That irked and upset her.

    She didn’t think he was sleeping with anyone else. Then again, at night when she had insomnia, her mind ran wild. A few times, she’d thrown the covers off, gotten in her Jaguar and driven by Drew’s house just to see if the Hummer was in the circular drive. It always was and that appeased her, but only for a short time.

    The reality was, she was losing him.

    And like a bad habit that a person’s hung on to for so long, the very idea was like giving up her best friend.

    Drew understood her. With him, she could be vulnerable and show him sides of her she’d never show in town or with others. To have to give up that comfort, to start over with someone else and to learn a new man’s body and teach him how to do what she liked in an intimate situation…well, the effort was too great and she just didn’t want to go there.

    She liked the man she had now.

    Opal brought over the coffee, topped off Jacquie’s cup and poured