Kiss the Bride by Lori Wilde Read Free Book Online

me onto my back.”
    “I’ll never tell.” His smile was pure wickedness.
    Delaney felt something start to unwind inside her. Something she could not name, but it had been bound up tight for a very long time. Her breath escaped her lungs, rushing out over her lips. She stepped closer. She was looming over him, but it felt as if he were the one dominating her personal space and not the other way around.
    How was that possible?
    Clutching the tarp to her chest with one hand, she put out her other hand to help him up.
    He took it.
    His palm was hard and calloused, his grip strong. Her skin burned. Dumbfounded, she felt herself dissolving. Becoming something else, someone else. Her jaw dropped open. No words came out. What was there to say?
    “Give me a tug.” His fingers closed more tightly around her hand.
    She yanked him to his feet and then he was standing right in front of her. Eye level.
    He wasn’t but a couple of inches taller than her own five-foot-nine height. Barely but distinctly, he leaned intoward her. Close enough for his black T-shirt emblazed with the Harley motorcycle logo to brush the sleeve of her raincoat. And for Delaney to feel the heat of his breath on her cheek.
    A thermal wave of energy hit her and she battled the urge to push her body against his. The sensation was so compelling, Delaney realized that if she didn’t move away right this instant, this very macho male was going to kiss her.
    Defensively crossing her arms over the tarp and holding it close to her chest, she turned. Moving as quickly as she could in the damnable stilettos, she raced for her silver Acura.
    Fingers trembling, she fumbled the keys from her pocket, jabbed them in the lock, wrenched the door open, and tumbled inside.
    Consumed by remorse, she squeezed her eyes closed. Her breath came in heavy, irregular gasps.
    What if Evan had seen them?
    Where was Evan? Her eyes flew open, her gaze tracking to the digital clock in the dash. Twelve-twenty.
    She tossed the tarp in the backseat, then took her cell phone from the console and flipped it open. She started to punch in Evan’s number, but then saw she had one missed call. She entered the code to hear her messages.
    It was her fiancé.
    “I’m sorry to do this to you, Laney,” Evan’s recorded voice said. “But I’ve got an emergency at the hospital. Rain check?”
    Rain check.
    Delaney looked down at her pink raincoat and then stared up at the cloudless sky. It might be sunny and hot, but she couldn’t shake the feeling there was one hell of a thunderstorm heading her way.

Chapter 3
     
    T wo days had passed and for some bizarre reason, Nick couldn’t stop thinking about the sexy vixen who had ambushed him outside the orthopedic clinic.
    Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see how she’d looked walking away from him, rolling and swaying, as if she were gliding on an ocean wave. Serene, calm, untouched by external circumstances. He wished he’d had hours to watch her, study her—okay, all right,
ogle
her.
    Her light brown shoulder-length hair, streaked with enticing blond strands, had been styled in a straight sleek style that underscored her cool-as-a-cucumber aloofness. She wasn’t voluptuous like the women he usually dated, like his ex-wife, Amber. Yet in spite of her athletic figure, she had sufficient curves. He’d gotten a pretty good look at what she’d been hiding underneath that raincoat.
    Not bad. Not bad at all.
    Something about her compelled him in a way no one woman had in a very long time, and it shook him. He thought he’d washed his hands of all that romantic junk.
    She looked like a woman who had a lot to say, but never got to say it. Nick found himself wishing he could be theone to hear what was inside her head, learn the secrets she kept closed up behind those sphinxlike lips.
    What was it about this particular woman that got to him? Was it her unflappable calmness that made him ache to rumple her? Maybe it was her wide, slightly crooked