McFarlane's Perfect Bride by Christine Rimmer Read Free Book Online

novel.
    But as Connor sat across that table from Tori Jones, he couldn’t help thinking that those words exactly described what the small-town schoolteacher did to him. He might as well stop trying to tell himself he wasn’t interested. He was powerfully drawn to her.
    Clearly, he should have dated more when he was younger.
    He’d married Jennifer while they were both in college. Because she was from the right family and she was gorgeous and ready to get married to the right kind of man. A man with money and good breeding equal to her own. It had seemed a very suitable match. The perfect match.
    Plus, with the marrying and the settling down out of the way early, he’d been free to concentrate on his career in the family company. He’d never looked at another woman during his marriage. He had a wife and a son, a beautiful home—and his ambitions for McFarlane House, which were considerable. What else was there?
    Just possibly, a whole lot more, he was discovering.
    There had been a couple of other women, since Jennifer walked out on him. The sex had been good with them, which it never really had been with Jennifer.But he had never been entranced. Or captivated. Or enchanted.
    Until now.
    He wanted her— her, Tori Jones, in particular. Not just someone suitably attractive and well-bred, as Jennifer had been. Not just someone sophisticated, sexually exciting and discreet, which pretty much described the two women he’d dated after his marriage had crashed and burned.
    It came to him that he…he liked this woman. And that feeling was new to him. He liked her quick wit, her wisdom and her big heart. He liked the passion in her voice when she talked about things she believed in. He liked her. And suddenly it mattered all out of proportion that she might like him, too.
    Was he losing it? He couldn’t help but wonder. Was he cracking under the strain—of the soured economy, the McFarlane House setbacks, his divorce, the scary changes in his son? Of the changes he’d decided he needed to make in his life and himself?
    Strangely, right then, on his first date with Tori Jones, he didn’t care if he just might be going over the edge. He was having a great time—having fun, of all things—and he didn’t want it to end.
    They lingered at the table for over an hour after the meal was finished, talking and laughing, sharing glances that said a lot more than their words did. Finally, reluctantly, he took her home.
    At her house, hating to let her go, he walked her up to the door.
    She turned to him and said what he’d been praying she might. “Want to come in for a minute?”
    He held her gaze, nodded. They shared a warm smile.
    Inside, she offered coffee. He accepted, more as a matter of form than because he needed any extra caffeine.
    She made more tea for herself and they went out to her comfortable great room and sat on the sofa. He drank the coffee he didn’t really want and thought about kissing her, about holding her in his arms.
    About how, once he did that, he would have a hard time letting go.
    â€œI should say goodbye,” he finally admitted aloud. “It’s almost midnight.”
    â€œYou sure you don’t want another cup of coffee?” Those hazel eyes teased him.
    â€œI’m sure.” He rose and held down his hand to her. “And it wasn’t the coffee I came in for, anyway.”
    She put her fingers in his. The contact was electric. He had to remind himself forcefully that he was not going to grab her against him and crush her mouth with his. “I’m glad,” she said softly as she stood.
    He couldn’t resist. He lowered his head. She tilted her mouth upward, the sweetest kind of offering.
    And, at last, he brushed her lips with his own. Her fresh scent surrounded him and her mouth was soft as rose petals.
    She was the one who kept him from deepening that first, too-short kiss. She did that by lowering her