Raw Desire by Kate Pearce Read Free Book Online Page B

woman have to do to you to make you stop caring about her?”
    â€œI don’t—”
    â€œYeah, right, don’t even try that crap with me.” Lauren got up and headed back to the kitchen. “I’ll let you know if she takes the job, okay?”
    â€œAnd you won’t tell her it was my idea?”
    â€œOf course not! I don’t want her getting ideas about you again, do I? Although that’s probably why she’s back here anyway.”
    Rob smiled down at her and resisted the impulse to smooth a hand over her obviously raised hackles. “That’s not the impression I got. She came back to sort out her mother’s stuff.”
    Lauren grabbed a clean apron and tied it around her waist. “That place is a dump. I wonder why she just didn’t send some of her ‘people’ down to sort it all out for her.”
    â€œI guess she doesn’t have ‘people’ anymore.” And that was another mystery. What had happened to make her return?
    â€œGood. She deserves to have to come and face us and sort out all that crap.”
    â€œAs I said, I’m quite looking forward to hearing her side of the story.”
    Lauren wagged a finger under his nose. “You keep away from her. She’s trouble.”
    Rob could only nod, knowing he’d already gone too far along that particular road to ever find the courage to turn back. All he could do was go forward, sort out his personal shit, and hope Ally did the same.
    â€œI’ll see you tomorrow, Lauren.”
    â€œSure. Now let me start on lunch.” She paused and brandished an onion at him. “Do you want a sandwich?”
    He declined and headed back to the station. Ever since their parents had retired to Florida, she’d tried to feed him and take care of him, and she was younger than him. Did everyone think he needed to be babied because of what had happened between him and Ally? It was an interesting thought and one of many Ally’s return had stirred in his brain.
    Rob took out the flyer Lauren had given him and approached Jeff Stevens, who was manning the desk. “On your way home, can you do me a favor and stick this in the Kendals’ mailbox near your street?”
    Jeff didn’t bother to look up but held out his hand. “Sure.”
    Luckily Jeff was new to the area and had no idea of the past scandal, which suited Rob just fine. “Thanks.”
    Rob returned to his office and shut the door. He sighed as he viewed the pile of paperwork cluttering up his inbox. So much for the computer age; he was still stuck in paper world. He considered the problem with Ally’s truck and wondered exactly how Jackson had left it.
    Tomorrow evening, he’d take a trip by Ally’s house and see how things were. His body stirred at the thought of seeing her again, even as he tried to suppress it. She had already reeled him in without even trying, and he was determined not to be caught out. But this time he’d be trying damned hard not to direct their relationship. It was way past time for some honest conversation.

5
    A lly dumped the load of trash from her mailbox on the kitchen table and sorted through it. At least the newspapers would come in handy for the floors and for packing up her mom’s stuff. The coupons she would also keep—a habit she’d gotten into when she’d first had to learn to live within a miniscule budget. She sat down and sorted through the rest of the stuff. There was nothing from her bank, which was good, but there was a redirected postcard from her old rehab buddy Dave, who’d ended up backpacking across the country.
    She smiled as she read his two-line comment. He seemed fine and so free. So unlike the zombified cokehead she’d first met at the Caring Heart Rehab Center.
    She found a pair of scissors and carefully cut coupons, pausing to read the local news and scan the meager job section as she worked. A flyer caught her