Reflected Pleasures by Linda Conrad Read Free Book Online Page B

smelled of rain. She leaned her head back against the passenger seat of his huge pickup truck and breathed in the scent of ozone mixed with mesquite.
    â€œI’m glad you got a chance to see the ranch,” Ty said without taking his eyes off the road. “The kids sure enjoyed your visit.”
    â€œI enjoyed meeting them, too. They’re all so…” She hesitated over the words, remembering what one of the women in charge of the kids had told her about Ty.
    â€œUh…” she began again. “Can I ask you something?”
    â€œSure. Shoot.”
    â€œSomeone told me that the reason you’ve taken on a charity for abused and abandoned children is that you were abandoned as a child. Is that true?”
    He raked a hand through his dark chestnut hair, but didn’t turn to look at her. “No. Not at all. Jewel was babysitting for me when my parents were killed in a car accident. She raised me. I was never abandoned.”
    The words made sense, but Merri noticed that his tone of voice seemed to suggest something else. It appeared to be a real sore spot for him. So she let him change the subject.
    â€œBack before dinner, when you were playing with the girls on the lounge floor…” he began. “Were those tears in your eyes?”
    Ah. He’d managed to hit on one of her own sore spots. Well, she would tell him the truth of this one. No sense lying about something that she considered to be nonsense.
    â€œYes. Silly, huh?” She fidgeted under her seat belt but kept her eyes trained out the windshield. “Those little girls were so sweet to me…so needy. They actually wanted me to stay with them.”
    She turned her head away from Ty in order to stare out of her side window and lowered her voice to a whisper. “No one’s ever really wanted me that much before.”
    â€œNo one?”
    She shook her head, but didn’t imagine that he would be able to see her in the darkness.
    â€œ I want you, Merri,” he said in his own whispered voice.
    Whipping her head around, she caught the hungrylook in his eyes before he turned to face front again. “Oh, sure you do,” she said on a strangled gurgle. “You want me to do a good job of fund-raising.”
    â€œYes. That too. But…”
    She could hear the desire—slow, silky and sensuous in his voice. It threw her, set her soul aflame. In self-defense she slipped into her mother’s spoiled-diva persona.
    â€œDon’t tell me we’re going to have the talk about you taking me to bed? If that’s the kind of wanting you mean, rein it back in, please. It can’t happen.”
    Through the darkness of the truck cab she saw him set his jaw and narrow his eyes. “Not at all,” he began in a low and dangerous tone she’d not heard from him before. “I know you’ve felt the electricity between us…just like I have. But I have no intention of jumping your bones. I may be an ogre to work with, but I don’t force myself on employees—Miss Davis.”
    She was more flustered than she could ever remember being. Her stomach was doing little backflips. She could imagine the two of them together, taking pleasure in each other’s bodies and finding that special high peak that had always eluded her in the past.
    But the reality of the situation drove her mind back around to face the chilly night and the raindrops that had begun to fall on the windshield. She thought about running away from her feelings—and from him.
    However, this place had been her last resort. She’d already run away once—from the press and her old life. This time she had to stay and fight for what she wanted. Even if it meant fighting her own desires.
    Ty didn’t wait for her to deny or agree with his statement. “What I meant by needing you was…I need a friend,” he said in a quieter tone. “I’ve told you before that helping the kids means