Reilly's Return by Tami Hoag Read Free Book Online Page B

to keep a team of guardian angels sweating. Her little sports car wandered from one side of the winding road to the other as Jayne’s attention swayed from one point of interest to the next. She nearly clipped a pair of bicyclists while admiring the view of the seashore and just managed to swerve out of the path of a tour bus in the nick of time when a sheep at the side of the road caught her interest. It was enough to give a man a heart attack. Even the Australian sheep dog sitting in Reilly’s passenger seat whined in anxiety.
    “I know, Rowdy,” Reilly mumbled. “She’s enough to drive a man bonkers.”
    Heaven knew she had done it to him, he reflected,unable to keep his own mind from wandering. Lately Jayne had occupied his thoughts to the exclusion of all else. Now they would find out once and for all if this thing between them was more than passion, more than the lure of the forbidden. Anticipation coiled, warm and tight, low in his belly.
    He slowed the Jeep and hit the signal, following Jayne off the coastal highway and onto a private drive that climbed around a hill and cut through a stand of pine trees. The drive eventually widened into a farm yard. Jayne’s car skidded to a halt, and she jumped out as if she’d just won a race.
    “Here we are,” she said with forced cheerfulness. Her heart was in her throat. Inviting Reilly here and having him here were two very different things. The farm was so much a part of her that having him on it seemed strangely intimate to her.
    Wondering if she’d done the right thing, she wound two fingers into her bracelet. Nothing happened. No buzzing, no warmth, nothing. She smiled nervously at Reilly, then scowled at the bracelet as Reilly climbed down out of his Jeep. The darn thing was getting mighty selective about its premonitions all of a sudden. Great. Just when she most needed the charm’s guidance, the thing had developed some kind of psychic snafu.
    She turned her worried gaze to Reilly. Therewas a fine layer of dust on his leather jacket, and his golden hair was wind-tossed. He squinted as he looked around, etching lines into the tan skin beside his sky-color eyes. He looked supremely male, rugged and tough, ready to conquer the untamed wilderness and the odd stray female he might find in it. The thought made a little whimper catch in Jayne’s throat. Maybe bringing him here hadn’t been such a hot idea after all.
    “So where’s the house?” he asked as his dog jumped to the ground and ran off to explore.
    “This is the house.” Jayne swung an arm in the general direction of the building and self-consciously tugged at her wild mane with her other hand, thinking she probably looked like the bride of Frankenstein after the drive up the coast in her convertible.
    Reilly stared at the large weathered gray building she had indicated and frowned. “Jaynie, that’s a barn.”
    “
Was
a barn,” she corrected him. “I had it converted.”
    “I don’t guess I’m surprised by that,” he said with a shrug. It was something Jayne would do. Other women in her financial position would have built themselves a palatial estate with manicured lawns and statuary. Jayne lived in the middle of nowhere in a converted barn.
    He studied the building more closely, taking note of the large multipaned windows that punctuated one long side. There was half of a whiskey barrel overflowing with dainty purple and white flowers beside the door. On a wooden park bench beside the flowers a black and orange cat was curled up, its tail twitching back and forth as its yellow eyes glared at Reilly’s dog. Rowdy gave a sharp bark at the cat and quickly dodged away, loping off across the yard.
    Reilly’s gaze swept the farmyard, taking in the assortment of other smaller buildings. There was a chicken coop with exotic chickens browsing in the fenced pen around it, brilliant-colored birds with elaborate combs and extravagant tail feathers. Nearer the house stood a small dairy parlor with