Solomon's Decision by Judith B. Glad Read Free Book Online Page B

demanded oxygen in large gulps. Erik
made it all look so easy, darn him.
    Eventually they reached the copse. It was a lovely place, shady, with
leathery-leaved low shrubs and tall grass under the dark green branches. Madeline sprawled
gratefully on a fallen log while Erik pulled his camera from its protective plastic bag and
changed memory cards. Watching his long, nimble fingers handle the camera as if it were
an extension of themselves, she recalled how practiced they had been another time.
    She pushed the thought back, 'way back. She was going to have to work with him
for weeks, perhaps months. If she allowed him to affect her the way he had in Seattle--the
way he had ever since he came to Garnet Falls--she wouldn't be able to do anything
effectively.
    That brief, unforgettable episode had been a temporary aberration from her usual
practical, sensible behavior. It had been part and parcel of the insanity she'd sunk into after
Jesse's death. That was all. She'd never do something that...that stupid again.
    "...mud on my face?" Erik said, breaking into her thoughts, alerting her to the fact
that she'd been staring at him.
    "Oh...oh, no. No, I was just...just thinking about...about something."
    She had to stop thinking of what might have been and concentrate on what was.
After one night of insanity--she never would have been so wanton if she hadn't been out of
her mind from stress and exhaustion--she'd come back to Garnet Falls and gone on with
her life. And it had been a good life, filled with family and friends, with love and
satisfaction.
    Only the nights were empty.
    And now the cause of that emptiness was here, confusing her, making her
remember feelings best left forgotten, needs best left unfulfilled.
    Then he was before her, looming, his eyes catching and holding hers.
    "Were you remembering, Madeline?" He ran one finger across her cheek, in a
gesture that reduced her to a pool of melted will. "This?"
    Before she could do more than gasp, his lips were touching hers softly, teasingly.
"Or this?" he breathed, as he kissed his way all around her mouth. "I've never forgotten
either," he said, taking her earlobe between his teeth, gently tugging.
    "No!" She pushed him away and nearly tipped herself backwards with the same
convulsive motion. "No, damn you!" She grabbed her daypack and turned back toward the
path they'd followed into the copse, but his hand caught her upper arm and brought her to a
sudden halt.
    "No? I saw the way you were staring at me. Hungry, Madeline. You're as hungry
for me as I am for you."
    "I'm not!"
    "Liar."
    She didn't move as his arms came around her, pulling her back against his chest.
Her buttocks were nestled against his pelvis and she could feel the stirrings of his
awakening desire. Madeline couldn't speak, could hardly breathe.
    "Are you lying to yourself, too? Or just to me?"
    His hands flattened across her midriff, his thumbs touched the sides of her breasts
lightly, fleetingly. Again the breath caught in her chest. The sleeping hunger in her belly
stretched, yawned. Before it could awake, ravening, demanding fulfillment, she jerked
herself free and spun around.
    "Listen to me, Erik Solomon, and listen good! There's not going to be a repeat
performance, do you hear me? Sleeping with you was the dumbest thing I ever did, and I
don't intend to make the same mistake twice."
    "Was it a mistake?" He hadn't moved, but was looking at her in the strangest way.
Almost as if his feelings were hurt.
    "Oh, yes," she said, knowing she had to conquer this awful hunger for him. She
had to!
    "Then let's talk about it," he snarled, pushing her back onto the log and sitting
beside her. "You wouldn't talk to me the other night, and you weren't at work Friday.
Where were you? Hiding?"
    She had been, but he didn't need to know that. "I was out at the ranch. My cousin's
ranch, the Double J." She'd pointed it out to him on the way up here. "And why should I
talk to you? We slept together eight years ago. You