Sterling's Reasons by Joey Light Read Free Book Online Page B

falling in love with a man she barely knew? Could she be misconstruing all of this with her innate need to help her fellow human beings?
    If making love was what this man needed could she… No, it couldn’t be any of those things. She picked the towel up off the floor and draped it over his shoulders, rubbing to chase the chill from him. Sand dusted to the floor.
    He whirled on her and threw the towel across the room. “Damn it, woman, get away from me now before I never let you leave this house again.”
    She jumped back from the wave of fury. Until now none of his real anger had been directed at her. She didn’t like it. She was afraid of him and yet she wanted to touch him all at the same time. She made a mad dash past him and sprinted toward her own cottage. The rain hid the tears. She was glad because the last thing he needed to see was that he had affected her so deeply.
    She tossed her wet clothes on the floor and filled the bathtub with bubbles and water so hot that she could barely get in it. She tried to relax her tense muscles. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to block out the images in her mind.
    Her assignments had never been this confusing.
    Of course, she had to be realistic. She was dealing with a much more difficult situation than usual. Perhaps she should just go and leave him alone. Later might

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    Joey Light
    be a better time to assess his needs. His needs? What about her needs? She added more hot water and slid down in the tub till her chin touched the water.
    He was a complex man. His emotions ran strong and deep. Joe was at war with himself and therefore the whole world. What would it be like? She could only guess what he was feeling. She would want to return to the womb. Curl up and go away, out of the world forever. Did men react the same way? She doubted it.
    He wanted to kill again. She could see it in his eyes, in the way he moved.
    Maybe kindness wasn’t what he needed. Maybe he needed to be yelled at and bullied. Maybe he required a good shake. He wanted the memories of what he did to die. That’s what he wanted to kill. What he had done.
    She dried herself off and left the bathroom. Walking naked into the hall, she made a right turn toward her bedroom. It was then she saw him. Sitting on the couch, watching her.
    “Get dressed, Powell. We’re going to drive up the coast till we reach sunshine, and then we’re going to a movie and dinner.” He wasn’t smiling. He was fresh from a shower himself; she could smell his spicy aftershave. Jekyll and Hyde? How could a man swing from one mood to the other so quickly?
    “You’re going to catch cold.” He nodded toward her nakedness and she scampered into her room.
    Sterling dressed in front of the mirror, noticing her cheeks were flushed. She hadn’t blushed since she was sixteen. She was beginning to think she had been jettisoned into the twilight zone. Things were not making sense at all.
    Her aqua-blue skirt was set off with a shocking pink sash. Her hair always curled unruly when she didn’t dry it right away, falling this way and that over her shoulders. Shaking it, she drew herself up. Giving herself one last glimpse in 46
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    Sterling’s Reasons
    the mirror, she took a deep breath and reminded herself she was getting paid handsomely for this job. She’d make a good one of it.
    He stood up when she walked into the room. He had on stonewashed denims and cowboy boots. He wore a white shirt, with the cuffs rolled up to the elbows. His forearms were roped with muscles and tanned. She admired his wrists and hands. He had the hands of an artist, small-boned at the wrist, then widening out at the palm, and fingers that were blunt and competent. She pictured them wrapped around a gun.
    “I’m not going to say I’m sorry about what happened. I’m not in control of things anymore. That’s why I isolated myself out here. I’d like to make it up to you even though you brought on