That Carolina Summer (North Carolina) by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online

returns it? If he returns it?” Marsha questioned.
    “I'll handle it,” Annette promised. “You're going to be in the shower. I'll thank him for you, so there won't be any reason for you to even speak to him.” She was well aware that one look at Marsha's guilty face and Josh would know it was a put-up job. He was going to guess it anyway, but she was going to see to it that he had plenty of reason to doubt his conclusion.
    She glanced over her shoulder. They were already out of sight of the tennis courts. “Let's hurry,” she urged her sister, and quickened her pace to a running walk.
    “Why?"
    “Because I want to be out of the shower before Josh comes,” Annette answered, and broke into a run.
    HER HANDS WERE TREMBLING as she twisted her hair into a demure knot on top of her head. Annette was certain she hadn't been this nervous on her first date. She had butterflies in her stomach and her knees were shaking. She secured her hair with a bobby pin and stepped back to view her overall reflection in the mirror.
    “How do I look?” she asked Marsha, nervously moistening her dry lips.
    The culotte-styled lounging robe was made out of dotted swiss fabric in a cool lime green. Its vee neckline had a single row of stand-up ruffles, which accented the slender curve of her neck. A white cinch belt nipped around her slender waist. With her blond hair swept atop her head in the little-girl knot and the clearness of her round gray eyes, she looked the picture of innocence.
    “Like an angel,” Marsha admitted in all truth.
    Annette jumped when she heard the knock on the door. She breathed in deeply and looked at her sister for the reassurance of her moral support. “Go get in the shower,” she ordered quickly. “And don't come out until I call you."
    “Don't worry. I won't,” Marsha promised, and scurried off to the bathroom.
    Annette's legs felt like rubber as she walked to the door. The security chain was on it and she left it in place, opening the door a crack to peer outside. Josh had an arm braced against the door frame, still in his tennis clothes. His dark eyes gleamed with a mocking smile, but the line of his mouth was straight.
    “Hello.” Annette tried to sound surprised to see him, but her voice wasn't behaving very well.
    “Hello,” he returned the greeting in his well-modulated voice. He didn't alter his casually relaxed stance, silently waiting for her to open the door.
    “Just a minute.” She closed it to unhook the safety chain, then opened it.
    Her heart was beating a rapid tattoo against her ribs as she moved into the opening, blocked from stepping too far outside by his masculine bulk. The dark mahogany of his hair was attractively rumpled, its thickness inviting a smoothing hand. His gaze roamed leisurely over her, taking in every facet of her appearance and making it even more difficult for her to breathe normally.
    “You need a sprig of lilies of the valley,” Josh stated dryly.
    “Oh?” Annette wondered if she sounded as disturbed as she felt.
    “Yes. To go with those big gray eyes and that button nose,” he explained. “With your hair like that, you look like a little girl on her way to Sunday School.” His tone seemed to deride her youthfulness.
    “I just got out of the shower.” Annette touched a hand to her hair, wishing for a brief instant that she looked older. The thought was banished when she caught the glimpse of something smoldering in his eyes, especially when their glance swept over her as if probing beneath the robe to discover what she had on underneath.
    “Yes, I noticed how fresh and clean you smell.” Josh didn't appear too happy about making the admission, Annette noticed.
    She was very conscious of his unique scent drifting about her, so male and stimulating to her senses. Her glance strayed to the breadth of his chest, the knit shirt clinging to its sinewy wall and stretching across the bunched muscles of his shoulders. The arm braced against the door frame