The Virgin's Revenge by Dee Tenorio Read Free Book Online Page A

man’s body moved in front of the glass. “Hey, there you—oh, shit !”
    She dove for her robe at the end of the couch, but not before Billy Anderson had cupped his hands around his face and pressed them to the window, allowing him to see through the thick lace curtains. Right to her mostly naked body.
    And that heavy thud had to be the sound of poor Billy hitting the wooden porch like a sack of lead.
    Amanda squeezed her eyes shut and yanked her silk robe around herself as tight as possible. Billy worked over at Burke Hallifax’s repair and custom body shop, which could mean only one thing. Locke hadn’t listened worth a damn.
    Rushing to the window, she found the beleaguered auto clerk splayed out on the porch as expected and a shiny blue sedan parked out at the curb. Shaking her head, she stepped out onto the porch, hoping the thin fabric of her blue robe would do enough to cover the fact that she was naked but for a few peacock feathers.
    “Billy?” She crouched next to him, making sure the robe’s flaps covered her legs completely. “Billy, are you okay?”
    “Peacocks,” Billy mumbled, staring up at the ceiling of her porch with glazed eyes and a ridiculous smile on his face. “Peacocks…everywhere.”
    She choked on a laugh. “Billy.”
    “I think I died and went to heaven.”
    Well, she thought, trying to tamp down the blush rising to her cheeks. It looked like she wasn’t the only virgin in Rancho del Cielo.
    “You’re not dead, Billy.” A little worse for wear, but definitely not dead.
    “I think I love you.”
    “You don’t love me.” He was only a couple of years older than the younger twins, for Pete’s sake.
    “Yes I do. I love you…and peacocks.”
    I’ll have to tell Susie this one is a success. “You didn’t actually see anything you can’t see in a swimsuit catalog.”
    He blinked, still staring up at the rafters, and when he spoke, it was with a broken squeak. “They show all that in a catalog?”
    She frowned. “What exactly did you see?”
    He swallowed, his still-oversized Adam’s apple working erratically. “Everything.”
    “I’m not naked. You couldn’t have seen everything .” Could he? The thong fit like a second skin, but she had been bent over for the robe when he pressed his face to the glass.
    “I know what I saw, Ms. Jackman.”
    “Two seconds ago, you were calling me Amanda.”
    “That was before.”
    “Before what?” Another deep voice asked from behind, and Amanda had a brief desire to curl into a fetal position. She might have done it if Billy Anderson wasn’t taking up all the room on the porch.
    “Before I saw Ms. Jackman naked,” the kid replied, still in his ridiculous haze.
    Ignore the man on your front steps. Ignore him and he’ll go away. “I wasn’t naked, Billy!”
    “You were to me.”
    The man on the front steps she was ignoring as hard as she could must have sensed that she was about to kick the defenseless kid at her feet, because suddenly Amanda was off the ground, twisting and struggling, being carted safely back into her house.
    “This would be a good time to run for your life, kid,” Cole grunted as he struggled to get her back inside. “Most folks don’t take kindly to peeping toms.”
    “I wasn’t peeping!” Billy finally sat up, rubbing his head. “I was making a delivery. Mr. Jackman asked us to bring that over for his sister.” He must have pointed at the car, because Cole’s arms finally caught hold of hers and he fit them both through her front door with one last bit of advice for the boy outside.
    “If I were you, then, I’d run a bit faster.”
     
     
    Amanda Jackman made one hell of a handful.
    “Put me down right this second, Cole Engstrom, or I swear I’ll rip your balls off by way of your tonsils.”
    Oh sure, that inspired a man to let go. “Anyone ever tell you that your brothers have been a bad influence on you?”
    She kicked his inner thigh with her sharp heel almost hard enough to make him