Tides of Love (Seaswept Seduction Series) by Tracy Sumner Read Free Book Online

slowly. "You know, I had an interest in biology once, but that, well, that was a long time ago." She shook her head, denying the impulse to tell him.
    Why would Noah care about her dream of finishing university?
    "They're books for the laboratory, mostly. The others are for research." Elle felt the heat of his body before she smelled him. A rush of warmth, then the tantalizing scent of sea and man. His arm circled her waist as he lifted the book from her hand. He brushed his finger across the mark Magnus's cheek had left on her palm.
    Her fingers curled; her body swayed into the desk.
    "This will bruise, more than likely," he said, his breath dusting her cheek.
    She stared at his slim, supple fingers, the nails finely trimmed, the pads slightly callused. She had once pictured them exploring her body. Troubled, she tossed a careless smile over her shoulder, one she hoped would conceal her confusion.
    Noah blinked, his gaze lowering. To her lips, she guessed, from the way they started tingling. She licked them nervously, deciding the insincere smile had been a bad idea.
    Cursing softly, he stepped away.
    When Elle recovered enough to face him, he had his back to her, hands braced on the frame of the only window in the room. The reddish glow of early evening spilled in, kicking glints of gold in the hair curling over his collar. "What Leland said, about you, about me. He was wrong, wasn't he?"
    "Oh, that." Elle rolled her fingers into a fist to stop their trembling. "Of course he was. Magnus was always a tad jealous of... it's just, he remembered lots of things that happened... before. Nothing worth mentioning, things I'm sure you've forgotten by now. You're not the only one to light a fire beneath him. He hated Caleb, too. The proposal business rankled."
    Noah slanted his head, a startled part to his lips. "Caleb?"
    "He proposed at the Spring Tide Festival, five years after you left. He'd been drinking, and when I refused his offer, he bent down on one knee, stumbled into the tent pole, and knocked the fiddler from his perch. Then, he fell into another tent pole. A crucial one, evidently. The entire length of canvas collapsed on top of us. Christabel took him home that night, something she's been doing ever since, I think."
    "Why in the hell did he ask you, then?"
    Her teeth clicked together. "Get the dazed look off your face, Professor. I've had a number of eligible suitors."
    "Yes, I got a firsthand look at one of them today. In hindsight, maybe you should have accepted Caleb."
    "Caleb felt an obligation . He struggled to be everything to everybody after you left. Instead of being my friend, he wanted to act as my protector. And a woman's protector, at least in his mind, is her husband. You may not want to hear this but your leaving and us hearing no word from you just about killed him. He was lost. Completely and utterly lost. When he found himself, he had changed. He grew into a man, a good man, but not the same man."
    His hands dived into his pockets. "Caleb wasn't the only one who was lost."
    She closed the distance between them. "I always wondered what leaving here, frightened and alone, would do to you. If the experience would change you into someone I wouldn't recognize."
    "Didn't we establish in the damned attic that none of you knew me? Hell, I didn't even know myself." He laughed, but it sounded raw and reluctant. "So, am I still recognizable?"
    Elle suspected he did not want to be. He believed change would shield him. But she could not lie. He had to face them, his fears and his family, sooner than he liked. "Yes, I recognize you, because I knew him. Deep down, I feel him. I see him. In gestures you make, he comes back to me. Bits and pieces I had forgotten. The curve of your hand when you adjust your spectacles, even the absurdly neat way you roll your sleeves." Against her better judgment, she added, "What you did today, sending Magnus away. My friend would have done the same."
    He jerked his head, the light