Traci On The Spot by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online Page A

said the first thing that popped into her head. “It’s too big for me to wear.” She realized her mistake the moment the words were out.
    He looked at her knowingly. She thought she saw compassion in his eyes and could have spit. “Yes, I read the strip this morning.”
    Flattery took a back seat to indignation forDaniel. “I told you, everything there is an exaggeration. I take liberties with things,” she insisted with more passion than she intended. “Otherwise, they’re not funny.”
    He’d forgotten how magnificent anger made her. Or maybe he’d never really noticed. He did now. “You know what’s funny? You settling for comfortable and complacent.”
    Was he comparing Daniel to himself? She wasn’t sure, but she took a stab at it, anyway. “Comfortable and complacent doesn’t give me a headache, and what would you know about what I want in a man?” His presumption galled her.
    “Educated guess,” he answered calmly. “You’d want someone to send your temperature soaring, to keep you on your toes.” He hadn’t meant to use her own description of him. That had been an accident. He hoped she was too fired up to notice.
    “Shows how much you know. Daniel is mentally stimulating enough, thank you.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “Look, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, coming up here again, I-” She fairly jumped at the loud crack that shook the heavens and the house. Her eyes widened. “What was that?”
    He’d instinctively placed his hand on her shoulder. The way she stiffened had him dropping it immediately. “Thunder.” Morgan glanced toward the living room. “From the looks of it, your dog isn’t too keen on that, either.”
    Traci turned to look behind her. From whereshe stood she could see Jeremiah slipping under the rug he’d just been lying on. Argument forgotten, Traci hurried over to the dog.
    “Poor baby.” She sank down on her knees beside the animal. “It’s all right, Jeremiah, just noise. Nothing else.”
    She wasn’t aware that Morgan was right behind her until he spoke. “You’d think he’d be used to noise, being your dog. You still talk to anything with ears?”
    It didn’t sound like an insult, so she smiled. “Yeah.”
    Morgan folded his legs under him as he sat down on the floor beside her. “Here.” He handed her a fresh mug of coffee. “Sorry, out of sugar.”
    Traci took it from him. “I’ll just dip my finger in.”
    “That should spice it up,” he commented dryly.
    Sipping, Traci stroked the animal’s fur slowly, knowing the repetitive action would soothe him. The coffee didn’t taste half-bad, even without sugar.
    She raised her eyes to his. “Thanks.”
    Morgan shrugged. “No sense in throwing out a good pot of coffee.”
    Had he always had this core of shyness? she wondered. “Very prudent. Did you get economical after your father lost all that money?”
    “I had to. Suddenly things I always thought I couldn’t live without were expendable.” It hadmade him take stock of what was really important to him.
    She cocked her head, her fingers still tangled in Jeremiah’s fur. “Like Cynthia?”
    “Yeah.”
    She saw something flicker in his eyes. For once, she didn’t want to return to old ground. “Sorry, low blow.”
    He lifted a shoulder and let it drop carelessly, unfazed. “I’m used to it with you.”
    “Very gracious of you.” She hesitated. For a moment she actually wanted to tell him about Rory. She hadn’t the faintest idea why.
    Thunder rolled again. Jeremiah emitted a low moan. Time to get things moving. “I’d better take a walk out back before the storm hits.”
    He rose to his feet. “That might not be such a bad idea,” he agreed. “This storm might not come for hours,” he mused, “but then again-”
    “It might be here in five minutes,” she concluded. In which case, she’d better get on the road. She wanted to get back to the city before any storm of consequence hit.
    Morgan took her hand in