Vision of Darkness by Tonya Burrows Read Free Book Online Page A

lead.”
    He opened his mouth, she assumed to protest, but he surprised her by not denying it. His mouth closed again and he rubbed a hand around the back of his neck. “Well, yeah, probably. Would that be so bad?”
    “Yes.” Pru sighed when he scowled. She’d hurt his fragile male ego, but she didn’t have time to nurse the pieces back together. Her half hour was almost up.
    “I have to go back to work.” She handed him the sunflower. “Please, just stay away before something happens that I’ll regret.”
    It was probably better this way, she decided as he stared after her with a mixed expression of aggravation and bewilderment. At least he wouldn’t be popping into the diner for a visit again.
    She hoped.
     
    ***
    That was a first.
    Alex rubbed his unshaved jaw, feeling almost as if she’d slapped him. How did he manage to completely fubar everything he said to her? Usually the pickup was the easy part for him. Knowing what the hell to do with a woman once he’d had her was the part he sucked at.
    He looked at the sunflower. Its perky petals beamed back, bright as Pru’s smile. Frowning, he tossed it aside.  
    Forget her.
    Why was he even chasing after a skirt right now anyway? He had bigger things to worry about than getting laid.
    Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he started down the street to his car. He didn’t need this sort of aggravation in his life now and he certainly didn’t need her—but, Christ, who was he kidding? Need and want were two entirely different concepts and he wanted her.
    Bad.
    He hadn’t been able to stop touching her. Like an addict needing a constant fix.
    Desire thrummed in his blood and he only had to close his eyes to see it, the two of them coming together, hot and panting and desperate to be flesh to flesh.
    He stopped walking and growled as the fantasy thickened in his groin. Need and want were two different things, and in this case want won. He had never before felt this pull—no, it was more violent than that, he decided, like a yank—toward a woman. It was such a strange sensation that he refused to leave Maine without exploring the possibilities of it first. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go now that he was jobless.
    Alex snatched up the sunflower from the spot it had landed on the sidewalk and stalked toward the diner. Pru stood behind the counter, cashing out a customer at the register. He tapped on the window to get her attention and saw a becoming flush fill her cheeks as everyone turned to watch. He held her gaze as he threaded the sunflower through the door handle.
    “I’m not leaving,” he said loud enough that she’d hear through the glass. Then he turned, nodded to Mrs. Mallory, who stood on the sidewalk behind him, and walked to his car.
     
    ***
    Pru made sure she was busy with an order when Helen marched up to the counter with the sunflower in hand. Of all the people that had to be present for that spectacle, why did it have to be the mayor’s nosy wife? How mortifying.
    “What was that all about?” Helen demanded.
    “Nothing.” Pru snatched a coffee pot from the warmer and refilled the line of empty and nearly empty cups at the counter.
    Miranda, carrying a load of dirty dishes to the kitchen, snorted as she passed. “Nothing? Yeah, and my tush is flat. That city boy has his pretty gray eyes on our Pru.”
    “Does he?” Helen twirled the flower once and pursed her red-painted lips. “How unfortunate for you, dear. Beauty is such a curse.” With a flick of the wrist, the sunflower sailed into the wastebasket beside the counter.
    Pru stopped herself—barely—from retrieving it. Did she want to look like she was completely gone over Alex? Because she wasn’t. She didn’t even know him. Instead, she picked up the plate of fried clams waiting in the order window.
    Helen gave a dainty, disapproving sniff. “I hope you know, dear, a tryst with a man like that will only end badly.”
    She knew, which was why she’d tried