Her Gentle Giant: No Regrets Read Online Free Page A

good right now, and so Rachel kept a lid on them. She could fall to pieces later. She turned to Eli.
    “I’ve never been out to your house before.” This was a big step, and she knew it. She didn’t doubt that he wanted to help her. Being honest with herself, she knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her, and this moment was going to change things. She needed to get a handle on her vacillating emotions and desires before they gave her whiplash.
    “My place is less than five minutes away. Just follow me.” There was a purposeful light shining in his eyes like there was every time he asked her out. She nodded and climbed into the driver’s seat of her car and waved at Mike and Rogelio.
    Eli got in his truck, and she followed him out of the chaotic scene, leaving it behind. The flashing lights and cacophony of sound had done a number on her nerves, and the insulated quiet of her car was deafening. She turned on the CD player and set the volume down low, listening to Nickelback as she followed Eli home.
    Rachel thought back to the first time she’d seen him, his first night working at The Dancing Pony. She’d been sitting at a table talking with a friend when he’d walked in with Mike and Rogelio. His hair had been very long and he’d worn it loose, which had done all kinds of warm, fuzzy things to her insides. His features were incredibly handsome and exotic, like a Native American warrior’s. Black eyebrows arched over his sensuous eyes, which she’d found out later were an arresting shade of pale gray. His great height and strongly athletic build reminded her of a character out of a Viking romance novel. He was clad in leathers and a simple white T-shirt, and his face and body were simply drool-worthy. He had exuded an air of calm and self-confidence, which she’d assumed was the reason women were drawn to him.
    ,
    23
    The club had been fairly busy when they’d come in and started their evening’s work, and she’d realized that he must be a new hire. It had been hard to look away, and her gaze had repeatedly returned to him. She’d watched the way his thickly muscled biceps bulged when he shook hands with someone. She’d noticed she wasn’t the only woman in the place who had been mesmerized by him as many of them had begun to make their not-so-subtle way over to him to introduce themselves and flirt with him.
    Rachel couldn’t have blamed them for striking while the iron was hot.
    Prime male gorgeousness like his was a hot commodity. He had maintained a friendly but uninterested demeanor and had spent his time talking to Mike and Rogelio, probably focused on learning the way things were done at the club.
    Fascinated by his extreme height, Rachel had pined over the idea of being able to look up into a man’s eyes instead of straight into them, or, worse yet, down into them. She was tall for a woman and full-figured. That was another reason she didn’t date often because she hated feeling like she was bigger than her dates.
    He’d chatted with customers and the other employees and she’d liked that he didn’t put out a “big tough guy” image like he’d needed to impress everyone. He’d been head and shoulders over almost every man in the place.
    Rachel had glanced over at him again, for the hundredth time, to see Ethan introducing Grace to him. Only a moment before he’d had a twinkle in his eye, and then, he’d seemed much more serious. A bleached blonde dressed in an almost non-existent scrap of spandex and five inch stiletto heels had approached him, sliding her hand up his thick biceps, over his shoulder and around his neck. Rachel had wondered if the woman might be a late arriving girlfriend, but that theory had been proven wrong when he’d risen from his stool, dislodging her grip on him.
    She’d wondered what it must be like to go home from his job with the scent of all the perfume those forward women had doused themselves with on his clothes and his skin. Would he have liked that? Or