Homecoming Read Online Free

whether to open her purse and give him some money, or try to escape him.
    “Are you bothering the lady, Leon?”
    Dana let out her breath in an audible sigh when she heard a soft, drawling male voice behind her.
    The panhandler’s aggressive stance dissipated within seconds. Lowering his head, he mumbled, “No, sir. I want coffee.”
    “Didn’t I tell you not to bother the ladies?” the softvoice continued. “That if you want coffee you should come and see me?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “I want you to go back home, take a shower, put on clean clothes, and then come see me.”
    Leon shook his head, his gaze shifting between Dana, who hadn’t moved, and the tall man standing behind her.
    “She your lady?”
    “Yes, Leon, she’s my lady. Now will you please do as I ask?”
    “I … I don’t know.”
    “Go home, Leon.” The soft voice had taken on a sharp edge of authority.
    The disturbed man’s eyelids blinked rapidly. “You want Leon go home and then come back?”
    “Yes, Leon. Then come back and see me.”
    Leon dropped his head, turned, and shuffled slowly through a walkway between two stores. It was only after he’d disappeared from sight that Dana turned and looked up at her rescuer, her breath halting momentarily before starting up again.
    The man staring down at her was literally and figuratively tall, dark, and handsome—almost beautiful, and never had she ever attributed that adjective to any man. His close-cropped hair was a shimmering black and liberally feathered with gray. She leisurely studied his face, feature by feature. His smooth deeply tanned olive coloring and high cheekbones made him look exotic. Sweeping black silky eyebrows curved over a pair of large glossy dark eyes. A thin nose and full sensual mouth completed his startling, arresting face.
    “Thank … thank you, Mr. …” she stuttered, recovering her voice. It had come out in a breathless sigh.
    “Cole, Tyler Cole.”
    It was Tyler’s turn to stare at the woman who looked as good from the front as she did from the back. His obsidian gaze lingered on her face. And what an exquisite face it was: delicate chin, full, lush mouth, a pert nose, and then there were her eyes—eyes that were large, oval, and a clear warm brown with glints of gold that reminded him of tortoise-shell. The light brown, gold-streaked hair swept up off her slender neck was a perfect match for her eyes.
    His lazy, penetrating gaze caressed the outline of her slender body under the sleeveless white cotton blouse she’d paired with a slim black skirt, ending at her knees, and black leather sandals. He forced himself not to gawk at the perfection of her bare legs and slender feet. As a man who had lost count of the number of women he’d examined since becoming a doctor, Tyler Cole was stunned by the beauty of the strange woman in front of him.
    She smiled, extending her right hand. “Dana Nichols.”
    A slow smile crinkled Tyler’s eyes as he flashed his trademark dimples, displaying a set of perfectly aligned white teeth. His parents had spent a small fortune in orthodontic care to correct an overbite from a thumb-sucking habit he’d developed from birth. It wasn’t until he’d entered the third grade that he had come to the realization that sucking his thumb was for babies.
    He arched an expressive raven eyebrow, taking her hand in his, cradling it gently. Her palm was soft and cool. He glanced down at her fingers. The nails were polished a pale pink—an attractive contrast to her tanned golden skin. So, he thought, she was the one who had tongues wagging faster than a hummingbird flapping its wings.
    “I’m sorry if Leon frightened you,” he said.
    “I don’t think he frightened me as much as he startledme,” Dana said, extracting her hand from Tyler Cole’s loose grip. “When I got out of my car, I didn’t expect to see him standing in front of me.”
    “He’s been warned about asking women for money.”
    She anchored the strap to her purse