Kisses From Heaven Read Online Free Page A

just going to do the dishes. So I couldn’t do that or take a shower… Do you need any help?” she asked virtuously.
    By now Gramps was already beneath a blanket. Loren straightened up, brushed her hair away from her face and honored her sister with a level stare. “Behave yourself,” she said evenly. “His name is Buck, and he’s already seen that you have an outstanding figure, so unless you want to freeze to death, you might as well put on some clothes.”
    Angela’s eyes widened. “You’re certainly not in a very good mood.”
    “No,” Loren agreed, “I’m not.”
    “Well then, I’ll just leave you two to have a cup of coffee or something.” Her eyes lingered one more appreciative moment on Buck, then she asked with a frown, “Who’s Joan? I thought I heard you calling—”
    “Our housekeeper,” Loren said flatly.
    One could not accuse Angela of being slow. “Oh,” she said brightly, reaching out to pat her sister’s shoulder as if to comfort the demented. Then she sashayed barefoot from the room with a swivel of one pink satin hip.
    Loren turned to find a silent Buck with a peculiarly contorted face. He was standing with his hands jammed comfortably in his pockets, his shock of rusty hair rumpled from the wind, his stark green eyes all over her like a camera. She had the peculiar impression that he was close to either laughter…or anger.
    “I’m Miss Prim, and that’s Miss Hot and Heavy. In case you haven’t guessed. Anyway, welcome to the household, Buck,” she said wearily. “Somehow, I even have the insane urge to offer you a cup of coffee. But please don’t steal anything, okay? I’m too tired even to call the police if it came to it.”
     
    The kitchen was a huge square with a thousand cupboards and the most inefficient of all possible working settings, but the room was light, and the huge old oak table had character. Except for Angela’s excess of dishes, the room was spotless. Impatiently, Loren went first to the sink and filled it with soapy water. She set the dishes in to soak, not to make a suitable impression on the man who had followed her to the kitchen, but simply because she couldn’t stand dirty dishes.
    Buck moved behind her, lifting the teapot to make sure it contained water, then turning on the burner beneath it. “Coffee and cups?” he questioned quietly.
    “You’ll have to move the kettle to the back burner. That one doesn’t work,” she said irritably. “Cups are just above you, and instant coffee’s on the side there.”
    “Come here to peace and quiet every night, do you?” he asked dryly as he obeyed her instructions.
    “I manage.”
    “You’re the sole support for all three of you?”
    She flashed him a withering glance, then returned to the dishes in the sink. “I manage,” she repeated. “Angela will be out of school in June.” She rinsed the dishes, stacked them in the drainer and wiped her hands hurriedly on a dishcloth, then bent over in front of the refrigerator to take out the casserole she’d made that morning. Belatedly, she remembered that her grandfather had promised Buck dinner, and she looked up at him guiltily. That whole thing was absurd, of course, but Buck seemed as conscious of the casserole she was holding as she was. “I’m sure you really don’t want to stay for dinner,” she told him, hoping she didn’t sound rude. “I’ll be happy to offer you coffee, and then I’ll call a taxi—”
    “I really would appreciate a meal,” he contradicted her pleasantly.
    Which was just it. He looked…hungry. The whistle on the tea kettle sputtered just as she stepped forward to put the casserole in the oven, and both she and Buck suddenly tried to fill the same space at the same time. She felt a rock-hard thigh against hers, then the most incredible sensation of a large, possessive hand on the curve of her hip, steadying her. Loren gave a small jump backward, feeling heat rush through her veins instead of blood. He was just