Sea's Sorceress Read Online Free Page A

talk to you after your shift.”
    The blonde curled her fist around the ticket book in her pocket, but she didn’t put up a fight as Rhiannon had expected. “You’re the boss,” she growled.
    “I’ll have my cook prepare another meal for you. Please enjoy it on the house. I apologize for the rudeness of my staff.” She’d send them dessert to sweeten their opinion.
    With her customers mollified, she pushed open the swinging door into the kitchen.
    Skye turned to her, smiled and pulled out a chair at the small table he used for breaks.
    She sat and sort of melted into the chair and rested her forehead on the table. The pub belonged to her family, but this was his space, his territory, no matter whose hands prepared food here.
    “I must repeat myself. Your ex-girlfriend is a bitch.” She mumbled into the tabletop and didn’t protest when his long artist fingers began rubbing circles into her aching shoulders and neck. His touch was steady, soothing. The stress eked away.
    “Yes, she is. Better?”
    “Mmm.” Had that purring sound actually come from her lips? His hands felt like heaven. “Much.”
    “Then eat your soup, love, and keep me company while I work.” He patted her shoulder and walked back to the sink. Tension bounced off him like waves.
    “Ah, we need three orders of apple tarts. Two for the Finneys and the other for the table in the back. A peace offering.” She sipped the soup and watched him take four saucers off a stack and fill the order.
    He’d tied up his black hair with a leather band and now it fell in a thick rope of silk between his shoulder blades. What would it feel like if she ran her fingers down its length? Better not to think about that too much. Damn him for threatening to kiss her. Then again, she had called him a sex god, even though she’d been teasing. What she knew about sex wouldn’t fill a tea cup. Turnabout’s fair play .
    Skye gave her a dazzling smile and handed her one of the saucers.
    “Be right back.” He gathered the other plates onto a tray and took them out to the waitress. When he came back to the kitchen, Skye sat next to her at the table. “Try one.”
    “I shouldn’t.”
    “You can’t resist my pastries, darling. Be a good girl. Take a bite.” He held one up to her lips and leaned over until she was looking directly into those smoky blue eyes.
    Big mistake. Can’t resist you is more like it . “I don’t eat sweets. They’re bad for me and the scales.”
    “You’re a beautiful woman, Rhiannon. You shouldn’t worry about things like that.”
    “That’s what I do. Worry.” And why was she telling him this? His taste ran to long, cool blondes. But Skye was far too easy to talk to.
    “Just the right size, and your curves are sexy. If you were as big as a house, you’d still be beautiful.”
    “You think I’m…sexy?”
    “Can’t you see the way men watch you? Do you know what they feel when they look at you? I do.”
    “You’d have kissed me in front of everybody if I hadn’t come back here.”
    “Hmm?” He tilted his head to the side, the tiny little scar at the corner of his eye crinkled. Did anyone besides her ever notice it? She’d been twelve that day, plenty old enough to go down to the water. Or so she had thought, until a loose rock sent her tumbling down the path. Skye had caught her, but not before a large stone had flown up and nicked the skin by his left eye.
    Skye leaned in and whispered in her ear. “In a heartbeat, and enjoyed it.” His mouth brushed her cheek as he pulled back.
    “You never did play fair.”
    “All’s fair in love and most of the time both sides can find a way to win.”
    “Would you have been sorry?”
    “Never. I care about you, Rhia.”
    “Well then. I guess that’s good to know.”
    “I think we need to talk about earlier on the phone. I–”
    Looking for a distraction, she gave up, leaned over and took a bite of the offered treat. “Mmm. It’s excellent. What’s gotten into you,