Sweet Nothings: A Karma Café Novella Read Online Free Page A

after all.
    This is what you wanted, she reminded herself.
    Go for it. Jump off the cliff.
    Or at least have the nerve to peek over the edge.
    Plastering the flirtatiously sexy look on her face that she’d practiced for hours the previous night, she slid out of the cabinet frame and angled herself into a sitting position.
    Her eyes rounded.
    Her mouth dropped.
    Her body froze.
    All except for her heart, which tripped over itself.
    It was the guy from the restaurant, all right.
    He was still as sexy.
    Still adorably cute, with that shaggy hair falling over his forehead and those vividly piercing eyes.
    His shoulders were even broader than she remembered. His torso angling to a slender waist. His bare chest covered with a light dusting of dark brown hair that followed the same angle.
    All the way down to the towel knotted at that waist.
    Her breath echoed that knot, tangling in her throat as desire twisted deep in her belly.
    The towel, which was the only thing covering that very gorgeous, very sexy body.

Chapter Three
     
     
    One minute he’d been trying to wake up under the pounding water, too tired after tossing and turning all night to even belt out a tune. The next, he’d been blinking soap from his eyes and wondering what the hell had happened to his water.
    With the last few drops of his shower sliding over his chest and a flimsy towel covering his goods, Jacob stared at the woman in his rented living room. She had a wrench in one hand, a long pipe in the other. Was she the cause of his water shortage?
    His brain, never happy before a major hit of strong caffeine in the morning, struggled to process it all.
    His body was processing just fine, though.
    Eyes bluer than the sky at sunset looked out from the most beautiful face he’d ever seen up close. Black hair waved down to her snug red shirt that cupped lush breasts and highlighted her slender waist. His gaze dropped to the jeans that hugged slender hips before sweeping down legs that looked way too long for a woman so petite.
    Incredible.
    Pure, stunning sexiness.
    Damn.
    His brain finally engaged, just enough to warn him that his towel was going to be embarrassing in a few seconds.
    “Hi.” Bianca’s smile was a little shaky at the edges. Humor or nerves, he couldn’t be sure. But there was no question about the interest in her eyes as they roamed his body.
    “Hi.”
    “Guess I interrupted your shower, huh?”
    “What gave it away?” he asked, pushing one hand through his wet hair. The move shifted his towel. He grabbed fast, tightening the ends of the fabric before he put on a morning floorshow. Bianca’s eyes widened, then her brow furrowed as if she regretted his fast reflexes.
    “I’ll turn the, um, the water back on,” she said, her eyes still focused to his towel as if she were hoping he hadn’t tied the knot very well.
    Jacob didn’t move.
    He couldn’t.
    He was too busy wondering what her skin felt like. Was it as soft as it looked? Was it like silk? He wanted to skim his fingers over the pale pink of her cheek, slide them down the slender length of her throat then graze, as light as a whisper, his hand all the way down the delicious length of her body. He wondered if those huge, expressive blue eyes would darken with desire. Or would they widen with excitement. What would it take to make them blur with passion?
    Hell.
    Jacob grimaced, trying to regain control of his thoughts. He was here to convince the woman to step up and accept her inheritance. Not to lay down and welcome his body.
    He needed to get out of here.
    But he couldn't move. Between the plush thickness of the towel resisting staying knotted and his hardening erection pushing against the fabric, all it’d take was a step, maybe two, for the heavy towel to hit the floor. What would she do then? Would she run from the room? If the heat zinging between them was any indication, he didn’t think so. Would she strip herself naked in the name of fairness, so he could see if she was