The Colors of Love Read Online Free

been calling for the cat. He must be here somewhere. You made me drop the tuna."
    "The what?"
    "The tuna."
    Alex grabbed his flashlight and gave it another sharp shake. This time, the light came on and illuminated the woman crouching at his feet.
    "Here it is." Her red curls were dark with rain, sprung into ringlets. Her lashes seemed excessively long in the beam of the flashlight. The floating red and green shirt she'd worn earlier was now clinging damply to her breasts.
    In one hand, she held an open can of tuna.
    "I talked the man at the convenience store into opening it," she explained. "I don't carry a can opener in my car."
    "Or an umbrella."
    "I like rain." She turned away from him and started walking along the back of Sara's house, calling, "Squiggles? Here, kitty," in that husky voice that seemed tuned to something inside Alex.
    When he moved to follow her, she said, "We should split up. We'll cover more area and Squiggles will be less frightened of one person than two."
    He didn't know if that made sense or not, but he knew it was a bad sign when it bothered him this much to stand near a woman he didn't like.
    "You'd better take my umbrella."
    "No. Too many things to carry."
    If he offered his flashlight, she'd make the same objection.
    "You search the front of the building then," he said. "There's more light. I'll search back here."
    "I'll be able to see once your light is gone. My eyes will acclimatize to the dark."
    His light showed a bead of water running down her face. As he watched, her tongue slipped out and caught the drop before it could reach her upper lip.
    He clenched his fingers around the flashlight. He'd been working too hard, not playing enough. He hadn't made love to a woman in too damned long, or this wouldn't be happening to him.
    "Right," he said. "I'll go this way. You stay here and search."
    Ten minutes later, he'd worked his way around to the front of Sara's building again when he thought he heard something, perhaps Jamila calling out. He hurried back into the alley and found her crouched, the can of tuna held out in front of her, a bedraggled kitten hovering uneasily a foot away.
    "Stay back," she warned in a low, soft voice. "You'll frighten him. Come on, kitty. It's real tuna. You like tuna, don't you, Squiggles?"
    The cat stepped closer warily, and Alex wondered if Jamila's voice had the same effect on Sara's cat as it did on him.
    Whether it was the voice or the tuna, Squiggles stepped close enough that Jamila was able to sweep him into her arms. As she stood, Alex saw her do something to her shirt to wrap a loose fold around the cat.
    So she wasn't hard-hearted, but she wasn't exactly a responsible adult either. Stumbling around in a back alley in the rain, looking for a kitten with a can of tuna because a child was worried about it. Alex figured she was somewhere in her mid-twenties, but she hadn't the sense to carry an umbrella in the rain, or to pack a flashlight in her car.
    She was soaking wet. Cold, too—she must be.
    "Come on," he said, reaching for her. "We've got to get you out of this rain."
    When she laughed, the cat must have been as startled as Alex was, because it twisted in her arms and leapt for freedom. Alex dropped the umbrella and grabbed, caught a paw, and felt claws dig into the back of his hand. Then his arms got tangled with Jamila's and he felt the softness of a woman's breast as he reached for the cat again and missed.
    He heard Jamila gasp, felt her begin to fall, and grabbed hard, his flashlight tumbling to the ground where its beam shone an ineffectual streak along the gravel.
    "Are you all right? Jamila?"
    She was tall, lean and soft all at once, encased in wet, clinging clothes. He felt the damp, the woman, and unbelievably, a squirming cat caught between them.
    "I—Yes." Her voice was breathless. "We'd better get—the cat will..."
    "Into the car. Have you got a solid hold on him?"
    "I think—there, yes. I've got him."
    He released her, stepping back,