A Silver Lining Read Online Free Page A

every move.
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Chapter Four
    A heavy knock on her door made Heather sit up in bed, the covers all a tangle around her body.
    "Rise and shine!” Mabel called in a cheerful voice through the door.
    Heather squinted at the door, then squinted at the window which proved it was still night. Finally, she glanced at the clock.
    4:00 a.m.
    "Heather? Are you awake?” Mabel knocked again.
    In response, Heather grabbed the small alarm clock from the nightstand and threw it at the door. It hit with a thud. She lay back down and pulled the covers over her head, falling back to sleep almost instantly.
    Five hours later, Heather came into the kitchen. She wore a short, kimono-style robe that barely covered her ass cheeks, and a lit cigarette dangled from her mouth. She opened the refrigerator, took out the milk, and poured some in a glass.
    She turned around and saw Tristan filling the doorway.
    "Can't I wake up in peace?” she mumbled around the cigarette.
    "You're smoking in the house of a man dying of lung cancer,” he pointed out with a deliberate stare at her cigarette.
    Heather took a drag and then blew it out slowly in his direction. “It's not like secondhand smoke can hurt him any worse."
    But she turned around and stabbed the cigarette out in the sink. She took a long drink of her milk before moving to open cabinets, obviously looking for something.
    "What are you doing?"
    "I'm looking for breakfast,” she replied, keeping her back toward him. “I thought I saw cereal in here yesterday."
    "Breakfast was five hours ago."
    "No creature on earth needs to be up at four in the morning."
    "The animals need to be fed."
    "What, the animals can tell time?"
    Tristan crossed his arms and fell silent as she finally located some cereal and fixed herself a bowl with the milk she had left out. She leaned her hip against the tiled counter as she spooned bites into her mouth. She watched him, and he watched her.
    "I know about the stipend, Heather. You think your grandfather wouldn't tell me? Who do you think is going to report your progress?"
    She swallowed the last of the cereal and placed the bowl aside. “Don't you think your opinion is kind of biased?"
    "I'll give an honest report."
    "You have as much to gain as I have to lose. So we'll report together, thank you very much."
    "What's your game, Heather? Was your little exercise routine yesterday part of your ploy? You don't really want this ranch, so why the competition?"
    She didn't answer as she walked up to him, her gaze tracing his hardened face. “So, I got five things to accomplish by the end of the month,” she replied with a casual tone. “I obviously have ideas, but since you're the taskmaster, what's yours?"
    "Meet me in front of the main stable."
    "And that would be where?"
    "The large, red barn trimmed in white to the right of the house. You can't miss it."
    "All right. I'll be there as soon as I dress."
    She expected him to move aside. But he didn't. He watched her, waiting, so with a crooked smile she squeezed between him and the door frame, her breasts pushing against his rock-hard chest.
    The young girl that she had been, who hadn't understood what desire was all about, had given way to a woman who recognized the blatant hunger in his dark eyes.
    His hand hit the wall next to her head, trapping her. He leaned in so close that she felt his breath on her face. An answering need rose sharply inside her, and she itched to touch him, to bring his lips down upon hers. Fire ignited her blood. Her heart thumped almost painfully while her pussy creamed for the hard cock that pulsed through his heavy denims, pushing against her thigh. The overwhelming urge to fall to her knees and suck him into her mouth for a feast had her reeling.
    Shaken at the unwanted feeling, and a touch scared of it, she pushed past him and hurried up the stairs, very aware of the gaze that followed her retreat.
    Once in her room, with the door firmly pressed shut behind her,