Birthright Read Online Free Page B

to make the jug seem to bulge out of the paper. Her hand moved with exquisite deliberation, and after each dab she sat back and studied the picture.
    Her fingers, he noted, were slender, her wrists andforearms slim. Her back was perfectly straight. The white cotton of her shirt draped in a way that hinted at the angular grace of her shoulders, the sleek lines of her body.
    She was, if anything, more beautiful now than she’d been in high school. More beautiful, and just as unattainable.
    If he stood watching her much longer, she’d be really upset when she finally noticed him there. He hadn’t meant to sneak up on her—he supposed shoes like his were called sneakers for a reason.
    He cleared his throat. She flinched and spun around in her chair. The paintbrush slipped from her hand and dropped onto the table, clinking against one of the glass jars.
    Her mouth popped open and then shut. She gripped the back of her chair with one hand and stared at him. He couldn’t tell from her expression whether she was angry or alarmed, whether she was about to charge him with trespassing or flee into the house and bolt the door.
    “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, hoping to avoid either possibility. His apology seemed to puzzle her, and he added, “For startling you like that.”
    She took a deep breath. Her cheeks grew pink. It occurred to him that she was shy, and the realization almost made him laugh. Lily Bennett, the dignified, self-possessed, most-likely-to-succeed girl from his high-school class, was shy.
    “I rang your bell,” he continued after her silence stretched a full minute. “I guess you couldn’t hear it out here.”
    “No.” She turned, lifted the rag and wiped herhands on it, then uncoiled from her chair and stood up.
    “Anyway, I don’t know if you remember me, but—”
    “Aaron,” she said.
    It was his turn to be startled. He had never heard her speak his name before. They’d never talked to each other in school. He’d known who she was, but she’d had no reason to know who he was.
    Whether or not she’d known who he was in high school was irrelevant. They were fifteen years older now, and she knew his name. He had to focus on the reason he’d come, not on the fact that even in an extra-large T-shirt and fraying jeans Lily Bennett Holden was the most beautiful woman in Riverbend, if not the entire world.
    “That’s right,” he said, extending his right hand.
    “Aaron Mazerik.”
    She slipped her hand into his. Hers was fine-boned and smooth. He stood a good six inches taller, but she tilted her head and looked directly into his eyes. The blush remained in her cheeks, and her faint smile really did look shy. But not so shy she couldn’t meet his gaze squarely.
    “I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” he said.
    She shot a quick glance at the paper on the easel and shrugged. “That’s all right.”
    “It’s very nice.” He gestured at the painting.
    “Thank you.” She glanced at it again, as if to make sure he wasn’t lying. Actually he was, sort of. The painting was very nice but, hey, it was a jug and a piece of fruit.
    He wondered if he could discreetly put some distance between her and himself. She wasn’t crowding him, but her scent was. She smelled of summer, warm and tangy.
    It irked him that all these years later, he was still affected by her. It irked him even more because he knew how wrong it was to be affected by her. He’d grown up thinking there was something bad inside him, something evil that made him desire her, but he hadn’t cared. Being so damned attracted to her was still bad, only he did care now.
    He pushed those thoughts away. He’d come here on a mission. The sooner he embarked on it, the better. “I was wondering if we could talk for a few minutes.”
    She took a step back, then twisted to study her painting, as if deciding whether she could leave it alone and give Aaron the few minutes he was asking for. “Sure,” she said, lowering her gaze to somewhere