A Thrill to Remember Read Online Free PDF Page A

Klondike Kate.
    She wanted to, but she was afraid of so many things. Like making a mistake, or getting in too deep.
    How deep could you sink, Meggie? You’re leaving town tomorrow morning, never to see Don Juan again.
    Not knowing exactly how to deal with her unexpected sexual desires, she sought sublimation. The buffet beckoned. She hurried over to the table, picked up a plate and started down the serving line.
    With a cocktail fork, she leaned over to spear a moist, pink shrimp, but before she could retrieve her succulent prize, someone on the other side of the table got to it first.
    “Hey,” she protested, then raised her head and caught Don Juan’s stare head-on.
    He stood before her, the fat, slick shrimp impaled on his fork. Leaning forward, he dangled the seafood mere inches from her lips. Damn if he didn’t possess a small, wicked smile tilting up one corner of his mouth.
    Meggie’s stomach did the hula and her knees loosened. She had the sudden urge to sit right down on the floor so she wouldn’t topple over from his body heat.
    “I will share with you, belladonna,” he murmured with his captivating Spanish accent, rolling the word belladonna around in his mouth, savoring it as if it was the finest Belgian chocolate money could buy.
    Slowly, Don Juan lowered the shrimp until it lightly brushed her bottom lip. Meggie flicked out her tongue to whisk away a drop of juice. Audibly, he sucked in his breath, his eyes never leaving her face.
    Her heart careened into her rib cage, and she felt oddly enchanted. Determined not to let him know exactly how much he had affected her, Meggie shrugged and stepped back.
    “On second thought I think I’ll skip the shrimp,” she said, affecting Klondike Kate’s uncultured inflection.
    “Why is that?” he whispered. “Are you afraid?”
    “Afraid?” She avoided looking into his eyes again. “What’s there to be afraid of?”
    “Some say shrimp is an aphrodisiac.”
    “Old wives’ tale,” she pronounced, really getting into the gold-rush madam’s brogue.
    “So why not take a bite and see?”
    He was flirting with her, no doubt about it. Meggie didn’t know what to do. It had been a very long time since someone had flirted so openly with her. She wanted the attention and yet she didn’t.
    “No, thanks.”
    “Ahh,” he said knowingly. “I understand.”
    In spite of her best intentions not to meet his eyes again, Meggie had to slip a quick glance his way to see what he was ahhing about. She was immediately sorry she had. Sympathy for her shone on his face.
    Damn. She didn’t need his pity. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, and she’d spent the past six months trying to convince everyone in Bear Creek of that fact. Now here was this masked stranger, reading her every emotion as if he truly knew her.
    “You’ve been hurt by love.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Anyone over the age of eighteen has been hurt by love.”
    “But you’ve been hurt recently and you’re afraid to try again.”
    “Hush up,” she insisted, but her pulse sprinted through her bloodstream.
    How could he know this about her? Who was he? Was he from her hometown? If so, then who was he? No local man had ever set her libido to whirling the way this guy did. Bear Creek was too small, everyone too much like family.
    “He has made you doubt your desirability as a woman,” Don Juan said. “He is a terrible bastard. Do not concern yourself with him.”
    Her chest suddenly felt tight and she had the strangest urge to laugh and cry all at the same time.
    “Look at me,” he insisted. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you’re not in pain.”
    For pity’s sake. With a sigh of exasperation, Meggie stared him squarely in the face.
    And lost herself.
    With that warm smile and lusty expression in his eyes, Don Juan made her feel womanly, wanted and appreciated. Cherished. It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a very, very long time.
    Entranced, she felt ensnared in a