An Outrageous Proposal Read Online Free PDF Page B

sucked in a gulp of air and blew it out again. “True.”
    “And, pretending it didn’t happen won’t work, as every time I
see you, I’ll want to do this again…”
    “There is that,” she said, reaching out to smooth his hair back
from his forehead. Heck, she already wanted to do it
all again. Feel that moment when his body slid into hers. Experience the
sensation of his body filling hers completely. That indescribable friction that
only happened when sex was done really well. And this so had been.
    His eyes in the firelight glittered as if there were sparks
dancing in their depths, and Georgia knew she was a goner. At least for now,
anyway. She might regret it all later, but if she did, she would still walk away
with some amazing memories.
    “So,” he said softly, “we’ll take the complications as they
come and do as we choose?”
    “Yes,” she said after giving the thought of never being with
him again no more than a moment’s consideration. “We’ll take the complications.
We’re adults. We know what we’re doing.”
    “We certainly seemed to a few minutes ago,” he said with a
teasing grin.
    “Okay, then. No strings. No expectations. Just… us. For however long it lasts.”
    “Sounds good.” He pushed himself to his feet and walked naked
to the table where they’d abandoned their wineglasses and the now nearly empty
bottle of champagne.
    “What’re you doing?”
    He passed her the glasses as she sat up, then held the empty
bottle aloft. “I’m going to open another of Ronan’s fine bottles of champagne.
The first we drank to our new and lovely Fiona. The second we’ll drink to us . And the bargain we’ve just made.”
    She looked up at him, her gaze moving over every square inch of
that deliciously toned and rangy body. He looked like some pagan god, doused in
firelight, and her breath stuttered in her chest. She could only nod to his
suggestion because her throat was so suddenly tight with need, with passion,
with…other things she didn’t even want to contemplate.
    Sean Connolly wasn’t a forever kind of man—but, Georgia
reminded herself as she watched him move to the tiny refrigerator and open it,
she wasn’t looking for forever. She’d already tried that and had survived the
crash-and-burn. Sure, he wasn’t the man her ex had been. But why even go there?
Why try to make more out of this than it was? Great sex didn’t have to be
forever.
    And as a right-now kind of man, Sean was perfect.

Three
    T he next couple of weeks were busy.
    Laura was just settling into life as a mother, and both she and
Ronan looked asleep on their feet half the time. But there was happiness in the
house, and Georgia was determined to find some of that happy for herself.
    Sean had been a big help in navigating village society. Most of
the people who lived and worked in Dunley had been there for generations. And
though they might like the idea of a new shop in town, the reality of it slammed
up against the whole aversion-to-change thing. Still, since Georgia was no
longer a complete stranger, most of the people in town were more interested than
resentful.
    “A design shop, you say?”
    “That’s right,” Georgia answered, turning to look at Maeve
Carrol. At five feet two inches tall, the seventy-year-old woman had been
Ronan’s nanny once upon a long-ago time. Since then, she was the self-appointed
chieftain of the village and kept up with everything that was happening.
    Her white hair was piled at the top of her head in a lopsided
bun. Her cheeks were red from the wind, and her blue eyes were sharp enough that
Georgia was willing to bet Maeve didn’t miss much. Buttoned up in a Kelly green
cardigan and black slacks, she looked snug, right down to the soles of her
bright pink sneakers.
    “And you’ll draw up pictures of things to be done to peoples’
homes.”
    “Yes, and businesses, as well,” Georgia said, “just about
anything. It’s all about the flow of a space. Not exactly feng shui