Animal Prints: Sweet Small Town Contemporary Romance (Michigan Moonlight Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

who didn’t like chocolate. I’d prefer to serve you a homemade dessert, but no time to bake today so we have store bought.” She unloaded the tray onto the coffee table. Rich cream floated on the surface of steaming coffee in earthenware mugs. Thick slices of chocolate cake were covered by whipped topping and a dusting of cocoa powder.  
    He moved away from the fire to be closer to her. “Looks delicious.” Maybe it was her, maybe the place, but everything was better here. If only this were the honest accident it seemed.
    “If you want delicious, I’ll make you my grandmother’s chocolate mousse or maybe her vanilla crème brûlée sometime.” She tucked the tray under the table and turned to him.
    “You can’t promise a man that and not follow through.” He bent his head close to hers, just a few inches more and he could kiss her. Which would be delicious, too.
    “I’ll follow through,” she said slowly, but Ian heard the nervous catch in her voice.
    “I’d like that.” He waited for her to give him a retreat or advance sign. She seemed to waver for a moment. Then, she plopped down on a pile of pillows next to the table and stretched her legs toward the fire. After cutting off a large piece of cake with her fork, she stuck it in her mouth and licked up a crumb on her lips with her tongue. Ian decided it was a good thing he didn’t know where her bedroom was in the cottage. If he knew, the temptation would be more than he could resist. She had disappeared down a hall on the far side of the great room earlier. But no—a relationship that personal would really make a mess of the business between them.
    “So you were in the army, but you didn’t say where you grew up.” She took a sip of coffee. Her eyes flickered to his, catching light.
    “Chicago. But I haven’t lived there for a long time.” He sat down next to her and took his coffee cup from the table.
    “Do you have family there?”
    “My father.” He winced involuntarily but tried to cover the action by taking a drink of his coffee.
    “Something wrong?”
    “We haven’t always seen eye to eye,” he admitted. “Improving our relationship is another one of my plans for the summer and life after the army.”
    “You’ll go to Chicago to visit him?”
    “Eventually.” But he’d better not go empty handed. Without the three Peterson signatures on the dotted line of a deed transfer, he doubted his father would be too welcoming. The fire crackled sharply and shot sparks onto the hearth stone. His relationship with his father would go out like those sparks if he didn’t hold a match to what he had started here. He’d better lay some plans to see her again if he had a prayer of getting those signatures. “How long are you staying up here?”  
    “I’ll drive home tomorrow night. I have to be at the clinic on Monday. We have a husky coming in for surgery.”
    “Is he hurt?”
    “No, it’s elective surgery.”
    “Tummy tuck? Nose job?” he teased, more relaxed now as he ate a forkful of cake.
    “No.” She laughed, and he thought his heart would stop when she leaned close and punched him in the arm. She was near enough that her long blond hair brushed over his shoulder. Another few inches, and she would be in his lap with his lips locked to hers. And wouldn’t that be sweeter than any cake. “Cataract surgery. Huskies can have severe cataract problems even at a young age. This one is only two.” She swiped her tongue over the back of her fork to get the last of the chocolate. “My dad does the surgery and I assist. There are only five vets in Michigan certified to do the operation, and my father happens to be one.”
    “Will you get certified someday?”
    “Soon. I have to assist at three more surgeries before I can add it to my license.” She caught his appraising look and added, “Eye surgery for dogs is a big deal in the vet world.”
    He looked over her physical features again, his eye trained to detect detail. “How