Defy the World Tomatoes Read Online Free PDF Page B

running shoes. He wasn’t smiling and, as he came toward her, she had to fight the urge to hide behind the largest of the new boulders.
    “Good afternoon, Mr. Moore. Is this what you had in mind?”
    “I think so, but let’s sit on the bench and give it a try.” He took the special rake from her and slid it under the bench, out of their way.
    She’d brought a bench large enough to suit his proportions and, when she sat, her feet dangled off the ground. With no hope of achieving any measure of tranquility, she glanced up at him.
    “You been working out?” she asked.
    “I try to get to the gym every day. Now that I’m thirty-six, it’s not as easy to stay in shape.”
    Darcy assumed he must be joking, because if there was an ounce of fat on him, it sure wasn’t noticeable. She tried to concentrate on the sparkling ocean in the distance, but Griffin was simply impossible to ignore. His hair was damp, and he smelled of spicy soap. His breathing was slow and regular, as though he was enjoying the quiet moment, but she squirmed unhappily.
    “Tell me why you chose to become a landscape architect.”
    He’d used that soft, inviting tone Darcy was sure must capture everyone’s attention, but she feared she was particularly susceptible to his resonant baritone. “Have you ever been to the Hotel Del Coronado just south of San Diego?”
    “Yes, it’s a remarkable place. I understand Thomas Edison strung the lights.”
    “That’s what they say. A woman named Kate Sessions did the landscaping. She was born before the Civil War and was way ahead of her time in her regard for ecology. She traveled the world to import plants which would thrive alongside those native to California.
    “I must have been about twelve when I visited the hotel with my parents. We took a tour, and the minute the docent described Miss Sessions’ work, I knew what I wanted to be. I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to study. That’s where I met Christy Joy. Now, you tell me something.”
    Griffin turned toward her and smiled. “Anything,” he promised.
    His smile, his husky voice and his darkly compelling gaze were mesmerizing, and the question she’d meant to ask fled her mind. “Are you a vampire?”
    Greatly amused, Griffin responded with a rich, rolling laugh. “Vampires don’t exist, and even if they did, I’m sitting out here in the afternoon sun, and it hasn’t turned me to ashes.”
    Somehow Darcy didn’t find his proof all that convincing. “Well, there’s something damn odd about you,” she blurted.
    Griffin sighed. “Yes, I know, but perhaps it’s merely the European influence. Tell me, do you find me lacking in warmth?”
    “Right at this moment, no, but…”
    “So the answer is yes,” Griffin posed thoughtfully. “I’m working on it.”
    He didn’t appear to be inviting her sympathy, which Darcy would have regarded as ridiculous, but his poignant comment touched her nevertheless. “I’m sorry I knew nothing about your career. I suppose I should have known when I heard you play.”
    “You needn’t apologize. No one knows everything. I can’t name a single quarterback with the NFL.”
    Darcy conceded that point readily enough, but she hated to waste what could be her only opportunity to find him in a congenial mood. “I can understand why you’d want your own recording studio, but why does it have to be in our building?”
    “It’s not your building. It’s mine.”
    His voice now rang with unmistakable authority, and Darcy had nothing more to say. “I think I better go.”
    “No, stay and watch the sunset with me, and then we’ll talk about the rest of the grounds. They’re in desperate need of your talents, wouldn’t you say?”
    He’d offered a tempting lure to keep her there and, instinctively, Darcy recognized a danger that, with tantalizing steps, he might make her bargain away her very soul. If he weren’t an actual blood-sucking vampire, he seemed fully capable of sucking away her last ounce