Familiar Strangers Read Online Free PDF Page B

forgetting anything that came before this moment.
    Taking a deep breath of fresh salty air, she turned her back to the house and started toward her Land Rover to carry her boxes in.
    She’d unpacked her suitcases and few personal items when she heard her name called out. Squinting from the sun, she turned to the sound of a masculine voice.
    He stood half in the cool shade and half in bright sunlight. His worn jeans looked soft to the touch and molded his legs and sex to perfection. His only other concession to clothing was an equally old and worn white T-shirt stretched tautly over rippled arms and washboard stomach.
    For a spilt second, she saw him in another light, his hand held out to her, his eyes filled with a yearning and pain she didn’t understand. A smile breaking across his face warmed his silver gray eyes. His hand outstretched, fingers reaching across the distance begging her to come. He was reaching for her.
    The sound of a birdcall broke her vision, and Regin had to remind herself to breathe as she shook off the vision and called out from her secure position by the truck. “Hello, you must be the neighbor my friend was telling me about.”
    She stuck her hand out once he got closer. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    He grasped her hand tightly into his and pulled her hard against his warm body then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her head to his chest. “That was a very stupid thing to do,” he growled at her. “You have no idea who or what I am, and you just welcomed me right on in.”
    While his movements surprised her, his words certainly didn’t. It was the same thing she heard over and over again from Damon. She rarely listened to her best friend’s warning, and there was no way in hell she was going to listen to some over-muscled stranger’s. “Look, Bayou Bubba, thanks for the warning, but I can take care of myself.”
    “I don’t think you’re in any position to be warning me of anything, Cher’.”
    ****

    It was the effect Galen wanted. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he walked out to his porch and saw her calmly unpacking. The dog she was supposed to always travel with was nowhere to be seen, nor did she seem to have any weapon close at hand for defense. The woman had no common sense. She just stuck out her hand as if he were a long lost relative.
    It was time to teach her the harder lessons of life. The smile she gave was meant to disarm and distract. It did neither. His grasp continued to get tighter and he left her no room to maneuver. He knew all the moves she could make, most he’d taught. He wasn’t giving her an inch to move or adjust her position. Let her see she was completely at his disposal, maybe then fear would kick her sense of self preservation into gear.
    Her mind, he knew from experience teaching self-defense, was probably busy trying to sort through the different defense positions she’d been taught throughout the years. Her arms were banded tightly to her sides, her legs captive between his own, and her head was held tautly to his chest by his heated palm. Physically she was stuck, but not for long. He might have imprisoned her body, but he’d forgotten her mouth.
    Before he could blink, she pursed her lips and let out an ear shattering, glass-breaking whistle. No sooner had the first note left her mouth when a ferocious growl came, followed by a flurry of gold streaking toward them.
    Galen lost precious seconds trying to assimilate the fact that the delicate woman in his arms had let a whistle rip that would make a sailor proud. Then it was too late to do more than act.
    He felt a huge hit along his back and he tumbled down still holding Regin with one arm. The other was already reaching beneath his T- shirt pulling out his gun. It was the damnedest position he’d ever managed to get himself into. He was trying to protect a woman who was determined not to be protected. Now he was forced to deal with a new threat he hadn’t seen coming.
    He