Give It All Read Online Free PDF Page A

anything but certain. And it went far beyond all this boredom, as everyone waited for Virgin River to get the green light to recommence construction.
    He tongued his imposter tooth again, feeling a kinship with it. The both of them were imitations. Passing for perfect but underneath . . . broken.
    *   *   *
    Raina was starting to think the evening was never going to pick up and that she’d have to send Abilene home, when a dozen regulars came through the door—a pack of young women and the ranch hands that followed them like lemmings. The lot of them tipped like shit, but they brought some much-needed energy on a quiet Thursday night like this. The jukebox made a U-turn, lazy country giving way to pop and dance music, the bass throb of foreplay.
    Raina watched them, her own hips swaying softly behind the bar, body restless. She’d been trying to ignore Duncan’spresence, but her body felt hard-wired to his. Like opposite poles, the two of them attracted. And the closer she let herself drift to him, the hotter she crackled, the harder the pull.
    Then it came on—her song of the moment. She didn’t even know who sang it, but the beat was infectious, relentless, the tone of it pure red wine, making a woman’s blood pump hot and thick.
    The opening notes drifted from the speakers like pheromones, and Raina knew her cue, as though this had been ordained. No patrons waiting on refills, everyone’s glasses looking refreshed, Abilene on top of the stock. The frayed tether that had lashed her back together with Miah finally cut. She skirted the bar and strode right over to where Duncan was scanning the glowing screen of his phone. He’d shed his jacket, crisp sleeves rolled up to display the elegant muscles of his forearms. She plucked the cell from his fingers. His face cocked up, gray eyes flashing cold as steel, then softening as he registered it was her, not some drunken local looking to start something.
    Raina smiled to know he thought her less dangerous than her male counterparts.
    “You dance, Duncan?” she asked.
    “No,” he said evenly, taking back his phone. “I do not.”
    “Perfect time to learn, then.” She took that smooth, manicured hand and led him to the space before the jukebox like a dog, wedging them between the younger bodies. He came willingly enough, though she suspected that it was merely some aversion to scene-making. Or perhaps the vodka’s doing. Either way, she turned, boxing herself into his space, bringing their thighs tight. Not much choice, in this crowd.
    A man led a waltz with his hands, but Raina led the dance with her hips. She glanced up, expecting discomfort on that flawless face, but if anything, her partner looked blasé. He moved a little more, a little more, answering her cues with minimal finesse, but also zero embarrassment. A snake indeed. She’d bet his blood ran cold as Dead Creek. She knew Miah’s would be coursing like lava if he were here, watching this.
    I’m not his property.
    But she
was
his friend—a friend she’d shared strange but definite benefits with, and she knew she had the power to hurt him. Badly. Yet it was hard to parse lust and guilt at the same time and deny that the latter was an aphrodisiac in itself.
    She studied Duncan. Watched him change, ever so slightly. His lids looked heavier and his lips were parted. She saw him swallow, and in that tiny gesture she caught a crack forming, a glimpse of his humanity shining through.
    Or if not humanity, heterosexuality.
    She turned with the beat and moved against him, butt to crotch—Fortuity’s official mating dance.
    Finally, a hot palm at her waist. Then another, and a brush of his thigh against hers. Moment by moment, the heat of his body grew as he sealed them closer together. His hips against her ass, moving subtly, then bolder. The boy had rhythm. Who knew?
    He had more than rhythm, actually, to judge by the hard excitement rubbing against her. And his breathing had grown audible,