Her Ideal Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

habit. “I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”
    Only the wind, howling down from the mountaintops, answered him. It made him feel hollow.
    It was bitterly cold, and his earlobes and nose were burning within minutes. Recognizing the foolishness of lingering outside to avoid his guilty attraction to the woman in the cabin, he gathered an armload of wood and carried it inside.
    Snow-blind for a moment, he made his way toward the fire. When he straightened, his vision clearing, he saw that Anna had fallen asleep on the couch. Deeply asleep.
    The picture she made snared him with unexpected fierceness. He found himself standing still as stone, his hands hanging limp at his sides, melting snow dripping from his coat to the floor, the fire hot against the back of his knees.
    Her black hair spilled in curls around her face, one spiral lying over her white jaw as if to point to her rosy red lips. Sooty lashes, as long as a doe’s, lay against her cheeks, and at the hollow of her throat a slim gold chain glinted against her flesh. The throw outlined her small, neat body, swelling sweetly at breast and hip.
    Immobilized by a wave of sharp desire, Tyler simply drank in the look of her. One part of his mind, that rational, moral portion, cried out in warning, Flee! But the rest of his brain—and his chest and belly and loins—were so awash in the splendor of all those colors, all those unfamiliar textures of which she was made, that he simply could not move. He let his eyes travel over the length of her. Since the moment of their first meeting, he’d fought the visions those colors kindled, but now he simply had no more will. He gave in and let the tempting visions swirl over him, visions of a naked back, the flesh heated by the fire, of his mouth devouring hers, of the taste of an inner elbow and the feel of her hair against his body, the delectable weight of a loose breast against his palm.
    It had been so long. So very, very long.
    And for one yearning moment, he was tempted to simply kneel at the edge of the couch where she slept, and kiss her into an aroused and drowsy wakefulness. He did not think she would turn him away.
    Unaccountably, he thought of the purple-and-gold nail polish on her toes. He had once had a baby-sitter who painted her nails with glitter, a bright butterfly of a teenager who popped her gum in the most glorious way, and wore sticky red lipstick that left marks on his cheeks and read him stories for hours if he wanted her to.
    Marlene. He had adored her. It had been years since he thought of her.
    The connection between Marlene and Anna eased some of his guilt. No wonder he found Anna so appealing. Bemused, he wandered into the kitchen to get supper on the table.
    He made biscuits, quickly and efficiently. Even making the connection between Anna and Marlene didn’t address the quandary he found himself in. He was deeply attracted to her, and she would be stuck here for several days at the very least. He wasn’t quite sure how to resist the lure of her in such tempting circumstances.
    The only answer was simple discipline. No need to get complicated about it. He could be attracted all he wished, but he could not allow her to realize it, and he could not allow himself to act upon that attraction.
    Simple enough. The best answers usually were the obvious ones. Yeah, he wanted her. Yeah, he wanted to get laid.
    Tough luck.
    Anna pattered in, blinking, just as he was about to go wake her. Darkness was falling in thick shrouds beyond the windows, and she stretched unselfconsciously. “I must have slept quite a while.”
    â€œMore than an hour.” He gave her a box of wooden matches. “Will you light those candles?” Realizing that sounded like an invitation to seduction, he ducked his head and added hastily, “We have to conserve electricity.”
    Anna made a face. “I’m a lot more interested in other facilities, if you know what I mean. Do I need