His Obsession Next Door (In the Line of Duty) Read Online Free PDF

open when Stallone stuck his nose into the crack and swung it wide. Gemma faltered backward and Cole jutted his arm out to grab her before she landed with an undignified thud. His hand cupped her elbow as Stallone stood between them, panting and looking to be loved by the hard-assed soldier who had a soft spot for canines.
    “Whoa, you okay?” Cole looked like sex incarnate, making any sort of response nearly impossible. She stole a quick glance at the man hovering close, taking pleasure in the way his navy cotton T-shirt stretched over broad shoulders and a hard chest. Her glance dropped to faded jeans that hugged him in all the right places, or all the wrong places, depending on who you were asking. With his hair still damp, the spicy scent of his freshly showered skin wafted before her nose. Her nipples tightened in heated response.
    “Cole,” she said, locking her knees to keep upright. She looked over his shoulder and tried not to notice the way his work-roughened hands felt on her skin, or the way his touch had fire zinging through her body, one part in particular. Her mind took that moment to consider how those large hands of his would feel on her naked flesh, her bare breasts, deep between her legs. She worked to swallow down the heat searing her blood and asked, “What are you doing here?”
    As though suddenly realizing he was still holding her, his hand fell to his side and she instantly missed the warmth of his touch. “I have to get Charlie, and since your place was on my way, I thought I’d drive you to work.”
    When she noticed the way his gaze dropped to her robe, which had inched open to expose her very short, very skimpy nightgown, she almost tightened the belt but decided against it. The heck with covering up. Let him look. Maybe he’d like what he’d see and finally do something about it. Okay, there was no denying her inner bad girl was at play.
    She looked past his shoulders and waved to a neighbor. The elderly lady was watching their exchange with far too much curiosity as she sauntered to the end of her driveway to snatch her morning paper. That’s when Gemma realized the state of her hair. She finger-combed it, trying to make herself a little more presentable to the man she wanted in her bed today every bit as much as she did all those years ago.
    “I’m not ready, yet. I just woke up.”
    “I’ll wait,” he said. She didn’t miss the hitch in his voice, or the way he suddenly averted his gaze, staring at the plant in the corner like it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. She sighed inwardly. What would it take to get him to open his eyes and look at her like that?
    Flustered by the things this man made her feel without even trying, she said, “Come in then, before we give Mrs. Henderson a coronary.” She dragged him inside. As he filled her entranceway, his close proximity overwhelmed her senses and weakened her already wobbly knees. “What are you doing up so early anyway?”
    “It’s move-in day and I want to get Charlie settled before the guys and I start hauling furniture.”
    She nodded and pointed to her kitchen. “Go press the button on my coffee maker while I shower.”
    His glance moved back to the slit in her robe and he looked like he was in pain when he asked, “You’re going to shower?”
    “Of course I am. I just got up.” In desperate need of a hot cup of coffee after such a scintillating start to her day, she pointed toward her kitchen to set him into motion. “I won’t be long.”
    Cole shut the door behind himself, and she turned to make her way down the hall. She tore off her clothes and caught sight of her hard nipples in the vanity mirror. Without conscious thought her hands went to them and she let loose a sexually frustrated groan as she brushed her palm over the pebbled buds, tired of taking the edge off herself.
    Sure, she’d been with other guys—after all, she was a woman with needs—but most of them cared about their own climax.