Just One Spark Read Online Free PDF

into his lungs and willing himself to think. Stunning. Sensual. Every man’s fantasy.
    Good luck, Mason, you finally have your chance .
    As he watched her spin on her heel his whole body came to attention. He met her gaze and grinned. Even more beautiful than he remembered with her hair swept back into a bun and only a few fringes accenting her face. Her intense gaze bore holes in his soul. Then she narrowed her eyes into slits as she turned to Derek.
    “You know him?” she snapped.
    “Yes, I uh-actually that’s um—” Derek stammered. Mason began to put the pieces together. Derek found her and called him. This was damn good.
    She turned back to him as she made a few deductions of her own. “Where’s your ring?”
    “I’m not married.” Relieved to finally have the chance to say it, Mason turned to Derek. “You haven’t told her?”
    “I hadn’t gotten that far.”
    “Don’t bother, either of you.” She reached down for her purse. Mason shot Derek a pleading glance. She’d never believe it coming from him. Hell, he could barely believe it. Derek needed to explain, now, and fast.
    “Look, Hannah, he’s never been married,” Derek began. “He wore the ring for one of my experiments. I hypothesized more women would come on to him if they thought he was married. I told you about my theory, remember?”
    She paused, but only for a moment. “I did not come on to him. He came on to me.”
    “I know,” Derek continued. “Mason told me what happened. When you told me the story at Troy’s party, I put two and two together.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me then?” she asked, pulling on her charcoal-gray pea coat. “Why lure me down here to fill me in? Why fill me in at all? Is this some kind of sick game you two are playing?”
    Mason stepped forward. “He didn’t tell me anything, Hannah.” Hannah, such a pretty name. Soft and strong, like her. “Derek just asked me to meet him here. I wanted you to know the truth. I don’t want you thinking I’m some jerk who cheats on his wife.”
    Her gaze ricocheted between the two men. Hitching her purse higher on her shoulder, she addressed Derek first. “You were wrong to trick me into this.” She then turned an icy gaze on Mason. “Are you stalking me?”
    Mason’s eyes widened. “What? No. No.” He looked around him. Someone must have told her about his run-in with the store manager. “I wanted to find you again so I could explain. I like you. I want to get to know you better. I wanted to clear things up so we could start over.”
    Hannah huffed a short breath his way. “We’re clear. I’m leaving.”
    “Wait,” Derek said. “You’re not going to go out with him?”
    “No.” Hannah said much too quickly.
    “But you have to,” one of the women from the writing group butted in.
    “You’re the one who said he was a stalker,” Hannah said to the woman.
    “Honey, if stalkers look like that I’m going to have to get one. You have to at least go out with him,” the woman pleaded.
    “No, she doesn’t,” Mason said, stepping towards her.
    “She doesn’t?” a voice squeaked from the peanut gallery.
    Wide-eyed, Hannah looked up at him. He reached out as if in a dream, tucked his fingers underneath her chin, and angled her mouth up to accept his. He brushed his lips softly against hers, wondering if she’d fight him. Her eyelids drifted closed and he let himself taste her. Gently, he kissed her, fighting the urge to push and plunder. She crept her hands up his body and flattened her palms against his chest, resting them there for a second before she firmly pushed him away.
    As her heavily fringed lids fluttered open, she said, “I don’t know you. You have no right to kiss me.”
    Cocking his head to the side, he wondered if she was more upset that he’d kissed her, or that he’d stopped. From the way her chest hitched with every breath, he’d bet his paycheck on the latter. Still, she fought the attraction.
    “That was not a