Long Slow Burn Read Online Free PDF Page A

and there’s more to do.”
    â€œOkay.” She pushed a third baking sheet toward him. “You can help make the cookies.”
    â€œSure.” He imitated her motions, scooping up dough with a teaspoon and pushing the blob onto a cookie sheet linedwith a silicone mat. Homemade cookies in his childhood had meant store-bought slice-and-bake dough from the supermarket, so this was new to him. “You do realize what I’m sacrificing here, Kim.”
    â€œI can guess. Making cookies isn’t manly, either?” She shot him a look. “Is anything manly that doesn’t involve drunken oblivion or getting laid?”
    â€œOf course.” Nathan paused his cookie spooning. “Yelling obscenities at referees and umpires counts, too.”
    Kim let go with a good giggle that time, the one he loved best, the one that turned her cheeks pink and softened her features. “What else?”
    â€œLet’s see. Crushing beer cans on your head. Belches that wake the dead. More intimacy with the TV than with your girlfriend…”
    She rolled her eyes. “It’s a miracle marriage ever happens.”
    â€œNo, no, there are other, serious parts to the Man’s Guide that females can appreciate.”
    â€œLike?”
    â€œLike…” Nathan leaned toward her across the table, taking his first chance. “A Manly Man always swears to love, support and protect his woman for his whole life.”
    â€œHuh?” Kim did not look impressed. “Support? Protect? Your woman? That sounds more like cavemanly.”
    Hmm. That did not go the way Nathan had envisioned. Her eyes hadn’t gotten misty, nor had infatuation lit them up. She hadn’t sighed and said, Oh, Nathan, that is so romantic.
    The seduction of Kim Charlotte Horton would take trial and error. Growing up with four older brothers and a chauvinist father hadn’t prepared Nathan for approaching a smart, independent woman like her. He wouldn’t give up, though. Hell, he’d just started trying.
    She took her sheet to the oven, opened the door and put the cookies in. He didn’t mean to pay close attention when she bent over, but while he respected the very ground shewalked on, to deny himself the pleasure of that sight would be pure masochism.
    Why had this woman hit him so hard and never let go? First time he’d seen her he’d been following Kent into his house their freshman year in high school, Kim’s senior. Their family had just moved to Milwaukee from somewhere in Ohio. She’d been standing framed by the doorway between the living room and dining room, arguing with her mother, her face flushed, her eyes snapping blue heat. Nathan, all of fifteen, had literally stopped in his tracks. She wasn’t the kind of woman whose beauty struck you right off the bat, but something had sure struck him like a boulder between the eyes. Kent finally had to yank on his arm to get him to move. That’s how it had been right from the beginning. And the years hadn’t changed those feelings, or replicated them, no matter how many other women Nathan had tried to find them with. Now his goal was to figure out this crazy fantasy or turn it into reality.
    She came back to the table, pulled the next baking sheet toward her and settled into her seat with a defeated plop. Something was definitely not right. His instinct was to tell her more jokes, but his instinct when it came to Kim was usually wrong. Maybe his best bet going forward would be to do the opposite of whatever came naturally.
    He cleared his throat, feeling as if he were about to audition for a part he wasn’t right for. “How was your day? Did you get a lot done on the Carter proposal?”
    â€œAnother dead end.” She made a silly face, trying to hide her disappointment. “I like some things about the current design. It’s balanced, good colors, chic feel, but it just doesn’t pop.”
    He wished he