Loving You Read Online Free PDF Page A

goo he’d expected, she sighed, said, “We don’t want any,” and closed the door.
    Stunned, Nick just stood there.
    He was still standing there when she turned off the porch light and darkness reached for him.

C HAPTER 3
    Nick blinked, opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again.
    He stared at the closed door, waiting for it to open again. Hell, he couldn’t believe it had closed in the first place. Hadn’t she seen his smile?
    Shifting position uneasily, he glanced around at the quiet darkness around him, reassuring himself no one else had witnessed that. But just as he’d been when he first parked his Corvette in the gravel driveway, he was alone. The Victorian stood smack in the middle of what had to be at least a couple of acres of land. The nearest neighbor was no more than a lamplight gleam in the dark.
    Maybe that was it, he told himself. The house was a little isolated—and a woman who looked like
that
was bound to be a little nervous opening the door to a stranger at night. It wasn’t
him
in particular she’d shut the door on. She would have done the same to anyone.
    So all he had to do was convince her he was harmless.
    Determined, he knocked on the door one more time.
    The porch light winked on and Nick blinked againat the sudden spill of light. Then the door opened and there she was, the redhead with the great mouth, framed in the narrow opening, backlit by lamplight, glaring at him. From inside the house he heard the unmistakable sound of
The Simpsons
.
    Had to be the kid. The boy at the root of his current problem.
    But he wasn’t dealing with Jonas Baker yet. First he had to get past the small, curvy sentinel. Nick tried his patented “all the women love me” smile again, focusing every bit of his attention on her.
    No reaction.
    Man.
    â€œLook,” she said, “I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t need a vacuum, I don’t buy Avon, and I’m too busy to accept Jesus just at the moment, so go away, okay?”
    He couldn’t believe it. He was getting the brush-off,
again
? No way. As the door swung closed again, he took a step forward. “Hey, hold on. I’m not a salesman and I’m not delivering pamphlets.”
    She paused, sighed heavily, and said, “Fine. Are you lost? The freeway’s just up the road another couple of miles. You can’t miss it.”
    â€œI’m not lost, either.” Jesus. He’d never had such a hard time trying to get a woman to listen to him. Of course, most of the time, he was wining and dining them and whisking them outside to stand under the moonlight. Apparently, it was a whole different story by porch light. “Are you always this friendly?”
    â€œOnly to uninvited guests.” Tasha leaned against the edge of the door, tilted her head to one side, and stared at him. He looked a little more frustrated than he had a minute ago, but that
so
wasn’t her problem. In theyellow glow of the overhead light his dark brown hair shone as if streaked with gold dust. His dark eyes fixed on hers and she could have sworn she actually
felt
a little jolt of electricity.
    Great.
    Now
her hormones wake up?
    Fighting a reaction she didn’t want, Tasha snapped, “So? What’s this about then?”
    â€œAre you Mimi Castle?”
    â€œNo,” she said, and her stomach flipped wildly. Straightening up, she felt her mouth go dry and her palms go damp. A stranger? Asking about Mimi? This couldn’t be a good thing.
    He blew out a breath and frowned. “I need to speak to her.”
    Tasha stiffened and her eyes narrowed as she looked at him more closely. Even while her insides fluttered and swirled, she told herself he couldn’t be with Social Services. Not with those expensive shoes—not to mention his car, she thought, shifting her gaze to the driveway and the Corvette parked behind her battered VW van. So if he wasn’t a state snooper, who the