Mackinnons #02 For All the Right Reasons Read Online Free PDF

even down to the hair ribbon holding her long hair back with a bow at her nape. Once she was free of all her cumbersome clothes, Karin waded back to the deeper water, where she cavorted like a young seal, swimming and diving and floating on her back. She laughed and splashed water on a frog watching her from the opposite bank, and tossed a dead branch at a turtle that was swimming her way.
    On the opposite bank, a dry-mouthed Alex watched, barely aware that his good fortune to see Karin like this was doing strange things to his body. Alex had never seen any more of a woman’s body than her face and hands, and to catch a quick glimpse of water-slicked white skin now and then left him breathing hard. When Karin finished her swim and walked from the water, standing at the creek’s edge while she sluiced the water from her body with her hands, Alex noticed another reaction his body was having, farther down. Watching her hands move with swanlike grace over her body, he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful. Everywhere he looked she was as smooth and white as satin, except for the pale twisted ropes of hair that hung down her back and the darker clustering of curls that glistened with droplets of water between her legs. He swallowed hard when she tossed her head, her breasts bouncing and drawing his eyes to the firm young points that looked as soft as a kitten’s nose. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak. All he could do was watch.
    Along the water’s edge, the grass stopped growing, and as if drawn by the promise of moisture, a colorful blanket of flowers seemed to compete for the space. Standing in the shallows, Karin gathered a bouquet of red and yellow and white blossoms, adding sprigs of clover in bloom. She tossed a few clover blooms out into the water as well, and watched as they floated beneath the log and meandered around the bend and out of sight. As her eyes followed the tiny white blooms under the log, she saw the reflection of a face looking at her from the opposite shore. Her first thought was to cover herself and run, but something about the moment, the silent intrusion into her privacy, gave her a feeling of power. She had never held anyone’s rapt, undivided attention before. It was a challenge to her to see just how long she could.
    Turning toward the opposite bank, she knew she was giving the man an unobstructed view of everything he had come to watch. Something warm and intense throbbed low in her belly, and her eyes searched the dark foliage that grew along the opposite shore. Then she saw him, not just a man, but a man she knew. Alex Mackinnon. A moment later she turned and made her way back to the log to let the sun dry her hair.
    As she lay there pulling the silky strands of hair through her fingers, Alex thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes upon. And when she was dry and began to put her clothes on, he knew he could never love anyone like he loved Karin Simon.
     

Chapter Three
     
    It was a few weeks after the incident at the creek when Katherine Simon stood in front of her mirror giving herself a critical look. “I’m too short and too plump,” she said, as she looked at her reflection even more critically than she had five seconds before.
    Ellie Simon put her head through the door to see who her daughter was talking to. Just as she thought. Katherine was at it again. Talking to herself. Ellie stepped into the room. “You’re too plump and short for what?” Ellie asked, giving her a quizzical look, fighting the urge to smile.
    “For anything. I look like a toad. A speckled toad,” Katherine added, reminded of her freckles. “Why can’t I be thin like Karin? And born without freckles.”
    “Karin is a year older than you,” Ellie said, wondering if she should remind Katherine she wasn’t born with freckles either, that they had come along later. She decided against it. That would lead to another round of questions.
    “Yes, and she was thin