Passion Key (A Romance & Suspense Series) Read Online Free PDF

in his eyes, too.  And that something she definitely wasn’t used to from a man.
    “The same thing happened to me last year up in the Panhandle,” he said. “Jellyfish stings are not any fun.”
    He must have noticed the goose bumps on her arms because he grabbed a blanket from the end of the couch and draped it over her.
    “Is there someone I can call?” he asked. “A husband? A boyfriend?”
    She shook her head.  “No.”
    Already, she felt the chills begin to subside as the Tylenol kicked in.
    “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Thank you for helping me.”  She looked at him. “How is the project going?”
    The attempt at strength sounded hollow to her, but she had been a victim too long.  She was determined to be tough at all times.
    He straightened up and she knew that he caught the tone of her voice.
    “Pretty much done.  Do you want me to call someone?”
    There was an awkward silence.
    “No, I’ll be okay.  Thank you very much, though.  I’m just going to rest for a few minutes and then I’ll be fine.”
    “The baking soda will harden.  You should try not to move for awhile.  Eventually you can clean it off and then if it starts to hurt again just reapply a fresh batch of the stuff.  It works wonders.”
    She nodded.
    “Just give me a shout if you need something, I’ll keep an ear out,” he said.
    He left her there and she watched him walk out, and remembered the feeling of his hands on her body.
    A girl could get used to that , she thought.

 
     
     
     
     
    11.
     
    Archer Thorpe was more than a little embarrassed.
    What kind of man was he? A woman is in distress, stung by a jellyfish, and he’s getting aroused when he’s applying baking soda to her wounds?
    What a creep!
    But aroused he had been, no doubt about that.  The moment he touched Justine, when he scooped her up into his arms, an electric current shot through his body, probably with the same amount of force the jellyfish had used on its victim.
    And when he had put her on the couch and gone into the kitchen, he’d taken a moment to gather himself, to even splash a little cold water on his face while he was making the baking soda paste, and he was still reveling in the contact.
    He shook his head as he packed up his tools and carried them out to his SUV.
    The job was done, but he needed to check on his patient.
    So he went back inside and poked his head into the office.  Justine was on the couch with her eyes closed. She had pulled the blanket up, and he could see that the paste had managed to stay together.
    Archer wasn’t sure what to do. 
    On a table near the door was a small notepad with a Passion Key Resort pen.  He scratched out a quick note and set it on the couch next to Justine.
    He looked at her face and was positively transfixed.  She had a perfect jawline, a cute little nose and luscious lips.  He so wanted to kiss her right then.
    Instead, he backed out of the room, chastising himself for being such a typical male.  The poor thing was going to wake up to a really sore leg and all he could think about was how hot she looked.
    He got into his vehicle and drove to the shop, unloaded his gear, peeled off his clothes and slipped on a pair of swimming trunks. He grabbed the carbon fiber paddle hanging near the back door and slid a life vest onto his arm.  At the back of the property was a sit-on kayak, fastened to a kayak rack with a security cable and padlock.  He set down the paddle and life vest, dialed the combination for the padlock, opened it, and slid the security cable out from underneath the kayak.  Then Archer hoisted the kayak onto his shoulder and carried it down to the dock.  He set it on the dock, went back and retrieved his paddle, life vest and a fishing rod from the rod box underneath the rack.
    Next, he set everything into the kayak, set it into the water, and then lowered himself onto it as waves pushed it back and forth beneath him.
    He pushed himself away from the dock, turned directly