Passionate Tides Read Online Free PDF

away, shutting down her emotions. He felt like he was swimming against a strong tide that wouldn’t break and allow him into open waters.
    Jake felt there was something she was holding back from him, but he couldn’t ask without feeling like a hypocrite. He had secrets of his own. No one really knew why he had left Tennessee. His family thought he had broken off the engagement and he let them believe it. There was no need for them to know he wasn’t good enough for Tara and that she had left him for another man. It didn’t matter to him what Paisley’s past held, he just knew she was here with him now, and he wasn’t going to look back any longer. He needed to find away to convince her that what was between them was stronger than anything he had felt before. Nothing had ever compared to way Paisley made him feel. She made everything okay, his past disappearing with each glance at her face. The hurt that washed over him from his broken engagement evaporated under her touch. His chances of getting her to see that the feeling between them could be something more than a friendship was fading away with each sunset. He had to make the best of the time they had left together and fight to keep Paisley by his side
    Hoping to impress her with his cooking skills, he spent hours in the kitchen working on a dinner that was one of his favorites. He turned the heat down on the crab legs when he heard her car pull in the drive. Jake ran to the door to catch her before she had the chance to disappear into her part of the house like she had been doing so often. He was surprised to see her laughing and smiling, talking with one of the workers that had been hired to fix the damage to the house.
    Jealousy tore at him like a hot knife stabbing him straight in the heart. He had no right to be jealous, but watching her with someone else had him balling his fist, ready to take the man’s head off with one well targeted punch. As she waved her goodbyes, he could have sworn he had seen her let out a sigh of relief. When their eyes connected, he could see that she was just being friendly. The way she kept her eyes on him and not on the man she was walking away from gave him hope that he still had a chance at winning her heart.
    The weight of his relief left him lightheaded, and watching her walk toward him made his body respond in ways it only did when she was near. The memory of her soft curves under his hands had him locking his arms to his sides to keep from reaching out and taking her in his arms. She had gone out of her way to put distance between them, keeping his romantic intentions at arm’s length. Now that she was this close, he planted his feet, determined not to let her lock him out of her life any longer.
    * * *
    “Hey there.” When she had first saw Jake standing in his doorway, his face had been covered with a look of pure hate that had scared her, but when their eyes met it was if his face changed completely and she felt the tension drain from her body. He gave her a look of awe that made her cheeks flush and her body tighten with desire. She had never had a man look at her like that. She could feel the waves of heat rolling off of him and see smoke billowing from the fire in his belly for her …no wait, that was smoke but it was rising from his apartment.
    “Jake, there’s a fire in your apartment!” she yelled, running toward his door. Getting there just in time to see a kitchen towel on fire, she stood in the doorway as he grabbed a pot off of the stove and dumped the remaining water on the towel.
    Once Jake had the fire out, he went outside and took a seat on the sidewalk, trying to catch his breath. “I’m fine. The fire’s out now and subsequently, so is our dinner.” He looked up at her, a mixture of anger and defeat written on his face. She tried to hold it in, but was unable and the girly giggles forced their way out. She felt like a teenager who was being picked up for the prom, that first glance at her date