Prince Charming Can Wait (Ever After) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the same time, connecting. She kissed him back, needing the same touch that he did, desperate for that feeling of being wanted. She didn't know this man, and yet, on some levels, she'd known him for so long. She'd seen his torment, she'd felt his isolation, and she'd witnessed his unfailing need to protect Astrid, even if he had never inserted himself fully into her life.
    Somehow, Harlan's kiss wasn't a threat the way other men's were. He was leaving town, so he was no more than a shadow that would ease into her life and then disappear. He wouldn't try to take her, to trick her, to consume her. He wouldn't make promises and then betray them. All he wanted was the same thing she did, a break from the isolation that locked him down, a fragile whisper of human connection to fill the gaping hole in his heart.
    "Emma!" Astrid's voice rang out in the night, shattering the moment. "Are you out here?"
    Harlan broke the kiss, but he didn't move away, keeping his lips against hers. One of his hands was tangled lightly in her hair, the other was locked around her waist. Somehow, he'd pulled them together, until her breasts were against his chest, their bodies melted together. It felt so right, but at the same time, a familiar anxiety began to build inside Emma at the intimacy.
    "Do not fear me, sweet Emma," Harlan whispered against her lips. "I would only treasure what you give."
    His voice was so soft and tender that her throat tightened. How she'd yearned for so many years, for a lifetime, for someone to speak to her like that…until she'd finally become smart enough to relinquish that dream. And now, here it was, in the form of a man who would disappear from her life in forty-eight hours, maybe never to return. Which was why it was okay, because she didn't have to worry that he would want more than she could give, or that she would give him more than she could afford. Maybe she didn't belong in the room of couples and families, but for this brief moment, she belonged out in the night, with a man who lived the same existence that she did.
    "Emma?" Astrid's footsteps sounded on the deck, and Harlan released her.
    "Don't tell her I was here," he said. "I'll come by Wright's in the morning. Now is not the time." Then, without a sound, he faded into the darkness, vanishing so quickly she almost wondered if she'd imagined him.
    "Emma!"
    "I'm on the dock," Emma called out. She ran her fingers over her lips, and then hurried up the path, heading toward the party that had driven her out only moments earlier. But as she emerged from the shadows and waved to Astrid, she didn't feel quite as desolate as she had before, her mouth still tingling from the first kiss she'd had in a very long time.
    Harlan Shea was back in town. For forty-eight hours. No longer.
    She wasn't ready for a man. She wasn't ready to date. She wouldn't ever be ready for a man again, but Harlan wasn't going to stay around long enough to threaten her. He'd kissed her in a moment when they'd both needed it.
    That was all.
    Nothing more.
    But as she hurried up the steps to head back to her party, she couldn't help but think about the fact she was going to see him in the morning. Nerves assaulted her at the idea of seeing him again, and she stumbled on the top step. The man was leaving town. There was no reason to clutter her memories of that kiss with an awkward morning after. Maybe she would skip out on the coffee.
    No. She wasn't that pathetic. The man had kissed her, a kiss that had been so beautiful she'd forgotten to be afraid. There was no way she was going to miss the chance to see him in the morning.
    Absolutely no way.

Chapter Three
    At eight twenty-five the next morning, Harlan was leaning on the hood of his truck, watching people go in and out of Wright's General Store, a classic old building with white boards, green shutters, and a rambling front porch. Many of the patrons were people he knew, but there was also a large segment of unknowns. Their nice cars and