Reilly's Return Read Online Free PDF Page A

moons. Heat rushed under the surface of her skin. Reilly’s rigid manhood pressed into the small of her back. It was all she could do to keep from leaning back into the delicious pressure or, worse still, turning around in the circle of his arms.
    Lord have mercy, she was turning into a wanton! Appalled with herself, she bolted forward, breaking free of his loose hold. She pressed her palms to her flaming cheeks and tried to gather together some scrap of composure. She was going to have to be a heck of a lot tougher if she was to survive this visit from Reilly with her heart intact.
    Swallowing down the wild fluttering in her throat, she straightened herself and faced him, riveting her eyes to the third button on his khaki shirt.
    “They might have guessed something from the way you kissed me,” she said tartly.
    Reilly gave her his patented I-can-see-right-through-your-clothes grin, and said, “And they might have guessed somethin’ more from the way you kissed me back.”
    Jayne narrowed her eyes, peeved. How indelicate of him to point that out. Well, there wasn’t a shred of the gentleman in him. She’d always known that. Pat Reilly was rough and rowdy, an Australian version of the great American cowboy. He looked the part, too, she decided as her gaze wandered. He wore a battered leather bomber jacket and a khaki shirt open at the throat. His jeans were faded from repeated washing and wearing rather than trendy chemicals. They were also indiscreetly snug around that part of his anatomy she wasn’t supposed to be looking at. She pushed her gaze downward to his beat-up cowboy boots.
    “I had a bad feeling this was going to happen,” she mumbled, shaking her head. “I’ve been having the strongest premonitions.”
    She rubbed her fingers over her bracelet, but felt nothing except fine gold links beneath her fingertips. A certain sense of panic tightened in her chest.
    Reilly snorted. “Premonitions my as—”
    “Ask anyone,” Jayne said defensively. “I have them all the time.”
    “Superstitious bunk,” Reilly scoffed. “I told you I was comin’ back, Jaynie. It was only a matter of time.” He licked his bottom lip as if savoring the taste of her and grinned. “I’d say I waited just long enough.”
    “I don’t want you to ever kiss me like that again,” Jayne announced primly, turning on her heel and marching across the stage to retrieve the bucket she’d bounced off his head.
    Reilly chuckled. “Now, don’t go sayin’ things we both know you don’t mean, luv.”
    Of all the arrogant …! The man was a rampaging chauvinist. Jayne ground her teeth. Somehow, in Reilly those qualities seemed almost endearing. It didn’t figure any more than his rugged features adding up to handsomeness did. She scowled at him. His two-tone hair was disheveled into a punk look. Even that was somehow appealing. She was doomed.
    “Why the disguise?” she asked, resigning herself to having a conversation with him. The coward in her would have much preferred to run away, but facing him was her karma, that was plain enough.
    Reilly made a face of genuine chagrin. “Thatbloody article in
WE
. I should have never agreed to it. ‘Sexiest Man on Earth.’” He gave another rude snort and jammed his hands at the waistband of his jeans. “What a lotta rubbish. Now I’ve women trailin’ after me everywhere I go, like a pack of rabid dingoes.”
    Jayne couldn’t help but chuckle. He seemed so put out. She would have thought Reilly more than used to having women staring at him—and more than pleased by it. “Oh, you poor man. Women chasing after you. What a horrible fate!”
    He wagged a finger at her. “I’m telling you, Jaynie, it ain’t funny. Some of those sheilas are cracked. I’m liable to end up like that poor bugger in
Fatal Attraction.”
    She knew all about fatal attractions herself, Jayne thought, sobering. “Then maybe you should have gone back to Australia to lay low for a while.”
    “I