Satin Pleasures Read Online Free PDF Page A

promptly throw themselves into his lonely bed? Appealing as that sounded to a man who'd been celibate for over a year, Dan knew casual sex wasn't for him and he had no business starting anything he couldn't finish. He had plans, and they didn't include hawking ladies’ underwear in San Francisco after June.
    "You two are always ladies. You are never crass," he said diplomatically. "Outspoken is the word I'd use."
    "We're only outspoken when we know we're right."
    "I didn't say you were right."
    Laughing, she returned to her work. "You'll find we're always right, Daniel. But, right now, we have only two days to prepare for our opening, so quit fingering that bustier before you wear the fabric through. It's on the invoice somewhere. It's spelled—"
    "I know how it's spelled."
    Aunt Mary smirked as she pulled a pile of fragile lace into her lap. "Of course you do, dear."
    Dan stared at her and reexamined his notion of engineering another meeting with Tess. He'd introduced enough complications into his life. Another one, especially one as career-driven as Tess, was more trouble than he could handle. As Dan's doctor observed after meeting Charlotte, a man doesn't date a bartender if he wants to stay on the wagon.
    Yes, when he did see Tess again—an inevitability as their new A Touch of Silk & Satin store was in her mall—he'd put distance between them. The question was , would the length of the building be far enough? He couldn't shake the tantalizing image of one luscious shopping center manager lying in his bed, wearing nothing but a beckoning smile and a tiny scrap of scarlet.
    ***
    "Mrs. O'Shaunessy ?" a clerk called out from the front of the boutique several hours later. "The mall manager is here to see you."
    Dan helped his aunt up from her seat on the floor and steadied her when she teetered dangerously close to a mound of teddies they'd inventoried. Then, he hung back while she walked out of the stockroom.
    He'd known this confrontation was unavoidable since following Tess to the mall and realizing it was his destination, too. Would she be angry he'd neglected to stop and tell her who he was? Or would the woman he'd glimpsed on the bridge—the one able to laugh at life's peccadilloes—come out to play? The tightness in his chest told him he was far more interested in the answer to those questions than was wise.
    Leaning against the counter inside the relative anonymity of the stockroom, he skimmed her long-limbed frame, noting she’d changed into low heels and removed her jacket. With a silky white blouse and lemon-colored skirt, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, she looked soft, approachable. After hours of tagging lingerie, Dan could think of several more pieces he'd love to see on Tess, and peel off her, one tiny inch at a time.
    Then, he looked into her dark eyes and every notion of sex fled from his mind. Something was wrong. He knew it after only a few hours in her company. Absently listening to his aunt, he scrutinized Tess's fleeting expressions.
    "Tess," his aunt greeted, "how nice of you to stop in. I’d planned to swing by your office and got sidetracked."
    "That's understandable. You're swamped," she said, shaking his aunt’s hand. “I was making my rounds anyway.”
    Aunt Mary waved a hand around the cluttered store. "I know it doesn't look it, but we'll be organized on time."
    "I've seen enough grand openings to know you have a firm handle on yours, Mrs. O'Shaunessy ."
    "Please, call me Mary. It's impossible to be formal when you're up to your ears in underwear."
    She smiled. "I'll bet."
    Dan caught the wince Tess couldn't hide when her smile tugged on her facial injury, the bruise now skillfully covered with makeup. His concern grew when he read the pain in her eyes and identified the lack of normal color in her cheeks. She looked too pale, on the verge of collapse. Abruptly pushing away from the counter, he strode into the showroom.
    "I'm glad you're here, Tess. My nephew has arrived to