Take Me As I Am Read Online Free PDF Page B

and that feeling was disconcerting. She’d noted the heightened color that stained Thea’s cheeks when she looked pointedly at Jo’s breast. It gave Thea a cute look and made something in Jo feel even more protective of her. It was a feeling that she was not familiar with, but it was oddly soothing to her. She grinned, remembering seeing the same look on the faces of other women who had looked openly at her, wanting to know her better. At times she let them.
    Jo chuckled as Thea had looked like she was being chased by a raging bull when she made her hasty exit. It was amusing that she refused to look at her once she got to the door except to look back and say goodbye. Jo looked down at her breasts and grinned.
    Perhaps I will tease her about that in the morning at breakfast.
    She nixed the idea. Thea seemed fragile and probably hadn’t ever seen another woman’s breasts before. Perhaps she’d open up a bit more at breakfast.
    “A protector? Who the hell would see me as a protector?” she mused. Now, I’m having breakfast—more like brunch—with her. I wonder if my hormones are telling me to settle down at last.”
    Jo chuckled at the thought of the alien concept. Staying in one place was definitely not her style. As sleep gradually claimed her, her mind drifted to a scene, comprising a figure waiting for her. “I wonder what it must be like to come home to someone who loves me, every day for the rest of my life,” she mumbled as sleep took her.

    †

    Thea paced up and down the lobby. It was nearly eleven. She wasn’t sure if Joanna had overslept, forgotten her, or decided against the invitation. What should she do? Should she go and knock on the door and ask? Maybe she should go out and work in the garden?
    She stopped pacing and stared at the empty corridor that housed her guest’s room, shaking her head. She gave a bitter laugh to the empty lobby. “Why would she want to spend any time with me anyway? She is obviously popular with the men in town and that isn’t surprising. After all she is a very beautiful woman.”
    Her stomach was grumbling and Thea felt a little sick. Normally she had eaten by eight in the morning, but she’d been far too nervous about this breakfast date that she had been unable to eat anything and had only managed one cup of coffee.
    Finally making a decision, she retrieved a coffee from the lobby’s coffee urn and went to a door marked private , which led to her office and the outer door to the yard. After putting the coffee cup on the small table close by a wrought iron chair, she sat down with a heavy sigh and looked around the yard. It was full of blooming flowers and the sounds of birds singing. It created an area for her to relax and enjoy some peace in a place away from her problems. Closing her eyes, she tried to rid herself of the hurt she felt at the rejection, for that was exactly how it felt.

     
    Jo skidded to a halt in the lobby and was disappointed that Thea wasn’t around.
    “Shit, I’m too late,” she murmured.
    She couldn’t help but feel angry with herself. She had awakened around ten and decided to snooze ten minutes more. That ten minutes had turned out to be forty-five and a quick shower and dragging on clothes still hadn’t made up any time, for it was now eleven fifteen.
    The enticing aroma of the always freshly brewed coffee in the lobby made her wonder why Thea would provide the service. To the best of her knowledge, she was the only person staying at the motel. There had been less than five overnighters in the place in the three weeks she’d been a resident there. Coffee appeared to be a luxury that Thea could well do without if the circumstances that John-Henry had briefly explained to her the first night she performed at the bar were anything to go by. She moved to the coffee machine and poured coffee into a cup and added sugar.
    While sipping from the cup and relishing the taste of her first drink of the day, her eyes caught the blonde head of