Temperatures Rising Read Online Free PDF Page A

ocean. “This is such a beautiful view from here. So peaceful.”
    He followed her gaze. “You should be here to see it one morning at sunrise.”
    She looked at him over the rim of her glass. Was he issuing her an invitation? If so, it was definitely wasted. Instead of responding to what he’d said, she decided to change the subject. “Tell me about Terrence Jefferies.”
    He lifted a brow. “What do you want to know?”
    “Anything you want to tell me.”
    He took a sip of his wine, and it was a few moments before he spoke. “My family lives in Atlanta. There’s my father, my older brother, Duan, who is thirty-six, and my sister, Olivia, who got married last month. Olivia is twenty-seven.”
    “What about your mom?”
    She saw the way his jaw tensed when he said, “I don’t have a mother.”
    She felt bad for asking. Thinking his mother had evidently passed away, she said, “I’m sorry.”
    He lifted a brow. “Why? You didn’t do anything.”
    “I shouldn’t have asked about your mother,” she said softly.
    He stared back at the ocean before meeting her gaze. “My mother isn’t dead, if that’s what you’rethinking. She and my father split when I was ten, Duan was twelve and Olivia was only three. She gave my father full custody of us, kept walking and never looked back.”
    “Oh.” Sherri didn’t know what to say. Her parents were still happily married after thirty years, and she couldn’t imagine a woman not keeping in touch with her children. Deciding she needed to change the subject yet again, she said, “How long have you owned the club?”
    “About four years. I purchased it right after an injury caused me to stop playing for the Dolphins and I decided to settle here instead of moving back to Atlanta.”
    “What made you decide to remain in South Florida?”
    “Close friends from college, Stephen Morales and Lucas McCoy. We attended the University of Miami together. Stephen is a deputy sheriff and Lucas renovates houses. Another reason I decided to stay is that I like the area, especially the beaches.”
    As he spoke, she noticed his gaze had shifted from her eyes to her lips. A second of silence passed before he said in a deep, husky tone, “There’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since the first day I saw you.”
    She fought to quell the sensations flowing through her. “What?”
    “This.” And then he lowered his head, skimming her lips lightly a few times before capturing them fully with his.
    She felt the room tilt when he masterfully deepened the kiss, deliciously tempting her to submission. She moaned when his tongue roamed freely everywhere in her mouth before grasping hold on hers, toying with it, mating with it, feasting greedily on it. Her control crumbled in the intense and sensual assault of his mouth.
    She felt the hardness of him pressing against her middle, and at that very moment her senses, the ones still operating, were thrown into overdrive, and her body felt like it was actually overheating. As shards of pleasure cascaded through her, her stomach tensed. Her nipples pressing against his chest ached. Heat flared between her legs and her pulse beat relentlessly.
    When he finally pulled his mouth away, she dropped her face to his chest and stifled another moan. Her defenses were all but shattered as the result of one kiss. She hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t been fully prepared for it. Her mouth had yielded for him in a way it had never yielded for another man.
    She lifted her head and met his eyes. The look he gave her was intense. Deep. Sensual. The air surrounding them actually seemed to thicken. She didn’t know what sort of tactics he’d used when he played on the football field, but here, right now, he was using his own sensual weapon to advance and he clearly was determined to reach the goal line with her before the night was over. She opened her mouth to tell him that it was not going to happen when she heard a doorbell.
    “Our dinner has