The Inn at Dead Man's Point Read Online Free PDF

but an occasional night together wasn’t enough for him.
    They walked downstairs and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Penny glanced at Jenna and whispered in Al’s ear. “How about a parting gift?”
    He wondered what she had in mind, until her arms came around his neck and she pulled his head down for a long, passionate kiss. Al felt Jenna’s eyes on them, and if he hadn’t been kissing Penny, he would have laughed. He grabbed Penny’s ass and hauled her up against him, giving it all he had for Jenna’s sake.
    Finally, Penny broke the kiss. “Goodbye, Alessandro. If it doesn’t work out, you know where to find me.”
    “Yes, I do. Goodbye, Penny. Thanks for stopping by.”
    She glanced at Jenna. “My pleasure.”
    Al walked Penny out to her car, then came inside whistling. That woman knew he wasn’t gay, and it was payback time for the other one.
    “Family doctor?” Jenna asked.
    Al laughed a little. “No.”
    “Specialist?”
    He could call her a sex therapist, but he’d be lying. “Dr. Holden is a pediatrician and a personal friend.” And former lover, but he wasn’t about to tell Jenna that, at least not yet. After that kiss, she’d probably guessed that part.
    “I thought you were gay.”
    He bit his tongue so he wouldn’t blurt it out. “What gave you that idea?”
    “In high school, Brian said... He said you hit on him in the shower after PE class. Mel Something, the kid with the red hair, said he saw you do it.”
    Al burned with anger. That’s where the rumors started. Mel Gillis was one of Brian’s toadies, and he’d say anything Brian wanted him to say. He wasn’t worth bothering with, but the next time Al hit Brian, the spineless wimp wouldn’t get up off the ground.
    “Did you, Al?”
    “Did I what ?”
    “Hit on Brian?”
    He leaned down and put his face in hers, so close their breath mingled. “What do you think?”
    “I-I don’t know what to think.”
    His gaze dropped from her eyes to her pink lips. He could kiss her right now and settle it, but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. “Maybe one of these days you’ll figure it out for yourself.”
    “Maybe,” she whispered, and he wanted to kiss her so much it was all he could do to hold back. His eyes scanned her pretty face and sexy body and came back to rest on her dark blue eyes. Her nipples were hard little buttons poking at her knit shirt, and her cheeks were bright pink. She was excited and embarrassed at the same time.
    Brushing his lips lightly over hers, he tasted hunger, but a brush was all she’d get. He knew she was attracted to him as she never could have been in high school. Jenna and her friends had ruined what little social life he had back then. They’d told everyone in school that he was gay, when he was just a shy, awkward kid.
    He backed up slightly and she reached for a kiss. It was all he could do to leave her wanting. He walked back outside to finish the roof, whistling.
    Jenna was left standing alone, her lips tingling from Al’s almost kiss. He was teasing her, taunting her, and she felt like crying. She and her friends had made his life miserable in high school, because they’d believed Brian when he said Al had hit on him in the showers. She’d stopped believing anything Brian told her a long time ago, but in high school, she’d wanted to be included so much, she believed anything he told her.
    She’d been such a fool, and she was still a fool for living here with a man who wanted to punish her for the sins of the past. It wasn’t too late to put Aunt Mattie in a nursing home and get out of here, but where would she go? The job was gone and her apartment would soon be gone too, because she couldn’t pay the rent. She was stuck here, and she’d get blasted from two sides now – from Aunt Mattie, who thought she was trash because she’d had a baby without getting married first, and from Alessandro Donatelli, who wanted to get even for what she’d done to him in high