The Thawing of Mara Read Online Free PDF Page A

into a detached smile of greeting. Her gaze first encountered the towering bulk of the man outside, then met a pair of smoky blue eyes. Her expression froze in place. Tiny shock waves disassembled her previous image of the man and threw it away.
    This was not some old, distinguished gentleman facing her. This was a rawly virile man, suntanned and vigorous. The civilized impression given by the tweed jacket and dark trousers was banished by the unbuttoned shirt and the hard, browned flesh it revealed. The fact that his thick mane of hair happened to be iron gray was purely incidental.
    All the while she was staring at him, he was studying her in an odd way, as if she wasn't what he had expected to see, either. Maybe there was some kind of mistake. Mara clutched at that straw.
    "Mr. Buchanan?" she questioned.
    "Yes." There was the faintest inclination of his head to affirm his identity. "I stopped at the farmhouse and Mr. Prentiss sent me down here. Are you his daughter?"
    The soothing pitch of his low voice was strangely unsettling, but Mara didn't betray her feelings. Instead she drew her invisible cloak of aloofness more tightly around her.
    "Yes, I am. Mara Prentiss." The introduction seemed to demand a perfunctory handshake.
    She offered him hers and found her slim fingers swallowed up in the grip of his. She didn't like the sensation of being engulfed by his sheer physical presence. It was somehow diminishing. Her temperature dropped by several degrees as she withdrew her hand from his grasp.
    There was a lift of detached amusement to his mouth. "For some reason, I expected to meet your father's wife or sister."
    "My mother is dead." Mara didn't know why she offered the information.
    "Mara Prentiss. M. Prentiss?" He referred to the signature on the lease.
    "The same," she admitted, stiffly holding herself erect as if she needed every centimeter of stature.
    Behind the cloud blue of his eyes, there seemed to be a wicked light dancing. Mara thought she had glimpsed it a couple of times previously, and it gave her the impression of danger rather than mischief. It was like that opaque gleam in the eyes of a cat playing with its prey.
    "I presume everything is in order for my arrival," he prompted.
    And Mara realized she was still barring his entrance into the cottage. "Yes, it is." She stepped back to admit him. "I was just putting away the supplies you ordered."
    One gleaming shoe had just crossed the threshold when a female voice halted him. "Sin, darling, shall I bring any of the luggage when I come?"
    Mara's gaze jerked beyond him to the sleek gray car parked next to her station wagon. A stunning redhead was just stepping out of the passenger side. Her white silk blouse was unbuttoned to show off her cleavage while a pair of midnight-blue slacks tightly hugged her hips. Despite the suggestiveness of her attire, the overall impression was one of chic sophistication.
    "Leave it," was his answer. "I'll carry it in later."
    Tearing her gaze away from the scarlet-haired beauty, Mara let it touch briefly on the man entering the cottage. Sinclair Buchanan, aptly shortened to Sin, she concluded without being sure why.
    Mara blamed her brief start of surprise at the presence of the woman on two things. All her attention had been focused on Sinclair Buchanan, so any distraction would have caught her off guard. The second was the length of time the woman had waited before making her presence known. Mara would have thought that she would have accompanied him to the door. Most wives would have exhibited more curiosity or been more eager to see their newly leased cottage.
    Sinclair Buchanan was inside now and Mara redirected her attention to him. Aware that this was the first time he'd seen the cottage other than in photographs, she felt she should make some attempt to familiarize him with the place.
    "This, of course, is the living room," she stated the obvious. He was already making a slow, sweeping survey of the interior. Mara