The Yearning Read Online Free PDF Page A

voice, giving him an idea of how she’d sound when he mounted her. Intoxicated at the thought, he turned again and grinned at her newest giggle. He planned to show off and try a more complicated dance move when he unexpectedly caught movement in his peripheral vision. Gaze shifting to the right, he paused.
    At the end of the alley, two young women huddled beneath the pool of yellow light from the gas lamp. They spoke in subdued voices he couldn’t possibly overhear. Were they the ones who’d sounded close to arguing? If so, why were they still hanging around this place and talking so low?
    The one on the right appeared to be in her late twenties. She had light brown hair and a pallid complexion, which looked out of place in the sunny Keys. The other one, younger by a few years, was equally fair. She wore her hair very short, like a man, and had dyed it an impossible platinum blonde.
    Neither appeared to notice him or Jasmine. In fact, they looked everywhere except this alley. Their presence didn’t feel right. As a former law enforcement officer, he thought it seemed downright staged. He glanced at Jasmine.
    Anxiety pinched her features, so fuzzy with contentment a few moments ago.
    He frowned. “Do you know those two?”
    Her head snapped from them to him, her eyes widened in confusion. “What?”
    “You heard me.”
    At his abrupt tone, she stepped back and kept her voice low. “No.” Head bowed, she adjusted her halter top to make certain it covered her breasts. “I don’t know them.” She lifted her face and avoided his eyes. “Did they see us?”
    “Not from way over there they didn’t.”
    She nodded and turned away, arms hugging her middle.
    He studied her narrow shoulders, the sleek expanse of her back revealed by her dress. Two small moles decorated her tawny skin, one on her right shoulder blade, the other on the graceful slope of her spine. On her second sigh, his shoulders slumped. What in the fuck was the matter with him? So what if two women decided to use this alley for their incessant chatter? Could be they were so deep in debate over whatever in the hell women talked about, they forgot to keep walking. Stranger things had happened. At least it hadn’t been a bunch of guys invading this space.
    “Hey.” Hands resting on her firm biceps, he eased her into him, her back to his front.
    With her plush ass blanketing his groin, he murmured, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m sorry.”
    She turned in his arms. It took her a few seconds to lift her head and another to open her eyes.
    Unexpectedly, a wave of tenderness hit hard. In her blue-green gaze, he saw guileless yearning. Beneath it, he sensed a wounded soul who needed his protection. How crazy was that for a man who’d failed his duty so miserably? Driven to redeem himself with her, he ran his hands down her buttery arms and used his softest voice. “Despite my acting like an SOB, does your invitation still stand?”
    “Will you bring your tongue?”
    Laughing, he hugged her until she squealed like a little girl. “Where do you live?”
    With her head nestled on his shoulder, her breath warmed his neck. “A few blocks from here. We can walk.”
    “We’ll take my bike. It’s right over there.”
    She didn’t bother to look. Her hands returned to his ass. She resumed squeezing. “Whatever you say.”
    Exactly what every man longed to hear.
    He insisted she put on his helmet. “I want you safe.”
    Completing a full circle around his Harley, a customized V-Rod Muscle, she ran her fingertips over the black leather seat. “What will you wear?”
    “You.” He tossed her his helmet, which she thankfully caught, straddled his bike, and patted the space behind himself. “Hop on, put your arms around my middle and press the insides of your thighs against mine.”
    She turned the helmet in her palms while staring at his legs. “Shouldn’t we wait to do that until we get to my place?”
    Head down, he hid his smile and faked a