Veiled Desire Read Online Free PDF Page A

sure how she felt about that. To cover her nervousness, she hummed an old Fergie song as she walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and bent to deposit his food.
    “This is a nice thing to wake up to.”
    The gravelly voice made her jump, and she lurched upward. The crack of her head hitting the top of the fridge was followed by a sharp wave of pain. “Ow.”
    “Are you okay?”
    His big hands were on her hips, then her arms, guiding her away from the fridge until she stood facing him.
    He wore only a pair of light blue scrub bottoms, knotted low on his hips. She couldn’t figure out where to look, there was so much bronze skin and it was everywhere, all over, surrounding her. He cupped her chin and raised her face until she looked deep into his eyes. Had they always been so blue? They should have been bloodshot with all the graveyard shifts he’d been pulling, but the whites were startlingly clear. “Leyla, are you okay?”
    It was the worry that was so obvious on his face that snapped her out of her trance. “Yes, of course. Just a bump.”
    He smiled, but it was a distracted one. “To go with your humps?”
    She flushed, recalling the song she’d been humming when she entered. He cradled her face in his hands. With his thumbs, he brushed her hair away from her cheeks. She tried not to replay the memory of those thumbs hooking into his briefs, slowly sliding them over his hips…
    “Your pupils look okay. But you really may have a bump here.” He lightly pressed against the back of her head. She flinched, not so much because it hurt, but because his lips had come closer to her. He frowned. “Let’s put some ice on that.”
    Before she could protest he pulled a bag of peas from the fridge, wrapped it in a towel and turned her around. The magnets on the fridge swam in front of her eyes as he pressed the cold compress against her scalp. “Better?”
    It didn’t really hurt, but she couldn’t say that now without looking foolish, so she nodded. “What are you doing home?”
    “Oh, should have told you. I worked a half shift last night. I wanted to sleep a bit before tonight. I figured we’d be out late. Between that and the two extra shifts I traded for this week, I get the next four days off.”
    Out late? Even though she knew he was referring to the way their usual evenings together extended to late-night discussions, her dirty mind supplied images in Technicolor, of all the other things they could be doing out late tonight. And all of the things they could continue to do for four. Whole. Days.
    He misinterpreted her shudder. “Still hurt?” He lifted the cold bag away. Before she knew what he was about, he blew a stream of air over her scalp.
    Every strand stood up and did a happy dance, as did the rest of her body. She closed her eyes and tried to regulate her breathing.
    “By the way, I love these jammies. The bunny ones are my favorite, but these are hot too.”
    “Very funny.”
    “Why funny?”
    She rolled her eyes, even though it was wasted with him behind her. “Yes, I’m sure most men would find cartoon pajamas attractive.” Immediately, she cursed her tongue. Had she sounded like she was fishing for compliments?
    “You’d be surprised. There’s something wildly sexy about a woman who looks comfortable. All of that satin and silk in your store is nice, but I wonder how a girl can wear it without being in pain.”
    Wildly sexy. Was he talking about women in general or her? To cover her uncertainty, Leyla huffed a laugh. “Some of them, yeah. Especially the negligees. But the bras and panties are designed to be comfortable. Trust me, we get a nice discount to try them out and pimp them in the store.”
    She thought he hissed something, but she couldn’t make it out. She heard a thunk behind her, probably the bag of peas on the counter. He blew on her scalp again, his hands running through her hair to shift the strands aside. The better to get to her injury, she figured, but the