Where You Least Expect It Read Online Free PDF Page B

still didn’t say anything.
    “Is everything okay?” He leaned forward to capture her gaze.
    She smiled, but there was no happiness there. “Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?”
    “It’s just that you got awfully quiet there for a moment.”
    “I was just thinking…”
    What? What had she been thinking?
    Aidan refused to speak the question aloud, but he found he was curious about Penelope in a way he hadn’t been curious about a woman in a long time. While capable of walking in companionable silence with her for long stretches, he was filled with a desire to reach out and touch her, to urge out whatever it was she was holding in her mind…in her heart.
    They’d come to a slow halt, a block short of the General Store. Max sat down, panting while Penelope turned to Aidan. To thank him for his company? More than likely. But she hesitated when she looked into his face.
    What was there? he wondered. What did she see?
    He found himself reaching out to cup her chin. Just a gentle play of his fingertips up along the delicate line of her jaw. So soft. She blinked those big dark eyes, appearing startled yet curious as her tongue darted out and moistened her lips.
    Lips that Aidan wanted more than anything to kiss.
    And in the next instant, he was doing just that.
    First there was the welcoming shock of skin against skin, his lips pressing against hers, tenderly, tentatively.
    He’d closed his eyes, but he opened them now to see that she watched him through a fringe of black lashes. He read fear, surprise and a wistful yearning that shot straight through him. His throat tightened to the point of pain, and a craving for this woman, so urgent, so overwhelming swept over him, paralyzing him with its unexpected power.
    “Mmm,” she whispered. “That was nice.”
    Aidan had experienced his share of kisses, and what they had just shared was definitely not simply “nice.” It was honest. It was sweet. And it was hot.
    He stepped back away from her even as a voice deep inside him protested the move.
    What was he doing?
    He’d promised long ago that he would not involve anyone else in his problems. Would not subject them to what he had lived with for so long that it seemed as natural as the shadow that followed him. Especially since everything finally seemed to be coming to a head.
    Yet a few minutes with Penelope found him shoving all that aside, left him seeking a bit of something outside himself. Something that called out to him from her.
    He remembered her on the bridge when he’d first walked across to stand next to her. Her expression had spoken of a woman with secrets that seemed to run as deep as his. And he found himself feeling connected to her in a way he hadn’t felt connected to anyone in a long time.
    Only, Penelope’s secrets didn’t have the power to hurt others.
    She laughed nervously. “I’d…better get going before the store closes.”
    Aidan blinked at her, wondering how long they’d been standing there looking at each other. What others thought didn’t concern him. But what Penelope thought did matter. Maybe a little too much.
    He offered a smile. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
    She wrapped the end of Max’s lead around her hand. “What question?”
    “Whether you’ll help me out with the Fourth of July celebration.”
    She fell silent again, but it wasn’t a companionable silence this time, but rather a tense one. He silently berated himself for making her uncomfortable. Of pressing her to do something she so obviously didn’t want to do. Especially since he didn’t know if he would be here in town much longer.
    “I can’t,” she said simply.
    Aidan slid his hands into his pants pockets, reluctantly accepting her answer.
    “I’d better go,” she said.
    Aidan found himself reaching out to lightly grasp her wrist. She looked back at him, curious, questioning.
    “I’m…” he began.
    The only sounds were of traffic farther up the street and of Max panting patiently at