Whispers at Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page A

halter top that molded her ample breasts. Looking her up and down with a gathering frown, he made a mental note to have a chat with her sometime in the near future about the advantages of leaving something to the imagination. She apparently read his mind, or his expression, because as she met his gaze her grin returned and she gave a teasing little wriggle that set her breasts to jiggling.
    He frowned at her, she wrinkled her nose at him, and they engaged in a potent but silent exchange of opinions as visions of convents filled his head. Then the sheer ridiculousness of the situationoccurred to him. Somewhere, he thought, angels must be snickering at the idea that he, of all people, had wound up with three increasingly babelicious girls to shepherd into womanhood. It had to have been the cosmic joke of the century.
    “It is a lot.” Shelby sounded apologetic too as she curled surprisingly strong fingers around his elbow. “But I don’t think the florist is being unreasonable. You have to consider that besides the bride’s bouquet, we need nosegays for the bridesmaids, and boutonnieres for Collin and the groomsmen, and flowers for the church and centerpieces for the tables at the reception and—”
    “Whatever you think,” Matt interrupted, feeling hunted. His uniform was khaki, long pants, short-sleeved shirt, and Shelby was taking full advantage of the looseness of his shirt sleeve to slip her hand right up under there to caress his biceps. The feel of her soft, meticulously manicured hand sliding across his overheated skin was enough to make him remember that he hadn’t gotten laid since he’d fled her bed at the end of March. Which was exactly what she had intended, he was pretty sure.
    Antonio crossed his arms over his chest, looking thoughtful. “When Rose got married”—Rose was the younger of his two daughters—“I told her that she could choose between the flowers she wanted or the down payment on a new car. That’s how much the flowers were.”
    “So what did she choose?” Matt asked, slightly interested.
    “The flowers. Can you believe it?” Antonio shook his head at the folly of women.
    “My idea is that we should just do the flowers ourselves,” Erin said, giving Matt a wicked smile that told him she knew where Shelby’s hand was. “We could get the cost down to five hundred dollars and still have practically the same thing.”
    “Whatever you think,” Matt said again, desperate to end the conversation. The only thing worse than being kept abreast of every little detail of his sister’s wedding plans was being stalked by Shelby at the same time. He hadn’t realized it while they’d been seeing each other, but the woman had the tenacity of a bulldog; once she got her teeth into something, she never willingly let go.
    More fool he for letting her sink her teeth into him in the first place.
    The cell phone clipped to Matt’s belt began to ring. He had a pager, but it could only be accessed by an employee of the sheriff’s department. Many of his friends, neighbors, relatives and other assorted county residents preferred to bypass the whole official process and call him on his personal line. At least answering it provided an excuse for him to step away from Shelby without making his discomfort with what she was doing obvious. She looked after him in transparent disappointment as her discreetly dislodged hand dropped to her side.
    Thank God Erin’s wedding was only a little over three weeks away, Matt thought. He was starting to feel harassed to the max. On top of everything else, playing cat and mouse with Shelby without saying or doing something that would hurt Erin’s relationship with her new family was getting old fast. It was no damn fun being the mouse.
    “Got to go,” Matt said as he hung up, feeling relieved and doing his best to hide it. He looked at Antonio. “Mrs. Hayden’s out walking her dog down Route 1 again.”
    Antonio made a face.
    “So what’s wrong with