Wine & Roses Read Online Free PDF

tilted her head back, allowing his mouth to graze her jaw and the sensitive hollow of her neck. Further aroused by her excitement, he eased his knee between her thighs and slid his other hand under her bottom to hold her firmly against him.
    Dimly aware of the water slapping gently against their backs, and the mingled, ragged sound of their quickening breath, Abby grasped at the few remaining threads of rational thought in her brain; for a dizzying moment her need was so strong that she contemplated peeling off her slip and discarding it, allowing it to slide into the pool’s dark depths.
    Would it be so wrong to let him take her right here and now? It had been so long since she’d felt this vibrant, consumed with heady desire, and he wanted her just as badly.
    Seizing the last strands of her willpower, Abby reminded herself that despite her intense attraction to Jason Brinleigh, she hardly knew the man, and any reckless action she took now might seem very different in the morning. With considerable effort she broke away from the kiss.
    “Jason, I really should go.” Breathless, she eased away from him.
    “Right now?” He held fast to her, continuing to press tantalizing kisses to her throat.
    “If I stay any longer things might go a bit farther than they should.” Her body aching with need, Abby knew it would be easy for him to persuade her to stay. But he didn’t insist.
    “You’re probably right.” He released her slowly. “When will I see you again?”
    “On the twenty-first for The Roses’ opening, right?”
    Jason nodded once, his gaze still aglow with simmering heat. “Of course. I’ll see you then.”
    Moving swiftly before her resolve melted again, Abby hurried up the pool steps to collect her glasses, and then across the deck to the changeroom. Latching the door, she pulled her wet slip over her head and grabbed a towel from a nearby rack to dry herself.
    As she slid into her dress, Abby smiled to herself. Her senses remained afire, her nerves still buzzing from her fingertips down to her toes. Though her need for Jason may not have been sated, she felt satisfied nonetheless, thrilled with the knowledge that perhaps it wasn’t too late, after all, to find the passion she’d been denied in her marriage—and only now realized how much she still craved.
     
    * * *
     
    “You did what ?” Marguerite stared at Abby in astonishment.
    “I know, it was insane, so impulsive. But it was the most incredible feeling of my life.” Abby felt a smile creep over her face as her limbs turned warm and weak at the memory of her encounter with Jason in the pool.
    Marguerite crossed her arms over her chest, one of her shaped eyebrows arching. “No doubt. Jason Brinleigh is a dead-sexy specimen of a man. I probably would’ve done the same thing, if I was single.”
    Abby scooped her teacup off the coffee table, a little embarrassed to have shared the intimate details of her evening. She couldn’t help herself; it had been years since she’d had a tale this scintillating to tell, and she valued her best friend’s opinion. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”
    “Not at all. Just a bit naïve, maybe.”
    Abby frowned. “What do you mean?”
    Marguerite hooked her arm casually over the sofa cushion, twirling a lock of her blonde hair around one slender finger. “Abby, think about it. This guy came to find you because he wanted to buy your inn. Next thing you know, he’s plying you with wine and a half-naked swim in his pool, and he’s got his hands all over you. You don’t find that a trifle suspicious?”
    “He didn’t mention buying the inn all evening,” Abby pointed out. Though they had talked about The Roses, not once had he prodded her about selling it to him.
    “He was playing you, Abby. Softening you up.”
    “Marguerite, that’s not what this was about.” Annoyed, Abby leapt up from the sofa and strode to the kitchen counter, where she’d left the teapot, to refill her cup. She knew she