Читать книгу Rebel's Spirit - Susan Connell - Страница 10

As Raleigh fastened the last spring lock on the pool cover, he took another look toward the garage apartment. Two days had passed since that rub-and-tickle moment with Rebecca, and he was still battling over what to do about her. Ignoring her presence seemed like the most sensible and least bothersome solution, he decided, as he stored the pool equipment in the cabana. After all, how much trouble could one woman cause in a month? He seriously considered giving Rebecca the benefit of the doubt.

And then he came to his senses. She wasn’t just any woman. She was Rebecca Barnett, complete with a shared history and enough sex appeal to melt the leather elbow patches off his tweed jackets. And she was living a few feet across the driveway from him.

Staring up at the apartment again, he came to the conclusion that while she might be able to stay out of trouble, he was the one with the problem. He couldn’t ignore her presence because he couldn’t put those moments with her in his kitchen out of his head.

Wiping his hands on his well-worn jeans, he headed for the gate. There was only one course of action he could take, he decided, as he closed it behind him. Rebecca Barnett would have to find alternative lodging. And as soon as he saw her-” Finally got that pool closed, did you?”

She was sitting on the second-floor landing of the garage steps, a pair of mud-coated sneakers next to her feet. Her rosy cheeks made him think she’d been outside as long as he had, and her smile made him certain she’d been having more fun.

When he didn’t answer her quickly enough, she thumbed up the suede brim of her baseball cap then leaned her elbows on the step behind her. Propping a sock-clad foot over one knee, she stared down at him. The jocklike posturing accentuated the length of her legs, the womanly curves of her hips and, where her athletic jacket fell open, the distinct pearling of her sweater-covered nipples in the cold afternoon breeze.

“Well, closing it’s for the best, I guess.” She shrugged. “Or who knows what I might have been tempted to do next down there.”

Her smile said she was teasing but that didn’t stop the images from coming into his head. Was there such a thing as nude ice-skating? He rubbed at his brow. This had to stop.