“I’d rather you didn’t.”
She ignored the taut reply. “Why’d you sell your bar? And why, again, are you living the way you are? I mean, I can get wanting to be alone for a while, but . . . you’re taking that to kind of an extreme, don’t you think? And you don’t seem to mind being around me.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions there,” he said dryly.
And she let out a short huff. “Whatever. Are you going to answer my question?”
At this, he let out what she thought was a rather exaggerated and long-suffering sigh. “Look, I agreed to let you cut my hair, not interrogate me, Daisy. How about we just stick to business.”
Standing behind him now, she sneered and stuck her tongue out at the back of his head. “Fine.”
And then silence ensued, and Anna resumed concentrating solely on his hair. And that was probably good, because despite Julie’s long-ago lessons, this wasn’t exactly like riding a bike. Not that she figured she could really mess up or make it worse than it started out, but she wanted to do a decent job. Maybe she wanted him to think she was good at something. Better than she’d appeared to be at home improvement anyway.
As she gave him a simple, tidy haircut, she needed to check the layers she’d put in to make sure they were even. Which was why she found herself combing the fingers of one hand back through his now-short hair in the way Julie had once shown her.
Which suddenly made her stomach contract. And sent a tingly ribbon of awareness rushing up her arm when she least expected it. She held in her gasp, tried to act natural, tried to keep concentrating on her task.
But that meant running the same hand through his hair a couple more times, just in different places. So she did it—her fingertips grazing his scalp, her every nerve ending on red alert now, and more of that same sensation assaulting her.
Lord, why did this suddenly feel so intimate? She’d seen hairdressers do it to clients a million times. Why, when she did it to Duke, did it feel like something more than just checking her work? Why did it feel like . . . something she’d do if she were his lover?
Swallowing back the questions, she took a deep breath, let it back out. Stick to business. Like Duke said.
Though that was easier said than done, especially as she put the finishing touches on the cut, which required other little bits of skin-to-skin contact that suddenly felt . . . personal. She didn’t want to run her fingertips over the top of his ear, but she had to, to remove a few snipped bits of dark brown hair that clung there. And she didn’t particularly feel comfortable brushing the hair in front off his forehead, but it was necessary, to see if it was cut evenly.
She tried her damnedest to act unaffected, to keep any telling expressions off her face, but a desire she still couldn’t quite understand echoed through her breasts and belly—and below, as well. As she moved around his chair, her inner thighs ached—and she wondered if she was the only one aware of all this, or if Duke could feel it, too.
And God—did she want him to?
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author TONI BLAKE’s love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Soon after, she penned her first novel—nineteen notebook pages long. Since then, Toni has become a RITA®-nominated author of more than twenty contemporary romance novels, her books have received the National Readers Choice Award and the Bookseller’s Best Award, and her work has been excerpted in Cosmo. Toni lives in the Midwest and enjoys traveling, crafts, and spending time outdoors. Learn more about Toni and her books at www.toniblake.com.
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WILDEST DREAMS
HALF MOON HILL
THE RED DIARY
WILLOW SPRINGS
HOLLY LANE
WHISPER FALLS
SUGAR CREEK
ONE RECKLESS SUMMER
LETTERS TO A SECRET LOVER
TEMPT ME TONIGHT
SWEPT AWAY
Coming Soon
ALL I WANT IS YOU
Copyright
This book was originally published under the title In Your Wildest Dreams in 2005 by Warner Forever, an Imprint of Warner Books.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpts from One Reckless Summer, Sugar Creek, Whisper Falls, Holly Lane, Willow Springs, Half Moon Hill copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 by Toni Herzog
EPub Edition DECEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780062247544
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062247551
FIRST EDITION
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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