Read Online A Thrill to Remember by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online

he clung to her hand.
    “Please, Don Juan, this was nothing more than an extravagant game. We both got turned on, but it’s no more than that. Please, let it go.”
    “It’s more than a game and you know it.”
    “It’s not,” she insisted.
    “All right then,” he said, scrambling for something he could say that would change her mind. “Let me help you get dressed and I’ll walk you back to the party.”
    Several minutes later, they were clothed again and walking through the forest hand in hand. His body was still stiff from wanting her. His mind raced with ways to convince her to see him a second time. Things couldn’t end on this disappointing note.
    Caleb led her into a moonlit field not far from the community center where the party still continued. Laughter, music, the sound of car doors slamming echoed in the still of the night.
    He stopped, drew her closer to him and stared into that unfathomable face hidden so dramatically behind the red-feathered mask.
    “What if I happened to come to where you lived? I travel a lot on business,” he lied, still speaking in his Don Juan accent, reluctant to release the disguise and break the enchantment. “Could I see you then?”
    She paused for a long moment. “Perhaps. I don’t know.”
    His heart leaped with hope. “You realize this was special. How often have you felt this way?”
    She inhaled deeply. “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.”
    “Think of all the fun we could have.”
    “Do you swear that it would only be fun? Nothing else? I don’t want anything else.”
    “Nothing else,” he promised. At this point he would promise her anything to get her phone number.
    “I’m doing this against my better judgment, but you’re right,” she said. “I’ve never felt anything like what happened between us tonight. You’ve made me feel like a desirable woman.”
    He made a deep sound of approval. “You are a desirable woman.”
    “Okay.” She swallowed audibly. “Here’s the deal. I’ll whisper my phone number to you and if you can remember it, then you can call me.”
    Caleb’s pulse pounded in his ears. He was beset by the riddle of her. He wanted her so badly it hurt. Wanted to be inside her, buried deep.
    “Sweetheart, I could never forget,” he crooned, meaning every word.
    She whispered the number.
    “What?” Startled, he shook his head, certain he had heard incorrectly. “Please say that one more time.”
    She repeated herself.
    With the rapidity of lightning striking, his blood froze. His world skidded to a screeching halt. His ears echoed with the sound of her voice mouthing those digits. Realization dawned. He knew that number. Had called it many times over the years.
    “Good night,” she whispered. “And if I never see you again, goodbye. I’ll always remember the precious gift you gave me in the skaters’ cabin, Don Juan. Thank you.”
    Then, without another word, she turned and started toward the community center, her graceful body illuminated in moon glow.
    He literally could not speak. His senses reeled. He splayed a palm over his heart. He knew now who she was. No wonder she had sounded familiar. No wonder he had been so inexplicably attracted to her.
    She was the woman who had dominated his teenage fantasies. The very same woman who had once been married to his stepbrother Jesse.
    Klondike Kate, the lady upon whom he’d just performed sexual maneuvers, was none other than his unrequited childhood crush.
    Meggie Scofield.

5
    “HOT DAMN, woman. I love the hair!” Wendy Roseneau, Meggie’s next-door neighbor and good friend for the past five years, declared.
    It was three days after her return home to Seattle. Wendy, a brown-eyed, bottle blonde with Kewpie doll cheeks and a Cindy Crawford beauty mark over her upper lip, settled her hands on her hips and nodded approvingly as Vincent, a tattooed, nose-pierced, fuchsia-haired stylist at En Avant!, the trendiest salon in Seattle, put the finishing touches on