Read Online Barefoot in Pearls (Barefoot Bay Brides Book 3) by Roxanne St. Claire - Free Book Online Page A

of how much she wanted to press against this man who rolled his eyes and teased her about being a witch. She was scared he really was The One…and absolutely terrified he wasn’t.
    She tried to draw back, but he held her tight. “I’m not afraid of lightning,” she assured him, and after a second he loosened his grip, but kept his arms around her.
    “You’re different from most females, then.”
    “Ditto.”
    “I’m not like any females,” he teased, his low laugh somehow sexy and sweet in the dark.
    Heat rolled through her, settling low in her belly. This time, she let out a soft grunt of frustration.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
    A better question would be, What’s right? “I’m just disappointed that this couldn’t be…easier.”
    He made a tiny circle with the palm of his hand on her back. “Who said it has to be difficult?”
    Arielle nearly melted into him, reminding her that she hadn’t been intimate with a man for a long, long time. Maybe that was why he felt so right.
    “I just wish I’d met you at the wedding, had a great connection, so we could flirt, laugh, talk, kiss, and let nature take the course that nature loves to take,” she admitted wistfully. “All this other stuff about the land…”
    “Is just stuff,” he said, dipping his face ever so close to hers. “Let’s pretend it didn’t happen.”
    She closed her eyes, longing for that possibility. “But it did.”
    He moved one of his hands up her bare arm, leaving chills in its wake. “Right now, in this place, during this storm…” He stopped talking while a rumble of thunder vibrated the walls around them. “What if there isn’t any of the other stuff for a few minutes? We’re just two people who met at a wedding, had a great connection, got to flirt, laugh, talk, and…what was the rest?”
    “Kiss.” She barely whispered the word, looking up at him, leaning in as she felt her eyes grow as heavy as the pearls around her neck. If only she hadn’t found them…
    “That’s right, kiss, and what else did you say? Oh, I know.” He closed the last inch, his lips a breath away from hers. “Let nature take the course that nature loves to take.”
    His lips pressed against hers, so light it was more of a tickle than a kiss. The lightning was inside her now, like a shot of fire and need, pushing her into him.
    “You’re a fan of nature, right, Arielle?” he whispered against her lips.
    “I am,” she admitted. “Big fan.”
    As if she had to voice her own opinion, Mother Nature sent down one more bolt of lightning, a freakish flash that seemed to last for three seconds, highlighting Luke’s surprised look like a klieg light, accompanied by a cannon boom of thunder that rattled everything, including their bones.
    All the hairs on her arms and neck shot to attention and tingled as she clutched Luke’s arms.
    He tightened his embrace and looked beyond her out the door. “Shit. We got hit.”
    Confirming that, thunder rumbled and reverberated like an angry drunk stumbling through the house.
    He eased her away. “I better check for a fire. The wiring in this place is ancient, and lightning in the system could fry us. Fry us more,” he added softly. Suddenly the whole lower half of the closet was bathed in a golden glow that emanated from his hand.
    “You have a flashlight?” Ari asked.
    “You think I was going to get out of my truck and traipse through the night without one?”
    “Why didn’t you use it?”
    “I was trying to follow your let’s-play-in-the-dark game. I thought I might win.” He took her hand. “Come with me while I check the damage.”
    She let her hand be engulfed in his, peering into the beam that shed light on exactly how bad a hovel they were in. His flashlight scanned the floor, the walls, and the main room, highlighting the torn and stained carpet, cigarette butts, and pizza boxes, and two empty whiskey bottles that said old man Balzac’s wrecked home had been the place for local