Read Online Cautious Lover by Stephanie James - Free Book Online Page A

would have found an excuse not to return to Portland. It would have been an expensive excuse because these last few weeks in the city were important from a business standpoint. Jess was winding up a lucrative consulting assignment and finalizing his financial arrangements for the forthcoming change in his life-style. It would have constituted another unwelcome change in his plans.
    The tide was out this morning, and Elly took pleasure in exploring the nooks and crannies that were underwater at other times. The beach here was a rocky one, with a number of fascinating tidepools , encrusted formations and miniature worlds tucked away in the rocks. The small cove was dominated by a huge boulder that crouched aloofly in the center. When the tide was in, there was no way to reach it. Foaming water surged around it, acting like a moat around a castle. But this morning it stood undefended, prepared to yield its secrets to anyone who was willing to cross the damp, packed sand.
    Elly had explored the rock castle before, but it never ceased to interest her. Starfish clung to its base, small fish swam in pools of trapped water and a variety of crustaceans scampered over the surface in an endless quest for food.
    The sea was an alien world to Elly , one she found enthralling but also one she feared on some levels. It was all very well to study its creatures while they were exposed and vulnerable. The thought of meeting them in their natural environment while the tide was in struck a primitive chord of genuine fear. And it wasn't just the life forms of the sea she feared. The power of the surging waves was equally disturbing. Elly could swim, but she never swam in the sea. She hadn't since that one terrifying afternoon on a southern California beach.
    But this morning she poked around the huge boulder in the quiet cove with her usual interest, her mind occupied with the problem of Jess Winter.
    She had been belatedly astonished by her initial reaction to the threat of Damon Carrington. Her instincts had been to defend Jess, but that was ridiculous. If anyone could take care of himself, it was Jess Winter. Perhaps a woman always felt that way about the man she loved.
    "Ah, Jess," she muttered, turning away from the exposed boulder to start back toward the house, "do you think you'll ever let yourself really fall in love again?" And if he did, was she the kind of woman he would choose?
    Comfortable, even-tempered, sweet. Elly ran through the irritating list of adjectives Jess so often applied to her, and she wanted to scream. The list hardly allowed for passion and love. But, then, Jess didn't want to allow for either of those potentially dangerous emotions in his life.
    Elly thought of those brief moments Friday night when at last she had stirred real desire in him. It was foolish to cling to such thoughts and try to build on them. After all, it was perfectly possible for a man to have his sexual appetite aroused without having any real love aroused with it.
    In any event, the whole project had foundered because of a face at the window. Not for the first time, Elly wondered if it had been Damon Carrington peering into her living room that night. In the dark and the fog would Jess have briefly mistaken Damon for his twin?
    Reluctantly Elly climbed the cliff path. At the top she turned one last time to gaze out at the everchanging sea . The chilled early morning breeze whipped at her braids, loosing strands of hair that blew into her eyes. Perhaps it was those tendrils that were causing the threat of tears.
    The phone rang that evening just as Elly was sitting down to a quiet meal in the kitchen. The possibility that it might be Aunt Clara almost kept her from answering. The probability that it might be Jess made Elly stretch out her hand.
    "Oh, Jess, I'm glad it's you."
    "Who were you expecting?" There was an unfamiliar edge to the question.
    "I was afraid it might be Aunt Clara."
    Jess seemed to relax on the other end of the line. "Has she