Read Online Crushing Desire by April Dawn - Free Book Online

they had looked, standing guard for their Adonis, their laughter ringing out in the store. He wondered what one said in a situation like this because words failed him.
    Emily exited the statuary shop, joining them.
    “Shall we?” He lifted a hand, indicating the next shop to them.
    Reena walked next to him as they stepped into the store. The small shop advertised exotic items from far places. Joshua picked up and examined a few of the items on the nearest shelf. It seemed, though, that many of the trinkets were made locally. He returned the item back from where he’d retrieved it and glanced over at Reena. She stood nibbling her bottom lip as she studied one of the decorative hand-crafted pieces in her hand. He ran his thumb over his fingers, the memory of her body suddenly coming back to him. The remembered loss of control made him cringe. His intention had been to teach her a lesson. To show her how unsafe her actions had been. When he’d kissed her, though, her soft skin beneath his hands, and her supple mouth had been his undoing. In his mind, his fingers still caressed her yielding flesh, molding it to his. His lips still tasted the sweetness of her mouth, her utter surrender to him fresh in his memory. If he hadn’t gotten control of himself...
    Closing his eyes, he ignored the clenching in the pit of his stomach and tried to rid himself of the memory of her touch. He had to keep his body, and more importantly, his mind well regimented.
    “What did you get?” she asked, shaking him from his thoughts.
    For a moment, he merely stared at her. She pointed, indicating the box he held. “Oh, this.” He leaned in, whispering so only she could hear. “Not the statue, if that is what you were hoping.” Reena’s slippers were all at once of great interest to her. “I purchased a magnificently carved ivory chess set. I shall have to show it to you one day. The queen reminds me very much of you,” he said, still near her ear.
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    The intimate way he leaned into her, and the way his breath fanned her neck while he spoke made Reena shiver, but his words knocked the breath from her. He thought of her when she wasn’t around. The idea caught her off guard. Before she had a chance to process it, Lily was there.
    “Reena,” she said, with an apologetic nod to Joshua, “You have to see this.”
    Lily grasped her wrist and pulled her off toward the corner. Reena let out a shaky breath, walking to a shelf lined with jade. Lily lifted a charming box from the shelf and started rambling about the exquisite detail of the carvings that covered it, but Reena couldn’t focus on what she was saying. Joshua’s words still rung through her mind. She couldn’t imagine what, if anything, his revelation meant. Their relationship had always been a bit of a mystery to her. Did he care for her? Did he want her too, or was it all a little girl’s fantasy? She kept trying to forget it—to forget him—but she always seemed to find hope in the little things.
      Lily went on, but she didn’t hear her words. She glanced at Joshua. He stood nearby, apparently admiring a small jade elephant, but she thought that she saw his eyes flicker from her to it when she moved.
    Had he been watching her? No. Surely, he saw her as nothing other than a friend. There was no use in trying to fool herself into thinking there was more. She glanced back to Lily and tried to focus on the necklace that Lily now held. But her mind kept wandering back to Joshua, his new chess set, and his apparent thoughts of her. She needed to talk to Emily.
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    Later that evening, Reena lay on her stomach on the soft bed in her room. Lady-like manners set aside, she lounged with her friend in the soft splendor of blankets and pillows.
    “Reena, you love him. Perhaps if you went to him and you told him, he would come to court you,” Emily said.
    “But what if I was imagining the entire thing? What if he was merely being polite, and I was seeing the whole affair