Read Online Cursed by Love by Jacie Floyd - Free Book Online

before yesterday. That number had to be
narrowed if he hoped to make any progress.
    Now what had been the name of that
artist?
    He pulled up the notes he’d made on his
phone and checked. Li-Wang. Yep, that drilled the field down.
    Based on the first image that popped up,
he’d swear he’d stumbled onto a porn site. Sighing, he clicked through other
Sleeping Lotus examples and positions, glancing occasionally over his shoulder.
    He paused in stunned appreciation of a
woman standing on her head with her petals draped over her kneeling partner’s
stem. Interesting. He admired the athletic ability. But with his recent dry
spell in the sex department, it seemed like a good time to switch over to
researching the Sleeping Lotus’s history, instead of fantasy shopping.
    The sound of flip-flops flapping across
the tile floor forced his gaze away from the contortionist lovers. A faint orangish scent wafted above the library odors of paper,
glue, and dust. His deprived libido went from sexual alert straight into carnal
overdrive.
    “Oh, my!” Molly’s library-whisper cooed
behind him. “Maybe I shouldn’t interrupt.”
    He flipped the laptop’s screen down. He
hadn’t blushed since age ten when his uncle had explained the facts of life
with Playboy pictorials , but the prickly heat of embarrassment
marched up his neck now. He tugged on his collar. “You know what I’m doing.”
    “Yes, it’s pretty obvious.” She didn’t
bother to hide her smirk.
    He turned to face her and had to work to
keep his mouth from dropping open. The prim school teacher he’d met yesterday
had vanished in favor of a temptress dressed to set off her figure to best
advantage. Not in a slutty, sultry, over-the-top way, but more in a healthy,
open, totally desirable way that drew his attention and left him eager to
touch.
    The bottom of a stretchy pink knit
T-shirt exposed an inch of smooth skin above the waistband of hip-hugging
Capris that allowed her pierced bellybutton to play peekaboo with the rest of
the world. The form-fitting outfit confirmed the perfection of the body he’d
groped at the taping.
    A small attention-grabbing applique of
an American flag decorated the front of her shirt, but it wasn’t patriotism
that urged him to stand up and salute.
    An attempt must have been made to
control her chin-length blond hair, but some irrepressible curls defied the
effort. Her lush mouth matched the shade of her shirt and a delectable sprinkle
of freckles dotted her cheeks.
    While his gaze ate her up, her wide blue
eyes twinkled at him and drew him under her spell. She nodded toward the laptop
and back to his face. “I thought you were researching the Sleeping Lotus. But
if you were indulging in a kinkier interest, I can give you some alone time.”
    He wanted to indulge in some kinky
interests with her, but that would have to wait. “I’ll save the kinky stuff for
later.”
    “Promises, promises.” Dropping a couple
of thick, dusty volumes onto the table, she sank into the chair beside his.
“What did you find out?”
    Mostly, he’d found out that ancient
Asians had been a lot bendier than he thought
possible. He wondered about Molly’s proficiency at headstands. “To be honest, I
hadn’t gotten beyond the visuals.”
    “I meant from your grandfather. About
provenance. Last night.”
    “Right. Granddad.” He groped to pull his
thoughts back on track. The erotic imagery and Molly’s presence had sucked all
rational thought from his brain. Leaning back and crossing his arms, he focused
on the rapt expression on her face, not on the face itself. On the words coming
out of her mouth, not on the mouth. On the pleasure of her company, not on the
body seated beside him. “Granddad’s father, Jonas Shaw, inherited the Sleeping
Lotus from his father, Jebediah .”
    “ Jebediah Shaw?” She wrinkled her adorable nose. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
    “If you know American history from the
early nineteen hundreds, you might