Read Online Slow Fever by Cait London - Free Book Online

showing off—proving that you still have whatever macho talent that is important to males—or you had missed a night of a sex-fest.”
    “I was waiting for that. Are you going to sleep in that sweaty getup, or are you cleaning up?”
    Kylie leaped to her feet, and instantly her strained muscles protested. “I’m exercising to lose weight, Michael, and you deliberately brought my favorite—”
    “You look good,” Michael said, but his eyes were drifting over her unbound breasts and the nipples peaking against the cloth. Her body took the impact of that slow gaze, heating and vibrating beneath it.
    She looked down at the box of high-priced chocolates that he’d just tossed to her. A jar of raspberry jam followed. He grinned as she held them. “You’ve got good skills, Kylie. Caught one in each hand.”
    “I played a lot of softball. And tennis, and handball, and— I don’t want to talk with you. You’re disrupting my whole thinking-things-out plan.” Exercise had momentarily trimmed away her sexual energy, while Leon was using his on her installment-paid massage table. She placed the chocolates and jam carefully by her bedroll, because they were just the thing to savor while she looked at the stars and sorted out her life. She grabbed a towel, washcloth, soap and clean yellow sweat clothes and tramped down to the creek.
    When she returned, Michael was still fully dressed, lying upon his bedroll. She tried to ignore his presence and, sitting on her sleeping bag, began her nightly yoga relaxing exercises. Centering into herself, doing the “Child’s Pose,” the “Dog Pose,” and stretching her “sitting bones” and hamstring muscles wasn’t quite the same as when she was alone and focused. Michael’s presence intruded upon her calm and inner center. His presence flowed warmly, vibrating around her as she bent and stretched and stood.
    Muscles stretched, her body feeling better because of the nightly ritual, she slid into her sleeping bag and zipped it. Then, because he was there and because on one level she trusted him, she said, “I think I’m staying in Freedom Valley.”
    “That’s good. It’s good here.”
    “The day you left, you came to Mom’s and said you were never coming back. Why did you?”
    “I got tired. Anna was special. I called her several times and she must have known how it was with me. She told me it was time to come home. I did, thinking I’d visit with her. I stayed at her house for a while and then bought my place. She was quite a woman.”
    “She was. Sometimes I talk with her. The house still has the feel of her. Tanner has moved a few of his things and those she wanted him to have into his house, but for the most part, everything is the same,” Kylie agreed softly. “I’ve got to earn money—I’m broke, you know. Leon needed what little money there was left—”
    Michael turned to her and blinked. “What?”
    “The baby, Michael. They have a baby coming and— I don’t hate him, Michael. Leon can’t help that he’s…well, weak natured. Maybe I am, too, because I’ve never been a hater—well, except for you. I hated you really well when I was a teenager and you were surfing all the girls. I’m not too certain that I couldn’t work up a really good hate for you now.”
    “Women,” he muttered, closed his eyes and shook his head.
    “It was my choice. I thought the baby needed a good start. Leon doesn’t manage well and Sharon can’t manage at all.” Kylie waited a while, because her first volley hadn’t gone that well. “I like being a massage therapist. I’ve been doing an amount of it in the retirement home and for my friends—”
    Michael turned to her and arched an eyebrow. “The friends you play touch football with?”
    “Brody and the rest work hard. Gabriel Deerhorn’s neck and shoulders were really aching after breaking that horse.It took forever to work down his back and his thighs. Then there was Fletcher who hurt his back taking out a