Read Online Spellbound Falls by Janet Chapman - Free Book Online
Authors: Janet Chapman
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
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holding her in his big strong arms when she was five, crushing her to his chest with his face buried in her hair as he’d promised he would move heaven and earth and any mountains that got in his way to get her back.
She’d waited three years for him to come back and get her, and finally forgiven him four foster homes later on her eighteenth birthday. Olivia pulled the jacket off the peg andpressed the soft leather to her face, remembering how she’d headed off in search of the security she’d lost at age four when her mother had died.
Only she’d found Keith instead. Or rather, Keith Baldwin had found her waiting tables in Orono his last year of college. The tall, handsome, determined man had literally swept Olivia off her feet, married her the week after he graduated, and settled her here at Inglenook one month before running off to join the military.
It had taken him two years of furloughs home to get her pregnant, and another four years to get killed protecting fallen comrades being airlifted to safety. At least that was what his commanding officer had said as Olivia had watched Sophie clutch the folded flag at Keith’s funeral—which the girl now kept in her bedroom next to a picture of her war-hero daddy.
Olivia snapped off the porch light, undecided whom she was the angriest at: herself for hating a dead man, or Keith for dying before
he
had found the backbone to tell his parents they were getting a divorce. Her heart aching again for not telling them herself, Olivia headed to her bedroom—only to realize she was still clutching Mac’s jacket.
Well, why the hell not? It wasn’t as if she intended to attack its owner or anything; that’s why it was called a
fantasy
. Because really, she wasn’t looking for another tall, dark, handsome stranger to swoop in and rescue her, considering how that had turned out the last time. No, she was holding out for a man she could trust to honestly and truly love her, forever and ever.
A man who preferred her bed instead of some other woman’s.
But until that miracle happened, there wasn’t any reason she couldn’t dream Mr. Right was out there somewhere. And while waiting for their paths to cross, what was wrong with pretending she was sleeping wrapped up in a pair of big strong arms? Considering she hadn’t had sex in more than six years, shouldn’t she think about having two or three passionate affairs before she turned into a dried-upold woman? It wasn’t like she was looking for the perfect man or anything; she’d always thought perfection was overrated.
Olivia spread the jacket on her bed, left her clothes on the floor where she’d shed them, and carefully burrowed under the quilt with a soft hum of pleasure. Mr. Right didn’t even have to be handsome, she decided, pulling the jacket-covered quilt up to her chin to breathe in the masculine scent. In fact, it might actually be better if he was flat-out ugly, having learned the hard way that a handsome face could just as easily hide a black heart.
He did have to have a sense of humor, though. And he needed to like children—especially little girls—and she’d really like it if he was really strong, because she really loved feeling all that carefully controlled strength moving over her, and beneath her, and deeply inside her.
Olivia finally fell asleep, her palms slightly sweaty and her heart beating a little bit faster, feeling safe and secure wrapped in the warmth of a fantasy.
Chapter Five
Standing on the porch staring out at the moonlight reflecting off the ice on Bottomless Lake, Mac listened to Henry sitting inside reading aloud from the book of baby names he’d gotten in town this afternoon. The boy had slowly been making his way through the alphabet and was up to the letter D; occasionally stopping to write some of the names down after repeating them with different inflections, sometimes adding
Oceanus
to see how they sounded together.
Sweet Prometheus, but he’d caught hell from all his
She’d waited three years for him to come back and get her, and finally forgiven him four foster homes later on her eighteenth birthday. Olivia pulled the jacket off the peg andpressed the soft leather to her face, remembering how she’d headed off in search of the security she’d lost at age four when her mother had died.
Only she’d found Keith instead. Or rather, Keith Baldwin had found her waiting tables in Orono his last year of college. The tall, handsome, determined man had literally swept Olivia off her feet, married her the week after he graduated, and settled her here at Inglenook one month before running off to join the military.
It had taken him two years of furloughs home to get her pregnant, and another four years to get killed protecting fallen comrades being airlifted to safety. At least that was what his commanding officer had said as Olivia had watched Sophie clutch the folded flag at Keith’s funeral—which the girl now kept in her bedroom next to a picture of her war-hero daddy.
Olivia snapped off the porch light, undecided whom she was the angriest at: herself for hating a dead man, or Keith for dying before
he
had found the backbone to tell his parents they were getting a divorce. Her heart aching again for not telling them herself, Olivia headed to her bedroom—only to realize she was still clutching Mac’s jacket.
Well, why the hell not? It wasn’t as if she intended to attack its owner or anything; that’s why it was called a
fantasy
. Because really, she wasn’t looking for another tall, dark, handsome stranger to swoop in and rescue her, considering how that had turned out the last time. No, she was holding out for a man she could trust to honestly and truly love her, forever and ever.
A man who preferred her bed instead of some other woman’s.
But until that miracle happened, there wasn’t any reason she couldn’t dream Mr. Right was out there somewhere. And while waiting for their paths to cross, what was wrong with pretending she was sleeping wrapped up in a pair of big strong arms? Considering she hadn’t had sex in more than six years, shouldn’t she think about having two or three passionate affairs before she turned into a dried-upold woman? It wasn’t like she was looking for the perfect man or anything; she’d always thought perfection was overrated.
Olivia spread the jacket on her bed, left her clothes on the floor where she’d shed them, and carefully burrowed under the quilt with a soft hum of pleasure. Mr. Right didn’t even have to be handsome, she decided, pulling the jacket-covered quilt up to her chin to breathe in the masculine scent. In fact, it might actually be better if he was flat-out ugly, having learned the hard way that a handsome face could just as easily hide a black heart.
He did have to have a sense of humor, though. And he needed to like children—especially little girls—and she’d really like it if he was really strong, because she really loved feeling all that carefully controlled strength moving over her, and beneath her, and deeply inside her.
Olivia finally fell asleep, her palms slightly sweaty and her heart beating a little bit faster, feeling safe and secure wrapped in the warmth of a fantasy.
Chapter Five
Standing on the porch staring out at the moonlight reflecting off the ice on Bottomless Lake, Mac listened to Henry sitting inside reading aloud from the book of baby names he’d gotten in town this afternoon. The boy had slowly been making his way through the alphabet and was up to the letter D; occasionally stopping to write some of the names down after repeating them with different inflections, sometimes adding
Oceanus
to see how they sounded together.
Sweet Prometheus, but he’d caught hell from all his
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