Read Online Stranger in my Arms by Rochelle Alers - Free Book Online Page B

what I said. Bubbly.”
    Alex returned to the stove and poured the warm liquid into the mugs. “It comes in spurts,” she said truthfully. “There are times when I’m as serious as a heart attack, but most times I’m pretty loose.” She didn’t want to think of her family’s assessment that she’d changed since she’d begun her graduate studies.
    Merrick moved closer, inhaling the fragrant scent of cinnamon, cloves and orange wafting from the mugs. He was pleased that she felt comfortable enough with him to be loose, because he was more than aware that he’d made some people uneasy whenever he was in their presence.
    â€œAre you concerned as to how people perceive you?” he asked.
    â€œNo,” she said without hesitation. “And even if I was there’s nothing I could do about it. There was a time in my life when I changed myself completely to please someone, and in the end I hated myself for it.” She extended her arms.
    â€œWhat you see is what you get. Take it or lump it.”
    Merrick wanted to tell Alex that he would take it—take all of her just as she was. “I like what I see, Alexandra Cole.”
    She curtsied as if she were royalty. “Thank you, Merrick Grayslake.” Her head came up as she straightened. “And I like what I see.”
    Resting his elbows on the cooking island, he impaled her with a penetrating stare. “What do you see, Ali?”
    Boldly, unflinchingly, Alex met his stare, noticing things about Merrick that she’d missed New Year’s Eve. There was a minute scar on his left cheek, a slight bump on the bridge of his aquiline nose as if it had sustained an injury and a hint of blue in his gray eyes. What she’d remembered was the shape of his mouth, a perfect masculine mouth with firm lips, and the close-cropped hair that was more red than brown.
    She smiled. “I see a man who I look forward to calling a friend.”
    Merrick’s eyebrows flickered. “I thought we were already friends.” Reaching for one of the mugs, he waited for Alex to take hers. He raised his mug in a salute before taking a sip of the warm spicy beverage.
    Alex sipped her toddy while she replayed Merrick’s statement: I thought we were already friends. To her, friends supported, protected and comforted one another in the good and not-so-good times. A friend would be someone she could confide in and trust with her innermost secrets. And she wondered if Merrick Grayslake would and could become her friend in the true sense of the word. Only time would tell.
    Setting down her mug, she handed him the vase of lilies. “Would you please put this on the dining-room table?”
    â€œSure.”
    Alex smiled when he left to do her bidding. Unknowingly, Merrick had just passed the first test. His expression hadn’t changed, nor had he hesitated when she’d asked him to do something for her.
    Â 
    Merrick removed the fireplace screen, stoked the burning embers with a poker, then added another piece of wood on the grate. The flames caught and he replaced the screen; the sweet redolent aroma reminded him of the wood-burning stoves in his West Virginia home, a home where for the past two years he’d become a recluse, venturing out only to shop for food. Weeks would go by before he refueled his sport-utility vehicle.
    At thirty-three he’d dropped out of sight as if he’d never existed, and it wasn’t until Michael Kirkland came to see him that he was jerked back into the reality that there was another world outside Bolivar, West Virginia. In the past three months he’d visited D.C., Georgetown, West Palm Beach, Miami, Key West and now Arlington, Virginia.
    But when he returned home after visiting with Rachel he’d been tempted to settle back into what was now a comfortable and secure routine of waking up at dawn and walking several miles in the cold mountain air before returning home