Read Online Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online

house had been waiting for her? As if he’d been waiting for her? “Van?”
    â€œYes,” she answered, keeping her back to him. Her stomach was in knots, her fingers were twisted. When he said nothing else, she forced herself to turn, made her lips curve. “It’s a fabulous place, Brady. I’m glad you showed it to me. I hope I get the chance to see it when it’s done.”
    He wasn’t going to ask her if she was going to stay. He didn’t want to know. He couldn’t let it matter. But he knew that there was unfinished business between them, and he had to settle it, at least in his own mind.
    He crossed to her slowly. He saw the awareness come into her eyes with his first step. She would have backed away if there had been anywhere to go.
    â€œDon’t,” she said when he took her arms.
    â€œThis is going to hurt me as much as it does you.”
    He touched his lips to hers, testing. And felt her shudder. Her taste, just that brief taste, made him burn. Again he kissed her, lingering over it only seconds longer. This time he heard her moan. His hands slid up her arms to cup her face. When his mouth took hers again, the testing was over.
    It did hurt. She felt the ache through every bone and muscle. And damn him, she felt the pleasure. A pleasure she had lived without for too long. Greedy for it, she pulled him closer and let the war rage frantically inside her.
    She was no longer kissing a boy, however clever and passionate that boy had been. She wasn’t kissing a memory, no matter how rich and clear that memory had been. It was a man she held now. A strong, hungry man who knew her much too well.
    When her lips parted for his, she knew what he would taste like. As her hands dug into his shoulders, she knew the feel of those muscles. With the scent of sawdust around them, and the light gentle through the glass, she felt herself rocked back and forth between the past and present.
    She was all he remembered, and more. He had always been generous, always passionate, but there seemed to be more innocence now than there had been before. It was there, sweet, beneath the simmer of desire. Her body trembled even as it strained against his.
    The dreams he thought he had forgotten flooded back. And with them the needs, the frustrations, the hopes, of his youth.
    It was her. It had always been her. And yet it had never been.
    Shaken, he pulled back and held her at arm’s length. The color had risen over her cheekbones. Her eyes had darkened, clouded, in that way that had always made him churn. Her lips were parted, soft, unpainted. His hands were lost, as they had been countless times before, in her hair.
    And the feeling was the same. He could have murdered her for it. Twelve years hadn’t diluted the emotion she could pull out of him with a look.
    â€œI was afraid of that,” he murmured. He needed to keep sane, he told himself. He needed to think. “You always could stop my heart, Vanessa.”
    â€œThis is stupid.” Breathless, she stepped back. “We’re not children anymore.”
    He dipped his hands in his pockets. “Exactly.”
    She ran an unsteady hand through her hair. “Brady, this was over a long time ago.”
    â€œApparently not. Could be we just have to get it out of our systems.”
    â€œMy system’s just fine,” she told him. It was a lie. “You’ll have to worry about your own. I’m not interested in climbing into the back seat with you again.”
    â€œThat might be interesting.” He surprised himself by smiling, and meaning it. “But I had more comfortable surroundings in mind.”
    â€œWhatever the surroundings, the answer’s still no.”
    She started toward the steps, and he took her by the arm. “You were sixteen the last time you said no.” Slowly, though impatience simmered through him, he turned her to face him. “As much as I regret it, I have to say you