Read Online Water From the Moon by Terese Ramin - Free Book Online Page B

was fierce, and Cameron felt the seed of an emotion much headier than lust unfurl inside him. Their eyes clung, Acasia’s evasive, Cameron’s probing. Time stretched; the moment became endless. The slightest movement seemed to take forever—Acasia’s tongue flicking nervously along her lips, Cameron’s answering swallow. His thumb grazed her jawline, their heads drew closer….
    "Acasia!"
    The distant bellow tore them apart like guilty teenagers scrambling for cover.
    "Why is it all you ever think about is sex?" Acasia hissed furiously, frustration and embarrassment making her angry. "Oh shit, my shirt…."
    "All
I
think about is sex? Here, put this on." Cameron shoved the thin cotton shirt he’d found in the trunk the night before into Acasia’s hands. He stepped into a pair of khaki trousers and tugged them over his hips.
    "Oh, sure, blame it on me. Weasel out of it. Help me with this sheet."
    Booted feet stamped down the hall toward them.
    "Are you always this much fun in the morning?"
    "Only when I’ve had two hours sleep propped against a wall."
    "Sarcasm is not your best attribute, Acasia."
    "Compromising myself with an old flame, who is either engaged or, for all I know, married, is not my idea of a wonderful way to start the day."
    "I’m not married or engaged. She walked out on me. Said I never stopped thinking about you long enough to be faithful to her. Not that she knew about you, just that there was a ‘you.’ Your shirt’s buttoned crooked. Here, let me."
    Swiftly his fingers corrected the problem, then brushed a fleeting caress along her jaw. Acasia’s eyes filled at the gesture, and she raised a shaking hand to smooth the wild hair off his forehead. Fred’s lanky six–foot–seven–inch frame stooped in the doorway. Eyes that matched Acasia’s peered at them from beneath a thinning shock of silver–blond hair. The uniquely ugly face scowled at the sight of Cameron’s bare chest and Acasia’s love–swollen mouth.
    Her eyes on her brother, Acasia pulled nonchalance out of the air, stepped between the two men, stuck her hands deep in her pockets and rocked back on her heels. "Fred, Cam, you remember one another, don’t you?"
    Cameron nodded warily and put out a hand. What he remembered was a tendency on Fred’s part toward physical intervention in Acasia’s life. And he and Acasia had been nowhere near that kind of
involved
at the time. "Sure. Thanks for the bed, Fred."
    Calculation replaced the scowl on Fred’s face. Fate and his sister had put a very captive, very wealthy audience right in his grasp. And his clinic always needed money. If he played his cards right… One huge paw engulfed Cameron’s offered hand. "First guy to interfere with my sister’s virtue, right?"
    It was direct, even for a man who generally took the shortest distance between two points in quantum leaps. Acasia choked. Cameron shut his eyes and cleared his throat. "Something like that," he managed.
    Acasia turned her back and made a strangling noise deep in her throat. Never, never, did Fred do what she expected. But then, she supposed it ran in the family, diversity being not only the Jones clan’s stock–in–trade, but their motto, as well. Dignity, she thought, and tried to salvage some, but failed abysmally. One look at Cameron trying to figure Fred out turned the final shred of her self–control into multicolored confetti. The day was not going at all the way she’d planned. There were things to do, places to go, people to stay away from…. If one was running away from a madman and his mercenary, it was best to start early.
    Sternly Acasia mastered her laughter and turned back to Cameron and Fred. They’d come to their first agreement ever and were now studiously ignoring her. It was the only way. Acasia appreciated that. She took a deep breath. "I’m all right now. Maybe we could continue?"
    "If you’re sure," Cameron said.
    "Perhaps it would help to consider the severity of your situation and the