Hunting the Devil by Suanne Schafer

Author:Suanne Schafer [Schafer, Suanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waldorf Publishing
Published: 2019-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Three

Jessica

Philadelphia, January 15, 1995

Jessica glanced around wildly before recognizing the intruder. Tom Powell. Carrying a pizza box and a six-pack of Yuengling and wearing a smile he knew would get him to third base—if not all the way home.

She willed her light-speed heart rate to return to normal. If she passed out, she didn’t want him touching her, taking her pulse. A cardiologist, he’d understand nothing major was wrong and would assume her heart raced for all the wrong reasons.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” He peered over her shoulder at the computer screen. “Gruesome. Why are you looking at that shit?”

Without answering, she slammed her laptop closed.

“Susan said you’d taken a tumble.” He sounded worried. “How’s your ankle?”

Jess snorted. “No bruising. Moderate swelling. Grade 1 sprain. I’ll live.” She winced as she stood. “I was just going inside.”

His eyes held concern that looked genuine. “Jess, can’t we talk? Please?”

“I don’t think so.”

He stood before her chair, blocking her exit, and spoke in his authoritative doctor’s voice. “Sit back down.”

She couldn’t move past him without touching him, so she complied.

He knelt before her, lifted her foot, and with accomplished hands, unwound her Ace wrap.

As he palpated her injury, she flinched. Less from pain than from the memory of the last time he’d knelt before her, holding the blue velvet box with her engagement ring.

“Sorry.” His touch grew more restrained. “Grade 1 sprain,” he pronounced as he rewrapped her ankle.

“Told you.” She stuck out her tongue. “We took the same orthopedics rotation, remember?” They’d had fun together then. Tom had practiced casting, wrapping her arms and legs in plaster, immobilizing her, while he found other things to touch. Heat flared on her cheeks as she recalled the intensity of her orgasm.

“I remember.” The thickening of his voice said the same memory occurred to him. He stood. “Jess—”

She ducked her head, hoping to hide the color rushing to her face, and put both hands on the arms of her chair. “I need to go inside.”

Tom opened the pizza box before she could escape. “I brought your favorite—Gino’s tomato pie with extra Romano cheese.” With a grandiose flourish, he opened two beers and handed one to her. He clinked his against hers. “To us.”

She shook her head. “No way.” Somehow the shake of her head met her shiver of revulsion, and her whole body vibrated.

With a cheeky grin, he said, “I can still make you tremble.”

Jess stood so quickly the napkin tumbled from her lap.

“Sorry.” Tom reached for her, his touch, tentative, somehow awkward, his eyes pleading. “You’re too thin, Jess. You have to eat.”

Her stomach had the gall to agree with him and released an untimely grumble.

“See?” He chuckled. “It won’t hurt to share a meal.”

Damn. The moment her gaze met those tanzanite-blue eyes, she was lost. She’d loved him once upon a time. It was hard to let go of those feelings even after all this time.

He took advantage of her hesitation and opened the pizza box.

The smell hit her in the gut.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.