Only By Your Touch by Catherine Anderson

Author:Catherine Anderson [Anderson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-11T12:21:37+00:00

Ben drove fast and crazily the remainder of the way home, not caring when the truck hit chuckholes and almost bounced off the road. He was in over his head and going under fast. At the outset, all he’d wanted was sex, damn it—mutually enjoyable and uncomplicated sex. He’d yet to come close, and now things were getting very complicated.

He kept reminding himself there was no future in it and that caring for Chloe would only bring him pain, but his heart wasn’t listening. Why the hell did I kiss her? Now that he’d had a taste of her, he craved more. He needed to get his head on straight. If he didn’t, and damned fast, he was going to be so far gone, there’d be no turning back.

Nan was awake and rattling around in the kitchen when Ben entered the house. Juggling grocery sacks, he stepped over to the security console to turn off the alarm, which he always set when he left her alone at night.

“Hi,” he said as he entered the kitchen. Diablo came over to greet him. Ben set the bags on the counter and bent to stroke the wolf’s head as he took in his mother’s activities. “Mom, you know how I worry when you use the stove. Let me put this stuff away, and I’ll make the cocoa.”

Nan shuffled over to the table and sat down. Her eyes never left Ben as he quickly emptied the grocery bags. When he turned to finish making her hot drink, she said, “You’re troubled about something.”

Ben threw her a surprised look. It never failed to unsettle him when her mind suddenly clicked into gear. “Not really.”

“Remember me? I’m your mother. I know when you’re upset.”

Ben supposed there was a lot of truth to that. He tapped the spoon on the edge of the pot and laid it on the butcher block. “That’s a pretty robe.”

Nan smiled and smoothed a hand over the embroidered yoke. “Don’t try to distract me.”

The blue of the garment complemented her eyes. She was still a lovely woman, Ben thought. Sometimes when he looked at her—really looked—he wondered how his father could have taken her for granted all those years. Unfortunately Hap had—and he’d broken her heart a fair thousand times in the process. At some point, he’d almost killed her love for him. What a waste. Ben would have given his right arm to have a woman love him like that.

“What are you so upset about?” she asked.

The milk began to steam. Ben gave it another stir, removed it from the flame, and poured it into the mug his mother had set on the work island. “Here you go, madam. Anything else I can get you?”

“This is lovely. Thank you. Now answer my question.”

Ben turned his attention to preparing Diablo and Methuselah their nightly snack. “I’m not upset, just exhausted. For two cents, I’d hit the sack early and forget about working tonight.”

“Do it, then. How long’s it been since you got a full night’s sleep?”

“I’ve lost track.

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