Tempered (A Daughters of the People Novel) (Daughters of the People Series) by Varna Lucy

Author:Varna, Lucy [Varna, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bone Diggers Press
Published: 2014-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Late the next afternoon, Aaron dropped his head against the back of the couch in Hawthorne’s office and closed his eyes. Since reading that article on Rebecca Upton and talking to her in person, he’d wrestled with the one thing he hadn’t considered before.

What if Hawthorne was telling the truth?

Crazy, that’s what that was. People didn’t live to be that old. They just couldn’t. Yet, the number of people he knew who seemed to sincerely believe otherwise was growing by leaps and bounds. Hawthorne, Charlotte and Rebecca, Jim Hornby. Probably their relatives as well, Ruby, Levi, Bobby Upton, Rebecca’s husband, and God only knew who else. Maybe the whole damn town of Tellowee. How could people who appeared so sane and rational be anything but? Was it some kind of mass hysteria, or was it simply the truth?

Had he been wrong about Hawthorne all along?

He studied Hawthorne in the soft light thrown from the Tiffany lamp beside the couch. Over the past few days, she’d taken to dressing as he did, wearing comfortable sweaters and jeans when they worked, running around in her socked feet. She slumped into the couch, her fingers flying across the keypad of the laptop propped on her toned thighs.

He remembered what those thighs looked like without the protection of clothes, long and sculpted, pale and strong as she knelt above him and rode them both to release.

Desire stirred and his body hardened. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met, stubborn and frustrating when she wanted to be, at times so blunt with her honesty, it bordered on tactless.

He’d begun to fall for her before he’d learned of her past, begun to fall for the way she touched him, for her kind, stoic wisdom, and the flashes of humor he glimpsed when she let down her guard. Making amends had only been part of his reason for pursuing her back to Tellowee. The much deeper need dwelt in his heart. Their time at DragonCon had been almost magical, their friendship so promising, and the closeness more than he’d ever thought to have again. Was that why he was so eager now to believe in her, because he wanted her so much and needed her to be whole? Because with each day that passed, he grew more and more desperate to find a way through her defenses to the woman he’d nearly fallen for, and was falling for still?

She saved her work, closed the lid of the laptop, and placed it on the coffee table. “You are staring.”

“I am.” He slid the tip of his finger down the smooth curve of her cheek, and was surprised when she turned in to the touch. “You’re so beautiful.”

Her lashes swept down over soft gray eyes. “So you say.”

“Because it’s true.” He shifted closer, pulled her into a light hug with a casual arm over her shoulders. “Go out with me tonight.”

She slid him a sideways look. “That would be unwise.”

“Why? Lali’s spending the night with Becka. Maria won’t be back until Monday.

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