Yours to Savor (4 page)

“You’re right,” Sandra agreed, determined.
A little adventure is just what I’m missing in my life
. She took one last invigorating sip of coffee, slammed the lid on, threw her jacket over her shoulders, snatched up her purse, and ran to the door—all to the sound of Cassie’s mirthful laughter. At the door, she shouted a quick goodbye to Josh and Cassie before whirling through the exit and running outside.

Chilly spring air greeted her. It made Sandra feel alive and full of purpose. Cassie’s urging had been very much in line with what Sandra was feeling. Something inside her
told
her she had to go after the man. That spark, the heat she felt from his single look wasn’t something a person encountered every day. It was so far outside the ordinary that she couldn’t let it get away from her. To hell with her unflattering outfit! That stranger
had
looked at her, and seen something that he liked. Sandra was determined to find out exactly what that was.

She looked both ways. The street was empty. There was a parking lot around one corner. If the man was only driving through town, like Cassie had said, that was where he’d be.
If I’m not too late!
Sandra thought, frantically.

Picking up her pace, Sandra started in that direction. Her mind buzzed with hundreds of anxious questions.
What if I’m wrong about him? What if I imagined his smoldering gaze? Will he think I’m an idiot for following him?
She tugged her jacket closer against the cold.
I feel like a goose-brained valley girl chasing after him this way. Where’s the dignity in this?
On impulse, she yanked out her hairpin, shook her head, let her hair fall loose around her shoulders.
I just have to see him once more,
she told herself.
That’s all. If he notices me, he’ll say something. If not, then it was all my imagination anyway.

Absorbed in her thoughts, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going when she turned the sharp corner—

And slammed headfirst into the man who had been the object of so much attention
that morning.

Time ground to a halt. The coffee flew from her hand. Sandra watched, horrified, as the hot liquid gushed in slow motion from the flimsy cup. It splashed across the man’s chest, soaking through the immaculate, white fabric of his dress shirt, leaving a dark stain.

A flicker of anger flashed across his face. “Dammit!” he swore in a rumbling growl. His curse jolted her out of the momentary stupor.

“Ohmigod!” she exclaimed, gaping up at him as he towered over her like some
furious Greek god. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

Scowling, the man ignored her, focusing on the scalding liquid soaking his shirt. He pulled the shirt away from his skin so he wouldn’t get burned, shifted to get out of the constricting blazer. Sandra reached over to help, but he stepped away without even glancing at her.

Idiot!
Sandra berated herself.
Clumsy, stupid idiot!

“Don’t you ever watch where you’re going?” the man scowled. Despite the situation, Sandra couldn’t help the flare of attraction that erupted inside her upon hearing the man’s deep voice. He still hadn’t looked at her.

“Let me help you,” Sandra insisted. He had already worked one arm out of the blazer, but was struggling to keep the wet shirt away from his skin while wrestling with the second. He grunted, and looked at her. A glimmer of recognition danced across his eyes. The fury that Sandra had glimpsed was swept away as he realized who it was he’d walked into. Or rather, who had walked into him.

“Hold this,” he commanded gruffly, thrusting the blazer at her. Sandra complied. The material felt light and rich, but Sandra barely noticed. Instead, her eyes were glued to the man’s deft fingers as they worked to unbutton his shirt. Every button revealed a sliver more of the lean, muscular body underneath, until the entire shirt was undone and he was shrugging gorgeous shoulders out of it. He scrunched the shirt in a tight ball and wiped at the trail of liquid that remained on his torso. The muscles of his long-limbed arms danced as he patted himself dry with the beautiful-but-now-useless shirt. His skin prickled with goosebumps in the cold and his nipples tightened, while Sandra stood witness to the most perfect male body she’d ever seen.

“I ruined your shirt,” Sandra blurted out. Immediately, she regretted the words. It was hard to think straight when you had an Adonis stripped naked to the waist in front of you.

He perked an eyebrow. “No shit.” But the bitterness was gone from his voice. He cocked his head slightly to the side, and looked at her like a paleontologist might look at a newly uncovered fossil.

“I’m sorry,” she continued. “I had to get to work, and I was in a rush because I was late. I always go this way, and usually there isn’t anybody on the street so early, so I didn’t expect to find anyone, especially not
you
, so I wasn’t paying attention, and—”

“Not
me
?” the man interrupted. Sandra could see the hint of a beguiling smile play on his lips. “What do you mean, not
me
?”

“I mean, not anybody I’d seen before,” Sandra stammered. “Not somebody so… distinctive.”

“So if you bumped into Mary Sue from the cleaners, you wouldn’t be as nervous as a schoolgirl talking to her first crush?” he asked, amusement twitching those luscious lips.

“I’m not…” …
nervous
, she tried to protest. But he swept right over her, stepping closer.

“I saw you looking at me in the coffee shop. Why?”

“Why?” She stumbled at the direct question.
Because I thought you were hot, and maybe knew you from somewhere?
“I mean, there aren’t many strangers in town, and…”

As she tried to find the right words, to sort out the millions of different thoughts tumbling through her head, she realized the man’s body was shaking.
Shaking
? She was too caught up in imagining what it would be like to run her hands all over his skin to understand why. Then she heard the deep rumble coming from his throat, and belated realized he was laughing.
Laughing!

“Do you always stare at men so openly?” His mouth curved in an amused, self-satisfied smile. He was
mocking
her! “It’s unbecoming.”

“I’m not… staring.” She frowned at him, trying to put on an indifferent front. She forced her eyes to the ground, away from his glorious body. She hated how off-balance she felt around him, but secretly loved the way he made her feel so fluttery inside. And yet, her words were
again
betrayed when a flood of heat rushed into her cheeks for being called out.

“Oh? Then what would you call it?”

“I was
concerned
for you, that’s all,” she snapped, irritated at her body’s insistence on making her blush at the worst possible moments, “to make sure you weren’t too badly burned.” Sandra had to retain
some
dignity in this interaction. “Although it serves you right, for walking without paying attention to where you’re going! It takes two people to crash into each other, you know. Besides, if you weren’t so engrossed in that phone in your hand—”

“Relax.” He reached out to touch her arm, and a sudden jolt of electricity ran through her body. She shivered. His voice was so confident, so smooth. “I’m teasing,” he said softly.

Sandra cleared her throat. She
shouldn’t
be reacting so readily to a complete stranger. “Well, I’m glad I could give you your gratification for the day. But, if you’ll excuse me, I really have to get to work.”

She tried to shuffle around him, but he stepped
into
her, invading her personal space. It made her dizzy to have him so close. She could feel the heat of his body radiating against her bare cheeks. “I think you owe me a little more than that,” he said smoothly.

Sandra blinked. The way he said that made it sound so dirty… if he thought she would jump all over him just because she thought he had an attractive body, he was
way
off base. “I—”

“You owe me a new shirt,” he said, smirking at her as if he could read her mind.

A mixture of relief and disappointment gurgled up inside of her. Sandra had no idea why she felt so high-strung. It was probably a combination of too little sleep last night, coupled with the totally off-kilter interaction with this stranger. “
Me
?” she clarified. “It was an accident. I can try dry cleaning it, maybe, but…” She knew she couldn’t
afford
to buy him that type of shirt. The way the man looked at her now, arms crossed against his chest, expectation clear on his face, made her feel like she was facing the stern owner of a china shop demanding compliance with his “you-break-it-you-buy-it” policy.

He shook his head. “It was no accident. You meant to do that.”

“I
meant
to do it?” Sandra was incredulous.

“I wasn’t born yesterday. You women all think the same way. You see a well-dressed man, and immediately start scheming the best way to sink your claws into him. You claim ignorance, but your ‘accidental’ encounter was obviously planned. Hell, I bet you timed it, too.”

Sandra’s mouth dropped open as he spoke. Any attraction she felt for him vanished when she heard that. Was he for
real
? Just how full of himself was he?

“Here.” Sandra shoved the blazer back into his hands, and stalked past him. She wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

“Hey, hey, I was joking, hold on,” the man called after her. She ignored him. She could
hear
his callous laughter follow at her back. She didn’t care. If he wanted to be an overconfident asshole, she had no intention of sticking around.

Chapter Two

Sandra worked in a fury as she struggled to make up for the time lost by her late arrival. There was so much to do, and not enough time to do it. The first patients would start filing in soon for their morning appointments with Doctor Baker. The desk she sat at wasn’t small, but it felt cramped with the overflowing paperwork that had built up this week.

She could manage it all, of course, but it would take time. As the only full-time receptionist at the clinic, she had to deal with medical bills and insurance papers, make calls to absent-minded patients who forgot their appointments, call pharmacies to make sure they were giving out the right drugs at the right dosages, and finish a hundred other things. Sandra also had to prepare Doctor Baker’s schedule of appointments, remind him of his upcoming anniversary with his wife, and make time at noon to sneak out and grab him a lunch that he all-too-often forgot. Then there were the dozens of unidentifiable loose papers, notes, and to-do lists that she would have to organize into some semblance of unity if she was to have any hope of ever catching up on them all.

It didn’t help that she was still flustered by the interaction that occurred outside the coffee shop.

Sandra knew she shouldn’t have been so amped up by it, but Sandra couldn’t stop replaying the morning’s events in her mind. Running head-first into the gorgeous man, spilling her coffee all over him, and then—worst of all!—being mocked and laughed at for an honest mistake was mortifying.