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could even feel his body heat emanating from him, detecting the faint scent of his male muskiness. He was so big and hard and muscled, barely fitting in his bucket seat. He seem to take up more than half the space of the front of the car, making Anna Marie feel claustrophobic.
    For the hundredth time, she was asking herself why she was reacting this way to this man. Surely there was no reason for it, no reason for her stomach to be doing belly flops from the moment she saw him, or no reason for this gnawing need to jump out of her skin. He was just another attractive man. A very attractive man. But why shouldn’t she still be able to handle being in the presence of an attractive man? She had before with other men, including Cameron.
    One, breathe, two, breathe, three, breath.
    “Uh, you must be happy to see your brother after all these years,” she said, hoping it didn’t sound too weak.
    “Yes, it is good to see him. I just wish I could stay longer.”
    Silence again. Anna Marie chewed on her lips trying to find another opening.
    Beside her, Dallas watched her, his eyes lazy and a bit thoughtful. He said, “My brother tells me that you’re a librarian.”
    “Yes, I am. I work at the county library.”
    “He also said that you wanted to get your doctoral degree so that you could work at the Library of Congress.”
    She turned her head for a moment, surprised that Cameron would have told his brother about her most sacred aspiration. Automatically, she began to apologize and explain herself, as she always had to with her parents and sister. “I guess it’s not the most sensible ambition, and it’s really hard to get hired by them, even for those from Harvard or Stanford.”
    “You must love books very much.”
    Secret Affair 28
    Anna Marie smiled, then, the first genuine smile that she gave him that night. She didn’t know it, but she was beginning to relax being able to talk about a topic that she was most familiar with and one that was most dear to her heart. “My family says that it’s an obsession with me. I got yelled at more for having my nose in a book by my parents than my sister did for sneaking out at night. And I love to go to these small bookshops that buy and trade in old books.
    There’s one downtown, on Fourth Street. I go there a lot, I’m afraid, and just sit in the aisles and pour over an obscure book of a treatise on Darwin’s theory. Do you know it’s amazing to read the early texts on theories that have been refined and advanced in modern times. You get to see how the science community and society overall assimilated a new theory, and how they proceeded to prove or disprove it, and in what directions other scientists took to do further research.” She stopped, embarrassed that she was rambling on a topic that could be of no interest to anyone but her, including a Navy SEAL. “Well, I’m sure you didn’t want to hear all that.
    Sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize for talking about a subject that interests you so much.”
    “I guess I don’t get a lot of opportunity to talk about old books. Not lot of people are into them the way I am.”
    “Not a lot of people are interested in things that are of real value these days.”
    Anna Marie turned her head to look at Dallas again, surprised that he understood how she felt. She was so used to people putting down her passion for books.
    “I could use a drink.” Dallas suddenly said, struggling to stretch out his long legs in the small confines of the car.
    “Oh, would you like me to drop you off at a bar?
    He paused for a long moment. “I was thinking more that you could invite me to your
    place for a drink.”
    At first the words didn’t register in Anna Marie’s mind. When they did, she whipped her head around to him, and stared at him in shock. It was about the last thing she had expected him to say.
    “Stop,” Dallas said calmly, his eyes staring back at her.
    “What?”
    “You need to stop the car.”
    Secret Affair 29
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