Read Feels Like Home: A Southerland Family Contemporary Romance Book 1 for Free Online Page A

walk past her house. He’d
had more to drink than usual, and he thought a walk would sober him
up. It was cool, but not cold. Summer was over, and fall hadn’t
really begun yet. After the heat and smoke of Andrew’s place, the
cool air helped clear his head.
    He walked block after block replaying his
reaction to his friend’s intention to date Autumn. It didn’t make
sense. He didn’t know her, but his gut didn’t seem to care. When he
thought about her with Andrew, his stomach tightened.
    And now he’d openly declared his own
intention to ask her out.
    He and Andrew never fought over women. One of
them gave the other a look and they knew that one was off limits.
It didn’t require them to talk or share their feelings and up until
tonight, it had worked beautifully. But he didn’t have any
illusions. If he didn’t hurry up and ask Autumn out, Andrew would
do it just to fuck with him. What were best friends for?
    He didn’t realize where his path had taken
him until he looked up from his feet and into the window of Marion
Maddox’s pretty if slightly worn, Victorian. Unlike the stately
homes nestled on the tree-lined streets in the older part of town
or the few plantation houses like the one he’d grown up in that
stood while the town spread around them like live oaks, the Maddox
place was a little jewelry box of a house. The paint was peeling
and the gingerbread trim had fallen off in places, but it was
impossible to see the house and not picture what it must have
looked like in its prime.
    It wasn’t the trim that held his attention.
Silhouetted in the window, Autumn brushed her hair. The thin cotton
gown she wore offered no obstacle to his hungry gaze. If anything,
the shadow of the fabric, translucent in the light, accentuated her
lush curves.
    The soft swell of her breast. The way her
waist dipped to meet the roundness of hip and gently curving
bottom. Jude stood on the sidewalk transfixed. He should turn away.
He knew he was seeing something private. She couldn’t know how the
single light from the dresser exposed her.
    He should look away. He would; in just a
minute he’d turn from the window and wind his way back to the
apartment above his office.
    She turned first, shifting her body sideways
and raising her arm to brush her hair.
    Sweet Jesus on the cross.
    Her head tipped back as she drew the brush
through her hair and the position showed the outline of her breast,
the soft swell and pointed tip clearly visible beneath the cotton
gown. His mouth actually watered.
    Okay, he’d respect her privacy and turn away
and then tomorrow he’d ask her out. Solid plan, turn and walk away.
Just turn.
    The brush froze mid-stroke, and Autumn turned
to face him. Realizing how bad it would look to be caught leering
at her from the sidewalk, Jude backed up fast. Too fast given the
last scotch. He stumbled, catching himself before he fell, but it
was enough time for her to reach the window and throw open the
sash.
    “ What the hell do you think
you’re doing out there?” She leaned out the window to stare at him.
“Jude? Jude Southerland, what are you doing peeking in my
window?”
    What was he supposed to
say? I didn’t mean to come here. I looked
and you were there – the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I
wanted to turn away but I was spellbound.
    “ You need to close your
curtains. Anyone walking past here could see everything.” Smooth, very smooth. She’d definitely have dinner with him now. Christ, he ought to
just call Andrew and tell him to go ahead; Jude was out of the
equation. The thought made his fists clench.
    She looked from the light on the dresser down
to her nightgown. He could tell the moment she realized what she’d
been showing off because she wrapped her arms around her breasts,
hugging herself tight. But she didn’t back up or hide in shame.
    “ That doesn’t give you the
right to stand on my sidewalk like some kind of peeping Tom, Dr.
Southerland.” She punched the word