Read Her Summer with the Marine: A Donovan Brothers Novel (Entangled Bliss) for Free Online Page B

here is sharing facts.” He rose and pointed at the envelope on her desk. “That’s my offer. You do whatever you want to do. Set up shop again for your dad. Visit your dad. Whatever.”
    He started for the door but stopped abruptly. It might sound good to give her time, but he didn’t have six weeks to wait for her to make up her mind. He needed her company and he needed it now. She might have a dad to consider, but he had a mother to care for. He couldn’t let wayward hormones dictate how he negotiated.
    Or could he?
    Like it or not, sex was part of who they were now. Once a couple had “gone there” they couldn’t just pretend it hadn’t happened.
    And they were hot for each other.
    Always had been.
    Maybe it was time to stop ignoring the elephant in the room, forget about the deal for a few hours, and let nature take its course and work this attraction out of their systems, so they could both get their wits back?
    He turned and faced her again. “What do you say we go out for a drink? No business talk. No pressure from me. Just a nice beer between friends.”
    “I’m not dressed to go out.”
    He smiled the devastating smile he knew had melted a few female hearts in the past. “Are you kidding? This is Harmony Hills. In a tank top and jeans, you’ll fit in at any bar.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You can’t say you’re tired. You went to bed before eight o’clock last night.”
    “I’m not tired, but—”
    “What? You don’t want a beer?” He ambled back to her desk. “I can get you a glass of wine, if you’ve gotten snooty in the big city.”
    She laughed and toyed with a pencil.
    “Come on. You look like a woman who could use a drink.” And both of them needed to put an end to this tension. If all they had was drinks that would be fine, but if they ended up in bed that would probably be better. For both of them.
    “C’mon. It’ll be fun.”

Chapter Five
    Finn opened the door to the American Legion—the only bar open on Sunday—and stepped aside to let a pretty blond girl enter before him. She gave him a look that could only be interpreted as a come-on, but he barely noticed.
    Ellie had turned him down. Not just for the funeral home, but for a drink.
    Man, he couldn’t believe it.
    Strolling up to the bar, he went over everything he’d said and done in their little meeting, and came up empty. He got it that she’d already made up her mind not to sell before he’d arrived. But she’d made that decision based on bad intel. And both of their hormones were raging. So how could either one of them function properly? He’d come up with the perfect solution. Yet he’d struck out royally. She wouldn’t even have a drink with him.
    He must be losing his touch.
    Brent Tulowitski ambled over. A year or so older than Finn, with thinning dark hair that he craftily disguised by keeping it cut close to the scalp, he ran a cloth over the strip of bar in front of Finn and set down a paper coaster.
    “What’ll it be?”
    “Draft.”
    “Coming right up. We don’t keep our war heroes waiting around here.”
    And that was another thing. Everybody in town knew he’d served in Afghanistan, and everybody respected him. Not just because he was a former football hero, but because he’d grown up. He’d served his country. He was taking care of his mother.
    Sheesh…what the hell did Ellie want from him?
    Brent set the beer on the coaster just as Devon slid onto the stool beside his. “So, when exactly were you coming home to play poker and save me from General Hospital ?”
    He winced. “Sorry. I got a bit involved with the McDermott deal.”
    “She’s busting your balls again, isn’t she?” Devon asked, then ordered a draft from Brent.
    Brent poured Devon’s beer and set it on the bar. “She who?”
    “Ellie McDermott.”
    Brent’s eyes brightened. “She’s home?”
    Something flickered in Finn’s gut. He did not like the look in Brent’s eyes.
    “Yeah, and she thinks she needs to run