Read Save My Soul for Free Online Page B

now.”
    Through the wall of windows, she watched him walk across the great room and up the stairs. “He should’ve stayed and eaten with you instead of eating alone.”
    Jordon looked up from his chopsticks, gripping a California roll covered in soy sauce and wasabi. He chewed as he studied her, his gaze drifting from her eyes to her lips.
    The scrutiny shouldn’t bother Maggie. Crystal taught her letting someone look their fill was the greatest gift of clarity you could give. But if truth lurked behind the eyes, Maggie worried what Jordon might see.
    He finished chewing, and set the chopsticks aside. “Did it ever dawn on you that you don’t know everything about everybody?”
    â€œI never said that I do know everything.” She pulled on a silver hoop dangling from her ear.
    â€œBernie is married with two little girls. He would much rather eat with them than with a scary ogre like me.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œExactly.” Jordon popped another California roll into his mouth. “Eat.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I can’t.”
    He reached across the table and pulled the top off the plastic plate. “It’s vegetarian. Cross my heart. I didn’t sneak an ounce of caviar in there.” The chopsticks that he pulled from his mouth mere seconds ago danced millimeters above her food. “See? You’ve got avocado, sprouts, cucumber. That looks like dill pickle.” He pinched a roll between the sticks and tossed it into his mouth. “I’ll be damned. That’s good.”
    She expected him to be damned … but he ordered her vegetarian sushi. Now she wasn’t sure. “Did I tell you I was vegetarian?”
    â€œNo. I listen. It’s an occupational hazard. I figured if you won’t kill a spider, you certainly won’t eat fish eggs. Have Bernie take you to the store tomorrow or give him a list. Harris Teeter isn’t far, and they have a big selection of health foods.”
    Maggie scratched at a hot spot of skin above her breast. Just because he thought to feed her appropriately didn’t make him any less lethal to her enlightenment. Distance. Detachment. She had a job to do.
    Stuffing her mouth with a sushi roll, Maggie hoped to swallow the emotions too.
    â€œWhat’s the story behind the bump on your head?” His gaze lingered on the wound she was increasingly able to forget.
    â€œI fell.”
    â€œMust’ve fallen pretty hard.”
    â€œI fainted and hit the end of a table. The ER doctor was surprised I didn’t have a concussion.” She tapped the top of her skull. “I’m hardheaded.”
    â€œAnother spider?”
    â€œNo.” She wished. “I’m not always weird about spiders. That one seemed aggressive, and the night already wasn’t going my way, so I overreacted.”
    â€œDid you talk to him?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Yes. I did. I know you think that’s strange, but I talked to him as I shooed him out and stuffed a rug under the crack so he couldn’t return.”
    â€œAnd did he talk back?”
    â€œHa Ha.” She filled her mouth again and hummed while she chewed. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the rice mixed with cold vegetable filling and the spicy smell of wasabi burned the lining of her nose.
    â€œWhat made you faint?” Jordon hadn’t taken his eyes off of her since Bernie left.
    Despite the cool, night air, a hot tingle walked along her skin. “It’s a long story.”
    â€œWe have all night.”
    She felt sweaty; itchy, too. He stared at her like he expected the pressure from his eyes to force the story from her lips. And like that, his intense stare dropped to her mouth.
    Maggie thought back to the pier and his reaction to her nipples showing through her top. She wondered if his gaze would travel down.
    Jordon looked to the horizon instead.
    She wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t blessed with