Read Winter's Wonder: Pine Point, Book 2 for Free Online Page B

getting caught having sex in public places? She bet Zane had a dozen or more. She, on the other hand, had to think hard to remember the last time she’d had sex at all.
    “Otherwise,” Zane went on, “it’s pretty quiet over there. Just me and another security guard.” He shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ll take peace and quiet.”
    “You’ll get that in Pine Point, that’s for sure.” She took her last bite of salmon. “Yum. This was so good.”
    “So what did you do after high school?” Zane asked as the waiter cleared their plates.
    “College for four years at a little school in Connecticut.”
    “You major in animal science or something?”
    “Nope. Business and accounting. Kind of boring, I know.”
    “Doll, I haven’t found one thing about you that’s boring yet.” His gaze seared hers, and all the lovely warmth from earlier in the evening returned tenfold.
    I want this man. Now. In my bed. Or on this table. Or anywhere at all really. Becca pressed her palms to her lap. Somehow in the last hour, she’d turned into a raging ball of hormones. Who was the animal now?
    “How’d you end up working at the shelter?” he asked, as if completely unaware of his effect on her.
    “I, ah…” She cleared her throat and focused on the twinkling white lights in the front window. “I volunteered there all through high school and summers during college. When I came back, they were looking for a business manager.”
    “But you’re doing all the managing right now.”
    “Temporarily. Until the board hires a new general manager, but that probably won’t be until after the first of the year.”
    He nodded and took the check when it arrived, sliding a hundred dollar bill inside the leather folder. “Do you like it?”
    “I do. Some days it breaks my heart, and I know I’ll never get rich working there…” She wondered how sappy she sounded and then decided she didn’t care. “But I feel like I make a difference, and that counts for something. At least to me. Animals can’t help themselves when they’re in trouble.” She shrugged. “But if I can help them, then it seems like I have to try.”
    His eyes hadn’t left her face, except to drop to her mouth once and return to her eyes. She couldn’t read his expression. Was he bored? Amused? Marveling at how utterly naïve she sounded? Finally, he reached for her hand. “You ready to call it a night?”
    She nodded, disappointed. She must have bored him, or he wouldn’t be taking her home at a quarter to nine. He held her coat and then slipped on his own and walked her to his truck. It sat by the curb, black and chrome and enormous.
    “Can I ask you something?” she said as they reached the passenger side.
    “Of course.”
    She rubbed both arms to warm herself. “Why did you ask me out tonight?”
    For a long moment, he didn’t answer. I shouldn’t have asked. Maybe it was some crazy dare. Maybe he was regretting it now. He certainly seemed like he was regretting it now, because—
    “Becca,” was all he said, and she had no more time to think before he leaned down and kissed her.
    His hands went to her face, brushing the loose hair from her cheeks, and his tongue teased its way inside her mouth. A rush of sensations made her woozy, and it was all she could do not to collapse into him. As it was, he backed her into the truck, and the cold metal against her back mixed with the heat from everywhere else and filled her up. She kissed him back as if her life depended on it.
    As if she’d never kissed anyone before.
    As if she’d split apart in the next second, and every last inch of her was intent on holding herself together as he moved his mouth to her temple, her ear, her neck, the palm of one hand.
    “You have to ask, doll?” Zane finally said when they broke apart. “I wanted to do this.” He ran one hand down the length of her front, pausing a second at her waist before trailing up again. “And this.” He leaned in again, but this time the