Nora Roberts Land(24)

Bill Kiever was a forest ranger, a bit short for her taste, but as burly as a rugby player. He’d invited her on an easy hike to “get her back in the swing of things.” Meredith hoped she’d be safe wandering into the wild with him. His eyes weren’t crazy like some serial killer’s. Besides, she’d take her cell phone and a can of pepper spray. She could always claim it was for warding off rogue wildlife. Of course, Divorcée Woman would use the chopstick holding up her hair to take him down and her bra straps to tie his hands and feet. Who needs rope when you have La Perla?

And then there was Avery Miller. He owned the new cheese shop in town called Don’t Wedge Me In. Avery was definitely a metrosexual or whatever the heck the current term was. He was a San Francisco transplant, and he seemed to be a nice guy and a good conversationalist. And he wasn’t pushy. He hid his regard for her better than the others. She didn’t think he’d try to force his tongue down her throat like Deputy Larry. After all, Divorcée Woman liked slow, come-hither kisses on the first date.

She was on her third beer when she caught sight of a new man coming through the door. After flirting all night with a few different guys, her sexual attraction meter was humming along quite nicely. She was channeling Divorcée Woman without thinking. No touching her bodice or anything.

Her gauge did more than hum as she watched this man’s well-muscled body walk across the room to the end of the bar. It gave a Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum.

His height made him easy to follow. His dark, thick hair wasn’t fussy, and she could tell he wasn’t one of those guys who used more hair product than she did. His face had the rugged appearance of someone who lived with constant tension, giving him a hot Alpha look she usually didn’t go for. There was an air of danger, a watchfulness about him.

And then he smiled at the female bartender. His granite jaw turned devilish, and she’d swear his eyes twinkled. He didn’t laugh with the woman pulling his beer, but he gave her his total focus, like she was the only person he was interested in listening to in the whole world. That intensity made her stop breathing for a moment. Oh, to have a guy’s full attention like that. She bet he’d smell good too—all musky, like a man should.

Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum. Meredith winced as she realized the lyrics were about the Baby Jesus at Christmas. So not appropriate for lusting after a man in a bar.

What would Divorcée Woman do? She would saunter down the bar, give him the look, and lead him out of the bar. Take him to a hotel room, strip him down slowly, run her hands over his gorgeous body, and use him for hot, screaming sex.

He scanned the bar with focused intensity. Meredith couldn’t make out the color of his eyes, but she wanted to know what it was. His jaw sported a five o’clock shadow. Her heart pounded to the beat of the Irish drums blasting over the speakers, and she licked her lips. Wow. Just wow.

“Who are you looking at?” Jill asked and then uttered, “Oh, him.”

“I feel like Shane Abbot when she saw Vance Banning for the first time,” Meredith muttered.

“Ah, First Impressions. I loved that book,” Jill hummed.

“You two,” Jemma complained.

Meredith continued to study the newcomer. Her eyes fluttered when he turned his back. Muscles rippled under his white shirt as he reached for his Guinness. She catalogued them in her mind—trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboid, and serratus. Oh, God, why did she have a thing for strong back muscles? Oh yeah, because she’d spent her formative years with swimmers. And boy, did male swimmers have good ones.

“I don’t know him.” Jill craned her neck when a gigantic older guy stepped in their line of vision. “But yummy, yummy. Let’s get closer.”

Meredith pressed her hands to her ribcage and tried to draw a breath. Her skin was tight. And her nipples were hard. Her chemical reaction to this man was over the top.

Fear suddenly trickled down her back like an ice cube. She hadn’t been with a man since Richard. Was she really ready to get involved with someone who had this type of power over her body from across a room? Well maybe…not really…oh hell.

But it’s the power that makes you scream, that throaty voice said in her head again, the one she’d heard when she arrived. And when have you ever let yourself do that?

Even though it was a little weird having the voice in her head, she knew it was her alter ego talking. Funny how the words kinda comforted her.

Jill pushed her toward the bar, Jemma following behind, but before Meredith could make it to the mystery guy, a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders. She looked up into Brian McConnell’s smiling face.