LITMIR.BIZ

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the ground in answer to his command. Not this female. Joanna was stronger than that. At least she hoped so, although at times she greatly questioned her strength in his presence. Especially now.

      Rio gestured toward the staircase. “You, Ms. Blake, may come with me.”

      Joanna silently followed behind him trying hard to avert her gaze from the roll of his narrow hips as he took the stairs with a long stride. Even when they arrived on the second floor, she couldn’t seem to stop looking, imagining, remembering the night he’d kissed her, the night he’d taken off his shirt at her apartment. And that tattoo. Below that tattoo…

      “My bedroom’s down there.” Rio pointed to his left.

      “Really?” Joanna’s voice sounded high-pitched and scratchy.

      “Yeah. Do you want to see it?”

      She didn’t dare. “Maybe later.” Maybe never, if she knew what was best for her.

      He gestured in the opposite direction. “There’re two baths and three other smaller rooms at the other end.”

      “What’s in those other rooms?”

      “Not much. One’s my office, the other two have a few odds and ends, but no real furniture to speak of.”

      “Oh. So where am I staying?”

      “Right this way.” He crossed the hall and opened a door that led to another stairwell enclosed by narrow walls. “Be careful,” he said over one shoulder as he began to climb the steps. “It’s pretty steep.”

      Joanna made sure to concentrate on her footing, not Rio Madrid’s finer points, as she scaled the stairs. She’d hate to have to explain that she’d taken a tumble while shamelessly staring at his butt.

      At the top of the staircase, he opened another door and stepped inside the room. Joanna could only gape once she entered behind him. The whole area was swathed in sunlight spilling from the triple windows. The four-poster white canopy, covered in a frilly spread dotted with lilacs, the antique-white dresser, the immaculate hardwood floors with scattered throw rugs, looked like something from Victorian times. A matching lilaccolored chaise set below one window served as an invitation, a place to curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. Or with a lover on a lazy Sunday afternoon. She swallowed hard.

      “Wow.” It was all Joanna could manage at the moment. The room was almost twice as big as her old apartment, and no comparison as far as comfort was concerned. Never in her wildest imaginings had she envisioned this lovely place.

      Rio laced his hands at his nape, his gorgeous face shining with satisfaction. “Yeah, it’s nice. Not exactly my kind of decor, but I didn’t have the heart to change anything. It has a personality all its own.”

      Joanna couldn’t agree more. She walked to the bed and ran one hand down the post. “It’s wonderful.”

      He pushed open another door and leaned against the wall next to it. “The bathroom’s right here. It’s not very big, and it only has a tub. An old claw-footed tub, but it’s been restored. If you’d rather take a shower, you can use one of the second-floor bathrooms, or you could use mine. It’s big.”

      Joanna locked on to his sensual smile. The image of showering with Rio Madrid arrived in great detail, including fogged-up glass from heavy breathing, not steam. Slick bodies, roving hands…

      Good heavens. She didn’t need to think about that now. Or ever. “Is there somewhere I can hang these?”

      He pointed behind her. “In the closet.”

      She turned. “A closet? That’s great. I haven’t had one of those in a while.” She hadn’t had a lover in a while, either, a fact apparent every time Rio Madrid walked into the room.

      After hanging her things in the moderate-size closet, she faced him again. “I guess I’ll go get the rest of the boxes and bring them up.”

      “I’ll do it in a minute. Care for some lunch?”

      “Sure. I thought I’d go to the store and pick up a few groceries.”

      He pushed away from the wall. “I had my housekeeper do that yesterday.”

      “You have a housekeeper?”

      “Yeah. I can’t keep this place clean by myself, nor do I want to. She comes in twice a week, during the day.”

      “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

      His grin resurfaced. “So your idea of heaven is a housekeeper?”

      Joanna strolled to the bed and dropped onto the edge. “One of my ideas.” Laughing, she fell back and sank into the soft mattress, arms raised above her head. “And this bed.”

      Rio slipped onto the bed beside her, thankfully not in a prone position. “I agree, a good feather bed qualifies as heavenly. So do other things.”

      She stared up at him. “What other things?” Had she really asked him such a leading question?

      His smile faded into a seriously sensual expression. “Walking barefoot in grass. Swimming naked in a lake. Making love in the moonlight.”

      Joanna’s heart lurched hard in her chest. She’d only done one of those things, but she hadn’t walked barefoot in clover since she was a teenager. “Very poetic, Doctor.”

      “Not poetry, just perfection.”

      He was perfect, Joanna thought, from head to toe, at least superficially. But she knew soul deep that perfection was only an illusion. Everyone had flaws; Rio Madrid was no exception. But he also had an undeniable aura, a sensual magnetic field, drawing her in as if she were made of iron. She feared she might not be that strong if he made one move toward her.

      Bolting from the bed, she stood before him, hands clasped tightly to keep from pulling the band out of his hair to let it completely fall just so she could experience its silky texture. “Okay, so what do you have in mind for lunch?”

      The look he gave her said anything but food. His sexy smile had her thinking the same thing. “I’m kind of partial to peanut butter and jelly.”

      She returned his smile. “My son’s favorite fare.”

      His features went solemn. “You know, Joanna, your son’s welcome here. If you want to send for him, we could fix up one of the bedrooms.”

      Joanna experienced a twinge of emotion over his generosity. Few men would offer their homes to a single mom and her child. “I really appreciate that, but he’s settled into school right now and I wouldn’t want to uproot him again until I have a decent place of my own. Maybe that will happen by this summer.”

      Rio stood and sighed. “You’ve been here less than an hour and you’re already thinking about leaving me.”

      Leaving him? “I can’t stay here forever. But I appreciate this arrangement more than you know. It will give me a chance to get back on my feet financially.” If he didn’t pull the rug out from under her emotionally. Again, she didn’t plan to let that happen. She’d done that once, let a man have her heart only to be left holding the remnants.

      “We’ll take it one day at a time,” he said with confidence as he strolled toward the door. “But in the meantime, let’s go downstairs and grab some lunch. I’m starving.”

      So was Joanna, for things she didn’t dare want.

      Four

      “You have a fountain in your pool.”

      Rio couldn’t stop the urge to tease Joanna a little. He had trouble stopping any urges where she was concerned. “A pool? No kidding? I didn’t realize that. Guess I should go into the backyard more often.”

      Joanna glanced at him over one shoulder and smiled. “You are just full of it today, aren’t you?”

      Rio

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