She turned slowly until she was facing him, and his breath lodged in his lungs. Her skin was clear and golden, her face was oval with high cheekbones, full lips, and thick brown lashes that framed the most gorgeous dark green eyes he’d ever seen. Her long, blonde, wavy hair was tucked behind small ears, ears he suddenly had a strong urge to lick and nibble. Her breasts were big for her size, but stood pert and round. His cock stirred, and he barely held back a groan.
What would she say now that she’d seen him?
How would her voice sound? The longing for the answer to those two questions kept him rooted to the spot. He held his breath, waiting for her to say something.
“Who’s there? I can hear you. What do you want?”
Her voice was low, husky . . . sexy as hell. He scowled. The trees didn’t offer enough shading for him to disappear into. She had to see him. Was she playing with him?
“Please. Who’s there?” Her full lips trembled after the words.
She was afraid, and he wanted to go to her and comfort her. He raised his hands and stepped into the clearing to give her a better view of him. “I won’t hurt you. I’m sorry I startled you.”
“Who are you?” she asked.
“My name is Kish. Kish Frahm.”
She stretched her hands out in front of her, began walking slowly toward him, and that’s when he realized that she was blind. How could something so beautiful be afflicted with blindness? It wasn’t fair. A strange pang throbbed in his chest and he suddenly wanted to hurt something, someone for denying her the gift of sight.
He took another step toward her and guided her hand to his chest. “I’m here.”
“Oh.” She glided her fingers over the expanse of his chest and shoulders. “Oh, my. You are a big one now, aren’t you?”
He smiled, but when she reached for his face, he circled her wrists with his fingers to stop her.
“I’m sorry. I usually ask before I touch someone’s face, but you kind of took me by surprise.” She smiled.
His heart thumped hard. He was sure she could light up the night sky with that radiant smile of hers.
“May I?” She gently tugged against his fingers around her wrists as she tried to lift her hands to his face once again.
He let go of her instantly and took a step back.
“No. I need to go. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
No way in hell was he going to let her run those baby-smooth fingertips over his mangled face.
She’d probably run away in disgust or horror or both.
“I didn’t mean to offend you. I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to. It’s how I learn how people look.”
He squeezed his eyes shut for an instant and rubbed his palm over his face in response to the look of her that now marred her perfect features.
“It’s okay. I must go. Good-bye, um . . .”
“Georgia. My name is Georgia Reese. It was nice to meet you, Kish.”
He backed slowly into the thick trees, watching her the whole way. He wanted to stay with her, wanted to listen to her talk some more. He wanted to simply watch her. Something inside him screamed as he retreated—“Don’t go. Don’t go,”
the voice chanted. But he had to. He had no business getting involved with another woman so soon, with another woman period.
But she can’t see me. Maybe there’s a chance this could work. “Idiot.” Surely her friends aren’t al blind. What would I do? Keep her locked away from anyone who could see? Anyone who could tel her the hideous monster she was with? But it was a tempting thought. Why couldn’t he until he got her out of his system? Because you’d be a bigger asshole than Connie and al the others combined if you did that to her.
“Good-bye, Georgia Reese,” he whispered as he turned to go home.
Chapter Four
Georgia sat up in bed. She could hear the soft chirping of birds outside, which told her it was early morning. Lucy stretched at her feet, and she reached down and patted the dog on the head.
“What a strange dream I had, Lucy. It seemed so real.” Her wrists stil tingled from the man’s touch.
Kish’s touch.
But that was impossible. It had to be her mind playing tricks on her. She recaled his voice. It had been deep with a tinge of a rasp and hesitation. True that he had initialy startled her, so entranced by the feel of the snow she’d been, but once he’d spoken, she’d felt instant comfort. And he’d been so big.
She sighed. “My, oh my, was he ever big.”
She’d had to reach up quite a way to find his chest, and it had been wide with hard, muscled shoulders. She’d longed to touch his face, to learn what her mystery dream man had looked like, but he’d abruptly stopped her. But why? Some people simply didn’t like for someone to touch their face.
Maybe he was one of them.
She frowned and remembered how rough the fingers of his right hand on her wrist had felt in comparison to the left. If both were like the right, she would have simply thought them to be caloused or roughened from work, but it was strange that only the right fingers were rough.
She suddenly remembered his scent. She took a deep breath and swore she could stil smel the faint clean masculinity of it. She tensed, though, as she remembered a hint of something else, something she’d never smeled on a human before, something that seemed vaguely familiar. She couldn’t recal the scent no matter how hard she tried, and it irked her because smels and sounds were things she did not often forget.
She shrugged and got out of bed. Lucy jumped up, eager to go to work like any other morning. She patted her on the head. “You get to take it easy this week, girl. I’l need you off and on, but for the most part, I just want you to be a dog for the next few days and enjoy.”
She hugged Lucy before sifting through the drawers to find her favorite jeans and a soft sweater.
Thick socks, underwear, and bra completed the outfit, and she slowly made her way to the bathroom to shower.
“I’l only be a few minutes, Lucy. Then we’l go out, and you can do your business.” She patted Lucy again before shutting the bathroom door.
Twenty minutes later, Georgia was clean, dressed, and ready to go. She put her dirty clothes in her room and attached the harness to Lucy. As she walked through the house, she found it strange that she was up and Henry and Joey weren’t. She was the one who usualy slept in. She smiled as she unlocked the door and gave Lucy the forward command. Maybe the fresh air was going to be a good thing for al of them.
She gave Lucy the command to do her business and stood with her face up to the sky. It was something she did quite often as she enjoyed the feel of clean air on her face. But the enjoyment quickly died when a particular nasty gust of cold made its way up her backside and under the coat she’d puled on as she’d gone out the door but hadn’t bothered to zip.
She shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle. When Lucy was finished, they made there way back inside where the aroma of coffee hit her hard as she came in the door alerting her that Henry and/or Joey was up.
She hung her coat up on the peg beside the door and released Lucy from her harness.
“Morning, sunshine,” Henry said as Georgia went to get a cup of coffee.
“Good morning. Where’s your better half?”
“Oh! I’m so hurt,” he said dramaticaly before chuckling. “He’s in the shower. Should be about done by now. Cups are on the counter.”
“Thank you. The coffee smels wonderful.” She poured a cup took a tentative sip. “I thought the forecast caled for clear skies for the week.”