Page 1 of Never Let Me Go

Chapter 1

Jeff Grainger was having a bad day. His truck was in the shop, forcing him to fold his six-two body into his mother’s tiny economy car. He’d lost a construction bid to a new guy in town who talked a big game but was a crooked scammer. And now he was about to face the only woman in the world who had ever made him question his sexual prowess.

Marisa Evans. Blonde. Beautiful. Girl-next-door looks.

And—until Jeff bungled a romantic interlude—a virgin.

Why the hell hadn’t she told him?

They both lived in the slow-paced town of Blossom Branch, Georgia, but they’d barely spoken two words to each other in the intervening year and a half since theincident. As far as Jeff was concerned, the situation might have remained frozen indefinitely, each of them ignoring the other.

Unfortunately, the town council had asked Jeff and Marisa to coordinate a project together, and now Jeff was stuck. He couldn’t say no without hurting his business reputationandmaking Marisa think he was avoiding her.

Which, of course, he was...

Hell.

He scrunched down in his seat as far as he could and scanned the area. No sign of her yet. They were supposed to meet at two o’clock beside the iconic Blossom Branch gazebo. The eight-sided structure located smack in the center of the town quad was impossible to miss. The beautiful park surrounding it was green and lush with large oak trees and plenty of room for picnic blankets, park benches and lovers’ rendezvous.

Not that this appointment was anything like a lovers’ rendezvous. He and Marisa had only been together in the biblical senseone time.That didn’t make them lovers. Far from it.

They were just two people who had let a pheromone-fueled, romantic-as-hell Valentine’s Day date spiral out of control. A blind date at that. Set up by his baby sister who thought he needed to socialize more.

Never again. Not a blind date, anyway.

He scanned the park a second time, and then he saw her. Immediately, his blood pressure shot up. She was tall and lean with precisely the right proportion of curves. Her skinny jeans and lemon yellow crop top revealed a section of her tanned midriff.

Barely two inches. Hardly worth mentioning. But even at this distance, she made him sweat.

Get out of the car, Grainger.He had to make his limbs move. It was five minutes before the appointed hour. Being late was unacceptable.

When he locked his vehicle and ambled across the quad, feigning calm, he saw she was wearing sexy gold sandals. Her long, wavy hair was pulled up in a ponytail. Since it was the end of August, her clothing choices were perfectly acceptable. It was hot today.

The problem was, he remembered kissing that sexy, flat belly and tickling those cute, feminine toes with the shell-pink nail polish.

Get a grip. Get a grip.

Marisa hadn’t seen him yet. She was facing the opposite direction, looking at her phone...perhaps checking the time.

He sucked in a breath, closing the distance between them. He could swear her scent wafted on the air. Light, tantalizing. Intensely feminine.

A trio of teenagers crossed between them. Marisa still studied her phone. Maybe looking for a text from him?

He cleared his throat. “Marisa?”

She whirled around so suddenly, it madehimdizzy.

“Jeff...”

The way she whispered his name made his sex twitch. Southern accents were a dime a dozen around here. But there was something about her low, slightly husky voice that made his scalp tingle and his body tighten.

Her blue-eyed gaze was wary.

“Hey,” he said, trying to pretend their meeting was nothing special. “Thanks for coming.”

Her brows narrowed. “I didn’t have much choice. The town council sends a lot of business my way. Can’t afford to get on their bad side.”

That was exactly why Jeff was here as well, but it miffed him to hear the reluctance in her voice. “Same here,” he said bluntly. “Might as well get this over with.”

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