Page 2 of The Awakening of Nina Fontaine

Hers came up first, one of many advantages to taking her coffee black. She reached for the cup and turned, narrowly missing a wall of a man standing right behindher.

“Oh! Sorry!” She held her cup over her head and away from the crowd, then looked up into the bluest eyes she’d everseen.

His grin was quick and wide, the light in his eyes making it clear he wasn’t annoyed in the slightest. “You’re armed and dangerous with thatthing.”

She laughed. “It’s a little tight inhere.”

It was the man who’d been in front of her in line, the one with the broad shoulders and thejacket.

Except the rearview hadn’t done him justice. He was well over six feet tall, his shoulders every bit as wide as they’d looked from behind, his face unlined but rugged, blond five o’ clock shadow darkening his chiseled jaw in spite of the earlyhour.

He was also young enough to be herson.

Well, not really, but he was definitely too young for the flare of lust heating herface.

He stepped aside enough for her to pass and looked through the crowd toward the exit. “I think if you start from here and move to the left of the guy in the beanie, you’ll have a straight shot at thedoor.”

She followed his gaze. “Green beanie or bluebeanie?”

His chuckle was low and gruff, the kind of laugh she could imagine coming from him in thedark.

“Blue.”

She nodded and gave him a mock salute with her free hand. “Wish meluck.”

A slow smile sneaked onto his face. “Somehow I have a feeling you don’t needluck.”

She drew in a breath and turned away before she could do or say something stupid, before he could see the flush she felt creeping up herneck.

He was right though: she maneuvered to the left of Blue Beanie and was outside in seconds, the bracing January air a welcome contrast to the heat ravaging herbody.

She scolded herself as she hurried toward the apartment. He was a handsome man, that’s all. She would think of him as a friend’s son, one of the nice college boys who used to mow the lawn in the summer, although Mr. Blue Eyes was definitely older than college-age.

As for the warmth still heating her body, it was probably just a hot flash, the onset of menopause, which was likely going to hit her any second, a nice little reminder from the universe that she was far too old to be lusting after the gorgeous man in the coffeeshop.

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