Page 4 of Mr. Scandalous

“I’ll help her, if you wanna finish that.” Ashley nodded at the basket Eden was working on.

Normally Eden handled all gift consultations, but Ashley knew Jayne well and she was trying to help.

“Sure,” Eden said. “That’ll be fine if Jayne’s on board.”

“Really?” Ashley’s eyes lit up.

“Do mind if Ashley takes your order this time, Jayne? We’ll prep the basket together, of course.”

“Absolutely. Maybe Ashley will even share some of her sexual escapades with me.” Jayne winked. “I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be young.”

“What do you think about leopard-print loincloth? We’ve got a great new supplier from South Africa.” Ashley ushered Jayne to their cubicle-sized back room.

“Hmm, sounds promising,” Jayne said.

Shaking her head, Eden returned to her task and tuned out Ashley and Jayne’s murmured voices. Would she ever have a love life Jayne’s? Married forty-five years and still enjoying terrific sex?

With those scars? Not likely.

Eden sighed. Some people were lucky in love. Apparently, she was not. On that score, she was her mother’s daughter.

But could she be lucky in lust?

Expanding her sexual horizons would be good for both business and her creativity. It was the missing piece of the puzzle and in her heart she knew it. Her cautious nature had held her back for too long. Lack of experience had her feeling like a fraud, and that caused her artistic block.

Just because that jerk Josh had fled from the sight of her naked body, didn’t mean every man would run from her scars. She needed a sensitive lover who knew his way around a woman’s body.

Okay, all right. She did need to get laid. But even if she took a huge risk, stripped off her clothes in front of a stranger and revealed her secret vulnerability, she had no prospects in mind—Ashley’s hottie spray-paint artist aside—and she sure as hell wouldn’t go back on the hookup apps.

She tied a big red bow around the basket and then stepped over to place it in the orders-waiting-to-be-picked-up glass display case. She set the basket down, and then slowly raised her head and peered out the front window.

The air hung heavy with the rich scent of impending rain as a humidity-laden wind gusted and sent street debris swirling at the curb. It was one of those an enigmatic, electrically charged afternoons that lingered between dwindling summer and impending autumn, a sultry day that could stir a woman’s blood.

And that’s when Eden saw him.

Standing rooted to the sidewalk, looking as if he owned the entire street while everyone else scurried around him. Inexplicably, she sucked in her breath and a shiver scampered down her spine.

God, he was gorgeous!

Skyscraper tall and daredevil muscular, his lush dark hair curled to his collar giving him a wild, roguish appearance despite his tailored business suit. His lean face was chiseled, his mouth full and tempting, and his eyes were the smoky gray of a grass fire and fringed with black lashes dense as paintbrushes.

Ambushed by the unexpectedly intense attraction, Eden’s knees weakened as a dozen forbidden images tumbled through her brain.

What was happening here?

Just minutes ago, she’d been unable to dredge up a single sexual fantasy and now she couldn’t stop them. She saw herself rolling around on a heart-shaped bed in a woodsy cabin in the Catskills with this guy. Then, she saw their sweaty bodies pressed together as they made love on the floor of a grass hut in Bora Bora. She envisioned them grinding against each other on a bearskin rug before a roaring fire in Iceland. He was a plundering pirate, and she was his captive. She was a streetwalker plying her trade, and he was her randy John. He was a virile gunslinger, and she was the timid schoolmarm come to tutor the children in his untamed town. Eden tasted the briny flavor of his skin as she bit his bare shoulder and inhaled the smell of coconut, bananas and lusty man. She heard his deep-throated groan as he called out her name in the ecstasy of climax.

Omigod, omigod, omigod.

Stunned and excited, Eden raised a hand to her throat. The magic was back.

Then he leveled his gaze, stared straight through the window and sauntered into her store.

ChapterTwo

Alec Ramsey double-checkedthe Soho address on his cell phone. Yep, Wickedly Wonderful, this was the place his oldest sister Sarah had recommended.

He raised his head and started for the door, but then his eyes landed on the woman in the storefront window, and he froze.

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