Too Hot to Handle (Romancing the Clarksons #1) Read online

  “Hello?” She called, just above a whisper. “Please don’t be a bear. Again.”

  That wish sparked so many questions—again?—Aaron didn’t grab Old Man’s collar in time and the furry bastard slinked toward the girl, totally ignoring Aaron’s sharp command to retreat. He lay down a few feet from the shadows where the girl was hiding, laying his face on two paws. Showing her he isn’t a threat?

  Just when you think you know a dog.

  The girl entered the moonlight again, this time on her knees, hands reaching out—palms up—to Old Man. And so the first time Aaron saw her face, it was washed over with pleasure. “Hi,” she breathed. “Hi, pretty…boy? Boy, I think. Thank you for not being a bear. Again.”

  Aaron felt a twinge in his fingers and realized he’d been gripping the bark of the tree too hard. This is why I came into the woods. She’s why.

  “That’s ridiculous,” he muttered, raking the sore hand down the side of his trousers. He was prowling around in the middle of the night on some misguided mission to get the lay of the land for tomorrow. Not to accidentally run into a girl with freak-show hair and an unrealistic fear of bears.

  “Are you alone?” She asked Old Man, under her breath.

  Aaron made a sound of disgust as the pooch turned his head, tongue lolling to the side like a drooling fool. He had no choice but to step out from behind the tree, but felt the need to put his hands up. So she would know he wasn’t a bear, for the love of God. “It’s just a human. You’re safe.”

  The girl shot to her feet, her back coming up hard against the stucco building. Her eyes were as turbulent as her mane of braids and curls, but they seemed to calm when he halted his progress. “Humans are most dangerous of all,” she finally said. “Why aren’t you wearing a jacket?”

  O-kay. He had to be back in his cabin dreaming, right? “Excuse me?”

  “It’s freezing and you’re wearing a T-shirt.”

  Aaron looked down, as if he wasn’t fully aware of his attire. Come to think of it, he was pretty goddamn cold, but he’d been too distracted to notice. “I’m from California.”

  She nodded gravely. “Are there bears in California?”

  “We have one on our state flag.” He chanced a couple steps closer, but Old Man actually growled at him, cutting off his progress. Really?

  “Your dog doesn’t seem to like you very much,” the girl remarked.

  “Yeah, thanks for noticing. The feeling is mutual.” Aaron tilted his head, irrationally vexed that her face was half shaded by shadows again. “Hey, do you mind coming out here into the light?”

  A beat passed. “Yes, I think I mind.”

  Not what he’d been expecting, at all. Had he completely lost his touch with women? “Why do you mind?”

  “Because you saw me climbing out of the window.” He could hear her swallow across the distance separating them. “I didn’t do anything wrong—not really—but if someone were to disagree and claim I did do something wrong, you could identify me.”

  Aaron snorted. “I could pick your hair out of a thousand-person lineup.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured, her hand reaching out of the darkness to scratch behind Old Man’s ears. “Yours is nice, too.”

  “Are you talking to me or the dog?”

  She laughed, the sound more solemn than he would have expected from someone with five hairstyles thrown into one. Maybe even a little sad. His desperation to catalogue her features shot up into the stratosphere. They would provide some type of answer to the riddle of her—and, honestly, why was he even confused? Even his confusion was confusing.

  “What were you doing inside the school?” The question came out harsher than intended and he watched as her hand stilled on Old Man’s head. A movement that increase his suspicion, even though he kind of wanted to go on ignoring the elephant in the forest.

  “What do you think I was doing?”

  Her throaty answer caught him below the belt, thickening the flesh inside his briefs. Ten seconds earlier, they were just two people crossing paths in the woods, but with the issuance of those two questions, they were challengers. It didn’t help that the girl was still on her knees while Aaron stood at full height. The symbolic positions caused awareness to descend where it hadn’t been before. “You’re not a student inside that school, are you?” he asked because it seemed relevant, now that his cock had exhibited a hearty appreciation for her voice, her presence. “You’re not a high school student.”

  “No, I went to private school.” A pause. “And I graduated.”

  Aaron cleared the relief from his throat. “In my experience, students sneak into their own high school at night to set up pranks or make out. So if you’re not a student, we can rule that out.” He held up his fingers and began ticking them off. “Are you a journalist? Maybe setting up a hidden microphone to catch a politician off guard at tomorrow’s event?”

  “Yes. That’s what I was doing.”

  “Ah,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “See, your agreement was too quick.”

  A long sigh came from the shadows. “Are you a lawyer?”

  Aaron reached for the knot of his tie to adjust it before remembering he wore only a T-shirt. “I went to law school—”

  “Politician?”

  “Of a sort,” Aaron hedged. “But you’re changing the subject.”

  “You must know all about that.”

  Old Man growled at Aaron again, but the girl reached over and placed a hand on the dog’s head, quieting him. Aaron curled his lip at his pet, wondering when the hell his famous canine loyalty was supposed to kick in. “Listen, I really don’t want to report you.”

  “But you will?”

  Would he? The high school gymnasium would be filled with politicians, voters, and media tomorrow. Despite his gut feeling to the contrary, she could very well have an agenda that included setting the place on fire. Stranger things had happened than someone using a political event to make a statement for their cause. Still, he couldn’t connect that particular dot to this girl. Even without having gotten a decent look at her face. “I don’t know.”

  She was silent for long moments. “Really?” Her tone was laced with surprise. “When was the last time you said those words?”

  “I don’t know?” He searched his brain. “I don’t know.”

  Her laughter almost pulled him headfirst into the darkness. It hadn’t sounded sad or solemn that time. And he liked it better the second way. “I can…” Now she sounded almost shy. How often were they going to switch gears here? “I can owe you a favor. If you just pretend we didn’t meet.”

  Fuck that. The words very nearly left his mouth on a shout. He couldn’t find a way for his unspoken denial to make sense, but he really didn’t feel like pretending this encounter hadn’t happened. Another hour or so in the forest and he would have the frostbite to prove it. Maybe he’d already succumbed to the initial stages of delirium, because he was placing way too much importance on this interaction. He needed to get out of there and gear up for tomorrow. Tomorrow was what mattered. “Look, forget it.” He signaled to Old Man, as if that was going to work. “There’s nothing you can offer that would help me. Just…” Discomfort invaded his throat. “This never happened.”

  Walking away felt distinctly shitty, but what else could he do? Stand in the freezing-cold woods in a T-shirt with a spiteful dog and a probable anarchist for another hour?

  “Wait.”

  Aaron turned at the sound of footsteps jogging up behind him. And then he just stared. Her face fully exposed now in the moonlight, the girl blinked up at him with vivid green eyes, that wild hair blowing around her shoulders. His stomach dipped like a ladle into a boiling pot of soup and hung there, the forest feeling stiller than death around him. Anything would feel still, so close to so much—life. Go back to the cabin. Or wake up from this bizarre dream. Just do something before you go completely insane. “What am I waiting for?”

  “Me,” she whispered, before squeezing her e
yes shut and shaking her head. “I mean, I asked you to wait. I can help you.”

  “How do you know I need help?”

  She looked almost perplexed by his question. “We all need help.”

  Why couldn’t he get his stomach to stop twisting and diving? “Not me.”

  “No?” She broke his stare to gaze out at their surroundings. “You were out here for a reason, too. What was it?”

  “I don’t know anymore,” he murmured.

  “That’s the fourth time you’ve said it now.” Her smile revealed her teeth, the two overlapping ones up top, dead center. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  Jesus, he almost said I don’t know a fifth time. “I need to get into that pancake event tomorrow morning. I doubt you can help me with that, so—”

  “I can, actually,” she said, arching a cocky eyebrow.

  “Really.” He doused the flicker of hope. “Through a window, I assume?”

  When she shook her head, braids and curls and ribbons rioted everywhere. “I’ll walk you right past security through the back door.”

  “Not the front one?”

  Another flash of those imperfect teeth. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

  That husky tone of voice was back, and it flexed his abdomen muscles, compelling him forward a step, where he could look down into her uniquely pretty face. “My name is Aaron. And I never beg.”

  “My name is Grace.” A deep breath, a step back. Away from him. “And I know better than to ever say never.”

  Aaron stood at the edge of the woods, watching as Grace slipped around the building outcropping and into the darkness, still convinced he was dreaming. Until he felt a warm, liquid sensation on his right foot, and found Old Man pissing on his favorite pair of loafers.

  “Really?” He removed his foot from the line of fire and shook it. “We’re literally surrounded by trees.”

  He cast one final glance in the direction Grace had disappeared, dismissing with some effort the urge to follow, and went back to the cabin, somehow knowing that tomorrow wouldn’t be any less confusing than tonight.

  Also by Tessa Bailey

  Line of Duty Series

  Protecting What's His

  Protecting What's Theirs

  His Risk to Take

  Officer Off Limits

  Asking For Trouble

  Staking His Claim

  Riskier Business

  Serve Series

  Owned by Fate

  Exposed by Fate

  Driven by Fate

  Broke & Beautiful Series

  Chase Me

  Need Me

  Make Me

  Crossing the Line Series

  Risking It All

  Up in Smoke

  Boiling Point

  Made in Jersey Series

  Crashed Out

  Rough Rhythm

  Thrown Down

  Standalone Titles

  Baiting the Maid of Honor

  Unfixable

  Off Base

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Epilogue

  A Preview of TOO WILD TO TAME

  Also by Tessa Bailey

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Tessa Bailey

  Excerpt from Too Wild to Tame copyright © 2016 by Tessa Bailey

  Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Edition: May 2016

  First Mass Market Edition: November 2016

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  ISBNs: 978-1-4555-9412-2 (ebook), 978-1-4555-9413-9 (mass market)

  E3-20160412-DA-NF