ignore the heartache that made her chest sore. As she moved by the bed, she couldn’t help but envision the two of them tangled in the sheets. A shiver went through her and she felt a tingle between her legs. “Stop it,” she admonished herself. “Quit longing for something you can’t have.” Trailing her fingers over the fresh pillowcase, a little devil whispered from her shoulder. You could try to seduce him.
The very thought brought heat to her cheeks.
Shaking her head, she dispelled the notion. Every woman wants to think she’s irresistible. Obviously, she wasn’t. Reno seemed to have no trouble resisting her charms. In all the historical bodice rippers she’d read, there was no way the hero would sit in front of the television and channel surf while the heroine was alone in the boudoir. She lifted her hair from her neck, trailing a finger down her neck near to the swell of her breast. No, he would find his way to her, slipping up behind her to wrap strong arms…
“What are you doing?”
Journey squealed and jumped. “Nothing. I was just finishing. Let me find the kindle and get the journal and I’ll be right back.” She hastily left the room, brushing by him as she passed. “You couldn’t find anything to interest you on the television?”
“Too much. I couldn’t seem to make up my mind.” He shifted on his feet uneasily. Seeing her with that dreamy look on her face – touching her body. Reno couldn’t help but reach down to adjust himself. The woman made him ache. “God give me the strength to keep my hands to myself.”
“What did you say?” Journey returned with her arms full.
“Oh, nothing. I was just saying that I…” His voice trailed to nothingness when Journey handed him Saul’s journal. “Oh, my.” As he took the book, he felt a shock go through his fingers. “Look at that.”
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading it.” She also passed a thin black rectangle to him. “You press the ‘on’ button.” She did and the front of it lit up much like the television. “You can read through this list of books.” She passed her finger down the page and he marveled as words scrolled by. “Choose one.” She tapped a title. “And voila.”
Reno stared. “And how many books did you say was in this tiny thing?”
“I have almost a thousand stored on the cloud. Wait.” She took it back, pressed the screen a few more times. “I’m going to Amazon, which is an online store. I’ll search for Tom Sawyer.” She hummed a little as she waited. “Ah, there it is. And there, with one click I bought the book and here it is.”
Reno reclaimed the kindle, his eyes moving to the first few words.
“TOM!”
No answer.
“TOM!”
No answer.
“What’s gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!”
Reno glanced up with wonder. “And where is that cloud you speak of? The one that holds a thousand books?”
His question made Journey giggle. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. We’ll have to ask someone smarter than me.”
“I don’t know anyone smarter than you.”
This also made Journey laugh, lightening the mood for them both. “Oh, there’s plenty of people smarter than I am.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
She held his eyes for a moment, then looked away. “I know you want to read. Leave your clothes outside the door. I’ll be up for a while. Goodnight.”
Reno didn’t get a chance to respond before she shut the door, leaving him alone.
…Journey almost ran down the hall, putting as much distance between her and Reno as possible and still stay in the same house. She couldn’t believe he’d caught her touching herself. He would have to know she was thinking of him. “How embarrassing.” She snapped her fingers to call the dogs, then retreated with them to the sunroom, shutting the French doors behind her. Only then did she allow herself to take a full breath. Leaning against the doorframe, she gave herself a stern talking to. “There’s no way this can work if you don’t get a handle on yourself, Sojourner. Just get it through your thick head that there can’t be anything between you two. You’ve got to try thinking of him as your brother.” The thought made her groan with disbelief. “Oh, yea. That’s gonna work. Count on it.”
But – really. She had to come up with some type of plan. Some kind of shield that she could utilize to prevent her from making a total fool of herself.