Excerpt for She Shouldn't, But She Will

Chapter 1

"You might get where you're going faster if you walk," the cabbie said, eyeing Cynthia Williams through the rearview mirror.

She twisted her hands and looked out the window at the same traffic jam that had stalled the cab's progress for the past six minutes. Horns blared and exhaust fumes seeped through the window, stuck open and inch or two. In her cab, the driver tapped the steering wheel to a Latin beat blasting from the radio, calm as the meter flipped up to the next dollar.

The courage she'd built for the evening leached away with every minute she spent from her goal: meeting her blind date and hopefully embarking on a night on the wild side, a side Thia had always taken care to avoid. She would avoid it no longer, at least for tonight. That is, if she didn't talk herself out of the adventure while sitting in San Francisco traffic.

"I think you're right. I'm already running late."

Thia paid the driver and exited the taxi. Tugging at her skirt, she started off at a good clip. Several blocks and two alleys later, she entered the Unique Art Gallery, out of breath and anxious. The moment of truth had arrived. This is where her date, Aaron Smith waited. With a sense of humor and understanding nature, she hoped.

Immediately, she started preparing her reasons for being late-a blown circuit breaker in her condo, someone had left the outer door open on the elevator and she had to manage four flights of stairs in heels, no taxis for a block and a half, and then the traffic jam due to the bike race in the city.

Aaron knew Thia's best friend, July's, husband. July had assured Thia that Aaron was handsome, charming and a man who knew his way around women.

From the stories she'd heard, July confided to Thia over lunch the previous week, he wouldn't mind a one-night escapade, and Thia would be more than satisfied. God knew, she'd settle for less at this point. Just being held and looked at with appreciation would be better than she'd had in the past year.

After more than a year's hiatus of being with a man, Thia had every intention of ending the dry spell, and Aaron sounded like the man to help. Now in the gallery, her heart thumped like a jungle drum.

For months after her husband's death the previous year, sex had been the furthest thing from Thia's mind. But lately, it seemed sex was all she thought about. The heat, the whispered words, the friction of one body against another, the scent… Her breasts ached with the images those words conjured.

Nervously, she smoothed her hands over her hips, aware her fitted, soft lavender suit left little to the imagination as to the shape of her athletic body. She hoped the suit and pumps screamed fuck me.

And now, to find the man who would accommodate that wish.

Standing on tiptoes, she perused the gallery patrons, looking for a man who looked "handsome, charming and knew his way around women." Rounding one of the many dividing walls she froze, staring up into a pair of the greenest eyes she had ever seen. Fighting the urge to stare but losing, her gaze started down more than six feet of bronze god, passing over broad shoulders before drifting down to a narrow waist and then powerful legs. She raised her head to see a full head of blond hair, a sexy half-smile and eyes evaluating her body as blatantly as she'd been evaluating his.

Oh my God, please let this be Aaron!

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