Collide by Juliana Stone

slightly, his profile, way too damn
intoxicating, the strong lines of his nose, his jaw and chin, too
achingly familiar. His hair, always longer than the norm, touched
the tops of his shoulders, the thick coffee colored waves, shining
from the light above him.
    An image of her hands buried in his hair as
he nuzzled her breasts flashed before her eyes and Bobbi’s breath
caught in the back of her throat.
    Ear buds were in place and for the moment he
didn’t know she was there. Bobbi’s hand crept up behind her right
ear, to the place that had always belonged to him, to the mark he’d
put there—the one that matched his—and something inside her twisted
so painfully she gasped.
    The dog barked.
    Shane glanced up.
    And she was lost.

Chapter Six
     
     
    For a few seconds the only sound in his work
room was Pia’s mad barking. The little mutt barked at Bobbi and
then ran back to Shane, her excited yelps growing in intensity
until with one look, and a quick scratch behind the ears, she
quieted.
    Shane took a second, not only to remove the
ear buds but to make sure not one trace of emotion showed on his
face. Seeing Bobbi like that, half naked and wearing his T-shirt,
did all sorts of things to him that he didn’t want to think about
or dwell on. Hell, it had been bad enough the night before when
he’d struggled to get her out of her damn wedding dress and into
the stupid shirt.
    When she wasn’t giggling like a crazy lady,
she was rubbing that hot body wherever she could touch. It had
taken everything in Shane to not take what she was offering,
and in fact, not even twenty minutes in a cold shower had offered
much relief.
    Her hair was still a mess, the thick dark
strands wild and crazy—the total opposite to the sleek look she’d
been sporting since he’d been back in town. There were shadows
beneath her eyes though, dark smudges that told of a night without
much sleep and her skin was pale.
    Pia barked once more and Bobbi winced—no
doubt because he knew she was suffering from one hell of a
hangover.
    “Thought you’d be in bed for hours yet,” he
said, watching her closely as she took a step forward.
    She cleared her throat and shook her head,
though her eyes left him and she turned in a semi-circle, her gaze
on the walls.
    “You still paint,” she said softly.
    Shane followed her gaze and nodded, his lips
tight, a frown in place. “Yep.” He sure as hell wasn’t in the mood
for a walk down memory lane. And to be honest, he was questioning
his decision to bring her back here in the first place. What had he
been thinking? He should have left her with her family and
Dooley.
    Pia barked once more. Seemed as if the dog
agreed too.
    He shoved his hands into the front pockets of
his jeans and watched her cross the room to stand in front of a
painting he’d done not long after he’d come back to New Waterford.
He had created it from memory, with the aid of a few sketches he’d
brought back with him.
    “Who’s that?” she pointed and turned to
him.
    “No one you would know.”
    For a moment the two of them stared at each
other in silence, and he thought that maybe a shadow of hurt
crossed her face. If so, it was gone just as fast as it had come,
replaced once more with the cool, composed woman he’d come home
to.
    She was a stranger to him, and yet…
    She wrapped her arms around her body as if
seeking warmth and rested her gaze on the table he was working on.
She blew out a long breath and took a few hesitant steps forward,
though when Pia barked once more she scowled.
    “Okay, your dog needs to relax.”
    “Pia’s a little territorial,” Shane
replied.
    “Well she doesn’t have to worry about me,”
she retorted frostily.
    “She’s not.”
    “She’s not,” Bobbi repeated.
    “Nope.”
    The dog glanced between the two adults and
growled.
    “I find that hard to believe,” Bobbi said as
she took one step back.
    “It’s me she’s worried about.”
    Bobbi muttered something unintelligible