It's In His Smile (A Red River Valley Novel Book 3) by Shelly Alexander Page A

he last saw her at the wake, she held a grocery bag in each arm.
    But her attention stayed firmly on his . . . crotch.
    He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t. The corners of his mouth curved up.
    “Can I help you with something?” Because by the look on her face, she wanted help with something.
    Her gaze snapped to his, her eyes widening even more.
    “ No. ”
    Satisfaction bloomed in his chest because even though she’d just said no with more defensiveness in her tone than the Seattle Seahawks had in their starting lineup, she nodded involuntarily.
    “I, um, brought Lloyd’s food. And his dog bowls.” She gave one of the bags a jerking boost. “There’s some leftover food from the wake in this one. I thought you might get hungry, and the deviled eggs are really good.” When she mentioned the deviled eggs her eyes grew bigger and her expression turned to mortification.
    Talmadge couldn’t imagine why talking about deviled eggs would make her react that way. Deviled eggs were good. He liked deviled eggs.
    She tried to shove both bags at him at once.
    “ Oof .” The bags jammed against his chest, and his good arm closed around one of them. “I can’t hold the other one. Would you mind bringing it in for me?”
    She blinked at him.
    “You’ve been inside Bea’s house, right?” He knew for certain she had.
    Two more blinks.
    He raised both eyebrows at her and angled his head to prompt her to speak.
    “You’re half-naked,” she blurted, keeping her eyes steadily on his. The sheer willpower she exerted to not look at him from the neck down showed in her stiff expression.
    A muscle next to her eye ticked.
    He fought off a chuckle. “Come on, Miranda. I’m not naked. I had a hard time changing because of my shoulder.” He paused. A tiny pang of guilt gathered in his chest for wanting to tease her. But hell no, he couldn’t resist. “Besides, we’ve seen each other naked before.”

    Like Miranda could ever forget being skin to skin with Talmadge Oaks. Especially since it had been her first and her only time to ever be skin to skin with . . . anyone.
    She narrowed her eyes at him and tried to ignore his perfectly sculpted abs.
    She really did try.
    But then he adjusted the bag against his hip and the hard muscles of his chest rippled and jumped.
    Her mouth turned to chalk dust.
    “I can’t come in.” Surely that croaking sound wasn’t her voice? “I’ll just leave it here on the porch.” Yes, she definitely sounded like a frog. Time to go before she leaped all over him or her tongue shot out to lick him or something even more embarrassing. Hadn’t she just blurted something about deviled eggs? The very ones that that were laced with her pesky pheromones.
    Holy Jeez . She started to set the bag down.
    “My shoulder’s acting up, Miranda. Can you help me out?” He shrugged. “Since you’re here and all.”
    She really shouldn’t. She hadn’t always exercised good judgment around Talmadge, especially on the rare occasions she’d found herself alone with him. Besides, the way people in this town idolized him because of his notoriety, even jumped when he snapped his fingers, irritated her.
    “Please.” His voice and his look were a little helpless and a whole lotta cute.
    Her insides turned to mush.
    Without a word she took a step toward him, and he angled his body so she could cross the threshold. When she brushed past him, the rich scent of his soap sent her pulse racing. He kicked the door closed with a bare foot and headed toward the kitchen.
    “In here.” He tossed his head in the general direction of the kitchen. With long strides, he walked ahead of her, his shirttails flapping to each side, Levi’s draping perfectly over a firm butt and muscled thighs.
    Miranda squeezed her eyes shut for a second and nearly bumped into the wall.
    Talmadge stopped and frowned over his shoulder. “You okay?”
    “Um, yeah. Just tired from putting on the wake.”
    As soon as he turned to stroll into