Ladd, Ashley - Forbidden Fruit (NCP) (pdf)(1).pdf - e-booki pdf - renee2010

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright December 2005

ISBN 1-58608-768-1

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s

imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or

events is merely coincidence.

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

Chapter One

“Waste not.” High school science teacher Samantha Wagner whistled

merrily and peered into the swirling mass of pickle juice at the bottom of the

jar she’d just emptied. Grinning at her treasure, she poured the remaining

contents into a larger container for use in class experiments.

Munching on the last pickle, she curled up on her couch and graded

test papers. When a drop of the juice plopped onto a paper, she scowled and

wiped it off. Moaning, she shook her head at some of the dillies the students

had concocted as she colored the exams with seas of red. Obviously some

foreign language must have spewed from her mouth during her lectures or

why else weren’t all of her kids getting A’s and B’s? What normal kid

wouldn’t comprehend her pickle juice allegories? She couldn’t make things

any easier or more interesting.

Rat-a-tat-tat.

A huge grin spread across Sam’s face. Only one person ever knocked

like that. Dylan… “Come in.”

“You eating those nasty things again?” Dylan wrinkled his nose and

tugged one of her curls.

“Bite me.” Glaring into his impish eyes, she took a giant bite of the

cucumber which was getting a bad rap.

“Ouch!” Dylan jumped back as if she’d suddenly spurted fangs.

“Have mercy, woman.”

Grinning wickedly, feeling as if her eyes glowed red, she licked off

the juice that had the audacity to dribble down her chin. “Uhm, sorry.” She

wasn’t in the least sorry. Just like she imagined he wasn’t sorry that his ultra

low-slung tool belt was the makings of many naughty fantasies …

“Yeah. Sure.” Dylan stared at her mouth, too long, too intently.

She squirmed and wanted to kick herself for her devilish impulse. A

high school drop out white boy wasn’t her type, and more over, he was her

best friend, so why was she flirting?

Best friends were off limits. In particular he was off limits as she

wasn’t into multicultural relationships. Normal relationships were hard

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

enough to keep going, but the added burden of meshing cultures while trying

to keep her own alive, was too much to handle.

Embarrassed, she rose to her feet and tossed the bad boy into the

trash. “Better?”

Dylan’s blue eyes twinkled and his mustache twitched with mirth.

“Not particularly.”

Her neighbor’s lawnmower erupted and Dylan looked in the direction

of the sound.

Blessing the distraction, she followed his gaze. Surprised, she glanced

down at her watch. “It’s not the crack of dawn on Sunday morning, is it?”

Dylan’s brows wiggled as he ambled out onto her appalling excuse for

a porch. Then he frowned and pointed at a piece of splintering wood.

“Hurricane season’s coming. I should shore those beams up before a storm

hits.”

Alarm jolted her into perusing her mental calendar. Her forehead

furrowing, she joined him and peered at the dry rot. “You really think so?

Grandmother let the house go toward the end.” And Sam didn’t have

sufficient funds to fix it up. Her heart falling, she chewed her bottom lip.

“It’s either that or risk losing part of your house. It won’t stand up to a

category three. A two might even do it in if the wind hits it wrong.” Slipping

a tape measure from his tool belt he took measurements and muttered to

himself.

“How much do you think it’ll set me back?” Her pride sagging, she

tried to choke back the financial worries. Hello second job…

“We’ll talk about that later.” Sighing heavily, Dylan whipped off his

baseball cap and ran his fingers through his silky hair. “We’ll get the

supplies and I’ll get it done for you.”

Squaring her shoulders, she faced off against him. She tilted her head

to look up the four inches into his eyes. “I already owe you a ton of favors.

I’ll pay you the going rate. Either tell me or I’ll hire someone else.”

Dylan froze in place for several seconds and then he treated her to an

inscrutable gaze. “I said I’m going to do it. We’ll work something out.”

Pursing her lips, she let the subject drop--for now. She’d repay him

somehow. The man was too nice for his own good.

Navigating to safer territory, she asked cheerily, “Soda? Lemonade?”

She opened her fridge stocked with a variety of drinks.

“Got any orange?”

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Ashley Ladd

Hating the stuff, she stretched her lips down. “No. How about lemon-

lime?”

“That’ll do.”

“I was about to whip up a little something for dinner. Would you like

to join me?”

“To go with those pickles, huh?” Dylan sauntered back into her house

and closed the door.

Sam wrinkled her nose at him and stuck out her tongue as she

carefully handed the tin can to him. “For that I’m going to hold you down

and make you eat pickles.”

In four long strides, Dylan closed the gap between them, and towered

over her. He took a swig of his soda as he stared down at her with narrowed

eyes. “Promises, promises. Moi was mean to you? I fixed your wheels and

I’m going to fix your house. Now how is that being mean to you?”

Playfully, she rapped the big old teddy bear on his broad shoulders. “I

take it back. I won’t make you eat pickles. That just leaves more for me.”

“What’s this obsession with pickles?” He spread his palm on the

refrigerator door and closed it. “Did you eat this many pickles while you

were still with Jamal? Or is this some kind of mental breakdown?”

Breakdown? He thought that slimy green toad of an ex-fiancé had

reduced her to going on a pathetic pickle binge? How wretched did he think

she was? “I need more pickle juice for my science experiments,” she said, as

if he’d understand. She also looked at the little bulge around her tummy in

disgust. “And they’re very low in calories.”

“Science experiments? Those poor kids.” He clucked his very erotic

tongue, stealing her breath.

She thwacked him again, and ordered herself to breathe. “Those lucky

kids love me and my pickle juice, thank you very much.” She nodded very

forcefully to back up her point. For good measure, she anchored her fists on

her hips and stood stiffly at parade rest.

His gaze heated up and slid over her stomach. “Don’t tell me you’re

dieting, skinny.”

Skinny? She’d left skinny behind at least twenty pounds ago and was

closing in on pleasantly plump. The average human had enough fat on them

to make seven bars of soap, so that meant she must have at least nine or ten

bars of soap hanging on her frame. Having a full time man had made her

complacent about her weight among other things. It was time to get back in

fighting shape now that she had rejoined the rank of single women. Besides,

Ladd, Ashley - Forbidden Fruit (NCP) (pdf)(1).pdf

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