Fragile (The Rafferty Brothers) - Softcover

"I kept my word."
He was mouth-watering. Six feet, lean and sexy, sleekly muscled, like a panther. Heavy lidded gray eyes and closely cropped wheat blond hair. He kept it almost brutally short. But she thought it might curl if he let it grow long enough.
When Luke lifted his head to look at her, there was a faint smile on his mouth. His very, very sexy mouth. Devon could picture herself kissing it. She could picture herself moving to him and pressing against him, rising up on her toes and covering that mouth with hers and kissing that sardonic smile away.
He quirked a brow at her and instead of reaching for him like she wanted to, Devon reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet. She pulled out the snapshot of Ellie and held it out to him. "I've been carrying that around for a few weeks."
His eyes dropped down and Devon watched as his smile softened. "The little heartbreaker," he murmured. He stroked the edge of the picture with his finger. "She looks wonderful."
"She is wonderful." Under the guise of studying the picture, Devon stepped close enough to him that she could feel the heat of his body and smell his scent. Woodsy. Dark. Sexy. She looked down at the picture and tried to focus on it. Ellie did look wonderful. "The last time she was in the system, she stayed with this family. They loved her. She loved them."
"I can see that." The picture showed Ellie hugging Rob Parker with both arms, her eyes sparkling. She was laughing. "She going to be able to stay with them for a while?"
Devon tipped her head back and smiled at him. "A good long while. They're adopting her. There's no father listed on her birth certificate and nobody has been able to find any suitable next-of-kin. The only family member is an uncle who has a history of sexual abuse. No question of whether or not he can take her."
He started to give the picture back to her and Devon shook her head. "It's for you. We all need reminders of the happy endings with these kinds of things."
His gaze met hers and Devon felt her heart start doing a weird little rumba inside her chest. The heat inside her belly didn't completely take her by surprise.
She hadn't closed herself off from men. She'd dated; she had even thought she was in love once with a guy she'd dated off and on throughout college. Of course, the two times she'd attempted to develop any sort of sexual relationship with him, it had been a disaster. She'd been attracted to the guy--seriously attracted. But she couldn't move past her issues.
After the second failed attempt, Devon had broken up with him and last she heard, he was engaged.
She wasn't a stranger to heat-that didn't completely shock her. What surprised her was the intensity of it. Devon knew nothing could have prepared her for this. It was like wildfire. It rippled through her and she knew he felt it, too. She saw it in his eyes, in the odd tension that suddenly took over his body. Their gazes held for a long moment that seemed to stretch out into forever and then his gaze dropped to her mouth. Devon started to sway closer. The cell phone at her waist started ringing and the moment shattered. Devon blinked, felt blood rush to her cheeks and she stepped back. Whoa...
He said her name but Devon forced herself to smile. With that bright, false smile on her face, she looked down at her watch and said, "Wow. Look at the time..." She spun on her heel and headed down the hall, as fast as she possibly could.
Whoa...she fumbled for her cell phone, but by the time her clumsy fingers managed to flip it over, the call had already gone into voice mail. Just as well because the only coherent thought in her brain was...Whoa...

Shiloh Walker is the national bestselling author of many novels, including Hunting the Hunter, Hunter's Salvation, and Hunters: Heart and Soul.