An Excerpt From: HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

by Kimberly Dean

‘The sooner you let me take these measurements, the sooner it will be over.’

Tara wasn’t going to fall for that trick.  Having him know her weight was bad enough.

Jake ran his finger over his bruised cheekbone, silently manipulating her.  ‘Do it for me?’

Damn the man!  Tara felt herself waver.  In this light, the purple of his eyelid looked nearly neon blue.

‘The longer we stand here, the longer I’m going to stare at your boobs.’

Her spine stiffened.

‘Unless you like having me stare at your boobs.’

Her arms whipped out to the sides.  ‘You are a fiend.’

‘I’ve been called worse.’

She bit her lip and looked blindly over his shoulder as he came close.  This was just awful.  A virtual Adonis was analyzing her doughboy form.  Darn it, she shouldn’t have had that piece of cheesecake last night.  It had just looked so good at the grocery store, and she’d been embarrassed about yesterday, nervous about today…

He slipped the tape measure under her arms and around her back.  Her wandering thoughts snapped back to the here-and-now when his hands brushed her chest.

What the –

He was measuring her bust line! Her breath caught on a sharp inhale.

‘Stop trying to impress me,’ he muttered.  ‘Exhale normally.’

‘Hey!’ she snapped as the back of his fingers rubbed her left breast.  ‘Hey, now!’

‘Stop fidgeting.’  He pulled the tape measure so it was snug across her bust.

‘I…  I…  Oh!’

His fingers traced the line of her bra where her breasts plumped out over the top, and heat spread out along her skin.  As if they hadn’t felt huge before, her breasts suddenly felt heavy and all tingly.  They were swelling to his touch.

He paused, and her eyes flashed to his face.  The sharp interest in his blue stare nearly brought her to her knees.

‘I… I hear that when you lose weight, that’s the first place it goes.’

‘I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about being flat-chested.’

‘Oh…’  He was still staring, and zaps of energy centered in her sensitive nipples.  ‘Well, that’s good.  I think.’

‘Definitely good,’ he muttered.  He inhaled as if he were having troubles with his oxygen supply.

He seemed to summon his professionalism and lowered the tape measure to her waist.  Tara stood still.  She wanted to chew up that tape measure and spit it out, but at the same time, he was touching her.

It felt too good to stop him.

Without her T-shirt, she was naked from her rib cage to her shorts.  His fingers caressed her waist, and she sucked in her tummy sharply.

Skin to skin.  The intimacy was shocking.

He took his time as he wrapped the tape measure about her.  ‘See?’ he murmured into her ear.  ‘This isn’t so bad, is it?’

Bad, no.  Dangerous, yes.

‘Just hurry it up, okay?’

‘You don’t hurry this sort of thing.  In fact, you do it twice to make sure you’ve got it right.’

Oh, he was a naughty one.

His hands slid down the sides of her hips and over her backside.  He crouched down before her in what could have been a tantalizing position, but Tara’s knees buckled when his fingers stroked against what she affectionately referred to as her Thunder Thighs.

‘Whoa!’ she said as she gripped his shoulders for support.  His hands caught her hips to help her regain her balance, and the embrace nearly put his face in her crotch.  She quickly tried to step back, but he stopped her with a tiny flex of the muscles in those sexy arms.

‘Just a few more measurements,’ he said with a knowing smile on his lips.

‘Do you have to measure me there?’

‘Oh, yeah.  Right there.’

His gaze locked on hers as he slowly slid the tape measure between her legs.  His palm cupped her inner thigh, and her air began thundering in her lungs.  Just a slight turn of the wrist and he’d be cupping her mound.  She stood there quivering with his hand pressed high between her legs as he measured her thigh.

Twice.

‘Maybe I should take one more just to be sure,’ he said.

Lord help her.

When he finished, his hand slid slowly down her leg.  His fingertips glided over the back of her thigh, her knee, and the curve of her calf until finally circling her ankle.  Tara couldn’t help but stare as his big hand gently cupped her anklebone.  She’d never felt so feminine in her life.

He cleared his throat and stood.  ‘Almost done.’

She tried to get herself to relax, but twittery feelings were coursing through her veins and converging low in her belly.  She looked up at him, considering how he’d react if she gave in to the impulse to jump him, but the idea vaporized when she saw him coming at her with what appeared to be pincers in his hand.  ‘What’s that?’ she asked slowly.

‘It’s a fat caliper.  It’s the last set of data I’ll need.  I swear.’

Fat caliper? She didn’t think so!

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