Where There's a Will (Whiskey River Book 1) by Katherine Garbera, Eve Gaddy Page B

head as she often wore it. As if she felt him staring at her, she raised her eyes to his. She ran her tongue over her lips, unpainted because she’d nibbled all her lipstick off. Her mouth didn’t need lipstick anyway. Her lips were full and rosy, with the hint of a pout. The rest of her face, classic nose, high cheekbones, beautiful skin, wasn’t bad either. Those green eyes stared at him unwaveringly.
    He wanted to kiss her. To be completely honest, he wanted to do a hell of a lot more than kiss her. But she’d never acted interested in starting anything with him.
    Until the Christmas party when she’d kissed him beneath the mistletoe. She had kissed him . After his initial surprise, he’d put his arms around her and pulled her close. And totally forgotten it was just a mistletoe kiss. But so had Addison.
    Damn it. He wanted to kiss her again. Just as he had every day since then. Wanted her to the point that he hadn’t spared a thought for another woman since that night.
    They stared at each other. Was she remembering the kiss? Had it driven her crazy, like it had him? “Addison?”
    “What?” she breathed.
    “Why are you so afraid of tornadoes?”
    *
    I T WAS A fair enough question and since she’d been freaking out on him and losing her cool since she’d first seen the darkening sky she guessed that shrugging it off wasn’t an option.
    But in for a penny in for a pound her mom used to say. So she tipped her head to the side and batted her lashes at her very handsome, very sexy, very much not-available-to-her boss. “What makes you think I’m afraid of tornadoes?”
    He threw his head back and laughed. A big full-throated sound that filled this depressing little storm shelter and made her almost forget about the storm raging outside. His hair was thick and sandy brown, his face chiselled with a square jaw. And he was too strong to be termed pretty or just handsome, Ryder had the face of a man who lived life and loved it.
    He was wickedly smart and had a reputation for being a man who played as hard as he worked. All things that pushed him even further off limits to her. She was so close to getting out of the cycle of poverty that had dogged her family for generations. Finish this last semester at law school and then the bar and then a nice high-paying job with a firm in San Antonio or Austin.
    So kissing him at the Christmas party hadn’t been her smartest idea. But to be fair, who would have guessed that he could pack so much punch into one little kiss? She stared at his mouth. She’d watched him argue several cases in court and felt a secret thrill listening to the mellow tones with the hint of a drawl in his voice and the slow methodical way he could tear a witness down.
    One thing she knew about Ryder was he didn’t suffer fools or liars easily.
    “Addison, I’ve known you for a long time and I’ve never seen you so flustered. Even that time old man Coogan came into the office brandishing his Colt .45 automatic and threatening to shoot me if I didn’t make his wife come back to him,” Ryder said.
    “Poor Coogan. His heart was in the right place and his hands were shaking. He wouldn’t have followed through.” At least, she didn’t think he would have. She’d talked to the older man, convinced him to put down his gun and diffused the situation, but then her older brother was a cop and she’d grown up in a rough neighborhood. She knew how to handle touchy situations.
    “My point exactly. What’s the deal with you and tornadoes?”
    “Dammit.”
    He didn’t say anything just sat there waiting. And she’d seen him use this tactic with clients before. He called it the truth silence. Said that the longer it grew the more antsy people became and soon they’d confess everything. And it worked.
    She’d used it herself last summer during one of her mock trials at school.
    “I just don’t like them….they are unpredictable—
    “If you are going to lie to me, at least make it sound