Embattled Hearts 1 by J.M. Madden Page B

she blocked the light from the fire.
    “Would you mind…” he started quietly, before he stopped to clear his throat. “Ah, don’t worry about it.”
    “No, what?” Shannon leaned forward, fighting to keep her hands to herself.
    After a long silence, he finally asked her, “Would you mind just sitting and talking for a while?”
    “Absolutely,” she told him with no hesitation. “I like talking to you, John. You’re a hard-ass, but you’re interesting.”
    “A hard-ass?” he asked in affront, obviously teasing her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Shannon laughed at his expression, outrage mixed with twinkling devilment in his dark eyes. This side of John appealed to her desperately and Shannon was beginning to see it more and more. Was it just because he was getting used to her in the office, or was it something a little more personal? Did he see her as a woman he had an interest in? She had no clue.
    “So, what do you want to talk about?” she asked him.
    “Hell, I don’t know,” he told her as he propped himself up on one elbow. “You’re the talker, you come up with something.”
    For the first time, she noticed that his shoulders were bare. The quilt was over his chest, but his heavy arms were exposed. Her eyes traced over the line of his biceps, highlighted by the firelight. Did he work out, like, all the time? Only heavy-duty weightlifters usually had those kinds of arms. Or was all that bulk from being in the chair? An intricate Marine insignia tattoo wrapped around the deltoid of his right shoulder. The quilt covered most of his chest, but Shannon knew it had to be just as impressive. The tight cotton t-shirts he wore left little to the imagination. Shannon’s mouth watered at the thought of tugging the quilt down just a bit to explore.
    She forced her eyes away, and struggled for something to talk about.
    “Where did you get your tattoo?”
    John’s dark brows raised in the weak firelight.”Uh, some little tattoo shop off base. Working on service personnel was pretty much all the guy did.”
    “What base were you at?”
    “Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. 24 th Marine Expeditionary Unit.”
    Shannon her satisfaction lacing his rough voice.
    “Sounds like you liked it there.”
    He looked down at the couch for a moment before meeting her gaze. “Very much so. More than any other place I’d been in my life.”
    Smiling at her slightly, he shrugged his shoulders, which dislodged the quilt a bit more. Shannon forced her gaze away again, and swallowed heavily as she rubbed her hands over her goose bumped flesh. The man could probably turn on any woman from eighteen to eighty, so she didn’t castigate herself too much. He just had too much natural testosterone.
    John apparently noticed her goose bumps, and assumed it was because she was cold. He sat up and tugged the quilt toward her. “Here, I didn’t mean for you to get chilled out here.”
    Shannon waved a hand and lurched to her feet. “No, no, don’t worry about it. Keep-keep yourself, uh, covered. I’ll get another blanket.”
    Quickly, she moved to the hall closet and tugged down another blanket, this one fuzzy with a horse running across the width of it. She wrapped it around her like a robe, then settled on the floor in front of the couch. Shannon felt like a coward, because now she didn’t have to look at John directly, but she was still close enough to feel his body heat behind her. She worked one elbow out enough to prop it on the edge of the couch in front of him, and rested her head on it. John shifted back to his side, and mirrored her position.
    “Sorry,” she told him. “I had to move. That corner was getting a bit sharp.”
    “That’s fine. I don’t want to put you out.”
    Shannon frowned at him. “You’re not putting me out at all. I owe you for helping me out.”
    John frowned, then changed the subject. “What is your brother doing in Florida?”
    Shannon laughed lightly, pulling the fuzzy