“Is that good?”

“You betcha. I can easily get you between five and six for this. Maybe even a bit more.”

“Five or six hundred dollars?” Jonah laid another box on top of the ones he’d already brought in.

She turned, ignoring the way his long hair framed his remarkable face and the cynical gleam in his eyes. “No, not five or six hundred dollars.”

“I didn’t think so.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “That would be five or six thousand dollars.”

Amanda heard Elizabeth gasp, but she couldn’t look away from Jonah.


Even though she was sitting on the floor, the pretty little shopkeeper still managed to look down her nose at him. Damned if she didn’t make him want to grin. Jonah’s cock jerked in agreement and he willed it back into submission. This was not the time or the place. He was here to help his sister and to make sure she didn’t get swindled.

Not that the curvy redhead looked like a con artist. The smattering of freckles on her face and her open smile made her look—he searched for the right word—innocent. In his experience there was no such thing, and women who looked harmless were usually the most venomous of all, able to sneak past a man’s guard with seductive smiles and soft promises.

She was wearing jeans and a green cardigan sweater that hid more of her than it showcased. Not exactly a femme fatale. Yet his body responded anyway. From the moment she’d opened the door, he’d had the urge to push her up against the wall, strip her naked and bury himself in her sweet warmth.

He was so cold and it had been so long.

His blood chilled as he remembered the last time he’d gotten involved with a woman—beautiful, sexy, mysterious Darla. She’d played him like a fish on a line while trying to get him to spill military secrets. And he’d fallen for it, if only for a short time.

She’d never discovered anything of importance, but not for lack of trying. The day he’d come home early and caught her in his apartment hacking into his computer had clued him in to the fact that she wasn’t what she seemed. The fact that she’d tried to shoot him had also been a dead giveaway. That had been five years ago.

Jonah swore beneath his breath. Amanda Barrington was no enemy spy and Darla was no longer a problem. He had to get his mind out of the past and into the here and now.

A quick, hard fuck against the wall wasn’t going to happen with this woman.

Amanda had commitment written all over her and that wasn’t the kind of woman he needed in his life. He had enough problems without adding a woman to the mix.

“Five or six thousand?”

He winced at the excitement in his sister’s voice. Elizabeth was starting over again after a long, failed marriage, and although she’d gotten a decent deal in the divorce settlement, the extra money certainly wouldn’t go astray.

Amanda nodded. The motion sent a profusion of cinnamon-colored curls bobbing up and down. Her hair hung halfway down her back and was pulled back in a terrycloth wrap of some sort. What did his sister call it? Oh yeah, a scrunchie. Jonah wanted to strip the holder away and watch her curls bob around her face.

Swearing under his breath, he got a grip on himself. Concentrate. “What about the rest of them?”

Her moss-green eyes were cool as she turned back to him. “That remains to be seen.

In this box, most of the books are worth five or ten bucks apiece, but this one…” she picked up the book in question, “…this one is a gem.”

Amanda pushed to her feet. She was standing so close to him, he could smell her—a combination of lemon cleaner and dust from where she’d been working—but underlying it all was the alluring scent of woman and lavender soap.

The top of her head rose to just past his chin, putting her at about five-foot-six. She reached out and grabbed another box, the movement pulling her sweater tight against her and accentuating her curves. No doubt about it, Amanda had some sweet curves. Her breasts would be a handful, no more, no less, but they appeared to be firm and ripe.

His hands fisted at his sides as he wondered what color her nipples were. Pink or beige? Jonah took one look at her hair and grinned. He’d bet on pink, verging toward red.

“It will take me a few days to go through all the boxes and work up a list for you.”

Amanda was sitting on a box next to Elizabeth, a receipt book in her hand. “Do you know how many books you have?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I just packed them in the boxes.”

“That’s okay, we can count them and I’ll give you a receipt. In a few days, I’ll have a complete list of the books and what price I will be asking for them. As I said on the phone, I take a commission on every book I sell.”

“That’s fine. Whatever I can get for them.” Jonah wanted to shake his sister. She was asking to get taken advantage of.

“We’ll look at the list and review your commission before my sister agrees to anything.” He had to speak up before Elizabeth just gave Amanda the damn books.

Amanda’s back stiffened, but her expression remained friendly, if slightly aloof.

“That’s fine. I can also provide you with references from past customers if you’d like.”

“That would be—”

“Jonah.” His sister cut him off abruptly as she jumped to her feet. She turned to Amanda. “I’m terribly sorry about that. Jonah tends to be a bit overprotective. I trust you to be honest with the boxes I’ve brought. With just the first box you went through, I’ll get more than I even imagined I would for the lot of them.”

“Don’t worry, Elizabeth. I understand completely. You’ve been through a hard time and he is your brother.” Amanda turned away and quickly began opening boxes. In a swift, methodical fashion, she counted books, not seeming to pay any attention to their titles. When she was done, she wrote up the receipt. “You’ve got two-hundred-and-fifty-seven books.” Ripping the paper away from her receipt pad, she handed it to Elizabeth.

Going to one of her own boxes in the corner, Amanda yanked open the flaps and dug inside. She muttered to herself as she rummaged around. He sensed her triumph as she pulled out a small wooden box. Opening it, she took out a business card, flipped it over and wrote on the back. Her movements were stiff as she walked up to him and handed him the card.

The name of her business, By the Book, was embossed in gold on the front of the card. Below it her name and profession was listed, along with her Jamesville address as well as her website and email addresses. Jonah flipped it over. On the back were several names and numbers.

“Those are former clients,” she informed him before he could ask. “Feel free to call them.”

Turning her back on him, Amanda focused on Elizabeth. Jonah wanted to grab her by the shoulders, turn her around and pull her into his arms. Then he wanted to kiss her until she lost that uptight expression. He wanted to see her smile at him again or look at him with the slightly unfocused and dreamy gaze she’d greeted him with when she’d first opened the door of her home. Anything but the cold shoulder he was currently receiving.

It was definitely past time to go if he was starting to worry about what any woman thought of him, let alone one he’d just met. “Time to go, Elizabeth.”

His sister’s face paled and her shoulders slumped inward. “I’m sorry. I know this is taking up your time.”

Now he felt like a jerk. His sister had been through a rough time with her abusive, jerk of a husband. She needed support and time, not him growling at her. “I don’t mind the time.” He kept his voice gentle, his tone level. “I just think that Ms. Barrington has a lot of work to do and we’re keeping her from it.”

“I don’t mind at all.” Amanda glared at him and he wanted to rub his finger over the frown line that formed between her brows.

“I’ll contact you in a few days and maybe you’ll come and check out the store when I get it open.” The last was addressed to his sister, he noted, not to him.

“You’re planning on opening a store? I thought you did all your work online?” He could tell she wanted to ignore him, but good manners forced her to reply. Strangely enough, he was interested in her plans.

“Most of my work will continue to be through my online store, of course. My customer base is varied and spread across the country and around the world. This building is zoned for business as well as residential, so I thought I’d open the front room as a small shop for a few hours a week. Tuesday through Saturday in the afternoons to attract some local and tourist traffic for those books that aren’t worth the time or the effort to list on my website.” She picked up one of the books she’d unloaded from Elizabeth’s boxes. “Like this one. It’s worth about ten dollars resale, hardly worth putting online, but it should sell quickly locally.”

He found himself admiring her business sense in spite of his resolve to remain skeptical about her. She had a sharp tongue that he found strangely appealing, although he could think of much better uses for it than verbally challenging him. He could easily picture that tongue sliding over his dick just before her mouth opened around the tip and sucked him inside.

His jeans tightened and he shifted his stance. It didn’t help. His cock was more than willing to accommodate anything he had in mind for the pretty Ms. Amanda. Every cell in his body was on alert and the skin on the back of his neck tingled.

That was not a good sign. More than once over the years, that small sign had been enough of a warning to save him and his buddies from disaster. It usually occurred just before everything went to hell in a handbasket. All his years in the Special Forces had given him a respect and trust for that little neck tingle. And right now it was telling him that Amanda Barrington was trouble. What kind of trouble remained to be seen.