Sudden Attraction Read online

  Mystical Sign: Taurus

  SUDDEN ATTRACTION

  BY

  JULIE SANFORD

  Venus Press LLC

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SUDDEN ATTRACTION

  Copyright © 2006 by Julie Sanford

  ISBN: 1-59836-311-5

  Cover Art © 2006 by Croco

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form without permission, except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

  For information, you can find us on the web at

  www.VenusPress.com

  Dedication:

  To my sister Christy, for her encouragement and her honest feedback.

  Chapter One

  Callie took a deep breath and knocked on the front door. She’d come this far she might as well follow through to the bitter end. This was a bad idea though, and she knew it. She was in a bind. However, if you couldn’t ask a best friend for help, who could you? The fact that she had determined just a few months ago that she needed to stay away from him before her sudden, nearly irresistible attraction to him lead her to do something foolish and she got her heart trampled on, was beside the point.

  She needed a place to stay, and the only other friend she could ask this kind of favor from was Josie. Josie, who lived in an economy apartment and bought all her furniture at the Salvation Army. Her guest bed consisted of a steeply inclined chaise lounge covered in tatty red upholstery that smelled faintly of wet dog. Callie was pretty sure she had paid ten dollars for it, and that had not struck Callie as being a bargain. This would be much better, and she would just exert some self-control, that was all.

  She could do this, she told herself, and an image flashed through her mind of the woman in the 1940s war posters, bandana around her head, fist raised to show her strength. Women had faced worse before and triumphed. Besides, he was dating someone right now. How hard could it be keep her unruly emotions under check?

  The door swung open and said best friend, Ryan Parker, stood there, yawning and looking rumpled and unshaven. His brown hair was sticking out from his head at right angles like he’d just gotten up, even though it was two o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.

  “Hey Callie!” he said, his surprise apparent even as he grinned his familiar smile at her.

  “Hey Ryan,” she said, and felt her worries about her ability to rein in her emotions fade a little. In his faded black shorts and threadbare white t-shirt, he looked almost like he did twelve years ago, when he was fourteen and had moved into the house next door to hers.

  His eyebrows went up, questioning her unexpected arrival at his doorstep. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Callie said with a quick smile, feeling more confident. “Well, relatively speaking. You know how I e-mailed you that I had found a great sublet on an apartment, from a guy at my yoga class?”

  Ryan nodded, stepping outside and moving opposite her to lean against the porch rail. “Yeah, sure.”

  Callie tried not to notice how his crossed arms made his muscles bulge in all the right places, and was only marginally successful. The day suddenly felt ten degrees hotter and the now familiar prickling of awareness set low in her stomach as he gave her a warm, lazy smile. So he didn’t really look like when he was fourteen.

  She cleared her throat and forced herself to continue. “Well, I went to move in this morning with all my stuff, and he wasn’t gone from his apartment.” Her voice rose indignantly. “He just met me at the door with an apologetic shrug and said his trip had been postponed indefinitely. Apparently, he has known for awhile but thought he could talk his boss into reinstating the trip and didn’t want to lose his tenant in that case.” She felt the hot anger rise in her again at the memory and wished she had at least told the asshole off instead of just saying “you might have called,” as acidly as possible and walking back to the truck.

  “Right,” Ryan said. “Let me just go get the bat bag. We’ll go beat the living daylights out of him.” He moved as if he was going back into the house.

  Callie grinned, for a moment all thoughts of her recent and unwanted attraction to him gone from her mind. He was just her good friend Ryan again. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She paused a beat before adding, “We have to wait for nightfall, and then we’ll slash his tires.”

  Ryan laughed. “That’s the spirit.” His eyes shifted to the moving truck sitting in the driveway. “I told you that yoga class was a waste of time, and now look where it’s led.”

  Callie flipped him off with such a sweet smile that he laughed. “You’ll stay with me of course,” Ryan said. “For as long as you need.”

  Callie suddenly felt a lump in her throat at not even having to ask. It had been a hard year in a lot of ways. With the long overdue, but still difficult, break up with Daniel eight months ago and the need to move from their place into a place of her own, it meant more than she had even been aware of that in the face of this latest disaster she could count on Ryan. Just for a second, tears threatened and she blinked hard.

  Ryan noticed of course and gave her a playful punch on the arm even as a look of real alarm crossed his face. “Now don’t start that,” he warned, and she smiled at the edgy, near panic in his voice.

  “Start what?” she asked innocently.

  He gave her a suspicious look and let out a little huff. “Let me put some shoes on. We’ll need to put your stuff in storage until you find another place.”

  ****

  Ryan felt his mood lighten as he reentered the house and went to his bedroom to put on his running shoes. He had been watching bad TV before Callie’s unexpected arrival and looking forward with less enthusiasm than he should have been to spending the afternoon with his girlfriend Misty. Not that spending time with his girlfriend was typically a chore, but Misty had been stressed out and preoccupied lately. Callie was a good enough friend that just kicking around together was enjoyable. She was fun, always had been, and they had known each other so long, he felt completely comfortable around her.

  They had spent a lot of time together after her breakup with preppy boy, as he derisively thought of Daniel, but he hadn’t seen her much the last several months. She had been acting a little strange right before she dropped out of sight. He could almost swear there was a tension toward him that could be interpreted as sexual awareness. He had always been attracted to her and had felt a conflicting mix of excitement and wariness at the idea of starting up something romantic with his best friend. He never wanted to lose her friendship, but his body certainly had no problems with taking the risk.

  Callie’s blue eyes, medium long blond hair and finely drawn features gave her a pixie look that was attractive and yet approachable. Add in her warm and bubbly personality and she was sexy as hell. He had been weighing whether his head or his body had the more persuasive argument when she suddenly stopped coming around. Afraid he had misinterpreted the situation, he hadn’t said anything, finally decided that she had probably just been going through that final awkward part of the breakup phase where you were finally over the other person enough that they weren’t consuming your every waking thought and
you suddenly felt weirdly not yourself and at loose ends.

  He had met Misty shortly after that and had been charmed and flattered by her clear interest. She was beautiful, ambitious and had a lot going for her, really a great catch actually. And he was thoroughly happy to ditch her this afternoon so he could spend some time with Callie.

  He brushed his hair, grabbed his cell phone and headed outside. “Ready?” he asked.

  Callie nodded. “Yep.”

  Ryan headed toward the truck. “I’ve just got to call Misty and reschedule with her.”

  Callie stopped walking. “Well, wait a minute. If you’ve got plans, you don’t have to help me unload my stuff. It’s enough that I can stay here.”

  He didn’t stop moving toward the truck. “Don’t be silly. Misty and I weren’t supposed to do anything big, just hang out, and it can wait a few hours.”

  She trailed behind him still uncertain. He looked back over his shoulder. “I’m serious Callie, it’s no big deal. Now give me the keys.” She handed them over and went around to get in on the passenger side.

  When they got in, he started the engine and backed the big truck down the driveway with an ease she envied. “How were you going to unload all this stuff at the apartment?” he asked.

  “I had hired three college guys to help load and unload it, but I didn’t want to pay them to sit around for hours while I figured out what to do, so I paid them for loading the truck and let them go.”

  “So you do need my help,” he said pointedly, but she refused to be drawn.

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I don’t have a lot of big pieces. Daniel took his sofa, TV and entertainment center. I probably could have managed with the dollies I borrowed.”

  Ryan looked doubtful but didn’t comment, just flipped open his phone to call Misty. “Hey, Misty,” he said when she answered, and Callie was surprised at the warmth in his voice. Maybe ‘Mr. Slow to Commit’ was more serious about Misty than she had realized.

  “I’m going to need a few hours to help a friend move some stuff to storage,” he continued. He paused, and his voice lost a little of its pleased warmth. “I didn’t know about this earlier to tell you. It’s Callie. You remember her, don’t you?” He listened to her response. “Well, her apartment lease fell through this morning, and now she’s got to get her things stored and the truck back to the rental place. She’s going to stay with me for a week or two while she finds a new place.” He paused again. “I know,” he said. “But it will just be a few hours. How about I make it up to you by cooking you dinner tonight?”

  Misty must have agreed because Ryan’s voice lightened. “Okay, great. I’ll see you tonight at seven.”

  He was frowning slightly when he hung up the phone, and Callie felt irrationally guilty even though she had tried to tell him he didn’t have to cancel his plans. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely.

  He shook his head. “Don’t be. Misty’s had a lot on her at work, and she’s been a little irritable lately. I’ll cook her dinner tonight, and she’ll be fine.”

  Callie decided to let it go. “Okay, well I really appreciate the help. Where are we going by the way?”

  Ryan’s frown smoothed out as he flipped on the radio. “That public storage place off Emmett is what I was thinking. My friend John rented a unit last month and said it was the cheapest place with decent security.”

  She nodded in agreement. “That sounds good to me.” They settled into a comfortable silence. Although the whole conversation with Misty had been helpful in re-emphasizing that Ryan was not available, Callie still could not help but appreciate the strong, graceful lines of his forearms and hands.

  She’d always been turned-on by a nice set of hands, she reflected. The thought of what they could do, how they might touch her was tantalizing. Ryan’s hands were large but well proportioned and not like the mitts of some muscular men, despite the fact that she knew he did a fairly intense weight routine at the gym.

  “We’ve got enough gas if that’s what you’re looking at.” Ryan commented, and she realized she’d been staring at his hands on the steering wheel long enough to be noticeable.

  “Okay, great. I was wondering. It was a decent ways out to the sublet.” She forced herself to stop babbling and looked out the window the rest of the way to the storage units.

  ****

  When they got there, there was no parking on the office side of the gate for the rental truck. Callie grimaced in exasperation as she picked up her purse.

  “For Pete’s sake,” she said in exasperation. “You wouldn’t want anyone with a rental truck to be able to park and go into the office, now would you.”

  Ryan smiled at her acerbic tone. “Of course not, why make it easy on customers when you can make it hard. I’ll go down the block to the Seven Eleven and get us a drink while you’re getting the unit. What do you want?”

  “I’ll take a diet Dr. Pepper and ‘some make work fun pills’ if they’ve got them,” she said facetiously, hopping out of the truck.

  “Probably not,” Ryan responded with a grin, “but I can get you some ‘Truck Driver’s Best Friend’ with enough ephedrine to make every hair on your body stand up. I had a friend swear to me they were the poor man’s aphrodisiac. I’m not sure what he meant by that and have been too afraid to try it, but it could be fun if we tried it together.” He wagged his eyebrows at her, his brown eyes twinkling suggestively.

  Callie laughed with real enjoyment. She knew he was joking but her heart sped up at the playful suggestion. Their eyes met and held, and his warmed at her obvious delight in his teasing.

  “Guaranteed to be a new and unexpected experience in an otherwise humdrum Saturday,” he continued with a grin.

  She shook her head ruefully. “Tempting, but no. I’ll take a pass on the black market ephedrine.”

  “Okay,” he said with a wink. “Back in a minute.” He put the truck in reverse as she headed into the office.

  Ryan whistled contentedly as he drove down to the convenience store on the next block. He had been right. There was definitely something there between him and Callie. She had practically blushed at his teasing and that wasn’t like her at all. And was she studying his hands earlier? He wasn’t sure about that, but he was looking forward to having her staying with him for a bit, so he could test out his hypothesis.

  If there really was the possibility of something between him and Callie, he would have to make the decision about whether taking that chance was worth ending his relationship with Misty. The idea of being in a relationship with someone he enjoyed as much as Callie was tantalizing, but he was also afraid. If it got weird and they discovered too late that they just couldn’t switch over from friends to lovers, twelve years of friendship was on the line. He’d just have to cross that bridge when he came to it. He wasn’t going to worry about that now, just enjoy Callie’s company for the next few days.

  ****

  Callie was waiting outside the office when he returned. She punched in the code and let him drive through the gate before following and getting back into the cab.

  “Number 553, way at the back right corner,” she said. “They must make a ton of money on these places. I mean, eighty dollars for a ten by ten unit is fairly high if you think about renting a 1000 sq. ft. apartment for seven hundred a month. And an apartment has plumbing, electricity, heating and air conditioning.”

  “Yeah, it is fairly expensive for the square footage involved,” he agreed.

  They got out and went to the back of the truck. When she opened it, Ryan shook his head at the tightly packed interior.

  “I thought you said you didn’t have a lot of stuff,” he said dryly.

  “I said I didn’t have a lot of big items,” she corrected cheerfully.

  He reached in and plucked out a stuffed monkey. “Strange, but I would not have guessed that you were a stuffed animal type of girl.”

  She took it from him and stroked its head lovingly, giving him a chastising look
. “Don’t talk about Wally like he was just a toy, you’ll hurt his feelings,” she said in a childlike voice that he found both funny and strangely arousing.

  He grinned and quirked his eyebrow at her. “Oh really,” he said drolly.

  “I didn’t put him with all the others because he doesn’t like to travel in a box.”

  “The others?” Ryan asked disbelievingly, starting to wonder if she could possibly be serious.

  “Oh, yes, I normally keep them all on my bed. In fact, maybe I’ll bring them with me to your place so they won’t get lonely.”

  At the look of horror on his face, she beamed him in the head with the monkey. “Don’t be such a goober,” she said tartly in her normal voice. “The monkey is for my goddaughter’s second birthday. You know me better than that.”

  Ryan laughed with real relief. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he said seriously. “It was like being in a movie where an alien has suddenly taken over the best friend, and the main character is realizing something is not right but not in time to stop the friend from jumping on him and sucking his face off.”

  “Nice image,” Callie said with amusement. “I promise I won’t suck your face off, even when I’m under an alien influence.”

  “Well,” Ryan said as he used the Velcro hands of the monkey to fasten it around his neck so it hung down his back. “There’s no reason to be hasty about promising never to suck on my face, but I’m glad we’ve cleared up the issue of the stuffed animals.”

  He grinned at her as he grabbed the first box and moved into the unit with it. Callie rolled her eyes and picked up a box of her own, although she couldn’t help her somewhat giddy, feminine response to this new flirtatious side of him. He was just teasing. She knew that. But it sure was fun. She decided not to worry about the wisdom of letting her recent infatuation with him deepen. She was only going to be at his place for a week or two, and she could resume her avoidance policy then.