The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)(2)

‘Come with me, lass, if you want an adventure.’

She nearly dropped the book.

She glanced around the store and half expected someone to be watching her and laughing. Surely this was a joke of some kind. But who would have left it? And who could have known what she’d been thinking about all day?

The store was still empty. Of course it was. This was some kind of weird coincidence.

Hazel looked back to the shelf. No other books were out of order. Just this one. The one she still held gripped tight in her hand. There was a pirate on the cover, his shirt torn open from the apparently very strong sea wind that was also blowing his hair back. Love Captive was scrawled across the top.

She had the strange and sudden urge to curl up somewhere and read the book cover to cover, but she was at work, and this book felt dangerous. Like something she certainly didn’t want to read in the middle of her workplace.

It was just that it really seemed like this man, this theoretical, fictional man could in fact take her on an adventure.

She flipped back to the highlighted line, reading it as if she could solve the mystery of who’d highlighted it and left it crooked on her shelf just by looking at it. She was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t hear the door to the shop open.

She didn’t hear anything until a low voice rumbled right next to her ear. ‘Whatcha reading?’

Hazel tossed the book across the room. It landed with a thud in the reading nook by the window. She spun to find Noah Barnett grinning at her.

Noah, owner/operator of Dream Harbor’s one and only fishing-tour company. Noah who had showed up in town a few years ago, quickly became friends with Logan, and now hovered around the periphery of Hazel’s life like a sexy satellite. She shook her head. Just because every woman and at least half the men in town found Noah attractive did not mean she would fall for his charms.

‘That good, huh?’ he said with a lazy smile.

Ugh, he was charming. Charming enough, in fact, that his exploits with female tourists were practically legendary. So why he kept hanging around her bookstore was still a mystery to Hazel.

‘You scared me.’

‘Clearly.’

Her heart was racing, and only partially because she’d been caught reading smut during work hours. The other reason was because ... well, because Noah was smiling at her like that again.

She couldn’t really figure it out. Noah was objectively very handsome, she could admit that. And, objectively, very much not her type. She also knew for a fact that she was not his type, mainly because she actually lived in Dream Harbor, so she found it curious that he was always smiling at her like he knew something she didn’t.

Annie said he had the hots for her, but Hazel knew that was absurd. No one, not even her handful of ex-boyfriends, had had the hots for her. Hazel was cute. She could admit that. Cute in like a koala-napping-in-a-tree kinda way. Not cute in a I-want-to-get-in-her-pants kinda way. And that was fine. She’d made her peace with it.

But Noah was still staring at her like that.

She turned and went to pick up the book, keeping the cover carefully hidden against her chest. ‘Did you need something?’ she asked, ignoring the way Noah was now casually leaning against the counter watching her walk toward him.

‘Uh ... maybe?’

‘Maybe?’

‘Yeah, I just...’ His gaze flicked from her face to the shelves behind her and back again. This was a typical Noah visit. He came in every other week for a book but never seemed to know what he was looking for.

Annie said it was evidence of his having the hots for her, but Hazel still wasn’t convinced. Annie said he would need to pull his pants down in the middle of the store for her to be convinced, but Hazel very much hoped that wouldn’t happen.

‘I just need something new to read.’ He crossed his arms over his chest, his forearms flexing as he did so. Warmer weather had brought less clothing with it and now all of Noah’s tattoos were on display. Hazel’s cheeks flushed at the sight of the half-naked mermaid wound around his left bicep.

This was a man with stories. So many that he’d imprinted them on his body.

Hazel cleared her throat. ‘Did you enjoy the last book I gave you? A Curse of Blood and Wolves.’

Noah nodded, his auburn hair glinting in the late afternoon light. ‘Yeah, loved it.’

‘Great. We just got book two in the other day. Let me grab it.’

She’d meant to go by herself but Noah followed her down the fantasy aisle, bringing with him his heady scent of sunshine and salt. Hazel had never noticed a man’s scent before. Annie would take this as evidence that Hazel had the hots for Noah.

Which would be ... silly? Futile? Adventurous.

‘Here it is.’

Noah was too close when she turned around and she nearly smacked into his broad chest.

‘Oops.’

‘Sorry!’

Both books fell to the ground and Hazel scrambled to pick them up, but Noah was faster and he already had his hands on the half-naked pirate before she could snatch it back.

‘Love Captive?’ he asked with a cocked eyebrow.

They were both squatting in the aisle now, too close for Hazel to avoid his eye. ‘It’s not mine. I mean I wasn’t reading it. I was just reshelving it.’

Noah’s smile grew. ‘It sounds good.’ He flipped to the dog-eared page. ‘I thought you weren’t reading it?’