Cancer - Sweet Patience.pdf - Melissa Schroeder - Monkey14

The Zodiac Series

Cancer

Book Two Sweet Patience

Melissa Schroeder

* * * *

Sometimes, Cancer, playing and not planning is a

problem for you. Although you are blessed with a

genial personality, you sometimes turn sullen and

withdrawn when things don’t go your way. You tend

to gravitate to the dreamer in the opposite sex, but

be careful, for a dreamer often doesn’t plan for the

future. Seek out the planner, the list maker, the

person who will not only respect your dreams, but

help them come true. If you don’t, you may find

yourself alone without plans and living only on

dreams.

* * * *

Chapter One

For the first time in memory, Patience

Sawyer failed to live up to her name. She

stared down at the map and realized it

would be no help. You have to know where you are to get to where you’re

going.

Dammit. This was all Chance’s fault.

If her business partner had finished packing his household goods on time, they

would’ve come here together and she wouldn’t be lost. Even if she’d been here

three times already, she’d always followed someone to the house because she

had a horrible sense of direction.

She sighed. This wasn’t going the way she planned. When she’d found the

wonderful antebellum home, Rosewood Plantation, on the auction block, she

knew it would be perfect for the bed and breakfast she’d wanted to open. But

she was years away from having enough money saved so she’d approached the

head chef of the Atlanta hotel she worked at.

Chance had jumped at the idea to move back to South Carolina, and within

weeks they were proud owners of the mansion.

But when she’d approached him with her schedule, he’d smiled and then

completely disregarded everything she’d said. He took weeks to put his house up

for sale. And when she wanted to discuss plans for the remodeling, he went on

vacation to Miami with Barbara the big-boobed hostess.

She wasn’t mad because he picked the antithesis of Patience to go frolic with at

the beach. Jealousy was a waste of time and besides, to be jealous she would

have to be interested.

And she wasn’t. Not in him. Okay, so he was a good-looking guy. Who wouldn’t

sneak a peek at a man built like running back for the Falcons? Especially when

said man looked so hot in an apron. Maybe she had thought a time or two … or

three, of running her fingers through all that golden brown hair. Or wonder what

those big artistic hands would feel like against her skin…

Dammit.

She had to stop doing that. It was insane to lust after him. He took nothing

seriously.

She glanced around and noticed that the sun was fading fast. If she didn’t get on

the road quickly she would be stuck out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark.

After restarting her sedan, she noticed a convertible approaching behind her.

An uneasy shiver tingled down her spine as the car slowed to a stop.

Silly. Someone was just stopping to make sure was all right. Just to be safe, she

pulled out her cell phone and powered it up.

The car pulled alongside and stopped. Trying not to be obvious, she slanted a

look out of the corner of her eye to find Chance MacGuire grinning at her.

Irritation replaced her apprehension as she rolled down her window.

“What are you doing here?” She didn’t mean to sound like a bitch, but she’d

been lost for the better part of an hour and nothing was going right.

And, dammit, she was hungry.

His lips turned down in a mocking frown. “I thought I was here to save the day.”

She gritted her teeth then reminded herself that this was business and she could

be professional. And professional was not sticking out her tongue at him. She

was tempted, oh God, was she tempted. But she was a professional.

“I seem to have lost my way. I thought you were planning on taking an extra

week of packing.”

“Took less time than I thought and made a killing on the house.” He smiled and

both dimples winked at her.

Figured, knowing Chance’s luck, he probably made enough to pay for that fancy

convertible he drove.

“Do you know where we are?”

“Yeah, in fact if I’m right, the house is up around the bend here.”

“I’ll follow you.”

“Ah, Ms. Sawyer, that’s music to my ears.”

He saluted and took off, leaving her in a cloud of dust. She waved her hand in

front of her face and, knowing he couldn’t see her, stuck her tongue out at him.

Whatever made her think that opening a B and B with Chance was going to be

easy?

* * * *

Chance parked his Thunderbird in the circular drive just ahead of the stone steps

so that Patience could park in front of them. He wanted to make sure she didn’t

think he was a total ingrate. It was hard not to tease her when she got all prissy.

She’d purse those full, kissable lips, her eyes would narrow, and his blood would

heat.

Damn.

He had no idea why he was so attracted to her. She wasn’t his sort of woman.

First thing was, she had a brain. Oh, women with brains were okay but normally

it got complicated when they expected more than a good time. And if it made

him shallow, so be it. He was only twenty-five and wasn’t ready to settle down.

He got out of his car and watched as she carefully drove up the path and parked

a good distance behind him. The woman had too many rules, another reason to

stay away from her.

She’d be a great business partner, but a bed partner … well … better not go

there. Because each time he did, he thought of what it would be like to unknot

that fabulous length of raven-black hair and strip off her clothes. His hands

itched to figure out a way to convince her to use those pursed lips on him.

As like every time before, a jolt shot through him all the way to his cock. Sighing

and cursing his inability to ignore his reaction to her, he watched her step out of

the car. Feminine. That’s a term he would use for her. She was of average

height, with high cheekbones and gypsy eyes, the color of milk chocolate.

Her skin resembled fine cocoa— he knew she’d gotten that from her mother—but

the rest of her looks came from her Native American father.

The overwhelming humidity did nothing to ease the crispness of her white

tailored button-down shirt, which she wore tucked into a pair of loose-fitting

jeans.

There was an air of femininity to her. Even when she was blasting the bell hop

for not doing his job, making the man almost piss his pants, she looked… well …

womanly. It probably had to do with her D-cup breasts and round ass.

To get his mind off the woman, he looked at the house. She’d been right, it was

perfect. It needed a little work, but the front gardens were overflowing with

roses and impatiens, every color of the spectrum, and he wondered who had

been keeping them from drying out in the summer heat.

Several wooden rockers littered the porch, as if someone still lived here.

“Gorgeous, isn’t she?” Patience’s breathy statement was filled with a mixture of

excitement and satisfaction.

He looked down at her. A long, silky lock of her hair had escaped her chignon.

Curling his fingers into his palms, he nodded.

“Yes, I really like it. Not too far off the beaten path, but far enough to have a

quiet stay. You know what would be great—I mean, once we get going—is

weddings. This place is big enough to house most of a wedding party.”

She turned to look at him, her eyes widening in surprise. “That’s a great idea. I

was out here once, in the spring, and it was so beautiful here at night.”

The last rays of the summer sun brought out the reddish highlights in her hair.

The sound of her voice, so wistful, washed over him. The urge to touch her had

him moving towards the house, away from her.

He’d hoped his week with Barbara in Miami would have cured his itch, but less

than ten minutes in Patience’s company and he was ready to strip her naked.

“Do you have a key?”

He didn’t turn around but waited for her to follow after him.

“Of course I have a key.” The soft dreamy quality was gone, and the affronted

businesswoman was back. Patience didn’t forget the details.

He looked in the window and noticed that furniture still occupied the room.

Impeccable cherry wood gleamed as the weak sunlight danced through the

window. A shiver of apprehension shimmied up his spine. He took a step back

and shook away the feeling.

“Are you coming?”

Patience stood in the doorway, looking at him as if he were an idiot. He rubbed

his damp hands on his jeans and nodded. He ignored the tendril of cold that

seemed to seep into his bones as he crossed the threshold.

“The electricity was done last week.”

She flipped a switch and for a second nothing happened. The cold in his bones

dropped a few more degrees. In the next instant, the lights came on. Chance

swallowed and tried to settle his stomach. His head whirled with images of

people. People he didn’t know.

They were dressed in different period clothing from the last couple of centuries.

Whispers of their voices, soft southern feminine voices. Arguments, crying, they

spun around him as his body grew colder. He would swear he felt the chill to the

deepest part of his soul.

“Chance, are you all right?”

Cancer - Sweet Patience.pdf

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