AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She cleared her throat and righted her gaze.
Focus.
“Either way, you’re going to have your way, huh?” she asked.
She’d thought that was why she was on that boat, but evidently, he’d been completely aboveboard about his intentions. She shouldn’t have been so surprised by that.
“I intend to,” he said. “Want me to pour you a glass of wine first?”
“Bossyandconsiderate. Be still, my beating heart.”
“Hey—in the circle I run in, that’s a desirable combination.” He pulled out a drawer that turned out to be refrigerated and stuffed to the gills with wine bottles. He lifted a bottle of rosé from the bin and held it up to her eye level.
The name was “Valerie’s Secret.” The irony wasn’t lost on her.
“Want to share a secret?” he asked.
“Sure. Why not?”
“Snacks to go with it?”
“Are you trying to make me comfortable?”
“So you’ll take your clothes off. Yes.”
Again, she blinked wordlessly at him. He was as unpredictable as a feral tomcat, and yet there she was, still hoping she could pet him.
“You really are unfiltered, aren’t you?”
He did that indifferent shrug again. “Often to a fault. Would you remove your clothes if I asked?”
Ignoring the question, she peered into the cooler drawer. “That Moscato would probably go down nicely, too.”
“So could I, if you were good.”
Oh my God.
Suddenly, she went lightheaded.
He closed the drawer, keeping his heated gaze locked on her. “I enjoy spontaneity. Taking a woman off-guard, teasing her when we’re in inappropriate places for it. Hard for me to be spontaneous when you’re wearing pantyhose, though. Or are they stockings? I could work with stockings.”
“My…hose don’t really concern you one way or another,” she said thickly. He looked at her like he could see right through every layer of clothing she had on. A floor-lengthparkaprobably wouldn’t have deterred his thorough inspection.
Do you like what you see?
She hated that she cared.
She needed to get them back on topic. “Pour the wine and point me to the snacks. I’m hungry. I think Carine meant for me to eat at your brother’s thing.”
“If you’d stayed a while, you could have had barbecue.”
“If I’d stayed a while, I wouldn’t be here giving you free services.”
He leaned his forearms onto the counter and pushed up an eyebrow at her. “What kind of free services? And I’ll pay for anything you give me, one way or another. Cash or carnal favors. Your choice.”
“Okay, let’s get something straight here. Just because I was there”—she pointed in the general direction of Clay’s house—“doesn’t mean I do the things the people there do. I was tricked, remember?”
“But you know I was there, and you can probably guesswhyI was there, and yet here you are.”
