Read Online Nothing More Beautiful by Lorelai LaBelle - Free Book Online

landed solely on me. He was a real
gentleman.
    He hugged me outside the entrance and said
he would like to do it again sometime. I laughed to myself. Not
a chance, douchebag. I looked east toward Powell’s. They were
open late and I had to walk off a little bit of the alcohol. A new
crossword book or historical romance sounded like exactly what I
needed to turn this night around.
    Five seconds later my phone beeped. I
unlocked it and saw the new text symbol, sent by BlazerFan88. Man you’ve got a sweet ass. I wanted to squeeze it all night.
Can’t wait til next time. I burst out laughing, so hard, in
fact, that tears formed, ready to spill.
    I was so absorbed in laughing at the text
that I didn’t notice the person barreling straight for me. It felt
like I was hit by a car, the speed-walker built like a brick wall.
My mac and cheese leftovers flew straight into the street as I
chose to save my phone with a death grip.
    My butt crashed on the sidewalk, flattened,
and all my breath fled my body. I lay there staring up at a fuzzy
silhouette, gasping.

5
WHEN MACI MET ANDRE
     
    “I ’m so sorry,” came a
voice, sweet and smooth—a clear tenor.
    My eyes focused on the offered hand. I
grabbed it and allowed the silhouette to pull me up. My vision
cleared up under the new lighting and I saw whom I’d collided with.
It was the driver. I let out an audible gasp.
    “Oh my God, it’s you,” he said, recognizing
me under the streetlamp. “From the accident and the gym. You ran
away so fast the other day.”
    I was speechless, caught in the headlights
of his penetrating gaze. His smooth skin was the kind I craved,
without a trace of facial hair. It was the kind of face I wanted to
kiss all night.
    “Are you all right?” he asked, putting his
other hand on top of our interlocked fingers.
    At the realization of his touch, my body
flushed, my heart thrashing inside, excited. The unknown current
returned, turning on a mysterious urge deep down within me, an
unexplored cavern of lust protected by inhibition. My wits came
back in a startling snap. “Uh—yeah, yeah I’m fine. I must’ve hit my
head.” My tongue got in the way of my words, jumbling them.
    “Do you need to sit down for a moment?” he
asked, again genuine concern in his voice.
    I shook my head, releasing his hand. “No,
I’m fine. Just shaken up for a moment, that’s all.” I glanced at
the road and my smashed box of mac and cheese. My mouth hung open,
stunned, but no words followed, too nervous. Danielle was right: I
was too shy.
    He scanned the road. “What is it?”
    “My mac and cheese,” I muttered,
disheartened. I pocketed my phone. “My leftovers.”
    “Ah,” he said, noticing the box on the
blacktop as traffic continued to run it over. “I’m really sorry. I
was absorbed in a book description.” He bent down and picked up a
book with a cloaked man on a fiery red background. A Dance of
Mirrors was printed in yellow across the cover. “Sometimes I
get so lost in something that I completely block out my
surroundings. If you want, I can buy you a takeout order.” He
smiled, showing off all his teeth, which seemed too perfect, all
aligned and model-white. “Wouldn’t want you to miss out on your
leftovers.”
    His offer took me by surprise. Staring at
his gifted body and visage, I understood what he meant about
getting lost in something so deeply that the background faded away.
A seal brown blazer draped from his shoulders, clinging tightly to
his body. An exact fit. Underneath it, he wore a white shirt with a
green circle sandwiched by two horizontal bars centered on his
chest, a symbol I’d seen before, but I didn’t know its meaning. His
khakis hung from his waist, relaxed. A pair of running shoes
protected his feet.
    I found it all intoxicating, put-together
without trying too hard and somehow novel. I battled down new
cravings that I’d never known were inside me, now stirred, as
though he were extricating this strange passion from