Read Online Bound and Determined by Anara Bella - Free Book Online Page A

was ready all right. Ready to jump his bones again. But it would have to wait until she fed her persistently growling stomach. “It smells fantastic.”
    “Tastes even better.”
    He dished it onto their plates and put what was left back on the stove. He spooned on some parmesan cheese, placed a plate before her and sat beside her.
    He twirled his fork in the linguine until he had a mouthful and held it to her lips. The moment it hit her tongue, she groaned in bliss. It was pure heaven. “Oh my God, this is fabulous. You are a genius with pasta. I think I’ll keep you around.”
    The second the words left her lips, she froze. She was afraid to look at him to see his reaction, but when she finally did he seemed totally unconcerned.
    In fact, he grinned back at her. “I get that a lot. I’m a better cook than my sisters.”
    Between his superior gorgeousness and his fame as an author, she didn’t doubt that he did have tons of women who wanted to keep him. A weird feeling of unease fluttered in her gut but she shoved it down. Good thing she wasn’t one of those saps. Nope. Not her.
    They ate in companionable silence for a bit before she spoke again. “So what made you decide to move way out here to Forsythia Falls?”
    “I got tired of city life. I grew up in a town not much bigger than this one.”
    “I didn’t know that. Why’d you leave?”
    “The usual reason young people leave small towns. I wanted excitement and I figured the big city was the best place to get it.”
    “You stayed there for quite a while, so you must have liked it. What changed?”
    He shrugged. “I think I just grew up. And I missed the more laidback kind of life that I had in my childhood.”
    “Why didn’t you move back to where your family is?”
    He grinned wryly and shook his head. “My sisters can be a bit smothering, so I wanted to keep a bit of distance between us. If I had moved back there they would’ve been dropping by all the time, and although I love seeing them and spending time with them, it would have interfered with my work. This way, they’re only about an hour and a half away. Close enough to see them as much as I like, but not too close.”
    She took another sip of wine while she considered his answer. “Sounds like you put a lot of thought into it.”
    “I did. Besides, when I saw this place up for sale, I couldn’t pass it up.”
    “You must have seen something most people didn’t. It was up for sale for quite a while.”
    He nodded. “It needed a lot of work. But I had no trouble looking past that once I saw the house. It was the wraparound porch that did it for me.”
    “That was always my favorite part too. You’ve done a great job with the renovations. It’s surpassed anything I could’ve imagined.”
    “You can thank my sister for that. She’s the designer.”
    “Oh really.”
    “Yeah, she’s brilliant at what she does so I nabbed her services. She helped with all the major decisions so that I didn’t end up with a mess.”
    She grinned. “I gather interior design isn’t one of your many talents.”
    “I know what I like, but it’s been nice to be able to run things past my sister first. She steered me away from making a couple of huge mistakes that would’ve cost me a fortune to fix.”
    “So you admit you’re not good at everything.”
    “Not even close. I have a gift for words, and a few other things.” He slanted her a suggestive look, letting her know exactly what things he was referring to.
    “Yeah, I’ve noticed you’re particularly gifted in one area for sure.”
    He laughed. “You’re pretty gifted in that area yourself.”
    Asia didn’t agree but let it go.
    When they’d finished eating, Asia stood and started gathering their dirty plates and cutlery.
    “Leave them. I’ll clean up later.”
    “You cooked, I’ll clean up.”
    He didn’t argue, but he followed her over to the sink with their wine glasses and set them on the counter beside her.
    Hugging her from