Read Online Center Stage: A Hot Baseball Romance (Diamond Brides Book 8) by Mindy Klasky - Free Book Online Page A

talking—that’s what polite people did on long car rides. She should at least tell Ryan to tune in a radio station, to blast whatever music he liked.
    At least she should dig for one of the candy bars, to show her appreciation for his thoughtfulness.
    But she didn’t do any of those things. Instead, she focused on the rumble of the car’s huge engine. She felt the vibrations in her thighs, measured them with each notch of her spine. She felt the sheer energy throbbing through her foot on the gas pedal, and she reveled in the power as she edged the Ferrari ten miles above the speed limit. Twenty. Thirty.
    She was astonished when she saw the exit for Chester Beach. They couldn’t have driven across half of North Carolina, not in such a short time. But they had, of course. They had, because she’d floored the car. They had, because she’d ignored the rules, ignored the speed limit.
    Ryan gave her directions once they were off the freeway. It was all simple enough—a handful of turns marked by an ice cream parlor on one corner, a miniature golf place on another. Everything in Chester Beach was shut up for the night, lights turned off, parking lots empty.
    The last turn took her onto the cement apron of a driveway. She shifted the car into first and turned off the engine.
    She should be exhausted—one night of sound sleep was hardly enough to make up for the craziness of the week before her would-be wedding. But the long drive had given her a fresh wave of energy. Staring at the road and concentrating on the tremendous power of the vehicle had boiled down all of her nerves. She felt like she was the same old Lindsey Ormond she’d always been, but concentrated, made a hundred times more pure.
    She climbed out of the car.
    The first thing she noticed was the scent, carried on a steady breeze from her left. It was sharp with salt, the pure, fresh smell of the sea. She caught her breath, the better to hold the aroma at the back of her throat, and then she could hear the ocean waves, soft and steady, like a murmuring giant.
    She braced her palms on the roof of the car as she looked across to Ryan. “How far are we from the beach?”
    “Two blocks.”
    She was stepping onto the sandy asphalt of the street before she looked back over her shoulder. “Come on!”
    “Lindsey,” he said, and he would have made a perfect actor because his voice conveyed urgency, even though he wasn’t speaking above a whisper. “It’s after two. Let’s go inside, and I’ll get you a beer. We can walk on the beach in the morning.”
    She raised her chin to look up at the full moon, which was suspended halfway to the horizon. “The moon won’t be out in the morning,” she said. And then, just like they’d reached some decision, she headed down the road.
    She’d known he would follow her—if only because she’d slipped his keys into her front pocket. She wasn’t surprised when he fell in at her side, walking closest to the road, guarding her from the would-be threat if any car came down the deserted street. Ryan was shaping up to be a pretty good knight in shining armor.
    Not that she was some sort of princess, deserving to be rescued.
    Princesses were good girls. They stayed in their castle chambers, combing out their golden hair. They edged their perfect feet into their flawless slippers, and they danced at balls until midnight, laughing and joyous and light.
    Screw that. Lindsey’s hair was a tangled mess, and she’d traded in yesterday’s hideous blister-rubbing wedding shoes for summer sandals. Besides, she’d never been a fan of dancing, even when she’d been a child, standing on top of Zach’s toes, letting her big brother teach her the one-two-three steps of a waltz.
    A row of buildings blocked the end of the street. Ryan led her to the right, through a narrow passage between a French fry hut and a pinball arcade. He hauled himself up one tall step to a boardwalk that gleamed silver in the moonlight, and then he turned