Read Online Commitment by Margaret Ethridge - Free Book Online Page B

to blink. “Huh?”
    Yes, brilliant. He was a master of seduction. A regular fucking wordsmith. Luckily, she didn’t seem to care. Maggie slid across the cracked seat and winced. She raised her luscious bottom, rubbed the spot where a piece of cracked vinyl snagged her nylons, and moved closer, plopping herself down right next to him on the rump-sprung seat.
    Tom pressed against the door, frantically trying to recall if he’d slammed it hard enough when he crawled in after her. Her thigh brushed his. The hem of her dress inched up over her knee. Black satin swayed with the weight of her breasts when she leaned in closer. She brushed her thumb over his bottom lip and his autonomic system went on strike. It would have been complete and total system failure if not for the telltale tingling in his crotch.
    Her breath grazed his lips and his elbow slipped from the door. She held him still with one knuckle curled beneath his jaw, her thumb pressing into his chin. “Fuck me,” she whispered.
    Tom would have swallowed his tongue if he wasn’t acutely aware he might need it soon. His dick practically jumped for joy.
    “It’s perfect. I don’t need any entanglements right now, and you avoid them like the plague,” she continued. As if he gave a damn about her reasoning. “One night. You. Me.” Her thumb brushed his lip again, tugging it into a pout. “I’m gonna be bad this one time, and then I’ll be so good,” she promised.
    Her lips touched his in the barest of kisses. The artful tendril that curled at her ear tickled his cheek. His lungs expanded, dragging in her cinnamon-tinged scent. His brain screamed at him, demanding negotiation. “What if one night’s not enough?”
    “One night.”
    She kissed him again, the tip of her tongue teasing the corners of his mouth. She traced the seam of his lips, and he was held captive by one of his favorite weapons. Sweet, slow seduction. She tried to pull away, but he caught her. His fingers sank into her hair, mussing the smooth coil. His thumb caressed her cheek. “Counteroffer…”
    “Hmm?”
    “One night and one day.”
    Maggie reared back. “One day?”
    He held firm, drawing her close once more. His palm closed over her knee. He teased the sensitive nylon-clad crease behind her leg with the pad of his middle finger. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. Tonight might not be long enough.”
    “Long enough for what?” she asked with a breathless laugh.
    “Everything,” he murmured. “Everything, Maggie.”
    Her laughter drifted away and her smile faded. She wet her lips then nodded. “One night, one day.”
    He couldn’t resist pushing for a little more. He checked his watch then turned his wrist so she could read the dial. “Twenty-four hours from now.”
    “Now it’s twenty-four hours?”
    The cab pulled to the curb. The pink flush coloring her cheeks was only enhanced by the glow of the red light. He brushed his thumb over the heated skin then caressed the smattering of freckles dusting her nose with one finger, drawing it down to her moist, parted lips. “You won’t regret it.”
    Maggie averted her eyes, fumbling with the clasp on her purse again. She extracted a twenty and inched forward to push it through the slot for the driver.
    “No. I’ll get it.” Tom fumbled in his coat pocket for his wallet, but she pressed her hand to his chest to stop him.
    Meeting his gaze solemnly, she shook her head. “I’m not cooking, so you’re covering take-out for the next twenty-four hours.”
    He plucked the bill from her fingers, tucked it back in the ridiculous little purse, and snapped it shut once and for all. “Tell me there’s decent Chinese around here,” he mumbled, thumbing through his wallet for the fare.
    “I have it on speed dial.”
    He shoved some cash through the slot. “Thai?”
    “To die for.”
    Tom opened the door and planted one foot in the gutter to keep his mind company. Then a terrifying thought struck. All the merit badges he’d ever earned