Read Online Completely Smitten by Kristine Grayson - Free Book Online Page A

short-term basis, but living here would drive me crazy.”
    “Winters,” she said. “Snow, mountains, and no escape.”
    He nodded. “No movies either.”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “You could get a satellite dish.”
    “I could,” he said, “but I think a DVD player would be more useful.”
    “You have a Blockbuster in this neighborhood?”
    He laughed. “I could bring a year’s supply of DVDs with me, and leave only when I run out.”
    “There’s a measure of a person’s time. He must emerge from his sojourn in the wilderness when he has seen The Matrix fifteen hundred times.”
    He frowned at her. “The Matrix ? I was thinking of Treasure of the Sierra Madre. ”
    “Yeah,” she said, “something light and happy to help you through your solitude.”
    He set his tray on the floor but kept the wineglass. “All right, what do you think I should be stranded with?”
    “All the films of Chaplin,” she said.
    “Are they even on DVD?”
    “They should be.”
    “With director’s commentary.”
    “No.” She shook her head. “They’re silent films. You don’t want to rain that with narrative. You’ll get written notes in a file you can open on the side.”
    “Touché,” he said.
    She smiled, then picked up her tray. She was going to lean over and set it on the floor, but he was too quick for her. He got up and took it from her.
    He looked in her eyes again. That same deep look he had given her before, as if he saw into her very soul.
    Whatever was there seemed to upset him.
    “You sure,” he asked, his face just inches from hers, “that there’s no one special in your life?”
    His voice was very soft. She could hear the threads of sorrow in it.
    “I’m sure,” she said.
    “No one you admire from afar? No great long-lost love?”
    She laughed, feeling a bit uncomfortable. At the same time, it felt right that he should ask these questions. As if he needed to know.
    As if she needed to tell him.
    “No,” she said. “I’ve dated, but there’s never been anyone serious.”
    His gaze went to her lips, and for a brief moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. Then he moved back to his chair.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I’m usually not this serious.”
    “It’s all right.” She plucked her wineglass off the tray beside her. The glass had become a lifeline.
    “No,” he said. “It’s inappropriate. I guess I keep thinking there’s someone out there who had a weird vibe this afternoon and is now worried about you. Silly, huh?”
    She shrugged. “Probably a natural reaction to what we went through today.”
    “Not my natural reaction,” he said. “My reaction to something like this is to joke about it inappropriately.”
    “I don’t believe that.” She swirled her wine just as she had seen him do. The wine had a marvelous red color and a smoothness she wasn’t used to. She had a hunch it was very expensive.
    “Oh, it’s true,” he said. “If there’s an offensive comment to be made, I usually find it.”
    “You haven’t been offensive to me.”
    “I guess you caught me at a bad moment.”
    She sipped the wine. “Or maybe a good moment.”
    “If that were possible.” He leaned back in his chair. “Lenny Bruce fired me. He said my jokes were too tame.”
    “You’re not old enough to write for Lenny Bruce,” she said.
    He raised his eyebrows at her. “You know about Lenny Bruce?”
    “I’ve seen his routines.”
    “Not live,” he said. “You’re not old enough.”
    “Or lucky enough,” she said. “He was good.”
    “And funny.”
    “And raunchy.” She grinned. “ And he wrote his own material.”
    He grinned in return. “Caught me.”
    “If you’re going to impress me with your raw wit, you have to do better than that.”
    His grin faded. He looked down at his glass. Something she said had changed his mood.
    “Mostly,” he said, “I just offend people. I figure if I can piss them off, they’re not worth my time.”
    “Really?” she asked.