Read Online Hot Seduction by LISA CHILDS - Free Book Online Page A

gotten attached, first to those adoptive parents—or so his social worker had told him—and then to other foster families. He’d started thinking he was staying only to be moved to another home. Now he was older and wiser. He knew to move along before he got attached to anyone. Then he couldn’t get rejected.
    â€œIt’s better for everyone,” he assured her. “I don’t get bored, and nobody gets hurt.” He wasn’t just protecting himself this time. He was protecting her.
    * * *
    S O MUCH FOR seducing him into not suing her. He’d found the very idea hilarious—as if she couldn’t have succeeded. Not that she would have tried. So Serena’s pride shouldn’t have been stung when he’d laughed.
    Or when he’d agreed that it would be a bad idea for them to sleep together. It wasn’t as if she had time for a relationship anyway.
    At least she only had one lawsuit to worry about; Cody obviously had no intention of suing her. He probably wouldn’t stick around long enough to file a suit. Hopefully he would pay his and Stanley’s room and board for a few more months, though.
    She needed proof of that income in order to apply for a mortgage or a business loan. She had no idea what else she needed to qualify. But she intended to find out.
    She fished out a card from the bottom of her purse. It was bent and worn from knocking around with her wallet and hand lotion and coupon container. She had to tilt it toward the light streaming through the crescent-shaped window above her brass headboard in order to read the phone number and punch the digits into her cell.
    â€œGordon Townsend,” a pleasant-sounding voice greeted her. Fortunately the number he’d given her was his direct line.
    â€œHi, Gordon, this is Serena Beaumont.”
    â€œSerena!” he exclaimed, his delight obvious. “I’ve been hoping you would call me.”
    â€œYou have?” If the bank was that anxious to hand out money, maybe she would actually have a shot at getting a mortgage on the home or a business loan for the boardinghouse.
    â€œOf course I have. I gave you my card a while ago,” he said. “So I had kind of given up hope of hearing from you.”
    Gordon had given her his card when they’d run into each other at the grocery store. Since it had been his professional card, she thought he’d just been drumming up business for the bank. She hadn’t realized his interest could be personal.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she murmured.
    â€œIt’s fine,” he said. “You’ve called now. That’s the important thing. I thought you might already be involved with someone.”
    She nearly laughed. Her only relationship since her mom had died had been with the house and her boarders. But if she’d had time to date, she might have considered Gordon; he was her type. He was a hometown guy who had come back after college because he’d missed Northern Lakes. He wanted to settle down and raise a family in the safe, friendly small town where he had grown up. He also had a good job. He was well-known and respected.
    No one would warn her to stay away from Gordon. He wouldn’t hurt her or abandon her. But he probably wouldn’t excite her either—not like Cody had. Even now—hours after lying in bed with him—her pulse pounded and her skin tingled. And she would never get the image out of her mind of his naked body: his sculpted muscles, his engorged...
    â€œNo!” she said—to stop herself from thinking about sleeping with Cody. That wouldn’t have been just a bad idea but a disastrous one.
    â€œSo, you’re not in a relationship?”
    â€œNo, no,” Serena stammered, “I’m too busy trying to get my business established.”
    â€œYes, I’ve heard you started a boardinghouse,” he said.
    â€œMom already had it going.” She’d had Mrs. Gulliver and Mr.